How Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser Connects Every Era of Star Wars Canon

Disney World’s newest immersive experience, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, puts guests right in the thick of a journey through a galaxy far, far away. Like the Galaxy’s Edge area in Hollywood Studios, Galactic Starcruiser is part of Star Wars canon, and it takes place during the sequel trilogy, between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That said, the Halcyon ship is a unique part of Star Wars lore, in that it actually connects every era of the current Star Wars canon.

The Halcyon was designed to bridge elements of all Star Wars eras with its architecture, design, costumes, and story elements. The ship was built during the High Republic era, borrows styles from the royal families of the prequels, and serves as a key fixture in the relationship of Han and Leia (which will be explored in an upcoming book). 

Each Star Wars trilogy is represented in its own unique way on the Halcyon, helping to connect all manner of different Star Wars fans.

“It was a large design team that really kind of took a step back and looked at this, and thought to ourselves, ‘What does high-end luxury look like through the lens of Star Wars?’ And we actually have a lot of great reference material for that,” Disney Imagineering production designer Bryce Schulty told ComicBook.com “You mentioned the High Republic, the ship is 275 years old so we’re tracking there as well as inspirations from Dryden Vos’ First Light yacht that you see in Solo, down to the Canto Bight references. You might even see there’s some really beautiful imagery of the prequels, like Senator Amidala’s senatorial apartments and all of those interior environments we were able to lift from to really showcase a different version of Star Wars.”

During a press conference about the Starcruiser, Star Wars Vice President & Creative Director Doug Chiang explained exactly how the ship styles and interior design elements brought the various eras together.

“The Holcyon is one of the very first opportunities now where we’re actually combining Prequel aesthetics with the original Trilogy aesthetics,” Chiang said. “If you look at the Blockade runner, it has a very distinct shape. And that speaks directly to the original trilogy. And what we’ve done is we’ve taken that form language and proportionally changed it, created and updated the material to bring in perhaps elements from Drayen Vos’ yachts, and even elements for the Naboo queenship, that elegant chrome. And by merging all those, what we’re doing is we’re creating a very cohesive timeline for all designs.”

“What I really like is that it’s bringing something new to Star Wars, because Star Wars needs that component where you have to update and expand the universe,” Chiang continued. “George [Lucas] created such a vast playground for us that we’re barely touching on that. And Halcyon, I think is a wonderful opportunity for us to really expand on that further.”