Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge

On August 15, 2015, at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, Disney chief Bob Iger announced that Star Wars was coming to Disneyland, not as a ride but as a whole land. He promised it would stay true to the saga (Wikipedia).

Building it reshaped the northwest corner of the park. Big Thunder Ranch closed for good on January 11, 2016, and the Disneyland Railroad and the Rivers of America shut down for a year and a half while the river was cut back and the tracks rerouted. Construction began on April 14, 2016. The trains and boats returned at the end of July 2017 (Wikipedia).

The result covers more than 14 acres. D23 calls it the largest and most technologically advanced single-themed expansion in a Disney park (D23). It is not a tour of the movies. It is a single town, Black Spire Outpost, the biggest settlement on a remote planet called Batuu, built so guests can walk into it as visitors. Cast members play its citizens, with name tags in Aurebesh, the local alphabet (The Walt Disney Company). John Williams wrote a new suite of themes for it (D23).

On the night of May 29, 2019, Bob Iger dedicated the land with George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams. It opened to guests on May 31 (The Walt Disney Company; Wikipedia).

Attractions

Dates are from Wikipedia and D23 unless another source is linked.

Two rides, two eras

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

The land opened with one ride. Smugglers Run puts guests in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. It was the only attraction for the first seven and a half months. At first a reservation was required just to enter the land; on June 24, 2019, Disneyland switched to a virtual queue. Wikipedia notes that the reservation system drew crowds away from the rest of the park, and that interest faded once it ended (Wikipedia). In 2026 the ride's story was reworked so that the Mandalorian and Grogu are at its center.

Rise of the Resistance

The second ride opened on January 17, 2020, and it is one of the longest in the park, more than fifteen minutes from the first briefing to the escape. Guests are captured by the First Order, marched through a Star Destroyer past rows of stormtroopers, interrogated, and broken out by the Resistance. The escape uses a new trackless ride vehicle that can move backward and forward, turn without warning and rise and fall. Among the Imagineers who built it were Scott Trowbridge, art director Kirstin Makela, John Larena and story editor Margaret Kerrison (LAist).

When is Batuu?

The Florida land is set between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Disneyland moved away from a single moment in time: on April 29, 2026, it expanded the land's timeline to include the era of the original trilogy (Wikipedia).

Oga's Cantina, the market and the droids

Oga's Cantina made history of a small kind. Club 33 had poured drinks for members since 1967, but Oga's was the first place in Disneyland to sell alcohol to the general public (Wikipedia).

Places to eat and drink: Oga's Cantina, Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo, Ronto Roasters, Kat Saka's Kettle and the Milk Stand (D23).

Shops include Savi's Workshop for handbuilt lightsabers, the Droid Depot, Black Spire Outfitters, Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities, Resistance Supply, First Order Cargo, the Creature Stall and the Toydarian Toymaker (D23). In the spring of 2024 the free-roaming BD-X droids made daily appearances (Wikipedia).

Galaxy's Edge in pictures

Fun facts: Galaxy's Edge

1. The land covers more than 14 acres (D23).
2. Building it closed the Disneyland Railroad and the Rivers of America for about a year and a half (Wikipedia).
3. Big Thunder Ranch, the petting farm in Frontierland, closed for good to make room (Wikipedia).
4. Cast members' name tags are written in Aurebesh, Batuu's alphabet (The Walt Disney Company).
5. The Play Disney Parks app turns into a datapad inside the land and can translate Aurebesh (The Walt Disney Company).
6. John Williams wrote new music for the land (D23).
7. Oga's Cantina was the first place in Disneyland to sell alcohol to the public (Wikipedia).
8. For its first weeks the land required a reservation just to walk in (Wikipedia).
9. Rise of the Resistance runs more than 15 minutes, one of the longest experiences in the park (LAist).
10. Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and George Lucas all came to the dedication (The Walt Disney Company).

Quotes

"Nothing will be out of character or stray from the mythology."

— Bob Iger, announcing the land at the D23 Expo, August 15, 2015 (Wikipedia)

"Do not be ambitious. Be the most ambitious that you have ever been."

— Bob Iger, at the dedication, May 29, 2019 (The Walt Disney Company)

"We want you to fall in love with Star Wars all over again."

— Margaret Kerrison, Imagineering story editor, on Rise of the Resistance (LAist)