The annual Season of the Force event first took place at Disneyland in 2015. Nine years in, this celebration of all things Star Wars returns. This year Season of the Force at Disneyland will run from April 5, 2024, through June 2, 2024. Nerdist and others were invited to preview this year’s Season of the Force offerings at the Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Among them is a return of Hyperspace Mountain, the Star Wars overlay of Space Mountain, plus tons of Star Wars-themed food, beverages, and merchandise. Read on for all the details, young Padawan.
Welcome Star Wars: Ahsoka’s Sabine to Galaxy’s Edge
New characters are wandering around Black Spire Outpost in Galaxy’s Edge starting with Season of the Force, including Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka hero, Sabine Wren. The Mandalorian-turned-Jedi apprentice will be seen for a limited time wandering the Outer Rim planet, looking for fellow rebels to join the fight. Joining her are a pair of truly adorable BDX droids, straight from the game Jedi: Fallen Order.
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
The two main highlights of Season of the Force this year are the debut of a new destination for the classic Star Tours attraction. During Season of the Force, park guests will travel to the planet Seatos from Ahsoka. C-3PO will pilot the Starspeeder 1000 through a pack of purrgil, the space whales seen in Ahsoka. Star Tours riders will also now receive transmissions from Din Djarin and Grogu, Cassian Andor, and Ahsoka Tano herself. If you look carefully, you may even see a familiar droid with her.
Fire of the Rising Moons Galaxy’s Edge Fireworks Show
The other highlight is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’s new fireworks show, Fire of the Rising Moons, on select nights. It’s a display that finally showcases John Williams’ iconic music along with spectacular fireworks. Fans have long wanted to hear the classic themes from the Star Wars films in Galaxy’s Edge. Now, they’ll be able to experience them as if they were at the Endor celebration in Return of the Jedi.
Season of the Force Food and Beverage Offerings
At Docking Bay 7 at Galaxy’s Edge, folks from Walt Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm shared details on the Season of the Force limited-time merchandise and food and beverage offerings. New this year is the Celto Slush, a nod to the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. Also new are the Wookiee Parfait, the Watermelon Slush (with a Death Star glow cube), the Fried Chicken Baos, and the Bantha Burger. We can attest to the Wookiee Parfait being especially delicious.
At the Grand Californian Hotel, guests can see a showpiece called the Galactic Creation. It’s made with edible ingredients and shows the Millennium Falcon arriving in Black Spire Outpost. Created by the Disney culinary team, it’s made with 300 pounds of powdered sugar, 80 pounds of crisped rice cereal, 60 pounds of marshmallows, and 100 pounds of dark chocolate.
Season of the Force Merchandise 2024
This Season of the Force sees the introduction of the all-new Jabba the Hutt popcorn bucket, featuring a Salacious Crumb keychain. Other items include the return of the Millennium Falcon bucket and an abandoned stormtrooper helmet. Additionally, the park has several new Star Wars pins and apparel. These include a new Star Tours hoodie sporting the ride operator’s classic color scheme. You can get a Darth Vader Stainless Steel Tumbler at the Galactic Grill in Tomorrowland. Then at Oga’s Cantina, you can find the Acid Spitter/Orb Sipper.
As for the changes to Star Tours, we spoke to Tom Fitzgerald, Senior Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering who was fielding questions about Star Tours – The Adventure Continues. Given that Ahsoka only premiered recently, we asked if bringing the purrgil from that series into Star Tours was planned from the start. Here’s what he had to say:
That’s the beauty of having a relationship with Lucasfilm that they can say, “Hey, we think there’s going to be something really exciting for you in this new series. Come have a look.” And so we have a look. We look at the scripts. We start to look at what’s in there. And from our perspective of what do we think would make a great star to our sequence, which might be different than what would be a great sequence in the film or a series. It’s like what would be good with [an] emotional base and our storyline put together. So that’s how we start.
We also asked Tom Fitzgerald about how Imagineering incorporated Cassian Andor as one of the holographic messages in Star Tours—especially given how much more serious his story is than the likes of baby Grogu.
We treated it as a darker moment. So when you do get to see it, you’ll see that he comes out of the shadows and you don’t see the face. And there’s a moment where with the music and everything together, you’re like, “Ooh, is this a friend or a foe?” And then when he takes it down, it’s like, oh, it’s Andor. The music shifts. And so we got to have fun with that. And then Ahsoka, because she knows Artoo, we treated that as friends reuniting. Each one is a slightly different tone just to mix it up and also to keep each one unique. So you feel like when you see each one, oh, they’re all different.
With so many offerings for fans, Season of the Force remains a can’t-miss event for the Star Wars aficionado. If you find yourself in California from April through early June, then be ready to ignite your lightsaber, because you can’t pass up a trip to Disneyland to celebrate the Season of the Force.
