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This article is about the character from the Star Tours attraction. For the clone captain, see Rex (Star Wars) .

RX-24 , later R-3X , and also known simply as "Rex" , is a character from the Star Wars franchise, first introduced in 1987 as the Audio-Animatronic protagonist of Disneyland 's Star Tours attraction. He is depicted as an RX-series pilot droid who works for the Star Tours travel company, where he pilots a StarSpeeder 3000 spacecraft.

Rex later appeared in the attraction's prequel, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue . Set roughly 5 years before the timeline of the original attraction, Rex appears here as a newly-delivered, yet malfunctioning, droid in the attraction's queue.

Rex's appearances in the Star Tours attractions are not considered part of the main Star Wars canon , but are instead considered part of the Star Wars Legends continuity. Rex was officially introduced into official Star Wars canon with his 2014 appearance in Star Wars Rebels , where he works as a pilot droid for Garel Interstellar Excursions . Some time after this appearance, he gained employment with Star Tours, where he would later crash land on the planet Batuu , and be reprogrammed into DJ R-3X, the house DJ of Oga's Cantina .

Rex's voice was portrayed by the late Paul Reubens in all of his appearances.

• 1 Background
• 2.1.1 Star Tours
• 2.1.2 Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
• 2.2.1 Star Wars Rebels
• 2.2.2 Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
• 2.3.1 Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar
• 2.3.2 Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
• 5 External links

Background [ ]

Rex appeared as the pilot in the original Star Tours attraction. Much like all droids of the RX series, Rex has a talkative and friendly attitude, and focuses more on his guest interaction than the safety and the schedule of the flight. In the original attraction, a red REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT ribbon hangs from Rex's torso, which may serve to explain Rex's tendency to malfunction and bumbling nature.

Rex was the love interest of ROX-N, a feminine-programmed droid that worked at the L'Astroport Services Interstellaires – a story element that appeared only in the Disneyland Paris iteration of the original attraction.

Appearances [ ]

Legends continuity [ ], star tours [ ].

In 4.3 ABY , Rex is tasked with his first flight with Star Tours: ST-45, also known as the "Endor Express". The flight went wrong almost immediately. Whilst preparing his StarSpeeder 3000 for takeoff, Rex took a wrong turn and proceeded to fly himself and his 40 passengers into the spaceport's maintenance bay, narrowly managing to steer up and out into space. He then instructed R2-D2 to make the hyperspace jump to the flight's intended destination: the forest moon of Endor .

However, StarSpeeder overshot its target, careening past Endor and into a comet field, with Rex having to escape by flying directly through one of the comets. After safely escaping, Rex prepared to make the turn around back to Endor, he and his passengers found themselves in the midst of a battle between the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance, where the StarSpeeder was caught in a tractor beam of an Imperial Star Destroyer .

A Rebel Alliance X-wing starfighter squadron made contact with the StarSpeeder, helping them break free of the tractor beam and then escorted Rex's StarSpeeder through their attack on an Imperial Death Star space station. Rex assisted the Rebels, using the StarSpeeder's laser cannons to destroy several Imperial TIE Fighters . The Rebels lead Rex down the Death Star trench, where one of their ships manage to destroy the Death Star by firing two proton torpedoes into the space station's thermal exhaust port . As the Death Star exploded, the Rebel squadron and the StarSpeeder jumped into hyperspace, with Rex piloting the StarSpeeder back to Star Tours' spaceport. Seemingly out of danger, Rex then narrowly avoided colliding with a fuel truck upon landing. Rex apologized to his passengers as they prepared to disembark, excusing himself on the basis that it "was [his] first flight, and [he's] still getting used to [his] programming."

Star Tours: The Adventures Continue [ ]

Set roughly five years before the events of the original Star Tours , Rex appears in the queue for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue , alongside several other newly-delivered RX-series pilot droids. The RX-series droids are seemingly intended to replace the contemporary AC-series pilot droids that Star Tours employed at the time. However, the RX-series droids in the queue are not quite ready for flight – they are marked with "DEFECTIVE – RETURN TO FACTORY" labels. Rex himself is malfunctioning, attempting to speak to the passengers that pass by him in the queue, and foreshadowing his future misadventures seen in the original attraction.

Former RX-24 Audio-Animatronics appear as various RX-series droids in the queue area of Star Tours: The Adventures Continue in the droid customs scene. The attraction, set several years before the events of the original Star Tours attraction, depicts the RX-series droids as newly-delivered to the Star Tours agency, which has marked them defective. One of these former Audio-Animatronics figures is actually RX-24, malfunctioning and randomly repeating his dialogue from the original attraction (plus one new line of dialogue in which he says he has technical difficulties). In the Tokyo Disneyland version of the attraction, another RX-series droid appears as a hitchhiking droid .

During the development of Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, RX-24 was still supposed to be a part of the ride, instead of C-3PO, who filled his role.

Canon appearances [ ]

Star wars rebels [ ].

RX-24 appears in the Star Wars Rebels episode " Droids in Distress ", voiced once again by Paul Reubens , who is famous for the portrayal of the character Pee-Wee Herman . RX-24's appearance in Rebels is the first official appearance in Star Wars canon .

In 5 BBY, he flies Star Commuter 2000 shuttle ST-45 for Garel Interstellar Excursions from Lothal to Garel. When passengers Ezra Bridger and Chopper are fighting, Maketh Tua asks for the Astromech droids to remain with her, but RX-24 corrects her, citing Imperial law by stating all traveling droids ride in the back of the craft, including Maketh's interpreter C-3PO .

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge [ ]

After his employment with Garel Interstellar Excursions, RX-24 was hired as a pilot droid for the Star Tours travel agency. Some time later, he crash landed on Batuu , where he was reprogrammed and upgraded by Mubo at the Droid Depot in Black Spire Outpost. He was officially redesignated R-3X (or Rex for short), and given to Oga Garra, the proprietor of Oga's Cantina . Oga then employed Rex as the cantina's house DJ during the events of the war between the First Order and the Resistance .

Oga's Cantina serves as a bar at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge , a themed land at Disneyland that opened on May 31, 2019. An identical version of Galaxy's Edge (and Oga's Cantina with it) is set to open on August 29, 2019, at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World . Rex is again voiced in these appearances by Paul Reubens.

Other appearances [ ]

Jock lindsey's hangar bar [ ].

In Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar in Disney Springs is the airplane code, "RXE 2-4" used on a salvaged airplane, referencing Rex. He is one of several Star Wars characters alluded to in this way.

Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant [ ]

Storyboards of RX-24 and Star Tours decorate this restaurant in Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Gallery [ ]

• Rex's poor flight skills may be due to a transparent red ribbon hanging from his body reading "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT."
• Rex made a cameo in Disney Sing Along Songs: Disneyland Fun in the Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah song where guests explore the Star Tours attraction.
• His look inspired the design of AC-38 , a droid from Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.
• In the queue line of the original attraction, the announcer proclaims that the new RX droids are the newest, safest, and most advanced pilot droids in the galaxy. In Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. it was further revealed that this was a lie or exaggeration as the Star Tours company bought him from a shipment of defective RX units.
• Rex utters Pee-wee Herman's iconic laugh several times during the attraction, and also utters a similar scream. He also says "I meant to do that", which is what Pee-wee said after it looked like he fell off his bike while imitating a BMX stunt in Pee-wee's Big Adventure .
• Rex went through several personality changes during the attraction's development. At first, he was conceived as a witty tour guide. Later, he was conceived as a brazen veteran-a deranged and broken-down droid left over from the Clone Wars named "Crazy Harry".
• In Oga's Cantina, Rex mentions the Star Tours droid, Aly San San , and saying that "she was the droid he was looking for", implying that they are in a relationship together.
• He formerly shared the same name and title as the clone soldier from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show.
• RX droids were created by Reubens Robotics Systems in the Star Wars ''Legends'' lore, an allusion to Paul Reubens who voiced Rex. The Star Wars Rebels novel Head to Head later established Industrial Automaton as the manufacturer of RX droids in official Star Wars canon.
• He is credited as compiler of Oga's Cantina: R3X's Playlist 1 , a album compiling music from Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge .

External links [ ]

• 2 The Emotions

Wookieepedia

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• Droids with masculine programming
• RX-Series pilot droids
• Star Tours personnel
• Edit source

RX-24 , nicknamed Rex , was an RX-Series pilot droid manufactured by Reubens Robotic Systems . The masculine - programmed droid was purchased by the Star Tours travel agency at some point after the rise of the Galactic Empire , and prior to 1 BBY, but he was defective as of 1 BBY and saw no service until after the company upgraded its fleet of StarSpeeder 1000 spacecraft to the newer StarSpeeder 3000 sometime around the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY . By that time, RX-24 had been repaired, and the company placed him into service. His initial duty to Star Tours constituted multiple firsts: Rex's first flight as a pilot , the first official Star Tours use of the StarSpeeder 3000 shuttle , and the first outing of the Endor Express with non-stop service to the Forest Moon of Endor . With the astromech droid R2-D2 as his copilot, Rex took off on Star Tours Flight 45 . He never reached Endor. Instead, Rex nearly crashed the shuttle leaving the spaceport , emerged from hyperspace too late and overshot the Forest Moon , stumbled into a comet field, wandered into a battle between New Republic and Imperial forces, and joined an attack run on an Imperial battlestation . The pilot droid then returned to the spaceport from which the flight originated.

Rex's programming and appearance were standard for the RX series. He had a segmented body with wider sections of burnished metal trimmed in gold and purple, and narrower sections in black. He had three arms with clawed hands, blue photoreceptors that glowed with a white light, a retractable purple visor, and a repulsorlift generator at his base to facilitate movement. Rex was friendly with organic beings, and he affected a brave demeanor even during his disastrous flight to Endor. Fellow droid ROX-N was known to have romantic feelings toward Rex.

• 1 Biography
• 2 Characteristics
• 3.1 Conception
• 3.2 Development
• 3.3 Further developments
• 3.4 Continuity
• 4 Appearances
• 6 Notes and references
• 7 External links

Biography [ ]

Upon arrival at Star Tours from the factory, RX-24 was marked as defective.

RX-24 was an RX-Series pilot droid manufactured by Reubens Robotic Systems . [1] The droid was one of several purchased by the galactic travel agency known as Star Tours circa 1 BBY . [8] RX-24 was shipped to the agency defective; once removed from his shipping crate, the droid was almost completely non-functional, muttering random phrases in Basic , speeding up and slowing down his speech at irregular intervals, and sparking at the neck. With a decal reading, " DEFECTIVE " and " RETURN TO FACTORY " on his base, he sat outside his crate up to the time of Star Tours Flight 1401 , [5] which took place at some point between 2 and 0 BBY. [8] Nevertheless, Star Tours decided to keep RX-24 at the company and had its in-house repair droids restore him to working order. [8]

By 4.3 ABY , [9] shortly after the Battle of Endor , [10] RX-24 had been brought online as a fully functional pilot droid . [3] He also struck up a romantic relationship with another Star Tours droid, ROX-N . [11] Star Tours had upgraded its fleet of StarSpeeder 1000 passenger starships [5] to the newer StarSpeeder 3000 model. [1] Seeking to cash in on the moon of Endor's sudden fame [12] after the defeat of Galactic Emperor Palpatine by the Alliance to Restore the Republic there, [13] Star Tours assigned RX-24, now nicknamed "Rex," to captain the StarSpeeder 3000 on its maiden voyage, [12] taking it to the forest moon with a full complement of passengers as part of the newly implemented Endor Express service. [3] Rex was to follow the Sanctuary Pipeline , a hyperlane [12] that had been created by the Galactic Empire to bring supplies to the Endor system during the construction of the Death Star II battlestation . Without the Empire to maintain the hyperroute, however, the Pipeline began to decay soon after the battle had ended. [14] Nevertheless, Star Tours gave the go-ahead for Rex to pilot Star Tours Flight 45 (ST-45). [15] Only the protocol droid C-3PO , temporarily working for the travel agency, saw the folly of the plan, noting that Rex still had his "Remove Before Flight" factory tag on him. [16]

Rex's first flight brought him to an immense Imperial battlestation.

Rex took his post in front of the StarSpeeder's cockpit shield . Promising a smooth ride, the droid lowered the shield and greeted his passengers as his navigator , R2-D2 , was loaded into the craft's astromech slot . With approval from control, Rex lurched the starship into motion but then took a wrong turn while still inside the Star Tours spaceport. Unable to find the StarSpeeder 3000's brakes, he nearly collided with a wall before wrenching the craft up and over the obstruction and into space . Despite this inauspicious beginning, RX-24 then ordered R2-D2 to launch the craft into hyperspace . [3]

The pilot's next mistake was to come out of lightspeed too late, passing Endor completely and inadvertently moving the StarSpeeder into a field of icy comets instead. He deftly piloted the craft through the comet field only to emerge within a restricted combat zone, where several [3] New Republic [17] X-wing starfighters were in the midst of a battle with an Imperial Star Destroyer and its complement of TIE/LN starfighters . Rex found his passenger craft caught in the Star Destroyer's tractor beam , but a tip from one of the New Republic pilots to ease up on his main thruster allowed the droid to escape capture. The voyage nearly came to an end when an Imperial fighter shot the ship and caused it to lose altitude, but R2-D2 repaired the damaged stabilizer on the Captain's orders. Rex then moved the starship to join the New Republic's Red Squadron in an attack run against a massive Imperial battlestation . After following two X-wings through a giant trench and helping them shoot down enemy TIE fighters, Rex and his passengers saw that the attack was a success. Rex then ordered R2-D2 to take the craft to lightspeed; they returned to the spaceport from which Flight ST-45 had originated, scathed but intact. [3]

RX-24's flight proved something of a harbinger for the future of the Star Tours travel agency. Within months of the Battle of Endor, [18] accidents and poor management drove the company to go out of business. [12]

Characteristics [ ]

Rex mans the StarSpeeder 3000.

