It's been a big year for Star Wars fans: From Baby Yoda to the end of the Skywalker saga to a land that transports us to that galaxy far, far away, 2019 has been packed with blockbuster Star Wars milestones.
Here at TravelPulse, we've been tracking the progress of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge since it opened at Disneyland in May and at Walt Disney World in August. Earlier this month, the land's flagship attraction, Star Wars Rise of the Resistance, opened at Disney World (the Disneyland counterpart opens Jan. 17).
Now, with the release of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" marking the completion of the trilogy during which Galaxy's Edge is set, we're taking a spoiler-free closer look at how the latest film impacts storytelling in the land.
Setting the Stage
If you're not up to speed on the story behind Galaxy's Edge, here's a recap. Instead of an iconic Star Wars film location, Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Imagineering set the land on the remote Outer Rim planet of Batuu, giving guests a blank canvas to imagine themselves within the story.
"Everyone knows what happened on Tatooine… on Hoth… We know those stories… but we also know that we're not in those stories," says Scott Trowbridge, Walt Disney Imagineer and lead creative force behind Galaxy's Edge.
Visitors to the land become travelers to present-day Batuu and its commercial center, Black Spire Outpost, a once-bustling trade route that's now a hideout and meeting point for smugglers, adventurers, and those looking to avoid First Order "entanglements."
"When we sat down five and a half years ago to design Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, we thought about the land being an active spaceport," says Jon Georges, executive producer of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. "And you are arriving on the planet Batuu today so any characters could appear. They could come and go as we are today as visitors to that planet."
Not just any characters though-to date, in keeping with the land's timeline, you'll only spot Rey, Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, First Order stormtroopers and officers, and Resistance fighter Vi Moradi. For the first time this week, R2-D2 was spotted roaming too, but that's not a regular occurrence yet.
About That Timeline
Officially, present-day Batuu is set between "The Last Jedi" (TLJ) and "The Rise of Skywalker" (TROS). But sticklers for detail will need to suspend disbelief or be tripped up by the inconsistencies-Rey wears her costume from TLJ, while Kylo Ren wears the mask he destroyed in "The Force Awakens."
Guests shouldn't worry about this, says Doug Chiang, Lucasfilm vice president and executive creative director.
"Galaxy's Edge is supposed to be set after Episode 8, before 9, but we're also making it so that it's very common so that it can fit within the whole Star Wars universe," Chiang says. "We wanted to deliberately keep it very ambiguous."
For the most part, this timeline ambiguity makes good sense. Even if the timing doesn't quite sync, we'll always take a masked Kylo Ren over a face character that doesn't hold a candle to Adam Driver.
The Rides
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Galaxy's Edge's second-tier attraction, has a short-term timelessness to it. The Falcon is docked at Black Spire Outpost for repairs, and Hondo Ohnaka, the Weequay pirate charged with keeping an eye on it for Chewie, sends riders off-planet to do a bit of smuggling. This storyline holds up well enough throughout Episodes 7-9.
Not so for Rise of the Resistance, the ambitious new attraction that features a whopping four different ride systems, a reported 65 audio-animatronics, and clocks in at nearly 20 minutes. (Check out our inside look at this groundbreaking attraction.)
"We felt it was important to deliver on the epic cinematic scale of Star Wars," Georges says. "So [Rise of the Resistance] had to be this larger-than-life, fully immersive experience."
To achieve this, Georges explains, commitments to the story had to be made. "At some point, you have to put a stake in the ground and say I'm going to tell this specific story," he says. "You can't keep anything open-ended because you have to make decisions about which audio-animatronic figures to build and which sets to build and all that stuff."
Without spoiling the ride, we'll just say that while the experience is seamless in its immersion- with guests becoming Resistance recruits and beginning and ending their journey on Batuu- things happen during the ride that don't always sync up with what's going on outside in the land.
Enter "The Rise of Skywalker"
Once you've seen "The Rise of Skywalker," these irreconcilable conflicts between the ride and the land feel less significant. The film's plot moves irrevocably beyond what's been established on Batuu, cementing the land and everything in it very clearly pre-TROS.
In other words, once you've seen the film, immersing yourself in the story on Batuu means taking a step back in time.
So When Should I Watch 'The Rise of Skywalker'?
If you haven't seen Episode 9 yet and you're headed to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge anytime soon, we'd say it's more fun to experience Rise of the Resistance before you've seen the film. Numerous scenes from both the ride and the movie are set in the same spaces, so watching the movie after you've physically been on the attraction's sets makes TROS even more fun.
Already seen it? No problem. Rise of the Resistance becomes more nuanced once you've seen TROS-there's one big surprise in the film that makes it fun to pay very close attention to the dialogue during the ride.
What's New Now That The Movie Is Out?
Not much. Because the land is set before the film, it's a spoiler-free zone. Two new lightsabers from the movie have made their way to Dok Ondar's Den of Antiquities, but they both predate the events of TROS, so they still fit within the land.
Outside Galaxy's Edge, classic attraction Star Tours now includes a scene from TROS, as does the nighttime fireworks and project show "Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular" at Disney's Hollywood Studios. There's also plenty of merchandise tied to the film available at retail locations outside the land throughout Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
The Takeaway
Given that so much was made of Galaxy's Edge being an open book for guests to "live their own Star Wars story," Rise of the Resistance and "The Rise of Skywalker"-and the clear timelines they draw in the proverbial sand-are big shakeups to that concept.
Make no mistake, this does nothing to diminish the impact of the land-it's breathtaking-or Rise of the Resistance-it's mind-blowing. Instead, we're hopeful this relaxing of the land's commitment to a strict story and timeline might open it up to even more possibilities.
If the land and its attractions take us back in time, we're hoping Disney might someday consider bringing classic characters like Darth Vader and new favorites like the Mandalorian into the land, even if it means breaking story.
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