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Disney tacitly admits it made a multi-billion dollar mistake with 'Star Wars' land
Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:34 am
Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:34 am
quote:
Disney invested billions of dollars in the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge design and construction, based on a fictional world called "Batuu." They hyped up technology and immersive elements meant to enhance the guest experience and allow for fans to spend hours in Galaxy's Edge. And return time and time again to build up experience points by interacting with props and characters.
"Batuu" was purposefully set in the world of the newest trilogy, led by characters like Rey and Kylo Ren. All thanks to advice from then-head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, to then-Disney CEO Bob Iger.
quote:
And now, after just a few years in operation, new leadership at the top is completely changing the entire plan behind Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. In the process, admitting they completely missed the mark with their multi-billion dollar project.
Star Wars Lands Bringing Back Original Characters
quote:
One former top executive at Walt Disney World once explained in an interview why Galaxy's Edge focused on the new trilogy and not the beloved original movies and characters. Because Kathleen Kennedy gave awful advice to Bob Iger.
"We got a call one day," said former WDW VP Dan Cockerell. "They said, ‘Well, we got some news for you all.’ And the Imagineering guys, they’ve heard this line many, many times during their careers. And I had never been through this." "They said, ‘Well, yesterday Bob Iger met with Kathleen Kennedy, who as a lot people may know was sort of George Lucas’ protégé and headed up Lucasfilm. And they had a conversation. They had a meeting. And Kathleen Kennedy, her point of view was, there are way more Disney Star Wars stories ahead of us than behind us. So we really should think about do we want to build a Tatooine, and build what all the fifty-somethings remember Star Wars is or do we want to build something else which is going to appeal to all the upcoming generations who are going to know the new stories.'"
Don't focus the land on characters people like, focus it instead on the new movies, Kennedy said. And Iger listened. Well, those new movies have come and gone, and "Star Wars" has never meant less in the national conversation. Sure enough, under new CEO Josh D'Amaro, Disney announced this month that they were bringing Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker into Galaxy's Edge, as well as finally incorporating John Williams' beloved score from the original films
quote:
That's how you know they're admitting they made a gigantic mistake listening to Kathleen Kennedy.
Bringing these characters into Galaxy's Edge makes no logical or thematic sense, particularly since they're being portrayed as their younger selves from the original trilogy. But Disney is desperate to make their gigantic investment in Galaxy's Edge worth it, so they're hoping characters people actually like will bring new fans and keep them there longer.
quote:
It's a series of unforced errors. They made mediocre movies that have been mostly forgotten, assumed that people cared about Rey and Kylo Ren or Fin or Poe Dameron, and then bet billions of dollars that their newer stories would be more popular moving forward than the old ones. They were wrong about all of it. None of the depth, complexity, charm, or swashbuckling excitement of the original characters is present in the new movies. Because Kathleen Kennedy was involved in creating them. They haven't released a new "main trilogy" Star Wars movie in years, and aren't close to releasing one.
Fox News
The article doesn’t mention the $2500 a night Star Wars hotel that no one went to. Disney lost their arse off on that.
14
Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:41 am to boxcarbarney
The new Han Luke and Leia cast members
Reminds me of this
Reminds me of this
Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:43 am to boxcarbarney
Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:44 am to boxcarbarney
Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:44 am to boxcarbarney
Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:48 am to boxcarbarney
Disney seems to be going full blast with advertising Galaxy’s Edge with characters and merch from the first 6 movies.
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Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:49 am to boxcarbarney
The rot of Kathleen Kennedy is slowly melting away.
Posted on 4/19/26 at 6:51 am to boxcarbarney
I went to galaxys edge the month it opened. Not having anything original trilogy was the dumbest call.
This post was edited on 4/19/26 at 8:11 am
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:03 am to boxcarbarney
I’m gonna actually side with Kathleen here - building based on the new Star Wars rather than the old Star Wars was the right call, IF they had gotten the movies right. The issue is they butchered the movies and they didn’t take off with kids like they expected, and interest faded as the movies went on and ended rather than increased
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:41 am to Upperdecker
I was there last week (Orlando). No mention of The Mandalorian and Grogu movie that I saw.
What’s absolutely astonishing to me is how long Disney put up with the Kennedy disaster.
Last year was the 10th anniversary of The Force Awakens. Not a damn peep.
They are doing their best to let the sequel trilogy die quietly and somehow revive their investment in this franchise, but I think punching it down for a decade, including destroying the original EU, was too much.