RX-24 was a standard RX-Series model, making him a second-degree droid , [3] [2] that is, one of a category of droids who aided in spaceflight and vehicle or starship maintenance. [19] He possessed standard equipment for his model, including three clawed arms with which to manipulate starship controls, a heuristic processor [6] to facilitate learning and creativity, [20] two photoreceptors with which to see, [7] a repulsorlift platform at his base for locomotion, and a vocabulator with which to speak. [3] [6] The droid was programmed with a masculine personality, [3] and he was able to speak and understand Basic and Binary . [6] Rex's photoreceptors were blue [4] unless illuminated, which made them shine with a white light. [3] The wider sections of his chassis were burnished metal trimmed with gold and purple; between these were narrower sections in black. Rex's clawed fingers, upper anterior facial plating, and vocabulator were also gold. The droid pilot had a retractable purple visor that he could lower over his photoreceptors. [4]

Upon his arrival at the Star Tours travel agency, RX-24 suffered from severe factory defects, sputtering random phrases and shorting out frequently. [5] Once restored to normal working order, Rex enjoyed the same programming as other RX units. He was skilled at starship piloting, ship maintenance, and computer use. His photoreceptors had great acuity to allow him to efficiently locate obstacles in spaceflight, and his dexterity enabled him to fly through dangerous situations. [7] Nevertheless, Rex had yet to become accustomed to actual spaceflight on his first mission; indeed, he exhibited some confusion and insecurity on the flight, nearly crashing the StarSpeeder 3000 and narrowly escaping several other hazards. Ultimately, his reflexes and daring allowed him to return to the Star Tours dock intact. [3]

Similarly, the fully functional Rex exhibited his model's ease of interaction with organic beings. [2] He was friendly and upbeat even in dire situations. When his first flight went awry, he tried to keep a professional veneer of calm, claiming that some of his mistakes had been intentional. Still, his anxieties manifested at particularly harrowing moments in screams and cries of exasperation. Despite his claims that he wanted to keep his passengers safe, RX-24 showed a daredevil streak on his maiden voyage; for instance, when he stumbled upon an Imperial battlestation, he chose to join a New Republic attack on it rather than retreat to safety. The pilot droid interacted smoothly with other mechanicals, such as his first navigator, R2-D2, [3] as well as RX-24's romantic interest, ROX-N. [11]

Behind the scenes [ ]

Conception [ ].

When Lucasfilm Ltd. and the Walt Disney Company teamed up to create an attraction for the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California , the two sides chose to use flight simulator technology to allow the park guests to feel like they were traveling into space on a passenger liner. [22] Creating the film to be projected to audience members proved a challenge, since all the drama had to come from either the visuals created by Industrial Light & Magic or from dialogue; the ride, therefore, needed a compelling and sympathetic narrator. [23]

George Lucas proposed a droid pilot for the role to help connect audience members to the greater experience the ride was intended to mimic. [22] Lucas's original idea for the robot was to call him "Crazy Harry" and make him a sarcastic, wisecracking veteran of the Clone Wars , [24] an idea based on the skippers of the Jungle Cruise attraction in the park's Adventureland area in the 1980s. [22] However, the ride's director, Tony Baxter , [25] suggested the pilot be more of a jittery beginner and that the ride's harrowing narrative arise from the pilot's beginner's blunder; such a character would be more sympathetic, Baxter suggested. [22] The team ran with the idea, also making the robot a stand-in for the audience members. For instance, the team felt that the pilot's insistence on participating in an attack run on a Death Star —along with his exclamation, "I've always wanted to do this!"—would mirror the feelings of anyone who had seen Luke Skywalker's trench run in Star Wars : Episode IV A New Hope . [26]

Development [ ]

Comedian Paul Reubens provided the voice of RX-24.

The team then had to find a voice actor to perform the droid's lines. The idea that Rex had lost control of the StarSpeeder suggested the character would need to scream frequently on the audio track. [26] Tom Fitzgerald , lead writer and producer on the project, [27] and Mark Eades , media producer for the ride, have both claimed credit for eventually casting comedian Paul Reubens for the role. [28] [29] Fitzgerald says that he thought Reubens might fit the bill after seeing the comedian's television special as the character Pee-wee Herman , a role that required Reubens to scream frequently and humorously. Fitzgerald felt the actor would fit the idea of a slightly comical, inexperienced pilot well. [26] Eades's version of the story says that in seeking a voice actor who could portray a "slightly cracked' character, they auditioned over two dozen talents, including Billy Barty and Frank Welker . When Eades heard Reubens as the voice of a robot spaceship in the Disney film Flight of the Navigator , he thought the comedian would suit the part. Reubens soon signed on to the project. [28]

Lucas provided basic ideas for Rex's physical appearance. Based on these, Imagineer Chris Runco sculpted a prototype Rex puppet from green foam. Two other ride designers, Larry Sheldon and Lance Updyke , used this template to create the Rex puppets from aluminum. With four separate StarSpeeder 3000s that audience members might board in the attraction after its opening in 1987 , four separate animatronic Rex puppets were also needed. [11] The character first appeared in a 1986 TV promotion that aired on ABC's Sunday Night Movie feature, shortly before the ride officially opened at the start of the next year. [30]

Further developments [ ]

RX-24's flight is chronicled in the Star Tours attraction at various Disney amusement parks.

The Star Tours ride spread to other Disney parks, which required more Rex puppets to be created. With the opening of Star Tours at Disneyland Paris , the designers added a new robot to the queue area of the attraction, ROX-N, whom they designed as Rex's girlfriend. [11] Expansion to new parks meant finding new voice talents for non-English versions of the ride; for Disneyland Paris, the company cast voice actor Luq Hamet to portray Rex. [31]

When Lucasfilm and Disney teamed up again to update Star Tours in 2005 , designers decided to set the new version in the era between Star Wars : Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , well before the timeframe of the original ride. [32] To preserve continuity with the original ride, wherein Rex tells guests that it is his first flight, the team decided to create a new pilot. The droid AC-38 ("Ace") was the result, and the new pilot exhibits similar physical and behavioral features to Rex. Nevertheless, the newer ride's plot sees the protocol droid C-3PO replace Ace by mistake. As a nod to the original ride, the designers included an RX-24 animatronic puppet in the queuing area audience members must pass through as they wait to board the attraction. [33] There, the pilot-to-be is non-functioning and marked defective, uttering lines from the original Star Tours seemingly at random. [5] Star Tours: The Adventures Continue opened to the public in 2011 . [34]

Continuity [ ]

Sources disagree as to the manufacturer of the RX line of pilot droids. According to Scum and Villainy and Scavenger's Guide to Droids , sourcebooks for the Saga Edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game from Wizards of the Coast published in 2008 and 2009 respectively, RX-Series pilot droids were produced by Industrial Automaton (IA). [2] [6] However, RX-24's entry in 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia notes that he was manufactured by Reubens Robotic Systems. [1] This article assumes that despite the different manufacturer, as a factory-new droid, RX-24 still had all the standard features outlined in the roleplaying sourcebooks for IA's RX droids.

The short story " One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid ," written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and published as part of Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina in 1995 , includes a montage that sends the lovers Lak Sivrak and Dice Ibegon skipping through time . At one point, they arrive at the Battle of Endor. As Alliance General Lando Calrissian orders all fighters to attack the Death Star, Sivrak hears a droid exclaim that it "had always wanted to do this," mimicking Rex's line from Star Tours . The story leaves the question of whether it is RX-24 unanswered, however. [35]

Appearances [ ]

• Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
• George Lucas' Star Tours (First appearance) (Non- canonical appearance)
• Star Tours (First canonical appearance)
• † Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun (Non- canonical appearance)

Sources [ ]

Notes and references [ ].

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia , Vol. III, p. 117 ("RX-24")
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Scum and Villainy , p. 96
• ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 Star Tours

• ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
• ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Scavenger's Guide to Droids , p. 132
• ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Scavenger's Guide to Droids , p. 133

• ↑ The New Essential Chronology , p. 124

• ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia , Vol. III, p. 189 ("Star Tours Travel Agency")
• ↑ Star Wars : Episode VI Return of the Jedi

• ↑ The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia , Vol. III, p. 189 ("Starspeeder 3000")
• ↑ The Alliance to Restore the Republic had transitioned to become the New Republic by 4.3 ABY according to The New Essential Chronology , p. 131.
• ↑ Scavenger's Guide to Droids , p. 10
• ↑ Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition Core Rulebook , pp. 190–191
• ↑ The Cinema of George Lucas , p. 152
• ↑ 28.0 28.1 Good Bye Star Tours; I Will Miss You (blog) by Eades, Mark on The Orange County Register ( July 27 , 2010 ) (archived from the original on July 31 , 2010 )
• ↑ Paul Reubens RX-24 2018 Topps Star Wars Stellar Signatures Autograph Green 19/20 on Steel City Collectibles (archived from the original on July 24 , 2023 )
• ↑ George Lucas' Star Tours
• ↑ Bienvenue dan l'univers magique de Disneyland Paris - les attractions de Disneyland Paris (website) on Disney 77 (archived from the original on March 24 , 2017 )
• ↑ "Latest News - Star Tours Returns Starting May 20th" by Eric on www.theforce.net ( January 18 , 2011 ) (archived from the original on July 29 , 2019 )
• ↑ " One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid " —  Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina

External links [ ]

• 1 The Stranger
• 3 Darth Plagueis

Star Tours: Inside the Secret History of Disney’s Classic ‘Star Wars’ Ride

The Disney Parks attraction’s origin and evolution is an adventure all its own

Earlier in January, Star Tours turned 35.

The groundbreaking attraction has been a favorite of Disney Parks visitors the world over, and it would prove an influential part of the “Star Wars” mythology, even today. In Jon Favreau’s “The Book of Boba Fett” (streaming now on Disney+) a familiar-looking droid has been dealing cards in the cantina/casino hideout The Sanctuary in the Tatooine village of Mos Espa. The droid looks like Rex, the inexperienced pilot of the original version of Star Tours. Predictably, fans went nuts.

In fact, the influence of Star Tours has been felt strongly in the current era of “Star Wars” on both the big and small screen. Rex previously appeared in an episode of animated series “Star Wars: Rebels,” and the Star Tours spaceship the Starspeeder made blink-and-you’ll-miss-it background appearances in J.J. Abrams two sequel trilogy installments, while Rian Johnson admitted a looser influence over his installment, “The Last Jedi.” The sequence where the Millennium Falcon is careening through the crystalline caverns of Crait was inspired by the original ride film’s trip through a craggy comet.

But the story of how Star Tours was developed – how it came to be, what technology was employed, and the profound implications for both the Disney Parks and George Lucas’ Lucasfilm – might be even more thrilling and complex than the actual ride, which was heavily retrofitted in 2010 now goes by the name Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.

So, without further ado, lightspeed to Endor !

A Long Time Ago …

Long before there was any kind of official partnership, Lucasfilm and Disney Parks were linked, thanks mostly to some fortuitous timing. George Lucas’ “Star Wars” hit theaters on May 25, 1977, intoxicating audiences with its depiction of bold heroes, dastardly villains, fussy droids and otherworldly creatures. Those that saw it went back again and again but itched for something more . Thankfully for Southern California audiences, Space Mountain, an adaptation of an attraction that opened at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom two years earlier, opened at Disneyland two days after “Star Wars.” Folks would go see “Star Wars” and then book it to Disneyland for a chance to ride Space Mountain, nestled in the far corner of Tomorrowland. The line for the attraction snaked from that distant part of Tomorrowland all the way up Main Street, U.S.A. Even if their pairing was still a decade away, Lucasfilm and Disney Parks were already strongly bound by the Force.

But if the actual Lucasfilm/Disney enterprise had a point of origin (something that we are painfully aware that George Lucas just loves ), it was when Michael Eisner, then the head of Paramount, decided to green light “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” As Brian Jay Jones recounts in his biography “George Lucas: A Life,” Lucas’ financial terms for the movie were aggressive and mirrored those of the “Star Wars” sequels. Lucas would fund the movie himself and the studio would “distribute the completed film in exchange for profits.” While many of the studios passed right away, Warner Bros., who had clumsily distributed Lucas’ first film “THX-1138,” initially wanted to make it, but they were ultimately usurped by Paramount and Eisner.  “George came over to my house,” Eisner later said, “and he said, ‘Let’s make the best deal they’ve ever made in Hollywood.’”

On November 7, 1979, Paramount announced an agreement with Lucasfilm – they’d agreed to Lucas’ demands and would be making “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Eisner believed in George Lucas, even when other studios didn’t. This is baffling, after the astronomical success of “Star Wars” just two years earlier, but true. “Eisner was no dummy,” Jones says now. “Professionally, they spoke the same language. They got the cultural sensibilities.”

Eisner’s decision to help Lucas out on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” would have far reaching ramifications; for one, it would lead to Paramount releasing one of the most successful franchises (after Lucas’ own “Star Wars”) of all time. It would also ultimately assist in the rehabilitation of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated brands, which by the early 1980s had fallen into disrepair and disinterest.

Rebellion Reborn

In 1984, after greenmail attempts by corporate raiders, the Walt Disney Company got a fresh transfusion of new executive talent in the form of Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and (a few months later) Jeffrey Katzenberg. As CEO and Chairman of the Board, Eisner set his sights on strengthening the company’s bottom line and refreshing the brand, which in the nearly 20 years since Walt Disney had died, became a creaky dinosaur, badly out of step with modern audiences and accompanying cultural shifts. (The year before Eisner became CEO, the top grossing Disney movie was “Never Cry Wolf,” with a whopping $29.6 million .)

Similarly, the Disney Parks had been badly neglected despite accounting for nearly 70% of the company’s annual revenue, in part because of the wobbly, extremely over-budget opening of EPCOT Center in Florida, but more pressingly because Disney wasn’t producing anything that could be adapted into rides, shows, or attractions at the parks. While Katzenberg looked to return the studio’s feature animation unit to its former glory (it existed, in the early 1980s, as a partially mothballed group that was in constant danger of shuttering completely), Eisner looked to the parks. “You couldn’t walk through the theme parks and not recognize that they lacked contemporary development. But when Frank and I walked down Main Street for the first time, Frank turned to me and said, ‘There’s so much here. There’s so much potential,’” Eisner recounted in “The Imagineering Story” documentary on Disney+.

Imagineering had reached out to Lucas before Eisner had been installed. Marty Sklar had set up a meeting between Ron Miller, who was president and CEO of Disney before Eisner (he was also Walt’s son-in-law), and Imagineer Tony Baxter. Baxter was, and remains, a superstar of Walt Disney Imagineering, the kind of persona that Disney fanatics dress up as at Disney fan conventions. (Seriously.) At the time, Baxter wasn’t even 40 and had already contributed to the Disney portfolio in meaningful, some would argue profound, ways. He was behind the Journey into Imagination pavilion at EPCOT Center, which featured some truly next-level technological breakthroughs alongside a whimsical story about the power of creativity; and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland, a runaway train thrill ride that would become instantly beloved and replicated at Disney parks the world over. Miller was still stinging from the failure of “The Black Hole,” Disney’s bid to challenge “Star Wars,” but agreed with Baxter that “Disneyland did need an infusion of new IP for younger generations of visitors” (according to Baxter). Miller suggested that they meet with Lucas at Miller’s Silverado Ranch. In addition to Sklar and Miller, Imagineers Rick Rothschild and Gary Krisel were also at the meeting. “There was no lag time between those initial agreements at the Silverado Vineyard, the subsequent leaving of Ron Miller, and Michael and Frank’s arrival in September 1984,” Baxter said. (Another former Imagineer had told me that after that initial meeting, “those discussions went nowhere.”)

