Well, I couldn’t resist, and had to share my own thoughts on the death of the original vision for Galaxy’s Edge: An Elegy for the Star Wars Land That Never Was
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Very comprehensive look at the history of the land and the factors that made it successful, and could have made it more so!
I’m a realist, so I more or less accept the way things are and try to find the best in it. But a part of me does mourn a little bit for what might have been. The elements were all there for something truly immersive and groundbreaking.
Still, Galaxy’s Edge is one of my favorite locales on the planet. It has an energy that is hard to match. I will never forget seeing the Millennium Falcon for the first time, or when I got to “punch it” to lightspeed … or my first time experiencing Rise of the Resistance in all its glory after almost two years of waiting.
I hope they never lose sight of the dream, and always strive to make it the best it can be within the constraints they are under for both cost and demand.
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That doesn’t sound like you at ALL. 
There are elements I still love about it, particularly at night. (During the day, it just doesn’t have the same vibe, and still feels a bit too much like an amusement park.) But, for whatever reason, it has increasingly become LESS interesting to me. I don’t care so much about re-riding ROTR unless I’m there to experience it with people who haven’t done it before. And, for me at least, Smuggler’s Run is only fun if you have just the right mix of people in the cockpit.
I wonder why. Why have I gone from a die-hard Star Wars fanatic, who grew up with Luke Skywalker as my hero figure, and excitement for SWGE to now feeling kind of blah about it. We can go to DHS and skip it entirely, and not care. That’s quite a shift. But I haven’t been able to figure out why, exactly. I have things I would have liked done differently, but I usually feel that way about everything. 
So that can’t be it. And when I recently saw the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars movie, I really had no interest whatsoever.
Maybe I’m just…old.
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I have tickets to see The Mandalorian and Grogu with my kids on Thursday and I am very excited! But I think Starfighter next year (with Ryan Gosling) is going to be even better!
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I’ve not heard anything about this one. I’ll look into it. I’m not a huge Ryan Gosling fan (I think he always plays the same character in everything he does), but I’ll check it out.
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I think that’s my big frustration, and the one I tried to capture in the piece: it’s both such a great place and also one that never fully realized its potential.
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I think you did, and I appreciate that. You didn’t dunk on it, but you were honest about the shortcomings and alternatives.
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Very well written and I appreciate the depth of your thoughts on this. I get your argument, but it’s not what I want for a Star Wars land at WDW. I want a land based on the original trilogy.
My ideal Star Wars land would have:
(1) a Death Star run ride in the Millennium Falcon or Luke’s X-Wing;
(2) a ride similar to Rise with a theme of escape from either the Death Star or Jabba’s lair;
(3) meet and greets with Chewy, Vader, R2D2, C3PO, Boba Fett, etc.;
(4) a Star Wars original trilogy stage show during the day and fireworks/lights show at night;
(5) The Cantina;
(6) a Jawa’s droid factory; and
(7) some type of bounty hunter attraction.
SW:GE was a big disappointment for me, and I am hoping for a conversion in Orlando to as much original trilogy theming as possible.
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I appreciate you reading and thank you for the kind words!
I guess what I’ll say is that I like the Original Trilogy too. But I also think that Star Wars is a big tent and I’d like it to be for everybody. If we limit the franchise or the parks to what happened from 1977-1983, I think it’s easy for both to become stale and inaccessible to the next generation.
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I like your ideas a lot, and it wouldn’t have been hard to adapt what they already have to that. I remember the first time I visited SWGE how much I thought it could have just as easily been Mos Eisley (with the exception of the abundance of greenery in a few places).
I can’t help but think what Disney did by creating SWGE as they did, it would be like if Universal had decided, in creating the WWoHP, to go with, say, an Australian-themed Wizarding school instead in order to not tie themselves to existing IP locations.
But, as I’ve said before, I think Disney needs to fully decide if SWGE is supposed to be us stepping into the movies, or do they want us stepping into the Star Wars universe. They seem to want it to be the latter, but the way they are handling characters (and now the addition of John Williams music over at DL) lends itself more toward the former. I personally think SWGE could work as a location, not tied to any specific movie, if they would actually abandon trying to bring the movies INTO the land. Seeing storm troopers makes sense, because the Empire would have an overbearing presence. But do we need to see Kylo Ren or Darth Vader? To me that seems unlikely. What would it be truly like in the day-to-day living in a place like Batuu? Give us that, and perhaps it would work better.
In the end, though, I think it is a case of trying to be everything to everybody, and as a result, no one is fully happy with the outcome.
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This is merely one data point, but after I saw your reply last night I asked DD10 which is her favorite Star Wars movie. As background, my kids are neutral on Star Wars. We watched all 9 movies as a family over the past few years and they seemed to enjoy them, but otherwise Star Wars isn’t a thing we talk about in the house and my kids haven’t shown much interest. They both like touring SW:GE on our annual WDW trips.
Back to my question to DD10, I expected that she would say one of Episodes 7-9. Since those are more current, I assumed they would be more relatable to her generation. She also sees some of those characters in RotR and in SW:GE during our annual WDW visits.
Her reply to my question: I don’t remember the order, but the ones with Luke, Leia and Darth Vader are my favorites.
I think the 1977-1983 trilogy spans generations and that is what makes it worthy of a theme park land that will continue to generate interest without becoming stale.
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I feel similar, and I’ve had conversations with my own kids (a little older than your DD), and they also felt that the original trilogy was the best.
I felt it was much more timeless in nature. It was more driven by themes.
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I fully acknowledge that the plural of anecdote is not data, but for what it’s worth, my Gen Z cousin grew up watching The Clone Wars and Rebels series, and to him, that is Star Wars. He likes the movies well enough (especially Rogue One) but doesn’t really care about Luke and company.
And my Gen Alpha niece and nephew are all about the Sequels. They love Rey and Finn and Poe and BB-8 and have shirts, toys, etc. (Though they also love Chewbacca, ‘cause who doesn’t love Chewey?) They’ve seen the OT, and I think they appreciated it, but Rey/Finn/Poe are first in their hearts. And then my coworker’s kids, who are roughly the same age, are over the moon for Mando and Grogu, and even dressed up as those characters for Halloween.
Which is all to say that, it does my heart good to hear that kiddos are still watching and connecting with the classics! I love those movies too! But I think limitng Star Wars to just those movies is going to narrow its reach and stymie the different entry points people have had for the franchise.
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Between these examples and my kids, I have a better understanding of why WDW seems to have chosen to go the mish, mash route and turn SW:GE into something for everyone.
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