Luke Skywalker is coming to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge?
That seemed to be the message that Disney shared earlier today via social media. In a video post, Disney Parks showed a black-cloaked character walking toward the Millennium Falcon in its Star Wars land, soon joined by R2-D2.
The figure looked very much like a Mandalorian-era Luke Skywalker, who - like many other original trilogy characters - has not had a live presence in Galaxy's Edge before now.
The Disney Parks post teased another announcement on Monday, February 10, hash-tagged with Season of the Force, the Star Wars celebration that is returning to Disneyland in Anaheim from March 28 through May 11. Put the two together, and one might reasonably assume that Luke will be appearing at the park, likely in Galaxy's Edge, during the event.
So why hasn't Luke appeared in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge before now? Timing.
Walt Disney Imagineering set Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in and around the Black Spire Outpost on the planet Batuu, both of which were original creations for the land. But WDI also set Galaxy's Edge at a specific time as well as a specific place. That time is during the sequel trilogy, when the Resistance is at war with the First Order.
As anyone who has seen the sequel trilogy can attest, Luke is MIA for the first of those films and never leaves the planet Ahch-To during the second. (And for the third? Well, thankfully, Luke was not alive to endure what I will argue was not only the worst Star Wars movie, but also the worst big-budget, major-studio film ever made.)
That said, Luke did enjoy a fan-favorite scene in the post-original-trilogy Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, so if you're willing to fudge the Galaxy's Edge timeline a little, you could get Luke there. Or, at least, maybe a youthful Force projection of him.
I hope that Disney provides some canonic explanation for Luke's presence at Black Spire Outpost. Disney could just dump its temporal discipline with the land and open it to all Star Wars characters from all times. But that would undercut Imagineers' original intent that what happens in the land is canon - that you really have been on the Millennium Falcon, and that you really did aid the Resistance in fighting the First Order. And that your "Star Wars adventure" in the land was real. (At least, within the Star Wars universe.)
Opening a multiverse within Star Wars would send that franchise down the shaky path that has undermined Marvel in recent years (IMHO). But if most fans do not care about WDI's attempt at role-playing authenticity - and instead just want to see more Star Wars in Disney's Star Wars land - well, maybe it's better for Disney to change strategy and go for another form of fan service. Perhaps this will be the start?
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"what I will argue was not only the worst Star Wars movie, but also the worst big-budget, major-studio film ever made."
Ouch! Episode I is more of an abomination than Episode IX could ever be (Jar Jar, tax blockades, all exposition with no point?). Episode IX swung and missed, but it was a good faith effort and plenty of people liked it. It was also the last Star Wars film with a John Williams score, recorded in LA, and for that I will always admire it, even if it isn't perfect.
It can’t be overstated enough how much of an impact Carrie Fisher’s untimely death impacted the story for Episode IX. General Leia was set to have a much larger role, similar to Han Solo in Episode VII and Luke in Episode VIII.
There's a "making of" book where, reading between the lines, it's clear Fisher's death and overreaction to The Last Jedi backlash caused a lot of changes to ROS to make it worse than it would have been. Some great early ideas thrown out.
I'm just not crazy about this idea of meeting Luke Skywalker. What is his purpose on Batuu, and how is he going to be presented to guests? Will it be a standard meet and greet (in a room with a backdrop and Photopass photographer), or will he be roaming Galaxy's Edge like other characters in the land?
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I think your average theme park/Star Wars fan will enjoy having Luke in the park without a second thought how he fits in while your die hard fans will be bothered by the discontinuity but just accept it and take their family picture. It’s a plussing despite the incongruence. The same can be said for the Hat Box ghost placement at Magic Kingdom. He presents before the haunts are called to appear but how many people actually notice or care about the thematic discrepancy? That being said, it’s the attention to small details and adherence to thematic elements that make Disney special and, in my opinion, should not be overly compromised.