Interestingly, before Eisner was hired, Disney board members had originally turned to Lucas to run the entire company in the early 1980s. “It wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life,” said Howard Roffman, who was the chief operating officer of Lucasfilm, in The Cinema of George Lucas by Marcus Hearn. Instead, the board offered the job to Eisner, the man who had the guts and the creative ambition to back “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Now Eisner quietly reached out to Lucas about projects with the Disney Parks. Lucas had been a lifelong Disneyland fan (his family had first visited the park on July 19, 1955, two days after it had opened), making annual treks to the resort. And just as Eisner had gotten behind a lucrative deal (in Lucas’ favor) for “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” he offered Lucas an equally eye-popping arrangement for his services: for every Lucas-originated project, the filmmaker would get $1 million per attraction per park per year. Lucas happily agreed. This arrangement even applied to later attractions Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril (a fairly off-the-shelf rollercoaster with the Indiana Jones name) located in Disneyland Paris, and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull (essentially a clone of the Disneyland attraction) at Tokyo Disney Sea.

According to Baxter, during their first week at Disney, Eisner and Wells asked several Imagineers to come in on a Saturday and pitch “everything we had in conceptual design.” For Baxter, that meant he showed off the “Star Wars” project and what would later be known as Splash Mountain. (This is the infamous meeting where Eisner brought along his son Breck. Eisner told Baxter that Breck “loved theme parks” and Michael knew little about theme parks.) Both Star Tours and Splash Mountain were “given the green light” during Baxter’s presentation but according to Baxter executives were “disturbed” by the proposed 3-year production time designated for Star Tours. Famously, Eisner willed the teen-oriented dance club Videopolis into existence at Disneyland in a mere 100 days, partially due to architect Chris Carradine salvaging structural elements from the 1984 Olympics. He wanted things in the parks and he wanted them now .

With Lucas onboard for a Disney Parks “Star Wars” attraction, Imagineering began spit-balling ideas. At a National Fantasy Fan Club meeting in July 1988 legendary Imagineer David Mumford, whose notable work includes the Land pavilion at EPCOT Center and the Mermaid Lagoon section of Tokyo DisneySea, spoke of a cutting-edge “Star Wars” rollercoaster that was originally proposed. In this attraction, guests in the ride vehicle would vote on whether they would follow Yoda and become a Jedi or instead choose the path illuminated by the Emperor, embracing the dark side of the Force. Depending on that decision, you would rocket past show scenes featuring animatronics of your favorite characters (Boba Fett, Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt on one path or Leia, Luke and Han Solo on the other). It was a wonderful idea, utilizing interactivity and good old-fashioned Imagineering magic, but Mumford said that it would take at least five years just to design the complex mechanism that would allow the ride to work. They needed something sooner.

Enter Mark Eades. Eades was a young Imagineer who had moved over from the Walt Disney Studios to work on EPCOT Center. In the days after EPCOT Center’s opening, when Imagineering’s ranks shrank and viable new projects became scarce, Eades was tasked with researching motion simulator technology. He visited army bases and tested out rudimentary versions designed for entertainment purposes (including “one where they basically stuck a camera on a rollercoaster”). At the end of his exploratory journey, he wrote a memo outlining the potential uses of the technology in the parks (he notes that, contrary to much reporting, the technology was never looked at for a “Black Hole” attraction, but rather “The Black Hole” was thought of as a potential overlay for the aging Mission to Mars). “We either a) treat it as a Tomorrowland attraction where we talk about how the pilots of tomorrow are being trained and you get to go train with them,” Eades said of the simulator technology. “Or there could be other stories if we’re willing to not admit that it’s a simulator. One of them could be in the ‘Star Wars’ universe.” At the end of the memo, he even suggested a possible narrative, should the ‘Star Wars’ idea actually be chosen: “Take a ride on the Millennium Falcon and when we get off we can go over to the Mos Eisley cantina.” This exact idea would be recirculated, 30 years later, at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

At the urging of Imagineer Randy Bright, Baxter went to Retifusion London, a test facility, to see if the flight simulator technology could successfully be used “for entertainment purposes.” (According to Baxter, Bright had stopped at the facility following an Abbey Road recording session for some new orchestral elements for EPCOT.) “I took several leaders from Disneyland operations & maintenance along on the trip to validate the practicality,” Baxter said. Imagineers might design the attractions, but operations and maintenance keep it running. Baxter and the small group seem to have watched the same “rollercoaster” ride film that Eades had also seen. “The simulator was limited in what it could mimic, but we were impressed enough to begin the project in earnest,” Baxter said. Disney made a deal to buy one of the simulators. It was housed in a custom-designed building in the parking lot of Imagineering’s Glendale headquarters.  

In Spite of ‘Captain EO’

While work progressed on Star Tours, Michael Jackson had approached the company about joining forces for a new project. Jackson loved Disneyland and Walt Disney World (later he would fashion a Disneyland-style theme park at his home, Neverland Ranch). Eisner and Katzenberg were both dazzled by big name stars and made the Jackson project a priority. At the same meeting where Splash Mountain and Star Tours were greenlit, the executives first brought up the possibility of a Jackson project (according to Baxter). “Imagineering was challenged to give Michael Jackson three concepts to choose,” Baxter said. In his memoir, Eisner describes the concept: “Our notion was to put him in an extended 3D music video.”

One pitch had the entertainer at Disneyland after dark, when various attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean would spring to life. (It was deemed too similar to his beloved “Thriller” music video.) Another version had Jackson inhabiting the role of a Peter Pan-type character who battled an ice queen, eventually melting her heart. And yet another, dubbed the “intergalactic ‘Music Man’” had him visiting a cold, distant planet and bringing music to the people, literally transforming them. Jackson liked the space idea but had a list of demands, including hiring either George Lucas or Steven Spielberg to help oversee what would ultimately become a cumbersome, costly, 17-minute 3D film (a “miracle of a movie” according to Whoopi Goldberg in the “Captain EO: Backstage” episode of “The Disney SundayMovie”). Spielberg was busy with “The Color Purple.” But Lucas had just signed on with Disney and was happy to oblige. At the very least, it would mean another $1 million per year per park.

Instead of helming the project himself, Lucas would install Francis Ford Coppola, one of his oldest friends, in the director’s chair. And Jones pointed out, not only would Lucas be spared the drudgery of daily production (“Return of the Jedi” had nearly killed him), handing Coppola the Disney project meant that he’d be “giving his mentor a much-needed job” (this after the middling response to Coppola’s costly “The Cotton Club”). Since it was technically a film, the production for what was now known as “Captain EO” (named by Coppola after Eos, the Greek goddess of dawn) was handled mostly by the film studio and therefore overseen by Katzenberg. Initially, at least, Imagineering was consulted (they’d be brought back later to design the in-theater effects and motion). “I’d talked to them about it. I’d done an estimate and said it was going to cost $17 million,” Eades said. “The studio people said it would cost $10 million. I said, ‘Make that movie.’ They spent a lot more than $10 million and they spent a lot more than I said it would cost.”

As it turns out, considerably more than what Eades had quoted. The production of “Captain EO” was long and difficult, with original actress Shelley Long dropping out of the role as the evil queen because of the extensive prosthetics (Anjelica Houston replaced her) and Coppola struggling with the complicated requirements of shooting in 3D. (Coppola would lean on Lucas for guidance when it came to the visual effects and creatures.) Behind schedule, the production went over-budget and had to cut corners. On an episode of the “I Was There Too” podcast, comedian Doug Benson talked about his time as an extra on the movie; the production was so over-budget that they couldn’t afford to pay actual dancers anymore. Benson had to stand in the background and gyrate. While most cite the $17 million budget as the final cost, Eades told TheWrap that the actual figure was more than $22.7 million – “and that was in real money in those days.” At the time, per minute, it was the most expensive movie ever produced. Imagineers, still hard at work on Star Tours, printed out custom memo templates that read Star Tours – In Spite of EO .

The Star Tours team was assembled, involving some of Imagineering’s key talents, led by Baxter, and including Eades. Bruce Gordon was the original producer on the project and had, according to Baxter, “as to what you could and could not do in programming events to physically simulate an experience.” “You cannot just write a story and then film it. It’s impossible for many kinetic options to dovetail into one another, due to the limitations of the hydraulic system,” Baxter said. “After we matched the capability of the simulator to a list of ‘Star Wars’ ‘stunts,’ their running order became a dictate of what capabilities were available after the completion of the preceding stunt. The most notable example was being caught in a tractor beam . This motionless backward tilt was the only capability that could be achieved after exhausting the hydraulics in the preceding ice cave sequence.” They had worked out the runtime of the ride: 4 minutes and 35 seconds. “This was the maximum time before an increasing nausea curve would begin ticking upwards,” Baxter said. The Imagineers also learned that they had to put in story pauses every 45 seconds or so, “to let riders regain their bearings.” He also notes that this fact was ignored when developing Body Wars, a sort of “Fantastic Voyage”-type experience that would open with the Wonders of Life Pavilion at EPCOT Center in 1989. Guests got so sick that several seconds of the ride film were removed after Body Wars opened.

For Star Tours, Imagineering had some key collaborators in the form of the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic, the groundbreaking effects house that Lucas had started for the first “Star Wars,” although getting them to grasp the concept of the project (which Eisner wanted to call Star Ride) was difficult. There was a meeting beween Imagineering and ILM, where George Lucas, ILM artists Dennis Muran and Dave Carson (who would serve as the “directors” for ILM), and Imagineering personnel like Tom Fitzgerald, Randy Bright, Marty Sklar and Eades, discussed the project. Eades remembered the scene: “Dennis starts talking to George, ‘We could cut to this angle, cut to that angle.’ And I’m a neophyte at the time. I’m not even 31 years old. I’m the new kid on the block and I’m listening to this and thinking, They’re wrong . I stopped at one point and actually said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. You guys don’t understand. This isn’t a movie. This is a window like in a jet. We can’t cut.’ And I’m looking right at Dennis. ‘However long this is, it’s a continuous take.’ He sat back and looked at me and said, ‘Gee, George. He’s right.’”

The concept of the attraction, where Star Tours was one of several “commercial companies have started business to take people across the galaxy” following the events of “Return of the Jedi,” coalesced quickly and stayed mostly in place. “That way we can give people a ride going through a ‘Star Wars’ movie without giving them a ‘Star Wars’ movie,” Eades explained. Other things remained in flux. The voice of Captain RX-24 (“Rex”), originally described by Lucas as a frazzled Clone Wars veteran named “Crazy Harry,” remained elusive, until Eades (also working as the casting director for the project) saw “Flight of the Navigator.” “Flight of the Navigator” (released by Disney) featured a UFO voiced by Paul Reubens, who had yet to gain fame as Pee-Wee Herman. Eades knew that Reubens was the perfect voice and urged Tom Fitzgerald to see “Flight of the Navigator.” After watching the film, Fitzgerald agreed. Reubens was in production on the first season of what would become the fabled television series “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.” “We got ahold of [Reubens] on set and he agreed in principle, and we sent a recording to George and he said, ‘That’s it,’” Eades said.

At one point, Baxter and Muren went to Las Vegas to watch a demo of HD digital technology. They came back “pushing for the use of HD media rather than 70mm film.” “That decision was predicated on Sony being a sole source supplier of equipment. A safer decision was made to go with 70mm film rather than Sony HD, but it would set the variability of the ride experience back for 20 years,” Baxter said.

The troubled production of “Captain EO” actually gave the Star Tours team some cover. “They were so focused on ‘Captain EO’ and we were doing this thing and working with ILM and we were kind of ignored. Which was great for the team,” Eades said. “We had a budget and we stuck to the budget. We figured out how to get the most bang for our buck.” Somewhat amazingly, Eades explained: “We actually had Star Tours done first but they wanted to open ‘Captain EO’ and open Star Tours the next year. It was great because it gave the simulators some time to get some run time on them.”

After an equally arduous post-production, which saw Disney executives shocked at the number of crotch-thrusts Jackson squeezed into the choreographed dance numbers (amongst other woes), “Captain EO,” the tale of a singing, dancing space fighter (Jackson) and his band of puppet-y confederates, opened on Sept. 12, 1986 at EPCOT Center (then in desperate need of a starry attraction) and Sept. 18, 1986 at Disneyland. It had two new songs by the King of Pop that you could only hear in the movie (one of the songs would be reworked for “Bad”). An hour-long television special dedicated to its opening and featuring a laundry list of celebrities, including such 80s staples as Judge Reinhold (“I want to know how to dance leaving that theater”) and, um, OJ Simpson (with Nicole on his arm), aired nationally. Disneyland stayed open for 60 hours and ran the 3D film continuously just to meet demand. Disneyland was not only popular again; it was also hip .

Before Star Tours officially opened, Eades was joined by a clean-shaven Lucas, Oscar-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom (who told me that he came up with the famous Star Tours “chime”), and many of the Imagineers who had worked on the project, for a soft opening. Eades had a good feeling about it but an attraction like Star Tours was the first of its kind. Nobody knew how guests were going to react. “The first group came off and I heard this guy say, ‘Can you imagine how many miles of track Disneyland had to build under the park for this ride?’” Eades remembered. The guest thought that he was actually moving through space. Eades and the rest of the team knew they had a hit.

A few months after “Captain EO,” on Jan. 9, 1987, Star Tours would open at Disneyland. Lucas and Eisner were on hand, with Mickey and Minnie in their iconic silver space suits (with the rainbow on the chest), joined by C-3PO. Instead of a pair of oversized scissors, they used a lightsaber to cut the ceremonial ribbon. Just like “Captain EO,” they left the park open for 60 hours straight to meet demand. It was a smash out of the gate. But the success of Star Tours ultimately derailed an aspect of the attraction Eades had designed for the project: that every three years, the ride film would change. (That’s right, he said at some point you were actually supposed to get to Endor.)

