Since the announcement that Disney was purchasing Lucasfilm, the one thing that everyone seems to be able to agree on is that more Star Wars attractions (if not an entire theme park) at the Disney Parks would be awesome. For a while it seemed to be well on its way to becoming a reality, but now it appears to have hit a snag and won't be happening anytime soon. The Disney fansite MiceChat is reporting that the plans for an expanded Star Wars presence at Tomorrowland at Disneyland in California has been put on hold and all Star Wars plans for DisneyWorld in Florida have been canceled. According to MiceChat,
"Originally the plan to add Star Wars to Tomorrowland was going to be
divided into two phases; a first phase involving some placemaking and a
replacement for Captain EO to be finished prior to the 60th Anniversary,
and a second phase kicking off in late 2015. The second phase included
the Speeder Bike E Ticket ride, Ewok village and forest where Autopia
currently is, a Millenium Falcon walk-thru where the PeopleMover
platform is, tearing out the decaying PeopleMover tracks and moving the
Astro Orbiter up on top of the Space Mountain concourse, and turning
Tomorrowland Terrace into an interactive Tatooine Cantina restaurant
show. All of that is now on hold indefinitely. Although Anaheim gets off
a bit easier with its Star Wars plan on hold, as the plans for many of
these Star Wars elements coming to Disney Hollywood Studios in WDW have
just been cancelled outright."
Ouch. Needless to day, that would have been incredible. So the question is: Why? MiceChat reports that the implementation of Disney's NextGen programs (including gateless theme park entrances, interactive lines, MagicBands, and Fastpass+ entrances on minor rides) at the parks has yet to pay off financially and has created a series of new issues that must be dealt with before moving forward with new attractions. This has resulted in many imagineers (theme park designers) being moved off projects, such as Star Wars, and on to others such as the upcoming Shanghai Park. Other projects currently on hold include 60th anniversary plans at Disneyland, Fantasyland Dark Ride re-imagining, and the Little Mermaid re-imagining, while the plans for Monstropolis have been outright cancelled.
So, while a Star Wars park (or at least more Star Wars attractions) may still be in the cards, it seems we will have to wait much longer than expected to see them realized.
As always, this is just a rumor until confirmed (or denied) by Lucasfilm and/or Disney.
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