GUESTS DON'T RIDE THE FALCON, THEY FLY IT
When word first broke that Star Wars Land would feature a Millennium Falcon ride, the first thing that came to mind was Star Tours itself: an attraction where audiences sit passively and are taken on a journey. Trowbridge made it very clear that this was not the kind of experience that the team was currently working on.
Instead, the new ride will allows visitors — along with a ”flight crew" of friends — to actually pilot the Falcon itself. Whether that ride ends up being bumpy or Han Solo-smooth will depend on the choices of the team flying the ship. And while the odds are the ship will always make it to its destination, the condition it arrives in is another matter. It could show up without a scratch, or it could arrive beat to hell. Either way: it's up to the pilot and the flight crew and what they decide to do.
Concept art for Disney's Star Wars-themed land
YOUR DECISIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
”YOU CAN ESSENTIALLY BUILD A REPUTATION IN THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE."
While the Falcon ride as described would be fun unto itself, Trowbridge and Imagineering executive creative director Asa Kalama stressed that that was just the beginning of a much more in-depth kind of interaction. If visitors bring the Falcon back all beat up, that might anger another character in the world — one that might decide to say something when they next see the pilot. ”An experience might begin on board the Millennium Falcon, and follow you right out the door of the attraction and into a local watering hole," Kalama said. ”So it really is up to you to determine how you want this thing to play out."
Hidalgo put it even more simply: ”You can essentially build a reputation in the Star Wars universe."
VISITORS CAN JOIN A FACTION
Given the nature of the world, there will be plenty of opportunities for people to interact, taking that idea of decisions and consequences even further. Some visitors may opt to take a side job with some smugglers and have their own side mission. Others might decide to join the Resistance, while still others may decide to pledge their allegiance to the First Order.
Mapping interactive, narrative storytelling tracks onto a real-world location is perhaps the most exciting thing about Disney's plans. It essentially amounts to taking the kinds of interactive, real-world interactions we currently see in immersive theater or haunted houses, mixing them with the Star Wars mythology, and letting the whole thing play out in a massive, all-encompassing sandbox built for that express purpose from the ground up.
