The Big Changes For Smuggler’s Run At Galaxy’s Edge Have Me Worried About The Future Of Another Ride

Star Wars Celebration in Japan over the weekend had a lot of news about upcoming Star Wars movies and TV series. However, as CinemaBlend’s resident theme park nerd, the details I was most interested in were those surrounding the update already announced for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run that will transform the attraction with a story based around The Mandalorian and Grogu.

The event did not disappoint. We gained a lot of new details about how the new attraction at Disney World and Disneyland will likely be a significant upgrade over the original, but it also has me concerned about a different Star Wars attraction.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run Changes Will Make The Attraction Worth Riding More Often

When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened, it did so with only one new attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. The story saw fan-favorite Hondo Onaka “borrow” the Falcon from Chewbacca to do a little light smuggling, and guests became the crew of the ship, with groups of six sharing responsibilities for three crew positions: pilot, gunner and engineer.

This gave the attraction a bit of re-rideability, but once you had manned each position, you’d done the ride. While it could be fun to do the ride with a group of friends, doing it with random others wasn’t always worth it.

The new version of the attraction will increase the variability of the ride by giving guests three different choices for locations to travel to: Bespin, Endor and Coruscant. This means guests who want to experience everything will need to do the ride at least nine times in order to experience all three roles in all three locations.

Smuggler’s Run will also make the engineer role, generally considered the least exciting of the three, a lot more fun, as engineers will apparently be responsible for communicating with and caring for Grogu. It used to be that using the Smuggler’s Run Single Rider line all but guaranteed one the engineer slot, but that may not be the case going forward.

DFarth Vader in Star Tours

(Image credit: Disney Parks)

I’m More Worried Than Ever About The Future Of Star Tours

If the idea of a Star Wars attraction that can travel to multiple locations in the Star Wars universe sounds familiar, that’s because it already exists. Ever since its redesign, Star Tours has been a randomized experience that takes riders all over the galaxy far, far away. The number of possible Star Tours experiences is significant, and so few rides are alike.

Ever since Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was announced, there have been concerns that Star Tours was on the chopping block. The attraction is all the way over in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It’s separated by Muppets, and soon Monsters Inc, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Did it make sense for the parks to have a Star Wars attraction not located in the Star Wars land?

Fears of the ride’s departure have been unfounded. Star Tours got a major update as recently as last year, adding characters from various Disney+ Star Wars shows to the attraction.

However, with the news that the Millennium Falcon ride is going to be just that little bit similar to Star Tours (both were already motion simulator flights through space, and will now be able to visit multiple locations), that makes Star Tours feel that much more redundant. Is it on the way out? Considering that Disneyland’s Tomorrowland needs an overhaul anyway, and that the Muppet Courtyard area is about to close for a major transformation, it wouldn’t be that shocking to see Star Tours included in either of those projects.

I will certainly be sad if and when Star Tours goes away. There are a lot of reasons to keep the attraction around, as it’s still quite popular and still different enough from Smuggler’s Run that they each offer things to guests that the other does not. Still, I wonder if Star Tours’ days are numbered. The new version of Smuggler’s Run won’t open until The Mandalorian and Grogu movie does in May 2026, and a lot can happen in that time.

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