Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Originally Featured Plans for Tatooine and Endor

In the years ahead of the launch of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, fans theorized what the attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World would explore, with former Vice President of Walt Disney World Dan Cockerell recently confirming rumors that original plans for the addition to the parks included replicating Tatooine and Endor. Cockerell confirmed those plans during an interview with WDW Radio, with the former exec noting that it was Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy who orchestrated the shift away from the planets made famous in the original trilogy of films and instead opted to create the all-new environment of Batuu.

“The Indiana Jones theater, that was going to be the heart of the Star Wars land … the Mos Eisley Cantina, that was going to be right across from Star Tours, and we had all kinds of great concepts with that. We’d gotten way down the path on art drawings, we hadn’t gone into architectural drawings or anything,” Cockerell confirmed. “Kathleen Kennedy, her point of view was, there are way more Disney Star Wars stories ahead of us than behind us. So we really should think about, do we want to build a Tatooine and build what all the 50-somethings remember Star Wars is? Or do we want to build something else which is going to appeal to all the upcoming generations who are going to know the new stories?”

Cockerell might not have detailed the plans for incorporating Endor into the park, but at the D23 Expo back in 2013, a speeder bike experience was hinted at, which likely would have gone along with the attraction’s original intent of bringing to life famous locales from the original trilogy.

“This remote outpost on the galaxy’s edge was once a busy crossroads along the old sub-lightspeed trade routes, but its prominence was bypassed by the rise of hyperspace travel,” Disney describes of the planet Batuu. “Now home to those who prefer to stay out of the mainstream, it has become a thriving port for smugglers, rogue traders, and adventurers traveling between the frontier and uncharted space. It’s also a convenient safe haven for those intent on avoiding the expanding reach of the First Order. While Batuu may be new to us, it is clearly already familiar to many characters from the Star Wars saga as a stepping off point for epic adventures.”

Stay tuned for details on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Do you wish the park honored these original plans? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!