In the early 1980s, Disneyland management and Imagineering had noticed an uptick in guests visiting multiple times a year, so Eades and his team had a refresh built into their proposal so that Star Tours would never get stale. “But because the damn ride was so popular, the parks said, ‘Why do you want to spend money, because you don’t need it,’” Eades said. ”And they were right.” Undoubtedly the decision to go with 70mm film also set the multiple-planets conceit back, as Baxter previously alluded to. It would be much trickier to switch out the ride film or the projection system. And he was right: it would be decades before that idea would be revisited.

Galactic Expansion

With two successful Lucas-led projects, both Disney and the filmmaker were emboldened. This was especially heartening for Eisner, who was about to open a risky new theme park in Florida dedicated to the behind-the-scenes aspects of the entertainment business.

Disney-MGM Studios, as it was then known, was designed to be many things: a working, world class film and television production facility (complete with a satellite animation studio designed with animators in mind), a theme park, and giant middle-finger to Universal Studios, which was planning to open its own multiday resort in Orlando. (Eisner, while still at Paramount, was supposedly in the meeting where Universal executives revealed the Florida project and by 1985, just a year after he assumed power at Disney, Eisner had begun work on what would eventually be Disney-MGM Studios.) The debut of Disney-MGM Studios would also serve as the opening salvo for an ambitious, 10-year effort to rejuvenate the Disney Parks brand and expand that brand worldwide. Eisner would later publicly refer to this initiative as the Disney Decade.

By the end of 1989, Star Tours would be open at Tokyo Disneyland and Disney-MGM Studios in slightly modified configurations. Instead of the Disneyland version, which took over a pre-existing attraction (Adventure Thru Innerspace) and was converted under the supervision of legendary Imagineer Tom Morris, the Disney World version was a blank slate. This new Star Tours was just around the corner from the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, also based on a Lucas property, which also opened in 1989. A more intricate façade was developed with a full-sized AT-AT walker (that at the time shot water from its moving turrets) and forested Ewok village and a show building that still maintained the “backlot” look of the rest of the park. It’s just an illusion, this new show building said, but what an illusion.

The Japanese version of Star Tours was even more ornate. As Kevin Rafferty recalls in his memoir “Magic Journeys,” he was tasked with Astrozone, a “unique-to-Tokyo Disneyland part of the Star Tours complex.” This new area was to include an “enclosed skyway bridge that connected Star Tours and a new two-level dine-in restaurant,” hosted by an adorable animatronic alien and eventually dubbed the Pan Galactic Pizza Port. In 1992, Star Tours would open, with a full-sized X-Wing, at the Euro Disney theme park (now known as Disneyland Paris). Fun needs no translation.

But the biggest change for the attraction would happen in late summer 2010, when both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of Star Tours would shut down completely. Years of rumors persisted that the attraction would be shuttered and reopened, this time themed around the pod-racing sequence from 1999’s prequel film “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.” As it turned out, the plans were much more ambitious.

Instead of a single new theme, the ride would be re-conceived, with the idea that Eades, Baxter and the other Imagineers had concocted during the blue-sky phase of the attraction’s development. You wouldn’t just be going to one planet, you would be going to all of your favorite “Star Wars” planets, including Tatooine (hello pod-race!), the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, underneath the opulent planet of Naboo, and on the snowy planet of Hoth, made famous by the opening battle sequence from “The Empire Strikes Back.” Incredibly, you don’t visit Endor, the Ewok-filled planet that you were attempting to visit in the first iteration of the ride, despite the fact that early marketing materials suggested the forest moon would be part of the new version of the attraction.

This new Star Tours, now dubbed Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, allowed guests, thanks to a cutting-edge randomization feature, to visit many planets in the course of a single trip aboard your new Starspeeder. The new version of the ride featured additional in-theater effects and C-3PO as your new in-cabin pilot, as well, and the digital projection of the ride film could be enjoyed in 3D.

In 2011, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue opened at Disneyland and Walt Disney World (it would reach Tokyo Disneyland in 2013 and Disneyland Paris in 2017). Further randomization was added when planets and characters from the new “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, including Jakku and Kef Bir, were included. And in a full circle moment, there was a sequence now devoted to Crait from “The Last Jedi,” the planet that was inspired by the original version of Star Tours.

On Friday, May 20, 2011, there was an opening celebration at Walt Disney World for the new Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. The park that was once Disney-MGM Studios was now called Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but Star Tours was just as important to the park. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger, who had succeeded Eisner, was there to inaugurate the new version of the attraction, as was Lucas. Darth Vader was on stage too, as was the creator of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” Dave Filoni, who would go on to shepherd “The Mandalorian.”

“Star Tours is a timeless adventure,” Iger said at the event. “Guests will be immersed in the Star Wars galaxy like never before.” He touted the “over 50” combinations that this new attraction would deliver, plus the fact that the Disneyland version would be open the following month. Lucas called the new attraction “amazing.” “It turned out better than we could ever imagine,” Lucas said. Lucas also cited the original plan to switch out the original ride film every few years. “This time we figured when we did it, we would give you all the reprogramming in one event,” Lucas said. He also referred to “secret cookies,” which were further randomizations (in one version you narrowly miss Jar Jar Binks who is seen swimming underneath Naboo, in another version you hit him dead on). These weren’t turned on until the “Force Awakens” additions in 2015.

After the event in Florida, Lucas and Iger convened to have lunch at the park’s Brown Derby restaurant. According to Iger, this is where he first floated an intriguing idea to Lucas – what if Disney bought Lucasfilm? Lucas listened. A few years later, he agreed. This conversation would lead to, amongst other things, the production of the sequel trilogy and the design and construction of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a 14-acre land that would feature the Millennium Falcon simulator attraction Eades had dreamed up all those years ago, along with Rise of the Resistance, one of the most technologically innovative and immersive attractions in the history of Walt Disney Imagineering. There’s even a “Star Wars”-y cantina, which, just as Eades had imagined it, is a few steps from the Millennium Falcon.

That cantina’s DJ might seem familiar. It’s Rex from Star Tours, once again voiced by Paul Reubens. Wonder if he ever made it to Endor.   

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The Book of Boba Fett Went Deep With This Droid Cameo

Disney parks fans got a nice little Easter egg in chapter one of The Book of Boba Fett. While visiting a casino, Robert Rodriguez’s camera cut to RX-24, a.k.a. R-3X, a.k.a. Rex, a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman in space. Working as a dealer droid, Rex was still recognizable from his Star Tours tenure. Voiced by Paul Reubens, Rex was your guide through the simulator ride. Rex helped passengers of his Starspeeder 3000 blow up the Death Star every five minutes or so in Anaheim, Orlando, and Tokyo. Rex was shitcanned, however, when the ride got revamped to include prequel and sequel material. After that, RX droids made appearances in Star Wars Rebels, the much-beloved sequel series to Star Wars: The Clone Wars. And now he’s a space blackjack dealer! With a cute little green gambling visor, bless him. If you want to meet Rex, he’s currently working as a DJ in Oga’s Cantina in both Star Wars lands. DJ R-3X can now be seen in Galaxy’s Edges in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. R-3X does a short set of space music (heavy on the Jizz ?) while guests enjoy face-numbing cocktails. You can even buy your own R-3X to take home. But you will probably have to teach him to gamble. After all, he’s still getting used to his programming.

• easter eggs
• paul reubens
• star wars galaxy's edge
• walt disney world
• star wars rebels
• the book of boba fett

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Meet the new Star Wars droids roaming around Disneyland

The new dancing droids debuted at the launch of Disney's Season of the Force event, along with new faces on the oldest Star Wars ride, a laughing Jabba the Hutt popcorn bucket and much more.

• Brooke McDonald
• April 11, 2024

Someone must have yelled “Punch it!” because Disney just hit the hyperdrive on “Star Wars” updates in Disney parks.

First up, Disney’s oldest Star Wars ride now features some of the franchise’s freshest characters and creatures. On April 5, Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris debuted new characters and scenes, inspired by the Disney+ series “Ahsoka,” “Andor” and “The Mandalorian,” on “Star Tours — The Adventures Continue.”

The debut coincided with the launch of Disneyland Resort’s Season of the Force, a nearly two-month Star Wars-themed celebration, which runs through June 2. The kickoff introduced an impressive number of additions to Disneyland from a galaxy far, far away, including the limited-time debut of roaming character Sabine Wren from “Ahsoka” and “Star Wars Rebels,” new food and drinks, viral souvenir merchandise, a free scavenger hunt, new fireworks, and — the runaway robotic show-stealers — adorable free-roaming droids.

Introducing Disney’s New BDX Droids

For more than 40 years, Star Wars fans have been as enamored with the franchise’s droid characters as with its living, breathing beings, so Walt Disney Imagineering couldn’t have chosen a better story and setting than Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for the public debut of their latest robotic innovation — expressive, free-roaming robotic characters called BDX droids.

Even the Disneyland ducks came out to see the BD-X droids’ debut in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for Season of the Force! pic.twitter.com/iCGvrt990W — Brooke Geiger McDonald (@BrookeGMcDonald) April 5, 2024

MORE: Disney’s first Star Wars ride is getting a big update and some star power

Seamlessly integrated into Disneyland’s highly-immersive Star Wars-themed land, the adorable little “explorer droids” have their own backstory. Built from recycled parts, these newly “restored units” are still in training. They roam the parks accompanied by a droid trainer, who warns audiences that they are young and still learning.

Bursting with personality, the little droids perform scans on the crowd, collecting data and looking for bounty hunters and other troublemakers — though sometimes they also get into some trouble of their own. I caught one of the droids shaking its little droid behind at the crowd — as you can see in the following video . The trainer jokingly admonished the droid, named “Grek,” for being a bit inappropriate — eliciting endless giggles from the crowd.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Brooke Geiger McDonald (@brookegmcdonald)

The droids are highly emotive, using sound, head tilts, eyes that light up, responsive antennae, bouncing, waving and even dancing to engage adoring onlookers. They also interact with each other like supportive and sometimes mischievous little siblings.

The BDX droids will roam around Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland on a daily basis during Season of the Force. Be sure to check the Disneyland app for daily times.

The droids were also featured in the debut episode of Disney’s new YouTube series, “ We Call It Imagineering ,” which provides an inside look into Walt Disney Imagineering’s creative and design process. The show was inspired by segments filmed of Walt Disney as he walked viewers though the process of designing and building Disneyland.

In addition to the BDX droids, the first episode, focused on audio-animatronics, provides first looks at stunning new audio-animatronic figures coming this summer to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World, and later this year to Disneyland.

The Mandalorian and Grogu, Ahsoka and Cassian Andor Join Star Tours

Star Tours has been around since 1987 at Disneyland Park and 1989 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but the 3D flight simulator ride has been refreshed throughout the years, adding new scenes, storylines and popular characters as they join the Star Wars universe.

Tom Fitzgerald, senior creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering and a leading creative force behind Star Tours since its inception, calls the ride “the greatest hits attraction of the Star Wars universe.”

Piloted by C-3PO and navigated by R2-D2, the Starspeeder 1000 ship takes passengers to multiple destinations during four randomized main scenes from across the Star Wars timeline. Randomization enables the addition of scenes featuring characters and locations from new films and — for the first time ever — Disney+ series, without having to retire longstanding favorites.

“When these characters become beloved to our guests and fans, Star Tours gives us a chance to add them in and enrich that attraction so it can keep growing and growing and growing with Star Wars,” Fitzgerald said.

With the updates that debuted on April 5, Star Tours flights could now include an urgent message from Ahsoka Tano, Cassian Andor or Din Djarin and Grogu, aka The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda.

Each of the transmissions adds a different tone to the scene — Andor is urgent and mysterious; Ahsoka is warm, confident and earnest; and “father and son” Din and Grogu elicit the usual “Awwws,” along with a laugh-out-loud, classic Grogu moment.

For a limited time, guests can expect to see one of the three new transmissions, and will also travel to the ride’s new destination, the planet Seatos, where the Starspeeder flies alongside Ahsoka in her T-6 Jedi shuttle in a space battle amongst a pod of Purrgil, as seen in the new attraction poster below.

You could also experience a new opening scene featuring Ahsoka fending off Stormtroopers with her two white lightsabers before springing into her ship and taking off.

The Purrgil, a majestic species of “space whales” capable of traveling through hyperspace, were first introduced in the animated series “Star Wars Rebels,” before making their live-action debut in “Ahsoka” alongside a number of other “Rebels” characters.

Sabine Wren Debuts at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland

In addition to the Purrgil, a surprise additional “Star Wars Rebels” and “Ahsoka” character was introduced on April 5. Sabine Wren, Mandalorian member and Padawan to Ahsoka Tano, made her limited-time debut in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Season of the Force. I got a chance to talk to Sabine during her first appearance on Friday. Hear from her in the video below:

The Force Is Stronger At Disneyland

The new additions to Star Tours debuted at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, but diehard Star Wars fans have good reason to feel drawn to the West Coast, particularly through June 2 during Season of the Force.

The celebration includes limited-time Star Wars experiences and offerings like Hyperspace Mountain, a Star Wars-themed overlay to Space Mountain that many agree is better than the original.

A few of the celebration’s food and beverage souvenirs also got everyone’s attention. A perfectly recreated Jabba the Hutt popcorn bucket makes Jabba’s signature sinister laugh when his mouth is open, and the bucket comes with a clip-on Salacious B. Crumb, Jabba’s sidekick and pet Kowakian monkey-lizard.

At Oga’s Cantina, the popular watering hole in Galaxy’s Edge, two drinks have been resurrected from Walt Disney World’s spectacular but recently shuttered Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience. The Silver Sea Martini and Fiery Mustafarian, cocktails previously served onboard the Halcyon starcruiser, are being sold in souvenir glasses bearing the Chandrila Star Line logo from Galactic Starcruiser.

See if you can spot the canister in the beautiful setting below.

New Star Wars Fireworks Light Up the Skies

Star Tours updates weren’t the only permanent debut during Season of the Force. First announced as a limited-time offering, “Fire of the Rising Moons” is a new nighttime experience in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that reframes Disneyland Park’s fireworks by adding dynamic lighting along with music from John Williams’ iconic film scores and Star Wars Disney parks attractions, to be seen and heard from any of three viewing locations within the land.

Disney Live Entertainment executive creative director Michael Serna confirmed that the show will stick around beyond Season of the Force, and will change to coincide with Disneyland’s main show. Because “Fire of the Rising Moons” is choreographed and paired with music paced to the main show, Serna says with each different show, “you’ll want to come back because you’ll hear different things and the show will actually have a whole different profile.”

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Disney Did You Know: The Voices Behind the Droids of Star Tours

Yes, you probably have heard the voices of the Star Tours droids before, so no, you’re not going crazy. Let me do a few introductions for you that are long overdue.

