Disney Makes Moves to Fix Biggest Mistake With Star Wars-Themed Land

Disneyland continues to add more characters to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge to celebrate the new Disney+ shows and upcoming projects. And interestingly enough, most of these characters brought in shake up the established Batuu storyline.

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is based on a planet created by Imagineers just for this land called Batuu with the focus on a town called Black Spire Outpost. The timeline of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge has been followed fairly strictly as the time in the Star Wars universe aligns most closely with the sequel trilogy.

This timeline has restricted Disney from which characters are available in the land, this is why you won't find classic characters from the original trilogy or the prequels. But now we're starting to see more signs that this could be changing!

Sabine Wren Debuts for Season of the Force

Sabine Wren recently made appearances in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland during Season of the Force. Sabine Wren is a popular character that originally made her debut in the animated hit series Star Wars Rebels. Sabine Wren was brought to live action for the first time in the Disney+ series Ahsoka. She is a beloved character for many Star War fans, especially those that love Star Wars Rebels.

This isn't the first time Sabine Wren has made appearances in Disneyland, she has appeared in the past as part of Star Wars Nite. During those events she was in her Star Wars Rebels gear, this interaction is different as it features her in the timeline of the Ahsoka series which takes place about 10 years after Star Wars Rebels.

Read our review of Season of the Force including our favorite food items and what we thought of the NEW Star Tours scenes. 

Significance of Sabine Wren

Seeing Sabine Wren in the parks is a great step towards including a more diverse range of characters. During the recent media event for Season of the Force, Matt Martin from Lucasfilm elaborated on the importance of these new character additions, “There’s a lot of people that grew up with these characters and have, you know, in their heads wanted to meet them, the same way that kids that grew up with Luke Skywalker have wanted to meet Luke Skywalker or kids that grew up with Rey wanted to meet Rey.” This statement definitely hits home for my family as Star Wars Rebels was a huge part of my teenage son's childhood. Ezra Bridger was my son's version of Luke Skywalker as a small child.

Martin continued on to say, “So now we’re being able to give them that opportunity. I think that’s so huge, and like even me as an adult, like, I'm a huge Sabine fan, it is such a big deal for her to come in here and, like, I got to just gush when I met her, which was amazing. And the thing that I realized was that Rebels is actually the first Disney Star Wars project, so having her now show up at the park is kind of coming full circle and that's really great.” This is a great sign that Disney is beginning to loosen the reigns on the timeline of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge which has been one of my biggest critiques of the land.

The above quotes have been edited for clarity. 

It's Time for Change

I think it's about time that Disney got rid of the timeline in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. This is Disney's biggest mistake with Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge as it limits the interactions in the land. Removing the timeline entirely would open up the land to more opportunities to incorporate ALL the Star Wars stories.

Bringing Sabine Wren into the land is another great step towards this as she joins a list of other Star Wars characters that do not match the sequel timeline that have already been incorporated like the Mandalorian and Grogu, Ahsoka, Boba Fett, and Fennec Shand. While these characters have all been introduced in part to promote these hit Disney+ shows, in a similar way that limited time characters appear in Avengers Campus, it is a good sign that the tight grip on the timeline is being lifted. For reference, the timeline of most of these Disney+ shows (Mandalorian, Ahasoka, Boba Fett) take place about 25 years prior to The Force Awakens and about five years after Return of the Jedi.

Now I would love to see Disney just throw it all out the window and bring in the classic Star Wars characters and creatures in the land. Imagine seeing Ewoks exploring the land. We waited in line for almost three hours to meet them at Star Wars Nite, that's how high the demand was! Guests would absolutely love this.

Even bigger than Ewoks, imagine seeing Luke Skywalker roaming the land or Anakin Skywalker. There is so much potential for opportunity and this is one we see utilized well in Avengers Campus as they incorporate all the characters with ease regardless of any established timeline or the deaths of these heroes in the films.

Star Wars Fireworks Are Here to Stay

Another good sign of the land embracing a more fluid integration of Star Wars stories is the news that the Season of the Force fireworks show is going to remain beyond Season of the Force.

It was already popular for many guests to watch the Disneyland fireworks from Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, cast members are even prepared for this and will tape off the ground in front of the Millennium Falcon to offer crowd control for the area. Now the land is celebrating the fireworks by featuring selections from composer John Williams' Star Wars film scores. This is just another way of integrating multiple Star Wars stories into the land as we have not heard any of the traditional Star Wars music in the land atmosphere itself.

It seems that Disney is making cautious steps towards shaking up this timeline and while most of it aligns with their current Star Wars projects, I hope they just pull off the gloves and bring all the characters into the land.

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