Disney's not yet provided an answer to the "when?" question, beyond Imagineer Scott Trowbridge's warning that it will take "a while." But late last night, Disneyland confirmed the location of its Star Wars Land in a tweet to a fan:
@PaulYankees It's going to be in the Big Thunder Ranch area, inclusive of some backstage locations.
— Disneyland Today (@DisneylandToday) August 16, 2015Building Star Wars Land on the site of Big Thunder Ranch makes sense when you go back a look at some of the comments Iger and others made during their presentations yesterday at the D23 Expo in Anaheim. Iger said that the new planet in the Star Wars canon that will provide the home for Star Wars Land was located on the edge of the frontier and that the project would represent the largest land expansion in Disneyland history.
The Disneyland build site places Star Wars on the edge of the park's Frontierland, and — unless you count a petting zoo and an occasional meet and greet as attractions — represents a true expansion of the park into land not now used for attractions.
The shaded area above, which includes Big Thunder Ranch and the surrounding backstage areas, measures at 14 acres - the size that Iger announced for the land. (*I've updated the map to depict a more compact area for the 14 acres.)
This decision appears to spare Toontown, which some websites had reported definitively would be the site of Star Wars Land. (Others insisted it would consume Tomorrowland.) But the Disneyland Twitter feed last week point-blank denied that Toontown would be the site of Star Wars Land. (*Update: Found the tweet!)
@savannahhr_ That is a rumor started by a third party blog and is not true.
— Disneyland Today (@DisneylandToday) August 8, 2015There's an art in public relations to denying something that will happen, but that you haven't yet announced. You want to deny the statement, but not put yourself in the position of having lied once the announcement is made. This is why PR reps say things such as "we have no plans to announce at this time," etc. But Disneyland Today's denial of the Star-Wars-at-Toontown rumor was flat-out.
Now we know why.
Later today, we will look at the possibilities for the build site for Star Wars Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Previously:
I wonder how Star Tours in Tomorrowland will be connected to the new star wars land on the other side of the park.
My guess for realistic possible opening date judging from past recent Disney projects: June 2019
As you say, this is marketing speech by omision. Had the question been will Star Wars overtake Toon Town and the answer been "no", that would have been an actual denial.
If Toon Town was staying someone would have come forward and said so already. No marketing speech, just "Toon Town will not be removed with Disneyland for the new Star Wars addition". There is no point in them skirting around the issue if it is staying... there is every reason to skirt around the issue if it is leaving (as they are doing).
Robert, I wonder if you could comment or reference any inside information that points to any Marvel Land or other development at California Adventure that will drive traffic to it and away from Disneyland Park. While DCA has been improved vastly in the past several years, it still lags fairly significantly behind Disneyland Park in crowd control and attendance. I find it potentially foolish, irresponsible or at least significantly problematic that they are going to build only something that will drive even more bodies into Disneyland Park.
In other words, is there any chance that we will get a significant addition (such as a Marvel Land) to DCA before or by the time Star Wars Land is completed at the other park?
I sincerely hope that Star Wars and Avatar Lands live up to all the hype.
If Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the new standard for e-ticket rides, there is going to be a lot of upset fans.
.@DisneylandToday Will Mickey's Toontown close in the future to make space for #StarWarsLand?
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Disneyland Today ?@DisneylandToday 3h3 hours ago
@DiscoveryArcade More information will be shared via the Disney Parks Blog and http://Disneyland.com as it becomes available.
I know we did when WWOHP was being built. We skipped this year since we got to be there right after Diagon Alley opened last year and spent a lot of time exploring. We decided next year would be better for Kong and now the Hulk upgrade.
Construction is both good... and bad. This being said, I am looking forward to seeing Disney pull out the big guns. With these announcements, the whole theme park fanboy base is talking and Orlando will benefit greatly.
Not that I'd be that thrilled to see Autopia and the Submarine Voyage go away, but using that big chunk of real estate would have made a lot more sense.
My suggestion is to shorten the river by cutting into Tom Sawyer Island and moving the Indian Village. Then you would have room to work with.
Also Episode 7 better be a blockbuster to justify the new planet as the Star Wars land, I thought Tatooine would be better, because it would blend next to the desert mountain of Big Thunder.
I'm hoping they move Star Tours so that they could put in a...different attraction. (Queue Black Sabbath)
However, I also do commend the idea of getting rid of Big Thunder Ranch, as no one really goes to it and is a major waste of Space. Tony Baxter proposed a "Discoveryland" themed land themed to Jules Verne back in 1976, only for the ideas to move to Tokyo Disney Sea 25 years later. A Star Wars land there would also really help foot traffic and provide another entrance to Toontown from the park's west side, as you can only get to Toontown by walking past "it's a small world" in Fantasyland. It is so exciting for the park to finally get a major new attraction on a grand scale since Indiana Jones, which was already 20 years ago!!!!
Robert, is it also true that there's room behind Space Mountain where Disney once proposed a "Hollywoodland" in the late 80's? I almost feel like that would make more sense thematically. And I also wonder the fate of the current Star Tours that they recently updated, plus all the new Star Wars themed attractions coming to Tomorrowland once they open Star Wars land.
With that said, I know some of the newly acquired land that will house the parking garage will also be a new location for backstage housing, and I imagine all of this will be built before the buildings that will become Star Wars Land are demolished - I mean, all that stuff needs a place to go!
So I think it will be a few years before any of this happens...if my previous paragraph made any sense.