Here are the main droids and their famous voices:

C-3PO (and R2-D2) – Both of these original Star Wars characters can be found as Guests first enter the Star Tours Travel Agency. These droids are doing routine checkups on the StarSpeeder that Guests will boarding later on in the attraction. C-3PO is voiced by Anthony Daniels, who provides the original voice for the droid in all six films. This time, Daniels has a larger role when he becomes the unintentional captain, trapped within the StarSpeeder 1000’s cockpit as it takes off.

G2-9T – G2-9T loves to gossip and tell stories, so he doesn’t always pay attention to what comes in on his security scanners: WALL-E, Mickey’s Sorcerer Hat, Stormtrooper armor, a Buzz Lightyear action figure, various droids and Lando Calrissian’s effects are just a few of the items that G2-9T scans in passengers’ luggage (Side note: G2-9T usually absentmindedly lets threatening weapons through, while destroying or quarantining the non-threatening items). Guests may also hear some inside jokes that reference Star Wars or Disney films.

This droid is voiced by Tom Fitzgerald, veteran Disney Imagineer. Disney commonly places their own people in their attractions, often as a nod to their great work. Fitzgerald was the creative executive on the reimagining of this attraction when it reopened in 2011. He is Executive VP and Senior Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, and was recently named Creative Director at Epcot. He is also currently head of WDI at Disneyland Paris, where he is overseeing the upcoming Ratatouille attraction.

G2-4T – Before entering the boarding area, Guests pass through a series of security scanners operated by security officer G2-4T. This droid makes jokes about how much he dislikes his job and the strange tourists who pass through his security gate. Guests may see this droid, as well as G2-9T, get shut down temporarily as these two tend to bicker and gossip quite frequently. G2-4T is voiced by the amazing Patrick Warburton, who also hosts the pre-show for Soarin’ over at Epcot.

His deep voice is instantaneously recognizable and usually accompanied with deadpan delivery. In addition to his theme park roles, he has also voiced Yzma’s henchman Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove , as well as Buzz Lightyear on the Disney Channel’s Buzz Lightyear of Star Command . He has also provided numerous other small roles in Disney films such as Home on the Range , Chicken Little , Sky High , and Underdog . Guests may also recognize him as David Puddy from Seinfeld , Joe Swanson from Family Guy , Jeff Bingham from Rules of Engagemen t and The Tick.

Aly San San – This droid, modeled after the WA-7 droid from Episode II, is known as the “spokesbot” for the Star Tours Travel Company. She provides helpful information about departure times, boarding and safety (in both English and Spanish)! She is voiced by actress Allison Janney.

Janney is an actress who is best known for playing C.J. Cregg on West Wing . She has also acted in films such as American Beauty , Juno and 10 Things I Hate About You . Guests may recognize her unique voice from Disney-Pixar’s Finding Nemo as the starfish Peach, and she can also be heard in this role on the Seas with Nemo and Friends at Epcot. She has also voiced Charlene Doofenshmirtz (Heinz’s ex-wife) on several episodes of Disney Channel’s Phineas and Ferb .

Captain Rex (RX-24) – The droid from the original Star Tours attraction can still be found in the current queue line. As Guests enter the cargo bay, to the left, RX-24 can be found in his packaging, with decals that read “DEFECTIVE” and “RETURN TO FACTORY”.

Since the reimagined attraction actually occurs in the timeline before the original Star Tours, some Guests may find this little reference quite humorous, since Captain Rex was the original StarSpeeder pilot (and not a very good one). Guests may hear this RX-24 speak a few choppy lines from the original attraction before he shorts out. Paul Reubens was the voice for this original character and is most famous for his role as Pee Wee Herman.

As always, these droids perform to the best of their capabilities to provide a safe and positive experience for all Guests flying Star Tours, so give them a nod next time you see them!

Don’t forget, Paul Reubens also voiced Max in the Disney movie Flight of the Navigator!

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A navigator and pilot droid, the RX unit is installed in the cockpits of transport vessels. Those chipper, talkative droids are meant to interact with passengers on commuter starships, and offer helpful travel information and safety tips.

As soon as Star Tours came into business, which is now a couple of decades ago, Reubens Robotic Systems designed the RX droid series as specialized pilots for the StarSpeeder 3000 spacecraft. As is the case with many other aspects of the Star Tours undertaking, the RX droid is a pinnacle of efficiency. The care and attention that were put in the design of the RX droids can perhaps best be illustrated by the fact that it was Company Executive Officer Paul Reubens himself who lent his voice to the droids. The RX model packs the maximum amount of piloting capabilities into a minimum amount of space. This has as a side effect, however, that the design is not as aesthetically pleasing as is the case with many other droid series.

Broken unit

Star tours: the adventures continue.

Several malfunctioning RX pilots can be found boxed up in the Star Tours starports, ready to be shipped out.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star wars: rebels.

R2-D2 is under orders to deliver Imperial data intercepted on Lothal to the Alderaanian embassy on Adarlon. The fastest way is to take a commuter shuttle, but the stubborn RX droid has a programming glitch that is keeping the ship grounded. When R2-D2 rolls up to the cockpit, hoping to take control of the ship, the malfunctioning RX droid puts up a fight.

Behind the scenes

Imagineer Chris Runco, together with George Lucas, was the person responsible for the original RX-24 design. On the next picture you can see him creating a green foam plastic prototype, surrounded by original sketches. Aluminium was used for the final construction.

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D23 Celebrates 35 Years of Star Tours Adventures at Star Wars Celebration!

By Peyton Liebler

R2—lightspeed to Endor! As Captain RX-24’s immortal words from his original takeoff sequence rang through the audience at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim’s Galaxy Stage on May 27, anyone in attendance could feel the wonder and excitement Star Wars fans experienced during the original Star Tours flight from 1987. That same thrill echoed through the entire panel, as D23 connected generations of Star Tours travelers to the expansive stories told during the 35 years since the groundbreaking attraction first opened.

Hosted by the iconic Ashley Eckstein (a Star Tours superfan), the panel included many of the Imagineers, VFX specialists, and storytellers who have brought Star Tours to life and have continued to adapt it for new stories and new audiences.

After a warm welcome from Michael Vargo, the head of D23: the Official Disney Fan Club, the first part of the panel focused on the beginning of Star Tours , the first Star Wars Attraction in Disney Parks. Panelists included galactic heroes Tony Baxter and Chris Runco from Walt Disney Imagineering and Dennis Muren from Industrial Light & Magic, all of whom played a part in the attraction’s 1987 incarnation. Once the original pre-flight safety brief was finished, Eckstein led the panelists back to “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” where they relived the creative phases that made Star Tours a reality.

Baxter talked about the initial pitch for Star Tours , and how the idea for a Star Wars attraction evolved into the simulator system it remains today. The challenge was to connect the story of the attraction to the most memorable moments from the films, as Muren recounted toying with recreating specific moments. Muren discussed the technical aspects that allow Star Tours to operate as one continuous experience, using scale modeling and large-scale story structuring techniques to build the galaxy around the attraction. And with the journey created, who would be piloting guests through hyperspace? Details on the meetings and concepts that led to the creation of RX-24—or Captain Rex, as he’s affectionately known as—were shared by Chris Runco. Runco had discussions with George Lucas himself, inventing an eager and eclectic droid who was having quite an interesting first flight—and now is regarded as one of the most loveable original characters from Disney Parks. To this day Rex’s legacy lives on, with RX droids seen in the Star Wars universe onscreen in the Book of Boba Fett . The panelists even shared the stage with some surprise RX droid guests!

After chatting with the distinguished panelists, Ashley introduced the original onboard footage seen in Star Tours from 1987. The audience zipped through falling comets, evaded star destroyer tractor beams, and blew up the Death Star with the rebels. When the lights came up, it was time to talk about Star Tours today, and the new adventures it has brought to Disney Parks.

Ashley welcomed a new set of panelists, also known throughout the galaxy. Meghan Short from Walt Disney Imagineering and Bill George from Industrial Light & Magic talked about Star Tours: The Adventures Continue —the current iteration found in Disney Parks around the world! The new story took inspiration from decades of Star Wars films, and having been created shortly after the release of the prequel trilogy, there was a plethora of new locations and characters to play with.

George discussed the inclusion of familiar characters to help ground the story, using C-3PO as the accidental pilot and tying in characters from across the galaxy through onscreen appearances and holographic messages. This discussion was accompanied by a look behind the scenes, in video clips featuring the creation of the Princess Leia hologram and even the live-action tests to create the viewport Wookiee “splat” on Kashyyk. This was also a great opportunity to discuss the new features brought to the attraction, specifically the inclusion of 3D elements to create some very special sequences. George discussed how the separate sequences of the attraction, randomly combined for each journey, allowed for more range to be showcased in the simulator.

When the sequel trilogy debuted, that opened the door for even more planets and stories to be featured. Short talked about the process of creating the sequel trilogy sequences, including filming with the stars and creating some story sequences on Jakuu and Crait. She recalled the process of creating the Maz Kanata sequence with Lupita Nyong’o, and the audience even got to watch the hilarious reference footage shot to choreograph the animation of Maz in her 3D hologram appearance.

Also shared were some fun details about the strong connections that Star Tours has to the rich land of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and the planet of Batuu—most famously, the land features Captain Rex in his new residence as the DJ inside of Oga’s Cantina. These “connections” included adding a Batuu landing sequence to the attraction. With a huge overlap of Imagineers working on Star Tours and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge , the creative team was able to see a CG preview of Galaxy’s Edge and used it to create the landing sequence in Batuu. Later, this same CG model was used in the digital representations of Black Spire Outpost inside of the land’s flagship attractions, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.

Star Wars Celebration guests had a splendid time reliving the last 35 years of Star Tours . From the bustling skyways of Coruscant, to the edge of the galaxy on Batuu, to the trenches of the Death Star, this attraction has made one of the most beloved universes a tangible thing for generations. It has made “a galaxy far, far away” feel just a bit more in reach for everyone. We hope all in attendance had a great Star Wars Celebration Anaheim experience, and we thank everyone for bearing with us, as we’re still just getting used to our programming!

A Long Time Ago, Paul Reubens Played A Beloved Star Wars Character

With the sudden passing of actor Paul Reubens after a private battle with cancer, the outpouring across the country and the world has been comforting, to say the least. Reubens will always be most associated with Pee-wee Herman, the character he created and developed when he was a part of the world-famous comedy troupe The Groundlings during the late '70s. As Pee-wee became more entrenched into our own cultural fabric and "Pee-wee's Playhouse" hit the airwaves every Saturday morning, a generation of '80s kids fell in love with him.

With Tim Burton's "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" and its sequel "Big Top Pee-wee," Reubens carved out a franchise of his very own during the same decade where the original "Star Wars" trilogy completely dominated the box office. For fans of George Lucas' space opera, Reubens wasn't just known as the lovable, eccentric children's host from television. He was also the voice of Rex, or RX-24, in Disney's incredibly popular theme park attraction, Star Tours.

After lending his vocal talents playing Max, the alien spacecraft in Disney's "Flight of the Navigator," Reubens came on board Star Tours as a pilot droid who took passengers on an interactive trip through multiple planets, eventually getting caught up in a battle between the Rebels and the Empire. It was the start of a long-lasting friendship between Reubens and "Star Wars" which came full circle when Rex officially became part of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge over forty years later.

Where Rex fits in Star Wars canon

When Rex debuted on Star Tours in 1987, curious kids and nerdy adults were introduced to a fully realized audio animatronic character that they could practically reach out and touch. The ride itself was a motion simulator, but RX-24 was there accompanying you on the ride, making him one of the few characters in Disney Parks at that time that was occupying the same physical space with you. Add Reubens' voice to the character, and it's no wonder that fans were so taken by the droid as they sped along with him on a mini-adventure across the galaxy.

Rex was so popular, in fact, Disney brought the character back in the sequel ride, aptly named Star Wars: The Adventure Continues. In 2019, it was happily announced that Reubens would be returning as DJ-R3X, a new, updated iteration of RX-24 (aka Captain Rex) for Disney's Galaxy's Edge. Any park attendees that have walked into Oga's Cantina in Galaxy's Edge have surely seen DJ-R3X spinning Jawa hip-hop tunes and dropping "Star Wars" references and one-liners in-between tracks. Reubens even wrote some of the dialogue for the part, adding his own twist to the character. In the original Star Tours ride, Reubens also added his own cadence with that instantly recognizable signature laugh and a few other accents that are unmistakably inspired by Pee-wee.

If you're wondering how Captain Rex went from being a high-flying pilot to moonlighting as a DJ on the planet Baatu in Galaxy's Edge, Lucasfilm story group member Matt Martin has you covered (via Peewee.com ):

"The short story is Rex flunked his way out of Star Tours, and eventually through some misadventures, he found his way to the Rebellion in the final battle of the galactic civil war, the battle of Jakku. In an epic TIE Fighter chase, he ends up crash landing on Baatu. There he is rescued by the local droidsmith Mubo, where he is repaired and made into a DJ for Oga's cantina."

A different kind of rebel

Perhaps no line from "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" is quoted more often than: "I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel." In a fitting although fleeting tribute to that classic piece of dialogue, Rex has a cameo in season 1 of the animated series "Star Wars Rebels," in the third episode, "Droids in Distress." Once again, Reubens would provide the voice of the original Star Tours pilot appearing alongside C-3PO, R2-D2, and everyone's favorite cut-up droid, Chopper. 

Appearing as a Lothal protocol droid in the episode, the design of Rex was originally based on early conceptual art from artist Ralph McQuarrie when he was hashing out the look of C-3PO, according to StarWars.com . Albeit brief, the inclusion in "Rebels" was another way to keep Rex and Reubens' contributions alive and thriving inside the "Star Wars" universe. 

Now that DJ-RX3 has what is hopefully a permanent home at Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, fans of Reubens have a way to pay their respects to the late actor in a wholly unique way. For most of us, Reubens will always be remembered for the joy he brought as Pee-wee Herman , but there's still plenty of love to go around for Rex, who has suddenly become a much more poignant part of "Star Wars" history after the actor's passing. It will be interesting to see what Disney and the Imagineers will do with Rex as a character to possibly honor Reubens in the future. For now, fans can listen to DJ-RX3's latest playlist pumping through the speakers over at Oga's Cantina on Baatu. Maybe Rex will prove to be a better DJ than a pilot, after all. 

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Today I have added Disney’s Exclusive Star Tours Droids to our Photo Gallery . These were released back in 2002 and made by Hasbro for Disney. Hasbro reused the Green Power Of The Jedi Cards to package these in. There was a total of 6 Droids.

