Seven years after Galaxy’s Edge first opened at Disneyland Park back in 2019, the Star Wars-themed land finally feels like it’s for fans of multiple eras. Originally, Galaxy’s Edge and the planet of Batuu was created to be a fully immersive experience set during the sequel trilogy of Star Wars. Now, this is something that Disney has walked back with a pretty significant overhaul, including exciting changes coming this week.
Since 2019, Galaxy’s Edge has felt smaller in scope in relation to the franchise’s multiple eras and trilogies. Likewise, not all Star Wars fans are necessarily fans of all eras (like the objectively divisive sequels). Now, Disney has made some very exciting changes in 2026, many of which I can personally confirm are most welcome.
Between new Mandalorian-focused experiences, the additions of original trilogy characters like Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo, additional Star Wars timeline references and aesthetic changes, and the iconic scores of John Williams, Galaxy’s Edge finally feels like it belongs to all corners of the Star Wars fandom rather than just one era.
This Week Makes It Official: Galaxy’s Edge Finally Caters To Multiple Eras Of Star Wars Fans
While Disney’s 20226 overhaul of Galaxy’s Edge first rolled out in late April, this week brings one of the Star Wars-themed land’s biggest changes. Not only is May 22nd the release of The Mandalorian & Grogu in theaters, but Disneyland is also debuting the massive Mandalorian overhaul to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
The updated attraction is set to include an entirely new mission featuring Din Djarin and Grogu. Additionally, Engineers are being given a much-needed larger role, which has always felt lacking next to the far more exciting Pilots and Gunners. Rather than simply pushing buttons in the back, Engineers will now be in charge of protecting Grogu himself during the mission. As exciting as the upcoming update is for Smuggler’s Run, it’s not the only major change that Galaxy Edge has seen in 2026.
Last week also debuted “The Curious Child,” a brand-new addition to the incredible “Shadows of Memory” projection show on the rock spires behind the Falcon. Mandalorian & Grogu stars Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver helped debut the addition alongside director Jon Favreau and new Lucasfilm head Dave Filoni.
While the original show retells the story of the first six Star Wars films, The Curious Child sees Grogu retelling the story of The Mandalorian series (and also teasing The Mandalorian & Grogu). This is all on top of the exciting changes the land has seen since the end of April, just ahead of May the Fourth.
Beloved original trilogy characters like Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, and even Darth Vader now appear throughout the land, joining New Republic-era characters like Ahsoka, Din Djarin, and Grogu who’ve become regular fixtures in the last few years. Likewise, sequel characters and elements are still featured, with characters like Rey and Chewbacca now being found closer to the Rise of the Resistance ride, with Kylo Ren and the First Order now being moved to Tomorrowland near Star Tours (which received exciting updates of its own back in 2024).
The result? Guests now get to feel like they’re walking through multiple eras, an experience that arguably should have been felt from the very beginning. Galaxy’s Edge even has references to The Clone Wars and Andor now.
My Recent Visit To Galaxy’s Edge Was The Best Yet (Star Wars Nites, Darth Vader, And More)
Having recently attended one of this year’s Star Wars Nites around May the Fourth, I can honestly say Galaxy’s Edge currently feels better than any of the few times I’ve visited in the past. It may be a degree less immersive, though the trade-off is absolutely worth it in mind to have a Star Wars-themed land that better captures the spirit of the entire franchise and its multiple eras.
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.”
🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians
⚡The SithRule of two
⚙️The RebellionA new hope
🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way
👑The EmpireOrder 66
01
The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere?
✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977.
02
A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him.
✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s.
03
In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm?
✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist.
✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth.
04
Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him.
✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s.
05
In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition?
✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012.
06
The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name?
✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin.
07
Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film?
✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III.
08
Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him.
✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007).
✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s.
The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing
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Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine?
Walking through Batuu while classic John Williams themes play overhead is the perfect use of nostalgia, and it’s wild to me that this year is the first time Darth Vader has been used in Galaxy’s Edge itself. When the Dark Lord excited the TIE Echelon right at midnight, the crowds went wild the moment his iconic breathing was heard.
Nearly 50 years later, the Star Wars franchise has thrived as long as it has because so many different generations connect to different eras, if not all of them. Some grew up with the original trilogy, others with the prequels, The Clone Wars, or the newer live-action shows on Disney+. Now, Galaxy’s Edge is finally embracing that core truth in some very exciting ways, making the trip to Disneyland even more worth it for fans of all ages…and eras.
The new Mandalorian update for Smuggler’s Run opens May 22nd at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order