I'm not a fan of having exact replicas across multiple parks, so perhaps a delay in building Star Wars Land in Disneyland will allow them to open the version in Florida, and consider ways to differentiate it.
I imagine they'd love to give park-goers and Star Wars Nuts to have a legitimate reason to visit both coasts.
But yeah, I think they need to first build the new backstage area in the newly acquired land before they can clear the room near Big Thunder Ranch, and I don't know the timeframe of that, but I wouldn't expect SWL to open before 2020. At least not in Anaheim.
I agree demolishing Tomorrow Land would be a massive tragedy and mistake that would result in a huge backlash. We're talking about a land that's been there since DAY 1 and that Mr. Walt Disney himself personally helped create. Fortunately it appears they have enough common sense to leave it alone and build on the rather worthless Thunder Ranch site instead.
Tomorrow Land is in dire need of some major renovations soon here though. It's hardly "futuristic" these days... There's so much they could do to it to bring it new life.
As for Tomorrowland - I think one problem facing a land which is to look to the future for its inspiration is that the future is always dependant on the present. The rate of change in technology is exponentially increasing making it more and more difficult to have a futuristic land that isn't rendered obsolete by changes in the present.
Should the whole idea be abandoned? Possibly. What could be done is instead of looking at the future changes in technology, maybe take a page from the book of Star Trek and look at the societal changes. Imagine there's no countries, and no religion too. A lot of the current attractions are replaceable (Autopia, Captain EO, Nemo, Innoventions), Space Mountain fits this scenario, the only difficulty would be Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear.
If the Tomorrowland concept as it currently (very loosely) is were abandoned you could revamp the area as a pure Sci-fi theme and easily redevelop some of those replaceable attractions.
I get it that Disney needs to match Universal, and I'm happy that they're building, I just wish they had thought more about how to integrate Star Wars into Walt's concept for the park.
As for putting Star Wars Land behind Thunder Mountain, that makes no sense at all. Of course the two "future" themed areas should be contiguous.
What will be left of my beloved Tomorrowland? They'll surely move Star Tours to the new area, so we'll be left with what? Space Mountain, Autotopia (the gas-powered cars of the future), the Dumbo rip-off rockets and the Not-Quite-TS-Mania Buzz Lightyear shoot-em-up? Not very futuristic or enticing.
2) The strawberry fields do not connect to the park (yet). Disney would need to buy more property in the Harbor triangle. I believe Disney is waiting for the Angels to leave town by 2019, and then leasing and developing that real estate for back of house and parking. Add a rail fee to that parking lot, and a streetcar system pays for itself.
3) If you remove the Toy Story parking, where do the cars go? Do you build a giant parking garage west of Disneyland Drive? Bus people from Angels Stadium?
4) The smart thing to do: Demolish Autopia (yeah, it's an original ride, but what's it got to do with the future?), it's duplicated by the much-more popular Cars Land. Untangle the monorail track. Dig a 10-storey basement for rides and back of house. Maybe a few rides above ground. Move Buzz over to the other Pixar attractions in California Adventure. Demolish Innoventions or gut the insides and turn it into a SHIELD labs ride similar to Star Tours or the new Hong Kong Iron Man ride. Move or replace Star Tours to the park "far far away". Keep Space Mountain. Fill the rest of that space with Marvel-themed attractions, which do fit in with the futuristic themes.
5) Since Star Wars has a "frontier" theme, it does fit thematically into that section of the park. I wouldn't be surprised if Tom Sawyer gets replaced. That section of Disney IP (historical fiction) is rather weak, and mostly based on characters licensed from other sources (Dr. Syn, Zorro, Tarzan). It's also fantasy, so can overlap there, as well.
Personally, does Disneyland even use those regional names anymore? It worked when the park opened, creating the "theme park". But now? When it's IP and not themes which are king, it becomes a hinderance. It's better to replace them with franchise areas (Cars Land, Star Wars, Toontown, Pixar, Marvel).
What's up with moving attractions around? If you do that, Marvel will never go to DCA. Tomorrowland needs an update, but it doesn't need to swap anything around. If it doesn't work in Tomorrowland, it won't work anywhere else. That being said, they must remove the PeopleMover tracks so better décor can take its place. Plus, they should consider putting in Tron all over Tomorrowland and mostly on top of Autopia and winding around the Monorail tracks. They should also add a canopy at Tomorrowland's entrance like what you see in Shanghai Disneyland.
Benefit to Big Thunder site is ease of construction only. There is no benefit to the Disneyland story nor to Disneyland guests in the long run.
Thunder Ranch, although convenient is a horrible location. Star tours across the park from star wars land? Dumb. Tomorrowland itself needs revamped. Say by to autopia. Those slow old cars should be in frontierland. kidding, they shouldnt be anywhere. They take up too much room. They could use that area, plus the old boat ride area by the matterhorn. Get rid of innoventions, that place will never keep up with the latest tech so its a waste. Either bring the people mover back, or make a tron themed ride. Not a fan of buzz light year, but it has a good flow for long lines so I get it.
If it was possible, Id love to see them remake the skyride from tomorrowland to fantasyland. I miss that ride so much. Riding on that in the evening as a kid while all the amazing lights turned on, with a birds eye view was amazing.
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Are those structures that need demolishing empty, or would they need new facilities built before any works could start? I'm just thinking if they're empty then there's theoretically no reason that construction couldn't start soon.