The figure pages include Packaging, Loose, and Variations Photos. I photographed these Figures back in 2013, so the photos are about 10 years old but still look great. You can check them out here .

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These New Lego Star Wars Droids Are The Ones You've Been Looking For

You can finally put a cowboy hat on R2-D2 and pals with the new Lego Star Wars droid set releasing August 1.

By Darryn Bonthuys on June 28, 2024 at 11:59AM PDT

In the droid hierarchy of Star Wars, astromechs are easily the best and way better than annoying protocol robots. If you've ever wanted to build your own set of them, you can do just that with this new Lego Star Wars Droid Builder set that features R2-D2 and several other customizable droids for you to assemble. In addition to R2-D2, you can also construct Chopper from Star Wars Rebels--the real phantom menace of the franchise--QT-KT, and R5-J2. Priced at $100, this set will be available starting August 1 and can be preordered now at multiple retailers.

There are 1,186 pieces in this set, and each droid stands four inches tall when fully assembled. You'll also get a minifigure of young Princess Leia with her droid L0-LA59 AKA Lola from the Obi-Wan TV series. If you feel like accessorizing them, you can add several extras to your droids, including a duck, cowboy hat, baseball cap, hat with flower, mustache, ice cream, balloon, glasses, bow, bow tie, headphones, jet boosters, and stud shooters. You can also swap parts from each droid, there's no wrong way to build them, especially when you want to combine them into an interesting mechanical chimera.

This is a pretty cool set for Star Wars fans, but if you're looking to spend some more cash on a collectible that'll turn some heads, check out the upcoming droids from Hot Toys What if R2-D2 was a homicidal maniac? Well Chopper has those bases covered--the Star Wars Rebels droid has racked up many thousands of kills--and his sixth-scale figure features a lovely weathered finish and LED light-up functions. Not as dangerous--but still pretty dangerous--is BT-1, an astromech commonly seen with Doctor Aphra and armed to the teeth with laser blasters, flamethrowers, and missile launchers.

Hot Toys astromechs

• Preorder Chopper at Sideshow -- $245
• Preorder BT-1 at Sideshow -- $220

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The 11 Best Star Wars Duos, Ranked Worst To Best

• Not all top duos in Star Wars are Force users or part of the Skywalker family, showcasing diverse partnerships across the franchise.
• Rey & Kylo's alliance in The Last Jedi, Finn & Poe's friendship in The Force Awakens, and Ezra & Sabine's bond in Rebels are standout duos.
• Iconic duos like Han Solo & Chewbacca, C-3PO & R2-D2, and Obi-Wan & Anakin remain fan favorites for their enduring friendships and partnerships.

Star Wars has undoubtedly had a number of incredible duos over the years, but 11 in particular stand out as the franchise's best. Because both the Jedi and the Sith follow a master and apprentice structure, Star Wars is naturally creating duos all the time. However, not all the best duos are Force users, nor are they all the Skywalker saga's heavy hitters.

The best duos in Star Wars instead span the franchise's three trilogies, the Disney+ TV shows, and a combination of masters and apprentices, best friends, allies, and lovers. While many of Star Wars' most powerful Jedi do make the list, as do a few of Star Wars' most powerful Sith , several additions to the list may tend to be a bit more overlooked than those on the Skywalker family tree . All in all, however, these 11 duos reflect Star Wars' absolute best team-ups.

Star Wars Movies In Order: How To Watch Release Order, Chronologically & With The TV Shows

Rey & kylo, the fallen skywalker-solo & the scavenger-turned-jedi.

Kylo Ren and Rey certainly didn't have a straightforward path to becoming a team, but some of their best duo moments happened before they were on the same side. In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, when Kylo Ren decides to kill his master, Snoke , and fight side-by-side with Rey, the two have arguably their best on-screen battle, systematically taking down the Elite Praetorian Guards, at times literally back to back. While obviously their final fight with Palpatine in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is iconic, this moment in The Last Jedi was really a defining moment for the two.

Their Force dyad can also not be ignored, in particular because it signaled the concept's introduction into the Star Wars franchise. With this dyad, the two were able to pull off incredible stunts, such as passing a lightsaber between the two essentially through space. Although there has since been some question around whether their final kiss was romantic, with Rey actress Daisy Ridley suggesting in a recent interview that a kiss can mean many things and that The Rise of Skywalker kiss in particular was more a goodbye, the two made an excellent Star Wars duo, romantic or not.

Finn & Poe

The ex-stormtrooper resistance hero & the resistance hotshot pilot.

Poe Dameron and Finn are another excellent sequel trilogy duo, ranking higher than Rey and Kylo because of their consistency and on-screen humor. In many ways, Poe and Finn serve as the comic relief of the trilogy, but they also represent the relationship most reminiscent of the original trilogy cast . Poe Dameron manages to pull off becoming both the new Han Solo and the new Leia Organa, and, although Finn's story did not end up being the one of a Jedi hero as many, including Finn actor John Boyega, had hoped, he nevertheless represents a major Star Wars hero.

Ezra & Sabine

The lost jedi & the mandalorian jedi.

Introduced in Star Wars Rebels, Ezra and Sabine have now hit the small screen in live-action in the Ahsoka show. This update to their story also saw the return of Ezra Bridger to the Star Wars galaxy after his great sacrifice at the end of Rebels to rid the galaxy of the threat Grand Admiral Thrawn posed. This return was particularly touching because it was only made possible through Sabine's dedication to bringing her friend back. Although they bickered throughout Rebels , it's clear that they mean a lot to each other, which is reflected in the strength of the duo.

Kanan & Hera

The jedi survivor & the rebellion's best pilot.

Another Star Wars Rebels duo, Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla are arguably one of Star Wars' best couples, if not the best. Their relationship was a slow build in Rebels but was well-earned, particularly because Star Wars had an uphill battle to prove that attachments aren't inherently bad for Jedi in light of the prequel trilogy. Star Wars pulled it off, though, as Hera and Kanan are an excellent duo and show that attachment can be a strength rather than a danger if done right . Although ending in tragedy, Hera and Kanan are truly one of Star Wars' best duos.

C-3PO & R2-D2

Anakin's handmade droid & padmé's reliable droid.

R2-D2 and C-3PO are Star Wars' most enduring duo, and for good reason. Not only do the two immediately stir up nostalgia in whatever Star Wars show or movie they appear in, but they are also frequently comic relief and simply represent Star Wars history. While the family members themselves may have had no idea how much the droids connected them, R2 and C-3PO are an incredible link in the Skywalker line. After R2-D2 traded hands from Padmé to Anakin and Anakin created C-3PO, the two went on to see Leia grow up on Alderaan and ultimately reunited with Luke.

The two are also Star Wars' most uncomplicated best friends.

The two are also Star Wars' most uncomplicated best friends. While they frequently take jabs at one another (although it's difficult to know exactly what R2 is saying), this is entirely to do with their programming and is in large part what makes the two so comedic when put together. C-3PO is all about protocol and following rules and expectations, while R2 inherited a sizable amount of Anakin Skywalker's personality and is therefore a bit chaotic and reckless. Presumably, the two will continue to appear in Rey's upcoming Star Wars movie , which will continue the duo's long-standing legacy.

Ahsoka Tano & Captain Rex

Anakin skywalker's padawan & his right-hand man.

While Ahsoka, of course, made an excellent duo with Anakin in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars show too, Captain Rex is her best duo partner in Star Wars, in part because, unlike with Anakin and Ahsoka, the two remain dedicated friends throughout the Star Wars timeline . While they first had a bit of tension because a very young Ahsoka technically outranked Rex, they developed a deep affection for one another, with Rex taking the lead on Ahsoka's clone troopers painting their helmets to match her facial markings.

The moment that cemented the two on the Star Wars duos list was during the tragic events of Order 66 , when Ahsoka manages to break Rex out of mind control and they attempt to save the clones who are trying to kill them. Ahsoka and Rex continue this commitment to one another , both appearing in Star Wars Rebels, proving that they remained linked even during the Imperial Era. While Rex hasn't made an appearance in Ahsoka and his whereabouts remain unknown, hopefully his fate will be revealed, and the two will have one final on-screen connection in season 2.

Ahsoka Season 2: Story, Updates, Everything We Know

Han solo & chewbacca, the iconic hotshot scoundrel & the beloved wookiee hero.

One of the original trilogy's best and most iconic duos was Han Solo and Chewbacca, who remained inseparable to the end. When they were introduced in A New Hope, Han and Chewbacca seemed like haughty, slightly standoffish characters, but throughout the original trilogy, they revealed themselves to be true heroes. This trend continued in the sequel trilogy, with both working alongside Finn to bring Rey back and take down Starkiller Base. While Star Wars: The Force Awakens sadly ended with Kylo Ren killing his father, Han Solo, the Han and Chewbacca duo ended as strong as ever.

Sidious & Vader

The galaxy's most dangerous sith & his fallen apprentice.

Although villains, Darth Sidious and Darth Vader are nevertheless an undeniably powerful Star Wars duo. As early as the prequel trilogy, even before Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, Palpatine and Anakin represented some of Star Wars' most powerful characters. When the two took over in the wake of Order 66, their power only became more obvious. Together, they ruled the galaxy for two decades. While the duo ends with Vader betraying Sidious, even this cements their status as Sith master and apprentice, as that is always the way of the Sith.

Din Djarin & Grogu

The lone bounty hunter & the jedi-turned-mandalorian.

Despite being one of the newest additions, Din Djarin and Grogu have more than earned their high spot on this list. Introduced in The Mandalorian, both Grogu and Din Djarin quickly became fan-favorites, and for great reason. Grogu, in addition to being adorable, is a powerful Force-user who chooses attachments over the way of the Jedi, and Din Djarin is a bounty hunter turned adoptive father. The two are perhaps the franchise's best example of a family unit , and the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu movie opens up even more opportunities for the duo.

Luke & Leia

The galaxy's new hope & alderaan's strong princess.

Luke and Leia sadly get little screen time together, all things considered, but the two are certainly a dynamite pair, effectively saving the galaxy (twice, technically) between the two of them. While Luke restores the Jedi and saves Darth Vader/Anakin's soul in Return of the Jedi , Leia leads the Rebellion and then plays a major role in establishing the New Republic. Without the twins, the Empire's rule could have gone on without end and Darth Vader may never have returned to the light. Of course, it's likely not surprising that Padmé and Anakin's children rank so highly on this list.

Anakin Skywalker & Obi-Wan Kenobi

The powerful padawan & the sassy master.

Although they also had the rockiest end of the duos on this list, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are nevertheless the best duo in all of Star Wars. Particularly during Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars , when the two are arguably in their prime in terms of fighting together, they are unmatched in terms of strength and compatibility. The two are also arguably the comedic heart of the prequel trilogy (if not of Star Wars more broadly), more than earning them this slot.

When the two are arguably in their prime in terms of fighting together, they are unmatched in terms of strength and compatibility.

Sadly, this duo was not to be forever, but now that Anakin has become a Force ghost alongside Obi-Wan, perhaps the two can reunite. Either way, their team-ups throughout the prequel trilogy and the larger Clone Wars era make them top of the list. Star Wars has clearly had a number of excellent duos, spanning generations, but Anakin and Obi-Wan simply can't be beat.

All Star Wars movies and TV shows are available to stream on Disney+

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Star Tours: Inside the Secret History of Disney’s Classic ‘Star Wars’ Ride

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Earlier in January, Star Tours turned 35.

The groundbreaking attraction has been a favorite of Disney Parks visitors the world over, and it would prove an influential part of the “Star Wars” mythology, even today. In Jon Favreau’s “The Book of Boba Fett” (streaming now on Disney+) a familiar-looking droid has been dealing cards in the cantina/casino hideout The Sanctuary in the Tatooine village of Mos Espa. The droid looks like Rex, the inexperienced pilot of the original version of Star Tours. Predictably, fans went nuts.

In fact, the influence of Star Tours has been felt strongly in the current era of “Star Wars” on both the big and small screen. Rex previously appeared in an episode of animated series “Star Wars: Rebels,” and the Star Tours spaceship the Starspeeder made blink-and-you’ll-miss-it background appearances in J.J. Abrams two sequel trilogy installments, while Rian Johnson admitted a looser influence over his installment, “The Last Jedi.” The sequence where the Millennium Falcon is careening through the crystalline caverns of Crait was inspired by the original ride film’s trip through a craggy comet.

But the story of how Star Tours was developed – how it came to be, what technology was employed, and the profound implications for both the Disney Parks and George Lucas ’ Lucasfilm – might be even more thrilling and complex than the actual ride, which was heavily retrofitted in 2010 now goes by the name Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.

So, without further ado, lightspeed to Endor !

A Long Time Ago …

Long before there was any kind of official partnership, Lucasfilm and Disney Parks were linked, thanks mostly to some fortuitous timing. George Lucas’ “Star Wars” hit theaters on May 25, 1977, intoxicating audiences with its depiction of bold heroes, dastardly villains, fussy droids and otherworldly creatures. Those that saw it went back again and again but itched for something more . Thankfully for Southern California audiences, Space Mountain, an adaptation of an attraction that opened at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom two years earlier, opened at Disneyland two days after “Star Wars.” Folks would go see “Star Wars” and then book it to Disneyland for a chance to ride Space Mountain, nestled in the far corner of Tomorrowland. The line for the attraction snaked from that distant part of Tomorrowland all the way up Main Street, U.S.A. Even if their pairing was still a decade away, Lucasfilm and Disney Parks were already strongly bound by the Force.

But if the actual Lucasfilm/Disney enterprise had a point of origin (something that we are painfully aware that George Lucas just loves ), it was when Michael Eisner , then the head of Paramount, decided to green light “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” As Brian Jay Jones recounts in his biography “George Lucas: A Life,” Lucas’ financial terms for the movie were aggressive and mirrored those of the “Star Wars” sequels. Lucas would fund the movie himself and the studio would “distribute the completed film in exchange for profits.” While many of the studios passed right away, Warner Bros., who had clumsily distributed Lucas’ first film “THX-1138,” initially wanted to make it, but they were ultimately usurped by Paramount and Eisner. “George came over to my house,” Eisner later said, “and he said, ‘Let’s make the best deal they’ve ever made in Hollywood.’”

On November 7, 1979, Paramount announced an agreement with Lucasfilm – they’d agreed to Lucas’ demands and would be making “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Eisner believed in George Lucas, even when other studios didn’t. This is baffling, after the astronomical success of “Star Wars” just two years earlier, but true. “Eisner was no dummy,” Jones says now. “Professionally, they spoke the same language. They got the cultural sensibilities.”

