Star Wars’ relationship with Disney goes back even before the company officially purchased Lucasfilm. If you’re a fan of the Disney parks, then chances are you’ve been on Star Tours, a motion-simulating ride that first opened in Disneyland in 1987, and also exists in Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios, Toyko Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. In 2010, the ride began an evolution, and was reopened as Star Tours – The Adventure Continues. This version takes guests on a tour across the galaxy far, far away, as droids C-3pO and R2-D2 attempt to safely return a spy to the Rebel Alliance. We see locations from every episodic film, including original trilogy planets like Hoth, prequel trilogy planets like Kashyyyk, and sequel trilogy planets like Jakku and Crait.
Now, with the impending release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker—the ninth and final film in the episodic saga—Disney has announced that Star Tours – The Adventure Continues will once again get an update. All Star Tours locations will soon feature new destinations from Episode IX. In a post on the official Disney Parks blog, Tom Fitzgerald—Executive Vice President and Senior Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering Management—announced the news, and added another bit of information: confirmation the the Death Star sequence seen in trailers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is set on an “oceanic moon” called Kef Bir. “All I can say at this point is that Starspeeders will be heading there soon!” Fitzgerald wrote of this mysterious new location. Since it contains the ruins of the second Death Star, we’re going to wager a guess that Kef Bir is an ocean moon of Endor, and a sister moon to the forest location seen in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
Fitzgerald’s post uses the plural word “destinations” regarding this news, meaning we’ll see other new planets in this update of Star Tours – The Adventure Continues as well. What will they be? Maybe the new desert planet Pasaana, or the icy world of Kijimi. Or maybe we’ll see what’s really going on with this big hunk of ice spotted in the new trailer. Is that a planet? Some floating icicle world? Is it an island on Kijimi?
“We’ll be sharing more details in the future, but for now I just wanted to say how super-excited we are that Star Tours – The Adventures Continue is continuing to live up to its name,” Fitzgerald writes. “As C-3PO would say, ‘Here we go again!'”
The new updates will go live on December 20—the same day that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters—so we have to imagine whatever they have in store, it’s bound to be a little spoilery. But it’ll be nice to finally get some new locations on the ride. Who knows how long it will be before it’s updated again, now that the saga is coming to an end. All of this is making the grand finale feel even more real. We’re excited, but it’s definitely a little bittersweet.
Featured Image: Disney/Lucasfilm