Could Rise of the Resistance have been set during the Original Trilogy? (Rise of the Rebels)

[The Peanut Gallery]

I love Rise of the Resistance. It's truly a gem amongst WDI's current creations but I've always had a lingering thought in the back of my head ever since riding it. If Imagineers really wanted to & were given the freedom to do so, do you think it could've stayed largely the same but instead be set during the events of the original trilogy? Could the attraction have featured Luke, Leia, Han, R2, & Vader? I know Galaxy's Edge has gotten mixed reviews ever since opening (I'm personally in the "love it" camp) & I've been thinking lately if the land's storyline had been set with the original characters at the helm maybe it would've had a larger appeal. I always love to think about the "what if's" when it comes to attractions & this one's been on my mind for a while.

 

[danlb_2000]

I love Rise of the Resistance. It's truly a gem amongst WDI's current creations but I've always had a lingering thought in the back of my head ever since riding it. If Imagineers really wanted to & were given the freedom to do so, do you think it could've stayed largely the same but instead be set during the events of the original trilogy? Could the attraction have featured Luke, Leia, Han, R2, & Vader? I know Galaxy's Edge has gotten mixed reviews ever since opening (I'm personally in the "love it" camp) & I've been thinking lately if the land's storyline had been set with the original characters at the helm maybe it would've had a larger appeal. I always love to think about the "what if's" when it comes to attractions & this one's been on my mind for a while.

I don't see why not. The same story line could work in the time between A New Hope and Empire, or between Empire and ROTJ just without Han.

 

[The Peanut Gallery]

The same story line could work in the time between A New Hope and Empire

That actually would have really worked well chronologically. I believe there's a period of 3 years between New Hope & Empire & if I'm not mistaken the opening crawl of Empire mentions the Empire driving the Rebellion out of their base. Maybe the base could have been on Batuu.

 

[Parker in NYC]

Yes.

 

[Make-Epcot-Great-Again]

Yes ...and it would’ve been better if based on the OT

 

[Ldno]

As I watched The Empire Strikes back 40th anniversary on the big screen, I realized that yes, it’s possible, especially in the 40th anniversary, you literally could set this up in the middle of the Hoth invasion either way

 

[techgeek]

Sure, it would be fantastic with Vader and the rest of the OT.

But, having spent the last year watching through the entirety of the Clone Wars, I would pay serious money to have the star destroyer redressed as a Jedi cruiser and have the mission be to take it back under control from an invading saber-spinning General Grievous and accompanying droid army.

 

[FettFan]

I love Rise of the Resistance. It's truly a gem amongst WDI's current creations but I've always had a lingering thought in the back of my head ever since riding it. If Imagineers really wanted to & were given the freedom to do so, do you think it could've stayed largely the same but instead be set during the events of the original trilogy? Could the attraction have featured Luke, Leia, Han, R2, & Vader? I know Galaxy's Edge has gotten mixed reviews ever since opening (I'm personally in the "love it" camp) & I've been thinking lately if the land's storyline had been set with the original characters at the helm maybe it would've had a larger appeal. I always love to think about the "what if's" when it comes to attractions & this one's been on my mind for a while.

Yes. In fact, I'm fairly certain that it was deliberately designed as such. Remember, Imagineering wanted to make a classic trilogy attraction and Star Wars land to be set on two worlds: Tatooine and Endor.

But then they had to appease Kathleen Kennedy's wish to promote the sequel trilogy.
But now that the sequel trilogy is DOA, I honestly don't think Rise of the Resistance will last far past 10 years before Kylo chasing you through his spaceship is replaced with Darth Vader trying to prevent you from escaping the Death Star.

 

[JIMINYCR]

When they were discussing the attraction, many SW fans were saying that Disney would be better off gearing it towards the OT and the older cast. IMHO it would have worked better. But some others argued that the newer characters and films would be what needed to be featured to drive the younger, upcoming fan base in. IMHO... the OT and original cast that built the SW brand will always be better and the parts they played will never fade away. Its so ingrained in the SW hype.
But still the RoTR is one heck of an attraction and no matter whats featured it will continue to draw the guests in and be the top draw for the park.

 

[PostScott]

There's already a discussion on this in the Rise of the Resistance thread. I forgot who but someone who was an inside source said that yes they can definitely changed the ride to OT, it wouldn't take long to change the theme, and that imagineers were already looking into how they can change it. Here's the quote from the rumor tracker in the WDW Rumor page-

• Rise of the Resistance: Overlay?
  • Rise of the Resistance could be rethemed to another era in the Star Wars timeline [here] (in fact, that was a point imagineers made about SWL when building it.
  • Any new timeline overlay would not be a seasonal thing, but permanent [here] (until they decide to change it again)
  • Such a change (not decided upon yet) would take less than a year [here]
• Any "Phase II" updates to Galaxy's Edge is now indefinitely delayed [here]

 

[PostScott]

But, having spent the last year watching through the entirety of the Clone Wars, I would pay serious money to have the star destroyer redressed as a Jedi cruiser and have the mission be to take it back under control from an invading saber-spinning General Grievous and accompanying droid army.

As much as I hate the prequels, I love TCW and that kinda of attraction would be amazing. However I think it would need to be a different ride system or a different attraction entirely because for a ride like that, I feel ROTR wouldn't be able to capture the intensity of Grievous and the droid army. Too bad that the majority of people will never see TCW and only know that era of story from the prequels, so anything from the prequels won't warrant a attraction.

 

[Fable McCloud]

That was my biggest issue with this ride. The sequel trilogy didn't do as well as they planned, and fans are really still wanting to hang out in locations from the original films. Having such a big ride be set in the movies that didn't perform as well seems like a misstep. I'd love to see it last a while, then transition over to an OT ride. Those characters had more depth, personality and likability than the ones from the new ones. Only Rey got character development, and even then, not much other than turning her into a Mary Sue.

 

[Networth]

One can dream.