Eisner’s decision to help Lucas out on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” would have far reaching ramifications; for one, it would lead to Paramount releasing one of the most successful franchises (after Lucas’ own “Star Wars”) of all time. It would also ultimately assist in the rehabilitation of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated brands, which by the early 1980s had fallen into disrepair and disinterest.

Rebellion Reborn

In 1984, after greenmail attempts by corporate raiders, the Walt Disney Company got a fresh transfusion of new executive talent in the form of Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and (a few months later) Jeffrey Katzenberg. As CEO and Chairman of the Board, Eisner set his sights on strengthening the company’s bottom line and refreshing the brand, which in the nearly 20 years since Walt Disney had died, became a creaky dinosaur, badly out of step with modern audiences and accompanying cultural shifts. (The year before Eisner became CEO, the top grossing Disney movie was “Never Cry Wolf,” with a whopping $29.6 million .)

Similarly, the Disney Parks had been badly neglected despite accounting for nearly 70% of the company’s annual revenue, in part because of the wobbly, extremely over-budget opening of EPCOT Center in Florida, but more pressingly because Disney wasn’t producing anything that could be adapted into rides, shows, or attractions at the parks. While Katzenberg looked to return the studio’s feature animation unit to its former glory (it existed, in the early 1980s, as a partially mothballed group that was in constant danger of shuttering completely), Eisner looked to the parks. “You couldn’t walk through the theme parks and not recognize that they lacked contemporary development. But when Frank and I walked down Main Street for the first time, Frank turned to me and said, ‘There’s so much here. There’s so much potential,’” Eisner recounted in “The Imagineering Story” documentary on Disney+.

Imagineering had reached out to Lucas before Eisner had been installed. Marty Sklar had set up a meeting between Ron Miller, who was president and CEO of Disney before Eisner (he was also Walt’s son-in-law), and Imagineer Tony Baxter. Baxter was, and remains, a superstar of Walt Disney Imagineering, the kind of persona that Disney fanatics dress up as at Disney fan conventions. (Seriously.) At the time, Baxter wasn’t even 40 and had already contributed to the Disney portfolio in meaningful, some would argue profound, ways. He was behind the Journey into Imagination pavilion at EPCOT Center, which featured some truly next-level technological breakthroughs alongside a whimsical story about the power of creativity; and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland, a runaway train thrill ride that would become instantly beloved and replicated at Disney parks the world over. Miller was still stinging from the failure of “The Black Hole,” Disney’s bid to challenge “Star Wars,” but agreed with Baxter that “Disneyland did need an infusion of new IP for younger generations of visitors” (according to Baxter). Miller suggested that they meet with Lucas at Miller’s Silverado Ranch. In addition to Sklar and Miller, Imagineers Rick Rothschild and Gary Krisel were also at the meeting. “There was no lag time between those initial agreements at the Silverado Vineyard, the subsequent leaving of Ron Miller, and Michael and Frank’s arrival in September 1984,” Baxter said. (Another former Imagineer had told me that after that initial meeting, “those discussions went nowhere.”)

Interestingly, before Eisner was hired, Disney board members had originally turned to Lucas to run the entire company in the early 1980s. “It wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life,” said Howard Roffman, who was the chief operating officer of Lucasfilm, in The Cinema of George Lucas by Marcus Hearn. Instead, the board offered the job to Eisner, the man who had the guts and the creative ambition to back “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Now Eisner quietly reached out to Lucas about projects with the Disney Parks. Lucas had been a lifelong Disneyland fan (his family had first visited the park on July 19, 1955, two days after it had opened), making annual treks to the resort. And just as Eisner had gotten behind a lucrative deal (in Lucas’ favor) for “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” he offered Lucas an equally eye-popping arrangement for his services: for every Lucas-originated project, the filmmaker would get $1 million per attraction per park per year. Lucas happily agreed. This arrangement even applied to later attractions Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril (a fairly off-the-shelf rollercoaster with the Indiana Jones name) located in Disneyland Paris, and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull (essentially a clone of the Disneyland attraction) at Tokyo Disney Sea.

According to Baxter, during their first week at Disney, Eisner and Wells asked several Imagineers to come in on a Saturday and pitch “everything we had in conceptual design.” For Baxter, that meant he showed off the “Star Wars” project and what would later be known as Splash Mountain. (This is the infamous meeting where Eisner brought along his son Breck. Eisner told Baxter that Breck “loved theme parks” and Michael knew little about theme parks.) Both Star Tours and Splash Mountain were “given the green light” during Baxter’s presentation but according to Baxter executives were “disturbed” by the proposed 3-year production time designated for Star Tours. Famously, Eisner willed the teen-oriented dance club Videopolis into existence at Disneyland in a mere 100 days, partially due to architect Chris Carradine salvaging structural elements from the 1984 Olympics. He wanted things in the parks and he wanted them now .

With Lucas onboard for a Disney Parks “Star Wars” attraction, Imagineering began spit-balling ideas. At a National Fantasy Fan Club meeting in July 1988 legendary Imagineer David Mumford, whose notable work includes the Land pavilion at EPCOT Center and the Mermaid Lagoon section of Tokyo DisneySea, spoke of a cutting-edge “Star Wars” rollercoaster that was originally proposed. In this attraction, guests in the ride vehicle would vote on whether they would follow Yoda and become a Jedi or instead choose the path illuminated by the Emperor, embracing the dark side of the Force. Depending on that decision, you would rocket past show scenes featuring animatronics of your favorite characters (Boba Fett, Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt on one path or Leia, Luke and Han Solo on the other). It was a wonderful idea, utilizing interactivity and good old-fashioned Imagineering magic, but Mumford said that it would take at least five years just to design the complex mechanism that would allow the ride to work. They needed something sooner.

Enter Mark Eades. Eades was a young Imagineer who had moved over from the Walt Disney Studios to work on EPCOT Center. In the days after EPCOT Center’s opening, when Imagineering’s ranks shrank and viable new projects became scarce, Eades was tasked with researching motion simulator technology. He visited army bases and tested out rudimentary versions designed for entertainment purposes (including “one where they basically stuck a camera on a rollercoaster”). At the end of his exploratory journey, he wrote a memo outlining the potential uses of the technology in the parks (he notes that, contrary to much reporting, the technology was never looked at for a “Black Hole” attraction, but rather “The Black Hole” was thought of as a potential overlay for the aging Mission to Mars). “We either a) treat it as a Tomorrowland attraction where we talk about how the pilots of tomorrow are being trained and you get to go train with them,” Eades said of the simulator technology. “Or there could be other stories if we’re willing to not admit that it’s a simulator. One of them could be in the ‘Star Wars’ universe.” At the end of the memo, he even suggested a possible narrative, should the ‘Star Wars’ idea actually be chosen: “Take a ride on the Millennium Falcon and when we get off we can go over to the Mos Eisley cantina.” This exact idea would be recirculated, 30 years later, at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

At the urging of Imagineer Randy Bright, Baxter went to Retifusion London, a test facility, to see if the flight simulator technology could successfully be used “for entertainment purposes.” (According to Baxter, Bright had stopped at the facility following an Abbey Road recording session for some new orchestral elements for EPCOT.) “I took several leaders from Disneyland operations & maintenance along on the trip to validate the practicality,” Baxter said. Imagineers might design the attractions, but operations and maintenance keep it running. Baxter and the small group seem to have watched the same “rollercoaster” ride film that Eades had also seen. “The simulator was limited in what it could mimic, but we were impressed enough to begin the project in earnest,” Baxter said. Disney made a deal to buy one of the simulators. It was housed in a custom-designed building in the parking lot of Imagineering’s Glendale headquarters.

In Spite of ‘Captain EO’

While work progressed on Star Tours, Michael Jackson had approached the company about joining forces for a new project. Jackson loved Disneyland and Walt Disney World (later he would fashion a Disneyland-style theme park at his home, Neverland Ranch). Eisner and Katzenberg were both dazzled by big name stars and made the Jackson project a priority. At the same meeting where Splash Mountain and Star Tours were greenlit, the executives first brought up the possibility of a Jackson project (according to Baxter). “Imagineering was challenged to give Michael Jackson three concepts to choose,” Baxter said. In his memoir, Eisner describes the concept: “Our notion was to put him in an extended 3D music video.”

One pitch had the entertainer at Disneyland after dark, when various attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean would spring to life. (It was deemed too similar to his beloved “Thriller” music video.) Another version had Jackson inhabiting the role of a Peter Pan-type character who battled an ice queen, eventually melting her heart. And yet another, dubbed the “intergalactic ‘Music Man’” had him visiting a cold, distant planet and bringing music to the people, literally transforming them. Jackson liked the space idea but had a list of demands, including hiring either George Lucas or Steven Spielberg to help oversee what would ultimately become a cumbersome, costly, 17-minute 3D film (a “miracle of a movie” according to Whoopi Goldberg in the “Captain EO: Backstage” episode of “The Disney SundayMovie”). Spielberg was busy with “The Color Purple.” But Lucas had just signed on with Disney and was happy to oblige. At the very least, it would mean another $1 million per year per park.

Instead of helming the project himself, Lucas would install Francis Ford Coppola, one of his oldest friends, in the director’s chair. And Jones pointed out, not only would Lucas be spared the drudgery of daily production (“Return of the Jedi” had nearly killed him), handing Coppola the Disney project meant that he’d be “giving his mentor a much-needed job” (this after the middling response to Coppola’s costly “The Cotton Club”). Since it was technically a film, the production for what was now known as “Captain EO” (named by Coppola after Eos, the Greek goddess of dawn) was handled mostly by the film studio and therefore overseen by Katzenberg. Initially, at least, Imagineering was consulted (they’d be brought back later to design the in-theater effects and motion). “I’d talked to them about it. I’d done an estimate and said it was going to cost $17 million,” Eades said. “The studio people said it would cost $10 million. I said, ‘Make that movie.’ They spent a lot more than $10 million and they spent a lot more than I said it would cost.”

As it turns out, considerably more than what Eades had quoted. The production of “Captain EO” was long and difficult, with original actress Shelley Long dropping out of the role as the evil queen because of the extensive prosthetics (Anjelica Houston replaced her) and Coppola struggling with the complicated requirements of shooting in 3D. (Coppola would lean on Lucas for guidance when it came to the visual effects and creatures.) Behind schedule, the production went over-budget and had to cut corners. On an episode of the “I Was There Too” podcast, comedian Doug Benson talked about his time as an extra on the movie; the production was so over-budget that they couldn’t afford to pay actual dancers anymore. Benson had to stand in the background and gyrate. While most cite the $17 million budget as the final cost, Eades told TheWrap that the actual figure was more than $22.7 million – “and that was in real money in those days.” At the time, per minute, it was the most expensive movie ever produced. Imagineers, still hard at work on Star Tours, printed out custom memo templates that read Star Tours – In Spite of EO .

The Star Tours team was assembled, involving some of Imagineering’s key talents, led by Baxter, and including Eades. Bruce Gordon was the original producer on the project and had, according to Baxter, “as to what you could and could not do in programming events to physically simulate an experience.” “You cannot just write a story and then film it. It’s impossible for many kinetic options to dovetail into one another, due to the limitations of the hydraulic system,” Baxter said. “After we matched the capability of the simulator to a list of ‘Star Wars’ ‘stunts,’ their running order became a dictate of what capabilities were available after the completion of the preceding stunt. The most notable example was being caught in a tractor beam . This motionless backward tilt was the only capability that could be achieved after exhausting the hydraulics in the preceding ice cave sequence.” They had worked out the runtime of the ride: 4 minutes and 35 seconds. “This was the maximum time before an increasing nausea curve would begin ticking upwards,” Baxter said. The Imagineers also learned that they had to put in story pauses every 45 seconds or so, “to let riders regain their bearings.” He also notes that this fact was ignored when developing Body Wars, a sort of “Fantastic Voyage”-type experience that would open with the Wonders of Life Pavilion at EPCOT Center in 1989. Guests got so sick that several seconds of the ride film were removed after Body Wars opened.

For Star Tours, Imagineering had some key collaborators in the form of the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic, the groundbreaking effects house that Lucas had started for the first “Star Wars,” although getting them to grasp the concept of the project (which Eisner wanted to call Star Ride) was difficult. There was a meeting beween Imagineering and ILM, where George Lucas, ILM artists Dennis Muran and Dave Carson (who would serve as the “directors” for ILM), and Imagineering personnel like Tom Fitzgerald, Randy Bright, Marty Sklar and Eades, discussed the project. Eades remembered the scene: “Dennis starts talking to George, ‘We could cut to this angle, cut to that angle.’ And I’m a neophyte at the time. I’m not even 31 years old. I’m the new kid on the block and I’m listening to this and thinking, They’re wrong . I stopped at one point and actually said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. You guys don’t understand. This isn’t a movie. This is a window like in a jet. We can’t cut.’ And I’m looking right at Dennis. ‘However long this is, it’s a continuous take.’ He sat back and looked at me and said, ‘Gee, George. He’s right.’”

The concept of the attraction, where Star Tours was one of several “commercial companies have started business to take people across the galaxy” following the events of “Return of the Jedi,” coalesced quickly and stayed mostly in place. “That way we can give people a ride going through a ‘Star Wars’ movie without giving them a ‘Star Wars’ movie,” Eades explained. Other things remained in flux. The voice of Captain RX-24 (“Rex”), originally described by Lucas as a frazzled Clone Wars veteran named “Crazy Harry,” remained elusive, until Eades (also working as the casting director for the project) saw “Flight of the Navigator.” “Flight of the Navigator” (released by Disney) featured a UFO voiced by Paul Reubens, who had yet to gain fame as Pee-Wee Herman. Eades knew that Reubens was the perfect voice and urged Tom Fitzgerald to see “Flight of the Navigator.” After watching the film, Fitzgerald agreed. Reubens was in production on the first season of what would become the fabled television series “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.” “We got ahold of [Reubens] on set and he agreed in principle, and we sent a recording to George and he said, ‘That’s it,’” Eades said.

At one point, Baxter and Muren went to Las Vegas to watch a demo of HD digital technology. They came back “pushing for the use of HD media rather than 70mm film.” “That decision was predicated on Sony being a sole source supplier of equipment. A safer decision was made to go with 70mm film rather than Sony HD, but it would set the variability of the ride experience back for 20 years,” Baxter said.

