RUMOR: 'The Mandalorian' Might Be Coming To Disney's Galaxy's Edge Very Soon

For those people (like me) who have never been to Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s “Star Wars Land" that opened at Disneyland, California on May 31, 2019, and at Walt Disney World, Florida on August 29 of the same year, there is still a plethora of possibilities to find out what it looks and feels like to walk the busy streets of Black Spire Outpost through both pictures and videos that were posted either by Disney itself or by people who have actually been there. Just search for “galaxy’s edge” or “black spire outpost” on YouTube.

And there is, of course, a number of in-universe fiction and non-fiction books (and a comic series) available, that take place on Batuu and describe the lives and ways of the people, who greet by saying “Bright suns!” and say farewell with “Till the spire!” Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn: Alliances, Delilah S. Dawson’s Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, Zoraida Córdova’s A Crash of Fate, and Cole Horton’s Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: Traveler’s Guide to Batuu are a few examples.

Lucasfilm has defined the exact location of Batuu within the Star Wars galaxy:

While this is relevant from a storytelling point of view, it does neither affect the daily operation of the park nor the experience of the visitors when coming to Galaxy’s Edge.

But there is also the aspect of the timeline: As Disney designed the park not just as an expo for Star Wars props throughout the lore of the saga, but as an immersive experience, you actually "enter" the Star Wars timeline at a certain point, when you arrive on Batuu. And this “point” falls between Episodes VIII and IX: First Order stormtroopers roam the streets and tell visitors to “move along,” and from time to time Kylo Ren shows up to make some trouble. (And there is a T70 X-wing as well!) Still, the park is not strictly sequel trilogy, as there are several things that harken back to the original and even the prequel trilogy (like blue milk, Wampa dolls, or the head of a Nexu), but you won’t meet little Anakin or Padme there, no Cassian Andor, no Luke Skywalker, nor even Darth Vader, because at this point in Star Wars history they are simply dead.

And while this immersion is basically a clever idea, Disney might have maneuvered themselves into a corner here, as Lucasfilm seemingly tries to move away from the controversial sequel trilogy, with the new High Republic series, movies like Rogue Squadron, or the “Filoni-verse” of TV-shows.

Collider is reporting rumors of plans to integrate content from the smash-hit TV show The Mandalorian into Galaxy’s Edge. This might actually prove to be difficult, as the show takes place five years after Episode VI and the current timeline of the park is roughly 30 years after Return of The Jedi. So, you can’t just put the Razor Crest right beside Kylo Ren’s TIE Echelon, even if the omnipresent question “Is this canon?” might be a bit exaggerated for an amusement-park.

Many of these ”inconveniences” could be fixed rather quickly and easily: just exchange the First Order with Imperial stormtroopers, let staff in Mandalorian armor roam the streets, add a few aliens like Frog Lady or red-eyed Jawas, offer grilled ice-spiders at the restaurants (Okay, this is may be a bad idea!), have kids (and adults) build a Darksaber, use beskar as a means of payment, or sell Grogu dolls instead of plush Porgs. You get the idea.

What will be more difficult is to remodel the latest attraction of the experience, the Rise of The Resistance ride that was just opened up to the public at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. As the names suggests, it is deeply linked to the sequel trilogy. Not even Disney’s cleverest imagineers would be able to make it plausible that this ride now suddenly happens five years after ROTJ, unless they integrate some sort of time travel, or give up on the idea that the whole experience takes place within the same time period.

Such a “time jump” for Batuu 25 years into the past will be less of a problem for the other two major attractions, Flight of The Falcon and Star Tours II, which opened back in 2011 (and strictly isn’t even a part of Galaxy’s Edge). Star Tours has already been updated several times to include new content from the sequel trilogy. So, it would not be too hard to add a new tour with planets like Nevarro or Trask to Star Tours or even the Falcon’s ride.

And there is another thing that Collider mentions in its article: a “rebranding” of Galaxy’s Edge (no matter how far Disney is ultimately willing to take this) will cost a lot of money. Until 2019, revenues from parks and resorts constituted the second largest portion of what Disney was earning as a whole, and this amount dropped by a staggering 10 billion dollars in 2020, according to Statista, as many parks were closed at least temporarily during recent months. Thus, money for investments is tight right now, and this has led to a number of cancelations or at least postponements of other Disney park attractions.

With all the current hype surrounding The Mandalorian, right now would be a good time for a modification of Black Spire Outpost (as it won’t disturb many visitors), but right now is probably also the worst time to ask Disney’s management for the money to (massively) change park experiences that have been open to the public for less than a year.

Written By Gerald Petschk

Syndicated From Culture Slate