Disney(ORLANDO) — Welcome to Black Spire Outpost, located on the planet of Batuu (Ba-Too). It’s part of the new Galaxy’s Edge attraction at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and it opens tomorrow.
Earlier this summer, the attraction opened at California’s Disneyland. In a sneak peek on Wednesday, ABC News’ Good Morning America revealed that the Walt Disney World is almost identical to its California cousin.
Setting the experience on Batuu, instead of a well-known Star Wars location like Mos Eisley, was a deliberate move by Disney to let everyone have their own experience, from fanatics to Star Wars newbies.
“The partnership between Disney and Lucasfilm goes back 30 years and there’s so much passion around Star Wars,” Greg Ashton, executive architect at Walt Disney Imagineering, told GMA. “Nobody set higher expectations for this project than we did. There was so much desire to get it right, to make sure it felt authentic and immersive.”
“It’s exciting…to…realize we’re finally there…five years later we’ve built this small city. Everything you see here is custom and there’s so much passion and detail,” Ashton said.
That attention to detail extends to “in universe” food and beverages — and in a Disney parks first, some are alcoholic. There are also “artifact shops,” but you won’t find any Mickey ears or any Star Wars T-shirts. After all, the people of Black Spire Outpost would have no need for these things.
Equally immersive is the attraction Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, which lets fans pilot Han Solo’s beloved Corellian spaceship. Another attraction, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, is expected to debut at Walt Disney World on Dec. 5 and at Disneyland on Jan. 17, 2020.
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