Monday, July 15, 2013

Star Tours Update Coming in 2015 at Disneyland and Disney Hollywood Studios


Be prepared to fly to new Star Tours destinations in two years from now as i've been told that a Star Tours update is scheduled by Disney Parks for 2015 both at Disneyland and WDW Disney's Hollywood Studios!

Considering that Star Wars Episode 7 will also be released in 2015 this new update is quite logical. Not only it'll be the right time to do it on a marketing point of view but most of all this update will make sense because the new movie will certainly introduce new planets in the Star Wars galaxy.

As Star Wars Episode 7 will be one of the most awaited movie in cinema history - and probably very successful - Disney and WDI Imagineers probably expect that Star Wars fans and Episode 7 spectators will be happy to fly to the new destinations that they will discover in this first episode of the new trilogy. Note that this is just my thoughts, but it makes sense, doesn't it?

This news of a Star Tours update also brings another involuntary info about the new movie which is that C3PO and R2D2 will probably be part of Episode 7. Why? Because if WDI introduce new movies in the ride, directly related to Episode 7 new "planets", these movies will of course be played inside the Starspeeder shuttle... And who is the driver of the Starspeeder? That's right, C3PO. If C3PO doesn't exist anymore in Episode 7, or is "dead", or anything else that could have happened to him, how could he still be the Starspeeder pilot "driving" us to what will be Episode 7 "new" planets?

Now, i admit that WDI Imagineers could replace C3PO by a new robot that will be introduce in Episode 7, or slightly change C3PO design if a new C3PO "generation" robot appear in the new movie, but considering how popular C3PO and R2D2 are among SW Fans and young kids chances are that they will keep them in Episode 7... and so in Star Tours, too.

I have no idea how many new movies/destinations will be introduced but probably not less than two, an update with one new destination only will look a bit cheap, wouldn't it, specially on Disneyland 60th anniversary year? Anyway,  i suppose that all this is great news for Star Tours fans, and there is more Star Wars news to come soon, so stay tuned on D&M!

Picture: copyright Disney - Lucasfilm

10 comments:

crocko33 said...

Not sure I agree.

They are introducing new scenes, but that doesn't necessarily mean the story-line of Star Tours is changing. As of right now, the story takes place between episodes III and IV. These new planets would have existed back then and could just simply be destinations that are "accidentally" visited during the storyline.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand how this means that C3P0 will be a part of the new trilogy? If a new planet is introduced in the new film it doesn't mean the planet wasn't in the universe all along, right?

Dr.Finkelstein said...

This doesn't surprise me. They'll probably shut the ride down after Episodes 8-9 come out, too.

Anonymous said...

They could always bring back Rex!

FigmentJedi said...

3PO and R2 are always going to be sticking around for the story of the Skywalkers. George started the series with the idea that it was being told through their eyes and around Episode 3, he said that he sees the whole Skywalker saga as being how R2-D2 tells the story to the keeper of the mysterious Journal of the Whills about a century after New Hope.

Anonymous said...

It's hard to understand why the USA parks get all these updates while DLRP still hasn't been given green ligth on the starwars land.You mentionned more starwars news to come soon so i'll just cross my fingers :-).
By the way I bought your book a few years ago while being in dlrp and loved every minute of reading it, keep up the good work
grts
Gert

Anonymous said...

will it be for paris aswell?

Anonymous said...

I'm not so sure about this rumor.

The original Star Tours was set after Episode 4 but before Episode 6. The new Star Tours was re-themed to take place between Episodes 1 and 4. Even the model number of the vehicle was changed from StarSpeeder 3000 to StarSpeeder 1000. Most of the sequences in the new Star Tours are references to the prequel trilogy and those that aren't take place between Episodes 3 and 4. Plus, the overall look and feel was updated to the prequel trilogy.

To do what you are suggesting would require the entire ride be re-themed again to take place after Episode 6. Also, they would have to throw out all the existing sequences that take place in the prequel trilogy or there would be major time continuity issues. This effectively means they would have to re-theme the ride again and then create all new sequences to place the whole thing in the correct time period.

I don't see this happening. More likely is that they may add some additional sequences into Star Tours that are appropriate to the prequel trilogy timeline or "bridge" sequences that take place prior to Episode 4. I could see them doing this as part of the Star Wars land at DHS.

Anonymous said...

Well of course, We might not know about the planets in episode 7 until the film is released, but that doesn't mean these planets haven't already existed in the Star Wars Universe. Just because the ride takes place before the events in Episode 7 doesn't mean the planets from episode 7 didn't exist before hand, so yes, it would still make since to have 3CPO as a Star Tours Pilot flying to an episode 7 planet.

Squid said...

Lucas didn't have a plan when he shot the first film. Heck, the storyline changed from his first vision, which resembled Return of the Jedi, to Ep IV. The sequels were actually suggested by Fox. Later, the community added the myth of 9 films and George had to live up to it.

However, I think C3PO and R2D2 will be in the next three films. Logically, they're the only ones that can bridge all the films, since they don't age. I expect that, as each new film is released, in the trilogy or not, we'll see the ride updated to reflect that.