A report from The Wrap says that the former Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will be turned into offices for Walt Disney Imagineering. The move has been sort of an open secret for some time, but Disney will now reportedly move forward with the plans. The offices will reportedly be the home of various Imagineering project teams as Walt Disney World launches a number of projects around the resort. There’s really not much else to say in terms of the news part of this story, so we’ll turn to opinion.
The Starcruiser Deserved Better
Back in June 2023, fan-favorite executive Josh D’Amaro said that “something will happen” with the Galactic Starcruiser, giving fans of the immersive experience a little bit of hope. As it turns out, that was simply lip service from D’Amaro.
I’ve long held the thought that the Starcruiser wasn’t a failure as long as Disney was able to make something out of it, but it looks like that’s not going to happen under D’Amaro’s leadership. There will be no encore for the Starcruiser. Instead, the highly-themed space will be used as offices. Imagineers will get to dream up new experiences for guests from within an office that sits in a space that represents a failure.
Simply put, the Starcruiser deserved better from Disney. The price point proved to be unsustainable, but the experience was unforgettable. I was fortunate enough to experience the Starcruiser multiple times, and it represented the best of immersive Imagineering and themed entertainment every single time. It was the culmination of what immersion could be and should be, and Disney let it fail. It’s unfortunate that D’Amaro, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Walt Disney Imagineering, and teams at Walt Disney World were unable to find a creative solution for the space.
The Starcruiser, for all its faults on pricing, was exciting for fans of themed entertainment. It was the most ambitious project that Imagineering had taken on in decades, and it was an example of Imagineering taking the lead on immersive theater on a scale that hadn’t been attempted before. In many ways, the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was the canary in the coal mine for modern Disney and Walt Disney Imagineering. As it turns out, the canary is dead.
We have reached out to Walt Disney World for comment, but have not received a response.
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