Having Temu Leia, Han, and Luke around in Disneyland is seemingly a pilot program for Florida, and shows they still don’t know how to handle this IP. Certainly, they can’t just shutter Galaxy’s Edge and reimagine it without pissing off customers, but they are trying a band-aid approach for something that requires a nearly full amputation and restructuring.
What’s absolutely astonishing to me is how long Disney put up with the Kennedy disaster.
Last year was the 10th anniversary of The Force Awakens. Not a damn peep.
They are doing their best to let the sequel trilogy die quietly and somehow revive their investment in this franchise, but I think punching it down for a decade, including destroying the original EU, was too much.
Having Temu Leia, Han, and Luke around in Disneyland is seemingly a pilot program for Florida, and shows they still don’t know how to handle this IP. Certainly, they can’t just shutter Galaxy’s Edge and reimagine it without pissing off customers, but they are trying a band-aid approach for something that requires a nearly full amputation and restructuring.
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:41 am to Upperdecker
quote:
building based on the new Star Wars rather than the old Star Wars was the right call
The right call would have been to dedicate part of the park to the sequel movies. Not the entire park.
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:41 am to boxcarbarney
They could have saved billions by simply going to Comicon and focus grouping this.
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:50 am to boxcarbarney
When all is said and done, The Last Jedi may be the biggest movie bomb of all time. The Force Awakens was no masterpiece, but it garnered a lot of good will and set up characters who audiences were interested in seeing more of. TLJ not only killed all of that interest stone dead, it seemingly did it intentionally. The main message of the movie seemed to be, "Oh, you like Star Wars? Well frick you, then. Not even the characters you love from Star Wars like Star Wars." How no one involved in making the movie saw this is simply astonishing, and that failure continues to reverberate.
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:50 am to boxcarbarney
They had such an opportunity with the hotel that it amazes me how they fumbled it.
A generic space ship design always seemed soulless to me.
They should have designed each floor around a different planet from the series.
Would have kept people going back to stay in different rooms.
A generic space ship design always seemed soulless to me.
They should have designed each floor around a different planet from the series.
Would have kept people going back to stay in different rooms.
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:53 am to boxcarbarney
To be fair to Kennedy, the idea to be forward looking is the right one.
They just didn’t execute the sequels.
Had those been half as good and beloved as the original, they would have made a mint for a long time.
They just didn’t execute the sequels.
Had those been half as good and beloved as the original, they would have made a mint for a long time.
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:55 am to Scruffy
$4800 for two people for two night’s didn’t help
Posted on 4/19/26 at 7:55 am to Free888
There is that too. 
Posted on 4/19/26 at 8:08 am to boxcarbarney
Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here. I was at Disney when the Land launched. In fact, I personally wrote a lot of the copy for the Star Wars Land rides and the Star Wars hotel in the marketing materials and for the website
When I say there was crushing disappointment, almost a feeling of betrayal that the whole thing was on the new IP and not the original IP, I am not exaggerating.
Disney made the decision to invest this money in order to support the new trilogy, which they thought would erase the old one in the minds of fans. The level of hubris around this is one for the business industry history books.
Bob Chapek, who was head of Parks at the time (since fired in disgrace), was in charge of greenlighting all creative in Star Wars Land. He killed things like a lifesize Bantha ride where guests would ride around the land on top of a Bantha. He killed the live show at the cantina. And most importantly, he gave the land its own lame subplot where you had to use your phone to scan kiosks and get some code messages deciphered so you were "part of the Resistance," but it had no payoff.
Then reality struck: they made a trilogy that destroyed the OG characters. They elevated an insufferably annoying mary sue girl boss, added a pathetic loser son of Han, a divorced Leia and Han, a disillusioned and bitter Luke, and then killed Luke, Han, and Leia.
Result: JJ Abrams' career was finished as a filmmaker. Rian Johnson was wrecked. Kathleen Kennedy is finally out as head of Lucas. Chapek out. Disney movies are garbage. The greatest entertainment IP ever created was lit on fire to appease the egos of the geniuses who bought it and thought they could outdo the original genius.
And now it's too late. No one cares that Darth will be walking around again to John Williams score. The new Leia face character looks like Brenda from HR.
Posted on 4/19/26 at 8:17 am to boxcarbarney
But that wig on Dollar Tree Han is top notch
Posted on 4/19/26 at 8:19 am to boxcarbarney
Gen Z does not care about Star wars or marvel anywhere near the levels previously. Most fans are 35+.
Disney world has to advertise to adults
Disney world has to advertise to adults
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