Grogu adorably crashes a Millennium Falcon mission in ambitious new Disneyland crossover

“The Mandalorian and Grogu,” the first “Star Wars” franchise film in seven years, flies into theaters this weekend – and Disneyland pulled out all the stops to celebrate.

Starting on May 22, adventurers visiting Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be treated to a new mission on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, featuring everybody’s favorite bounty hunter and tiny green force user.

Pulling off the high-speed new mission in time for the film’s release was a challenging task for the famed Imagineering team, who collaborated directly with Lucasfilm top brass to crack the story.

“This has been about an 18-month journey that began with conversations with Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau. We knew that they were working on an incredible new film, and we were really excited about this idea of, maybe one of the first times bringing an attraction to the park day-and-date with the actual release of the film,” Walt Disney Imagineering’s Executive of Creative & Interactive Experiences Asa Kalama tells The California Post, adding that he snuck in a reference to fan-favorite species the Anzellans into the ride’s queue.

Thankfully, some cutting-edge technology helped streamline the experience of translating a galaxy far, far away to the attraction. “The entire experience is built on Unreal, which is a technology pipeline that our partners at Lucasfilm actually use in the production of both TV shows and film, so there’s this really great synergy where we were able to take assets from their library that they use for special effects and then have those same assets actually appear in the attraction,” Kalama says.

The California Post was given a special hands-on preview of the new mission, in which Grogu adorably tapped buttons and ate cookies as the Mandalorian guided our crew through dangerous airspace.

I took a word of advice from Kalama and requested the “engineer” position on our spacecraft (other roles include pilots and gunners), and it paid off. In the new iteration, engineers have a beefed-up set of tasks including initiating a private video call with Grogu, and even choosing the planetary destination where the crew will fly – Bespin, Endor or Coruscant (I went with Endor, for obvious Ewok-related reasons).

Lucasfilm Sr. Creative Executive Matt Martin says the additions are designed to deepen fan experience between the screen and in Disney Parks.

“There’s so many great moments with Grogu, both in the film and in the attraction, that you’re gonna come out loving Grogu more. You’re gonna come out probably speaking baby talk, just like him.”

Elsewhere in Galaxy’s Edge, the lore timeline has been expanded to include classic characters like Darth Vader, Leia Organa, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

“All of these things align together a little bit. Since we started working on the attraction, that really gave us a chance to rethink everything, because the attraction was set in a time period. Now, it’s set in a different time period,” Disney Live Entertainment Executive Creative Director Michael Serna says.

“Last year, we brought Luke Skywalker in for a limited time, and obviously the fans freaked out and loved it. So we really thought, ‘Well, how do we keep Luke long-term? How do we look at this as a different land entirely?’”

Beloved BDX droids will also return to Galaxy’s Edge on Friday, accompanied by new selections of beloved scores from composer John Williams. 

To cap off the Baby Yoda-fever this weekend, visitors can also celebrate the release of the new film by catching Grogu as he tests his power to recall fond memories of his adventures with The Mandalorian in nightly projection show “The Curious Child,” playing after “Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga.”

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