Disney has revealed extra particulars concerning the new mission that includes Mandalorian and Grogu for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run in Star Wars Land at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. This shares idea artwork & information concerning the 4 new locations, how the engineer could have an important job within the galaxy because the Child Yoda Babysitter, and every thing we all know concerning the modifications to what appears like a completely redone experience sequence.
This information was introduced through the Disney Experiences Panel at Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, Japan. Becoming a member of host Ashley Eckstein on stage had been Asa Kalama and Anisha Deshmane from Walt Disney Imagineering, in addition to Michael Serna from Disney Stay Leisure and Matt Martin from Lucasfilm. This revolved round how Star Wars involves life at Disney theme parks around the globe, with WDI and different artistic minds providing a glimpse at Star Wars tasks and points of interest.
The Star Wars Celebration panel constructed on the announcement of a brand new Mandalorian and Grogu mission for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run initially introduced ultimately 12 months’s D23 Expo in Anaheim. Simply final month at SXSW, Jon Favreau, director and producer of the upcoming Star Wars movie, “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” who was joined onstage by Imagineers Leslie Evans and Asa Kalama to speak about what’s coming quickly to Batuu. They revealed throughout SXSW that Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run would have three new locations: Tatooine, Bespin and Endor. Right now in Tokyo (technically tomorrow), Imagineers revealed one other location: the town planet, Coruscant.
Beginning Might 22, 2026 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run will enable visitors to regulate the long-lasting ship like by no means earlier than. For the primary time ever, the crew will probably be in command of their very own vacation spot, resulting in potential adventures on Bespin, the wreckage of the second Demise Star round Endor, or the just-announced bustling city-planet, Coruscant. One other new gameplay addition permits the engineer positions to look after and talk with Grogu through the mission.
This ‘select your personal vacation spot’ replace debuts on the identical day as Lucasfilm’s upcoming title, “The Mandalorian and Grogu.” Nevertheless, the storyline of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run will observe a unique path than the upcoming movie.
On this new experience storyline, Hondo Ohnaka has gotten wind of a deal happening on Tatooine between ex-Imperial officers and a band of pirates. There’s a beneficiant bounty for his or her seize, so that you’ll borrow the long-lasting ship and group up with Mando and Grogu to trace them down and discover the galaxy. That means that the mission will depart Batuu sure for Tatooine, and the crew will select from one among three locations–Bespin, Endor, or Coruscant–from there.
In accordance with Imagineering, none of this could be potential with out its partnership with Industrial Gentle and Magic (ILM). With their assist, you might be in command of your personal future on the attraction. This know-how is all constructed on Unreal Engine 5 by Epic Video games that are the identical instruments ILM makes use of on the Disney+ present, The Mandalorian.
Right here’s a take a look at a few of the new Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run scenes in Bespin, Endor, Tatooine, and Coruscant:
Beforehand, the large unanswered query was whether or not the “new story” that includes the Mandalorian and Grogu could be all-new gameplay and a mission constructed from the bottom up, or simply recycled belongings and a short scene for the sake of selling.
It’s nonetheless potential this will probably be a Star Excursions-style change, with a brand new section with Mandalorian and Child Yoda spliced into the present story. It’s additionally potential that an all-new mission will probably be developed, but it surely’ll one way or the other be worse. In spite of everything, this can be a interactive attraction that visitors of all ages and backgrounds want to have the ability to choose up rapidly and play with out a prolonged tutorial or studying curve.
Whereas pessimism isn’t a nasty concept given Disney’s current monitor file, it’s certain sounding like this can be a fairly bold overhaul to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. That Imagineering is basically taking visitor suggestions and the most important complaints concerning the gameplay loop and attraction expertise, and fixing these faults.
Personally, I feel there’s a fairly excessive probability of this being a serious improve over the outdated Smugglers Run mission. Having a ‘select your vacation spot’ ingredient has shades of Star Excursions or Horizons (IYKYK) and fan consensus is that engineer is much and away the weakest function. So Imagineering is making the visible expertise extra akin to Star Excursions and enhancing the engineer function so it doesn’t really feel such as you get “caught” with it for those who’re fortunate. That’s addressing two of essentially the most obvious shortcomings of the attraction!
