Walt Disney World's Star Wars Land to break ground in 2016

Sep 11, 2015 in "Star Wars Galaxy's Edge"

Posted: Friday September 11, 2015 9:22am EDT by WDWMAGIC Staff

Star Wars Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios will break ground in 2016 according to Walt Disney Co. Chief Operating Officer Tom Staggs.

Speaking at the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch 2015 Media Communications and Entertainment Conference in Beverly Hills yesterday, Staggs indicated that both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of Star Wars Land will begin construction in 2016, but did not offer any other details or an expected opening date.

How Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land may fit within Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the Star Wars theme park projects at last month's D23 EXPO in Anaheim.

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Jobacca4 days ago

Star Wars Weekends were 1000x more fun than Galaxys Edge

mickEblu4 days ago

I agree. I think a lot of people think not going with the OT was the main issue but I don't think that's the case.

HauntedPirate4 days ago

I didn't say they should have focused on the OT, just that their focus on the ST was a mistake. One of many.

mickEblu4 days ago

I don’t think focusing on the OT would have brought more people to the land as much as I think more fun/whimsy throughout the land would have. The Falcon ride should have been a coaster. They missed the mark on Smugglers Run and thought it would make Star Tours obsolete. The OT would have just been a cherry on top of the land being more full of life and being more fun.

HauntedPirate4 days ago

Almost as if those in charge were so sure they'd be printing money with their sequels for decades that they'd have to ration access to their wondrous land dedicated to them because people would be coming in droves to see Kylo and other ST stuff. Just another misguided spending spree, this one resulting in another under-built Bob-land.

LSLS4 days ago

Personally, no, that's not what bums me about it. The lack of rides, and the narrow pathways is what I still don't really like about it. Give me some room and a lot more to do (and no, I don't consider shops things to do).

mickEblu4 days ago

Well good news is they don't have to do any swapping. Just get some OT characters walking around, have more of a "Force" presence, lightsaber duels at various times in the day, a AA Yoda walk through attraction, a Jabba's palace dinner theatre show and base the lands third attraction on the OT. Oh yea some more missions in the Smugglers Run with some of them being OT centric.

MagicHappens19714 days ago

Nothing about Galaxy’s Edge was built to be “swapped”. The land was built based on the directive from “up top” to make it based around the sequel trilogy. End of story

Purduevian4 days ago

Looks like we are in agreement that it is possible! I was just saying I don't think ROTR was specifically designed to be a quick swap to the OT based on the specific FO stuff that would be difficult to replace

𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗974 days ago

Retheme of Big Thunder confirmed

mickEblu4 days ago

True just find some room for a Trench Run coaster somewhere.

999th Happy Haunt4 days ago

Not denying those would be decently big changes, but I refuse to believe the retheme is not possible because of them. Look at Splash Mountain. By relatively fast I mean like around a year to switch over.

Purduevian4 days ago

I think that is a rumor there quite a few large things that really can't super easily be swapped to the OT. Off the top of my head: BB8 animatronics in the preshow All of the storm troopers are First Order not empire and would need to be re-skinned The Tie wings in the hanger are First Order The AT-ATs are FO Sure anything is possible, but it's not as simple as changing Kylos outfit/helmet to a vader one and changin dialog.