Why Is No One Talking About This Hollywood Studios Ride Change?

One of Disney’s premier attractions is about to go through a major change… and seemingly no one is talking about it.

I’ve been following Disney’s theme parks for over 30 years, and during that time, I can’t recall too many projects that had the same excitement as Galaxy’s Edge. The twin lands — which opened at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios in 2019 — were the first true Star Wars projects to open in the parks after the company acquired Lucasfilm. While the land’s headline attraction, Rise of the Resistance, has been hailed as a modern classic — despite still running into issues — Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run has not been awarded the same praise.

A simulator attraction based on the most famous ship in the Star Wars saga should have been a slam dunk, but the experience has faced some criticism. Some have praised the ride for its immersive queue, video game nature, and attention to detail of intricately recreating Han Solo’s ship in full detail, with inside…

… and out.

However, others have complained that the attraction’s controls were too confusing and cumbersome for some guests, while the story, which Disney had initially said would consistently evolve, was stagnant and didn’t take advantage of the Star Wars setting.

At the 2024 D23 Ultimate Fan Event, Disney announced that the attraction was getting a brand new storyline featuring the mega-popular Mandalorian and Grogu.

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The update is scheduled to open on May 22nd, 2026, the same day The Mandalorian and Grogu feature film — a cap to the 3 seasons of The Mandalorian — is scheduled to open in theaters.

Speaking at the 2025 SXSW conference, Disney Imagineer Asa Kalama said of the project, “Opening an attraction and such a massive movie on the same day wouldn’t be possible without the relationships we have inside Disney. Now we’ve all worked together to come up with a new mission for Smugglers Run that plays into this narrative.”

While these Smugglers Run changes have been flying a bit under the radar thanks to other projects like Piston Peak, Monsters, Inc. land, and Villains Land, adding the popular Mandalorian characters, along with Star Wars locations including Bespin’s Cloud City, has a chance to change the narrative about the Millennium Falcon attraction permanently. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on these changes.

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Are you looking forward to the Mandalorian and Grogu joining Smuggler’s Run? Let us know in the comments below.

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