Because the Grogu & Mandalorian mission was introduced, we’ve been optimistic and excited concerning the updates to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. Our perspective has been that this virtually assuredly going to enhance the attraction, doubtlessly by a substantial quantity. With every new replace, I’m extra optimistic concerning the route of this experience reimagining (has it risen to the extent that we are able to now name it that?!).
Readers have been far much less enthusiastic. Every time Smugglers Run comes up, followers bemoan how boring it’s while you’re in any function however pilot–particularly engineer, or if children are pilot. I disagree with the final half. If something, I feel the present expertise is so boring that the factor that makes it most attention-grabbing is a very horrible pilot that simply smashes you round into every thing.
I’m not even kidding–other than my first time as pilot, all of my favourite ride-throughs have been sitting within the again with children charting our course. Each time I’m assigned the pilot function and there’s a child within the crew, I ask their mother and father in the event that they’d like to change with me. (To not go on an excessive amount of of a tangent, however I discover it odd what number of Disney Adults are anti-children. They’re getting extra out of the expertise than you! In the event you can droop disbelief in a pretend mission on a pretend spaceship, certainly you are able to do the identical with that mission not going flawlessly and the pretend spaceship crashing into stuff.)
In any case, most different visitors don’t appear to agree with me. And it’s true that engineer is essentially the most boring function in a boring mission, even whether it is extra enjoyable when issues are going off the rails and you may simply sit again and watch the trainwreck (err…spaceship-wreck?) unfold.
Accordingly, having a brand new mission that really seems to be participating and an engineer function that isn’t an afterthought are each good issues. It will be “unlucky” to make the gameplay loop really enjoyable and pleasant, and have the hole between pilot and engineer develop even additional, defeating my “argument” above and making engineer really really feel like lacking out on all of the enjoyable.
Increasing the engineer function to permit them to work together with and look after Grogu, or having larger management over the mission as an entire, is a great change. My guess is that the function nonetheless received’t be as strong as pilot or gunner, however there are lots of people who would fortunately bounce on the alternative to babysit Child Yoda. It’ll be attention-grabbing to see how that is built-in into the expertise–presumably by way of a display screen feed of Grogu, and maybe with the flexibility to feed him and produce other cute interactions.
The gunner function will virtually definitely enhance with the Mando mission replace. As we’ve mentioned earlier than, the present asteroid discipline delay scene is one of the best gameplay loop in Smugglers Run–and that’s not even a part of the principle mission. This may very well be less complicated and higher, simply providing the satisfaction of seeing cool settings and acquainted characters, blowing stuff up, and beating the unhealthy guys. I don’t suppose it must be extra advanced or difficult to be good. It may be less complicated and extra satisfying. They’re not mutually unique.
In our view, Smugglers Run is a narrative of squandered potential. There’s a cause why Imagineering is revisiting this experience roughly 5 years after it opened, far before comparable screen-based points of interest like Avatar Flight of Passage.
Smugglers Run is arguably the third-best Star Wars experience. Or, acknowledged in a different way, the worst. Rise of the Resistance is the clear #1. And each time I do Star Excursions, I’m reminded of how good it’s. I’ve actually loved the entire additions through the years, which hold it related and contemporary.
I really like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and suppose it’s a greater total expertise from begin to end, however the experience portion of Star Excursions blows it away. Think about how nice Smugglers Run may very well be if it mixed the settings of Star Excursions with the interactivity and full package deal of the Millennium Falcon?!
As an alternative, Smugglers Run is the Star Wars equal of working for UPS. I do know some hardcore followers benefit from the coaxium story, however the fetch quest gameplay is simply not very compelling for the majority of visitors. And as a passive attraction for individuals who aren’t into the gameplay, the plot and visuals are much less participating than even the unique Star Excursions. It’s simply too area of interest and tedious.
Level being, Smugglers Run has a lot unrealized potential. The whole package deal of the attraction across the gameplay is improbable and there’s rather a lot to be mentioned for the want achievement of stepping contained in the Millennium Falcon cockpit, pulling the lever to leap to lightspeed, and so forth. However then there’s the mission itself, which falls flat.