The troubled production of “Captain EO” actually gave the Star Tours team some cover. “They were so focused on ‘Captain EO’ and we were doing this thing and working with ILM and we were kind of ignored. Which was great for the team,” Eades said. “We had a budget and we stuck to the budget. We figured out how to get the most bang for our buck.” Somewhat amazingly, Eades explained: “We actually had Star Tours done first but they wanted to open ‘Captain EO’ and open Star Tours the next year. It was great because it gave the simulators some time to get some run time on them.”

After an equally arduous post-production, which saw Disney executives shocked at the number of crotch-thrusts Jackson squeezed into the choreographed dance numbers (amongst other woes), “Captain EO,” the tale of a singing, dancing space fighter (Jackson) and his band of puppet-y confederates, opened on Sept. 12, 1986 at EPCOT Center (then in desperate need of a starry attraction) and Sept. 18, 1986 at Disneyland. It had two new songs by the King of Pop that you could only hear in the movie (one of the songs would be reworked for “Bad”). An hour-long television special dedicated to its opening and featuring a laundry list of celebrities, including such 80s staples as Judge Reinhold (“I want to know how to dance leaving that theater”) and, um, OJ Simpson (with Nicole on his arm), aired nationally. Disneyland stayed open for 60 hours and ran the 3D film continuously just to meet demand. Disneyland was not only popular again; it was also hip .

Before Star Tours officially opened, Eades was joined by a clean-shaven Lucas, Oscar-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom (who told me that he came up with the famous Star Tours “chime”), and many of the Imagineers who had worked on the project, for a soft opening. Eades had a good feeling about it but an attraction like Star Tours was the first of its kind. Nobody knew how guests were going to react. “The first group came off and I heard this guy say, ‘Can you imagine how many miles of track Disneyland had to build under the park for this ride?’” Eades remembered. The guest thought that he was actually moving through space. Eades and the rest of the team knew they had a hit.

A few months after “Captain EO,” on Jan. 9, 1987, Star Tours would open at Disneyland. Lucas and Eisner were on hand, with Mickey and Minnie in their iconic silver space suits (with the rainbow on the chest), joined by C-3PO. Instead of a pair of oversized scissors, they used a lightsaber to cut the ceremonial ribbon. Just like “Captain EO,” they left the park open for 60 hours straight to meet demand. It was a smash out of the gate. But the success of Star Tours ultimately derailed an aspect of the attraction Eades had designed for the project: that every three years, the ride film would change. (That’s right, he said at some point you were actually supposed to get to Endor.)

In the early 1980s, Disneyland management and Imagineering had noticed an uptick in guests visiting multiple times a year, so Eades and his team had a refresh built into their proposal so that Star Tours would never get stale. “But because the damn ride was so popular, the parks said, ‘Why do you want to spend money, because you don’t need it,’” Eades said. ”And they were right.” Undoubtedly the decision to go with 70mm film also set the multiple-planets conceit back, as Baxter previously alluded to. It would be much trickier to switch out the ride film or the projection system. And he was right: it would be decades before that idea would be revisited.

Galactic Expansion

With two successful Lucas-led projects, both Disney and the filmmaker were emboldened. This was especially heartening for Eisner, who was about to open a risky new theme park in Florida dedicated to the behind-the-scenes aspects of the entertainment business.

Disney-MGM Studios, as it was then known, was designed to be many things: a working, world class film and television production facility (complete with a satellite animation studio designed with animators in mind), a theme park, and giant middle-finger to Universal Studios, which was planning to open its own multiday resort in Orlando. (Eisner, while still at Paramount, was supposedly in the meeting where Universal executives revealed the Florida project and by 1985, just a year after he assumed power at Disney, Eisner had begun work on what would eventually be Disney-MGM Studios.) The debut of Disney-MGM Studios would also serve as the opening salvo for an ambitious, 10-year effort to rejuvenate the Disney Parks brand and expand that brand worldwide. Eisner would later publicly refer to this initiative as the Disney Decade.

By the end of 1989, Star Tours would be open at Tokyo Disneyland and Disney-MGM Studios in slightly modified configurations. Instead of the Disneyland version, which took over a pre-existing attraction (Adventure Thru Innerspace) and was converted under the supervision of legendary Imagineer Tom Morris, the Disney World version was a blank slate. This new Star Tours was just around the corner from the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, also based on a Lucas property, which also opened in 1989. A more intricate façade was developed with a full-sized AT-AT walker (that at the time shot water from its moving turrets) and forested Ewok village and a show building that still maintained the “backlot” look of the rest of the park. It’s just an illusion, this new show building said, but what an illusion.

The Japanese version of Star Tours was even more ornate. As Kevin Rafferty recalls in his memoir “Magic Journeys,” he was tasked with Astrozone, a “unique-to-Tokyo Disneyland part of the Star Tours complex.” This new area was to include an “enclosed skyway bridge that connected Star Tours and a new two-level dine-in restaurant,” hosted by an adorable animatronic alien and eventually dubbed the Pan Galactic Pizza Port. In 1992, Star Tours would open, with a full-sized X-Wing, at the Euro Disney theme park (now known as Disneyland Paris). Fun needs no translation.

But the biggest change for the attraction would happen in late summer 2010, when both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of Star Tours would shut down completely. Years of rumors persisted that the attraction would be shuttered and reopened, this time themed around the pod-racing sequence from 1999’s prequel film “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.” As it turned out, the plans were much more ambitious.

Instead of a single new theme, the ride would be re-conceived, with the idea that Eades, Baxter and the other Imagineers had concocted during the blue-sky phase of the attraction’s development. You wouldn’t just be going to one planet, you would be going to all of your favorite “Star Wars” planets, including Tatooine (hello pod-race!), the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, underneath the opulent planet of Naboo, and on the snowy planet of Hoth, made famous by the opening battle sequence from “The Empire Strikes Back.” Incredibly, you don’t visit Endor, the Ewok-filled planet that you were attempting to visit in the first iteration of the ride, despite the fact that early marketing materials suggested the forest moon would be part of the new version of the attraction.

This new Star Tours, now dubbed Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, allowed guests, thanks to a cutting-edge randomization feature, to visit many planets in the course of a single trip aboard your new Starspeeder. The new version of the ride featured additional in-theater effects and C-3PO as your new in-cabin pilot, as well, and the digital projection of the ride film could be enjoyed in 3D.

In 2011, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue opened at Disneyland and Walt Disney World (it would reach Tokyo Disneyland in 2013 and Disneyland Paris in 2017). Further randomization was added when planets and characters from the new “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, including Jakku and Kef Bir, were included. And in a full circle moment, there was a sequence now devoted to Crait from “The Last Jedi,” the planet that was inspired by the original version of Star Tours.

On Friday, May 20, 2011, there was an opening celebration at Walt Disney World for the new Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. The park that was once Disney-MGM Studios was now called Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but Star Tours was just as important to the park. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger, who had succeeded Eisner, was there to inaugurate the new version of the attraction, as was Lucas. Darth Vader was on stage too, as was the creator of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” Dave Filoni, who would go on to shepherd “The Mandalorian.”

“Star Tours is a timeless adventure,” Iger said at the event. “Guests will be immersed in the Star Wars galaxy like never before.” He touted the “over 50” combinations that this new attraction would deliver, plus the fact that the Disneyland version would be open the following month. Lucas called the new attraction “amazing.” “It turned out better than we could ever imagine,” Lucas said. Lucas also cited the original plan to switch out the original ride film every few years. “This time we figured when we did it, we would give you all the reprogramming in one event,” Lucas said. He also referred to “secret cookies,” which were further randomizations (in one version you narrowly miss Jar Jar Binks who is seen swimming underneath Naboo, in another version you hit him dead on). These weren’t turned on until the “Force Awakens” additions in 2015.

After the event in Florida, Lucas and Iger convened to have lunch at the park’s Brown Derby restaurant. According to Iger, this is where he first floated an intriguing idea to Lucas – what if Disney bought Lucasfilm? Lucas listened. A few years later, he agreed. This conversation would lead to, amongst other things, the production of the sequel trilogy and the design and construction of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a 14-acre land that would feature the Millennium Falcon simulator attraction Eades had dreamed up all those years ago, along with Rise of the Resistance, one of the most technologically innovative and immersive attractions in the history of Walt Disney Imagineering. There’s even a “Star Wars”-y cantina, which, just as Eades had imagined it, is a few steps from the Millennium Falcon.

That cantina’s DJ might seem familiar. It’s Rex from Star Tours, once again voiced by Paul Reubens. Wonder if he ever made it to Endor.

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The Big Picture

• Hasbro to release exclusive Black Series Darth Maul figure at San Diego Comic-Con.
• Figure includes a Sith Speeder Bike, double-bladed lightsaber, and other accessories.
• Maul will be available at HasbroPulse.com after SDCC.

Everyone's talking about The Acolyte 's mysterious Stranger right now, but another iconic Sith Lord is making his way to this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Hasbro will offer an exclusive Black Series Darth Maul figure at SDCC. IGN has the first look at the menacing Maul, who comes with his Sith Speeder Bike.

Part of Hasbro's six-inch-scaled Black Series line, Maul will be fully-articulated, and will come with a black cloth cloak, replicating the look he had when he first encountered the Jedi on Tattooine. He will come with his sickle-shaped Sith Speeder Bike, which he can ride, as well as a number of accessories; his famous double-bladed lightsaber (which can be detached into two separate sabers), a pair of binoculars, and a Sith probe droid. Both the speeder and the probe droid will come with translucent plastic flight stands. The set will come in 1999-styled retro packaging with a plastic window for display. The set will retail for $59.99 USD, and will initially be available only at SDCC between July 25 and 28. Limited quantities will be available to order after the convention at HasbroPulse.com .

Who Is Darth Maul?

Debuting in 1999's Star Wars: The Phantom Menace , where he was played by stuntperson and martial artist Ray Park (and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz ), Maul was the menacing, demonic-looking apprentice of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious; he was sent to battle the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn ( Liam Neeson ) and Obi-Wan Kenobi ( Ewan McGregor ). They escaped him on Tattooine, but encountered him again on Naboo; Maul slew Jinn before Kenobi fatally bisected the Sith Lord, letting both halves of him tumble into a seemingly bottomless pit. The Clone Wars animated series revealed Maul's origin on the witch-haunted planet of Dathomir, and gave him a brother, the similarly malevolent Savage Opress. Most shockingly, it revealed that Maul had survived with cybernetics replacing the lower half of his body. The resurrected Maul later rose to become a crimelord, as seen in live-action in Solo: A Star Wars Story , before finally meeting his end in the sands of Tattooine at the hands of an aged Kenobi in Star Wars: Rebels .

Hasbro will offer a bevy of other exclusive figures at San Diego Comic-Con. Those include a mutated Cobra Commander, homaging 1987's G.I. Joe: The Movie ; a Marvel Legends figure of Death's Head, a cybernetic freelance peacekeeping agent who has interacted with the universes of Marvel, the Transformers , and Doctor Who ; and a Transformers two pack of Orion Pax and Megatron, reflecting their appearances from IDW's comic books set before the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, and before Orion Pax became the legendary Optimus Prime.

Hasbro's Black Series Darth Maul, and all of Hasbro's other exclusives, will be available at San Diego Comic-Con from July 25 to 28 ; limited quantities will be available at HasbroPulse.com after the convention. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Two Jedi escape a hostile blockade to find allies and come across a young boy who may bring balance to the Force, but the long dormant Sith resurface to claim their original glory.

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Yury Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre (Zvezdny Gorodok - Star Town) (7 hours)

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The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center is a Russian training facility responsible for training cosmonauts for their space missions. It is in Star City of Moscow Oblast, a name which may refer to the facility itself or to its grounds. (Read more about Yury Gagarin Cosmonauts training center )

The secret Star City was built to train Soviet cosmonauts, including Yuri Gagarin, the 1st man in space. Many other famous Russian cosmonauts trained here with Gagarin: German Titov, Valentina Tereshkova, the first female cosmonaut, and Alexei Leonov, the first cosmonaut to exit the spaceship into space . The best facilities were built for them: the world’s largest centrifuge and hydro laboratory. Many cosmonauts from other countries (USA, Japan, Germany and many others) also have trained here together with Soviet Russian cosmonauts. On this Star (Space) City Tour you will see:

• Models of Soyuz Soviet spacecraft 
• World's largest centrifuge with an 18-meter radius 
• Hydro laboratory, with the model of the International Space Station in water, which allows to simulate the weightlessness and many more

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• Professional English-speaking guide assistance. Other languages upon request (additional charge may apply)
• Roundtrip transportation to and from your central hotel (Comfortable car/minivan with A/C)
• Fully private tour to ensure a personalized experience
• Entrance fee to Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (territory)
• Entrance fee to Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre Museum
• All taxes, fees and handling charges
• Food  / Drinks
• Personal expenses
• Gratuities to guide/driver (optional)

The tour price already includes all the taxes & fees, you will not see any of them later during the checkout.

Adult pricing applies to all travelers

IMPORTANT! To book the tours please provide us with the copy of your passport (scan of page with photo) and the following information (for all the travellers):

1. Surname / Names (as in passport) 2. Passport number 3. Passport expiry date 4. Date of birth 5. Place of birth (country, city, state) 6. Place of current residence (country, city, state) 7. Citizenship 8. Place of work 9. Position held 

This information is required to get access to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, as per their security policy.

If it took Gagarin 1 year to get prepared, now it takes 7 years to become a cosmonaut, and 50 days to pass  security  check for foreign visitors.

Due to the security policy of the Centre, the guided tours are to be arranged in 50 days before the tour date. Last-minute arrangements are not available. 

Departure: from your Moscow hotel

Return: to your Moscow hotel (or any other place in Moscow that you choose)

Sights included in program

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Our flexible payment options allow you to pay 20% of a deposit first and the remaining 80% in 14 days prior to your tour date - payment can be done both online or over the phone. This gives you the peace of mind knowing your spaces are booked on the tours and that you do not miss out on making the most of your time in Russia.

Also you get 5% discount and get the best, top-rated and most experienced and knowledgeable hand-picked tour guide appointed on a priority basis. In our experience, exceptional travel experiences are almost always delivered by exceptional people. With that in mind, we utilize a comprehensive approach to select and employ the best tour guides only. Multilingual and well travelled, each possesses deep insight into the diverse attractions and cultural patterns throughout the region. With us guides undergo a rigorous selection process, achieving outstanding knowledge of local culture and language. Rest assured that the best tour guides only will be working on the tours to give you excellent opportunity to explore the best of the sights during both short and long-term stay in Russia.

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Out of the Centre

Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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