Former VP Details Original Star Wars Land Plans

surfsupdon

Well-Known Member
I thought the land was fine. I’ve enjoyed the rides and I like some of the food. That market area was pretty cool too.

I am glad that the land, for what it is, took over the Backlot. I always enjoy that Southern California atmosphere of Echo Lake and am glad it is still there.
 

Tavernacle12

Well-Known Member
Would Tatoinne have had sand?

TROS diminished my love of the sequel trilogy but basing the land on the movies being put out seems so obvious I still don’t understand people being shocked/upset over it. Tatoinne is iconic but lacks diversity unless we were going to get Jabba’s palace too.

To be honest I thought we were done with this after how thrilled everyone was with ROTR.
 

drizgirl

Well-Known Member
Would Tatoinne have had sand?

TROS diminished my love of the sequel trilogy but basing the land on the movies being put out seems so obvious I still don’t understand people being shocked/upset over it. Tatoinne is iconic but lacks diversity unless we were going to get Jabba’s palace too.

To be honest I thought we were done with this after how thrilled everyone was with ROTR.
One can be thrilled with a ride but not thrilled with the land.
 

Raineman

Well-Known Member
The Echo Lake location would have been terrible, regardless of what planet the land was based on. There are always lots of complaints about non-cohesive theming in the Disney parks, and this would have been one of the worst cases of it. Imagine walking through the gates, and down Hollywood Boulevard, seeing the Chinese Theater in front of you-then you get to Sunset Blvd, look to your left, and hey-there's another planet! And spaceships! At least GE and TSL are tucked away in the back, and don't clash with the rest of the park.
 

SteamboatJoe

Well-Known Member
I haven't seen Galaxy's Edge so I really can't speak to its quality. That said, conceptually, I think Tatooine would've made sense.

I think it might be the only planet to have made an appearance in each trilogy (though it was a brief cameo in RoS).

Yes, it is a drab, desert planet but they could've pulled it off. There is plenty about the planet and Mos Eisley that was not depicted in the films that could've been elaborated upon or invented. A nice counter to it would've been an adjacent, lush area, like the Forest Moon of Endor that was mentioned, on the TSL plot. Although, I always thought that the City of Theed on Naboo, with its Mediterranean architecture, would've made a great, beautiful setting for a land.

As far as location within the park, I have hard seeing how it could've been appropriately situated right next to Hollywood Boulevard. I'm not sure the continuity with Star Tours would've off-set the thematic dissonance. The back corner was the right spot, it just needed to be bigger and themed differently.

Actually, the more I think about it, perhaps the whole back edge of the park should've been split into 3 lands; one for each trilogy....Naboo, Tatooine, and Batuu (or something similar). Yes, that would've been a huge investment and a ton of Star Wars for one park but it definitely would've trumped what Universal was able to do with Harry Potter.
 
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Coaster Lover

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I feel like what they currently have is good... they just need to inject more from the original trilogy. And it could be done appropriately (i.e. within the current timeline)... Film something of Billy Dee Williams (while you still can) to inject into Smugglers Run. Don't necessarily replace Hondo in Smugglers Run, but maybe have Lando come in via video link to warn against wrecking the Falcon. I really feel like that would go a long way. Maybe find a way to incorporate either Yoda or Luke as a force ghost on Rise of the Resistance...
 

SpoiledBlueMilk

Well-Known Member
An incessant need to "leave her mark", or to "promote equality"?

I think it's more the "leave her mark." I mean, she was already one of the industry's most successful producers before taking over LFL. She inherited a spoil of riches from Lucas and somehow decided to deviate from what worked for so many years and just go a different direction. I'm fine with an all new story for the sequel trilogy, but there was enough gold in the hay from Legends to make something that at least tied in all of the stories that fans loved between 1983 and the Prequels. Galaxy's Edge is great and all, but they could have done so much more by incorporating older storylines.
 

Fsunolekrw

Active Member
An incessant need to "leave her mark", or to "promote equality"?

Leaving your mark is fine as long as you don’t totally deviate from what started it all in the first place. Promoting equality is fine but create your own story/franchise to do it. Don’t take what was already legendary and proven to work and then turn it upside down on it’s head to do so.
 

britain

Well-Known Member
Looks like it's time to pull this out again...



"Okay! Welcome to our 5th WDW park / 3rd DL park Star Wars planning session! First I say, let's build a land based on Hoth!"

"Well, concrete painted as snow is always amusing at theme parks, but it's never convincing. You can't hide the fact that you're actually in a warm climate."

"Okay, let's build a huge, climate-controlled show building for the Hoth land!"

"Fine, how cold should it be?"

"Super cold! I want to see foggy breath!"

"Like, uncomfortably for anyone who got a little wet on some flume attraction elsewhere?"

"Uh, yes..."

"Even if we adjust how cold is authentically cold, you're going to see guests walking around in tank tops, shorts and sandals. It's one thing to see earthly T-shirts in a Star Wars land, it's another to see guests dressed for summertime fun in the middle of a hostile ice planet."

"Eh..."

"Besides, there isn't supposed to be any much life on that iceberg. So all there would be to recreate is the rebel base. I mean the abandoned and destroyed rebel base. Or are we going to hop around time periods and build a Millennium Falcon in each of the lands?"

"Well not the prequel-based lands."

"Uh huh."

"Well, let's build a land based on Endor! That will be easily recreated in both the California and Florida climates!"

"Yes it will - what part of Endor do we build?"

"The Ewok village of course..."