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run may very well be a ten/10 attraction–the most effective on each coasts–and a extra compelling mission would get it there. Suffice to say, the addition of Mandalorian and Grogu together with the 4 new locations and an elevated engineer function may very well be an entire recreation changer for the attraction.
Now that we all know when the brand new mission will debut in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, the large unanswered query is what else will change with the attraction?
Let’s begin with what we don’t count on to vary: Hondo Ohnaka or Ohnaka Transport Options, his smuggling operation that ‘borrows’ the Millennium Falcon. Hondo has a wry humorousness, is a lovable scoundrel, and the Audio Animatronics of Hondo within the pre-show is really spectacular. It appears more and more seemingly that his dialogue will change, however we wouldn’t count on any bodily modifications to the determine or pre-show scene.
It’s arduous to see how Hondo’s current dialogue may be weaved right into a mission with Mandalorian and Grogu, so it’s secure to imagine the script will probably be rewritten. However swapping out the AA and surroundings within the pre-show would seemingly be method too costly, ballooning the funds and timeline. I suppose they may throw a helmet on Hondo and provides him new threads to make the AA seem like Mando, however I doubt that.
Who is aware of, although. Change this scene to 1 with Audio Animatronics of Mandalorian and Grogu and Smugglers Run may have wait instances rivaling Rise of the Resistance. Simply take a look at the crowds for the walk-around characters, now think about Child Yoda as essentially the most lovable AA ever.
Past that, it’s unclear whether or not the brand new Mandalorian mission will necessitate a closure or be achieved in a single day just like the added scenes in Star Excursions. As a extra elaborate attraction, my hope is that Smugglers Run will go down for not less than a number of weeks for minor modifications to make the queue and pre-show mesh with the mission.
My guess is that this is not going to be the case. That as an alternative, the brand new mission will probably be framed in such a method that no pre-show dialogue wants to vary, not to mention any bodily options of the ship. I may see a number of easter eggs being added to the queue pulled from the Disney+ sequence or the film simply to offer followers one thing to search for and discuss, however I wouldn’t rely on that.
Once more, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run continues to be new (by Disney requirements) and the attraction has ‘good bones.’ In order a lot as I’d prefer to see a complete reimagining, there’s additionally a way of “don’t repair what isn’t damaged.” On this case, the one factor right here that wants altering is the gameplay/mission, and that ingredient can in all probability be swapped out in a single day.
With regards to a closure, there’s additionally the query of timing for the Disney’s Hollywood Studios model. As mentioned in When Will Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster Shut?, there’s the consideration of not having a number of headliners down on the similar time. With RnRC now wanting prefer it could be reimagined sooner reasonably than later, this in all probability isn’t a serious concern at this level.
Finally, all of this Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge information is improbable. It actually appears like Imagineering is setting the desk to lastly ‘break the foundations’ and quit on the sacred timeline in Batuu. My hope is that there’s nonetheless extra to come back, and we’re primarily getting a mushy relaunch of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2026.
It’s nice that Imagineering had the chance to take an enormous swing with Galaxy’s Edge, however ~6 years later, it nonetheless hasn’t fairly lived as much as its promise. It appears like that’s beginning to change, first with the introduction of the walk-around Mandalorian and Child Yoda characters, and now this plus the BDX Duckling Droids and (hopefully) Luke Skywalker and extra.
Imagineering getting the change to reimagine Batuu right into a vibrant canvas for adventures that comport extra carefully with visitor expectations could be an enormous win. The land may really feel alive and thrilling, even when it turns into much less coherent from a storytelling perspective. It’s solely a matter of time. Informal guests hear “Star Wars land” and count on to have the ability to see Darth Vader, Yoda, C-3PO, and different characters they love. A mushy reboot of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge may very well be precisely the shot within the arm that’s wanted. It is also the marketable addition that’s wanted on each coasts in 2026, with no new points of interest on faucet. That’s, except this new mission goes up to now that it counts as a reimagined experience!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you concentrate on the expanded engineer function? Excited to be Child Yoda’s babysitter or select from 4 new locations? Are you excited to see the Mandalorian and Child Yoda in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run beginning on Might 22, 2026? Do you hope the brand new mission is definitely thrilling? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge? Any questions? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