"Of course... perfect place for a Redwood Creek challenge trail clone. Hmm, well good for Florida. A little duplicative for California. But fine."

"...And the imperial base."

"Right, just like Endor Vendors used to be before it was changed to Tattooine Traders. Next?"

"Um, where are some prequel locations... Naboo, baby! Let's build Naboo!"

"Right... so let's rebuild a lot of the locations that actually exist in Italy where George shot a lot of Naboo. Fans sure loved how Star Warsy that all felt in the films - oh wait a minute, they didn't."

"Well you don't need to get snippy about it. There's also the underwater realms of Naboo. That's very otherworldly. We could build a huge show building and put lots of glass windows wrapping around the guests, making it look like they are inside the ornate gungan bubbles."

"Welp - good luck justifying a hefty budget for what most people will see as 'Jar Jar Land'."

"Coruscant, we could build Coruscant!"

"Any particular buildings in Coruscant?"

"Sure! You got your Jedi Temple..."

"The size of an Egyptian pyramid."

"Your Senate building..."

"The size of a football stadium."

"Fine, those can be forced perspective recreations behind other smaller buildings."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, whatever was in the films."

"So like, generic Tomorrowlandy skyscrapers?"

"Um, yes."

"With a 50's diner and a sports bar?"

"Right."

"And continuous criss-crossing speeder traffic in the sky. How are we going to do that again?"

"Well we could either put it all in a showbuilding..."

"Again?"

"Or we could say that the traffic is very light today. Oh! Maybe it's a holiday! Maybe it's Life Day!"

"Moving on, what other lands?"

"Mustafar!"

Silence.

"You know! That volcanic place where Vader was born!"

"Look, I love volcanos as much as the next theme park fan. But that planet is always oozing with lava. Not only would that be a challenge to pull off effectively, but it's also narratively Lucas' version of hell itself. Smokey, ashy air, it's not a place we'd want to dedicate a full land to."

"sigh... fine."

"Maybe a brief virtual experience or something, but not a whole land."

"How about a Death Star?"

"Well, again, like we were discussing about Coruscant, scale is going to be a challenge here. You could do a 'Top half of the Death Star out there looming over the trees' sort of thing."

"Yeah but I mean put me on a Death Star."

"Ok, and... do some shopping and eating?"

"Uh, I was thinking more like get arrested, or get in a battle? And then have to escape?"

"Good ideas there. Let's write those down and save them."

"But the centerpiece land of the whole park, the planet most ripe for potential rides and attractions is... Tattooine of course! You gotta let me saddle up at the Mos Esley Cantina and watch a Bith band! Smugglers, rebels, stormtroopers, they all come to Tattooine!"

"Yes yes, now you're talking! First 'Escape from the Death Star' and now this, you are on a roll buddy!"

"Gracias!"

"Any trees there on Tattooine?"

"No, why?"

"It's just that trees help with shade and are naturally cooling. Any vegetation at all?"

"No, it's a desolate desert planet."

"Ok, so it looks like we're talking a lot of orange rockwork."

"No problem, we just did that for Carsland!"

"Uh yeah, we just did that for Carsland! And that was already a little duplicative of Frontierland's southwest landscape."

"Fine, we'll cut that part out of DL's Star Wars park. It will be unique for Florida."

"So no Tattooine (the land you said was most ripe with potential for rides and experiences) for Disneyland. Check. So that's lots of concrete with no natural cooling... we'll have to hit guests with AC whenever we can. Maybe we can say those moister vaporators spew out cool air too."

"Don't worry about it. The alley ways of Tattooine villages and its rocky wilderness... It's so atmospheric... plenty of experiential possibilities!"

"Sure, and not a piece of refreshing greenery or a trickle of soothing water in sight."

"Well you could go to Degobah land for that stuff."

"Yes, the very Animal Kingdom-like Degobah land. Except no structures to house anything. Just all jungle all the time."

"Um... yeah. You know, I'm starting to realize that most of these planets are just climates found on earth pushed to an uncomfortable extreme, or a style of city found on earth pushed to an easy-to-multiply-with-special-effects-hard-to-build-in-a-theme-park scale."

"Very true."

"You sure we can't just build a whole Tattooine land but include trees and water and call it something else?"

Writes it down.

"Noted."
 

JediMasterMatt

Well-Known Member
I'm really busy with work (pandemic response challenges at work) ; but, I just had a friend email me with questions about this article. I'll eventually try to put things into perspective; but, take my word on the following:

- this article is based on the very early days after the Lucasfilm purchase when it was literally the wild west of Imaginering and Parks all trying to think up what they could do with the property.
- this DHS concept would've been value based concepts and was only appealing to the TDO side of the house.
- it would've been lesser than the Tomorrowland reskin for Disneyland that was shot down for not being ambitious enough with the hodge-podge greatest hits approach (which the value DHS approach would've sort of mirrored without the budget)
- The use of the sequel trilogy was something that Iger and Lucasfilm were both behind and happened when TFA succeeded
- Scott coming back to oversee and apply the Potter approach to a unified land (planet) cemented the use of it versus a trip around the galaxy.

What we got is much, much better than what could've been.
 

Fsunolekrw

Active Member
I like Batuu...there I said it.

I’m tired of this debate. Batuu isn’t perfect it has a lot it can improve on but it’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination. We also wouldn’t of gotten Rise.

I like Batuu too. Really think they did a good job and Rise is one of the best rides ever created. I think it was a really smart move to put GE in the former backlot/LMA area. How they did it with the berm and trees creates a totally enclosed area that makes you feel like you really are somewhere else.
 

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