What could Disney magic do for STAR WARS? Have you seen the video? (1 Viewer)

In case you haven't seen this Star Wars parody....

I thought it was ok. Production values were great but just not that funny.

I thought it was actually pretty funny.

Actually, what Disney REALLY does with Star Wars, every May-June at the theme parks, is better:

Tino said:

I thought it was ok. Production values were great but just not that funny.

Click to expand...

Agree. It looks pretty good but it's not especially clever...

I'm hoping for a Star Wars theme park at WDW. The SW section at Disney Hollywood Studios is really neat, but there's so much they could do with the property. I hear the Harry Potter area at Universal is great, although I haven't seen it myself (yet).

Exit through the gift shop.....

How else would we have made our own droid action figures?

I think a theme park is inevitable. The two people mentioned to succeed Disney CEO Bob Iget are the guy who is currently head of the theme park division and Kathleen Kennedy. The only way I see that Star Wars won't be it's own park is if it is deemed a threat to the existing parks, in which case it will be an addition to an existing one.

A new park would definitely not be a threat to the existing parks. Walt Disney World Resorts is always packed except for just a few weeks a year. It is actually quite amazing. And this is the longest WDW has gone without creating a new park. However I doubt they would go with a park themed on exactly one set of movies. Too much risk that it would fall out of favor even with Disney Studios trying to keep it alive continously. I think a new park would be based around Star Wars and the Marvel Universe at a minimum. They might try to pick up another sci-fi / heroes property or develop a more generic sci-fi interest to build a park around similar to how Magic Kingdom is about fairy tales and princesses in general and not exclusively tied to any one.

I am positive that Disney could create a sci-fi / Star Wars / Marvel Universe that would be just as magical for 10-16 year olds as Magic Kingdom is for 3-9 year olds but they may not really want to bother. Why spend that much money to try and attract yet more people to an already packed park system and increase your risk during a major downturn when Universal doesn't really leech that many people away anyway (the theoretical target market)? However I would love to go if they did it. Hell, I've been seven times without it.

I would imagine that Universal's in-progress $1.5 BILLION expansion/ renovation has WDW thinking about ways to not stagnate. (Note that they're currently finishing up a fairly major expansion of Fantasyland in the MK.)

With Universal, I think they made a mistake building Harry Potter land unless it has already paid for itself. I enjoyed seeing it but it is a property that was almost dead by the time they got it finished. There is nothing keeping HP alive. No new movies, no new books, no real universe to work with so I expect it to fade pretty fast. If Disney uses Star Wars extensively in their parks, they did it right by getting control of the entire property first and then developing it rather than relying on the whim of a 3rd party. Same with their acquisition of Marvel.

Universal is actually about to begin a massive renovation/ expansion of the Harry Potter world. From what I hear, it could be doubling in size. It must be doing something right!

They don't necessarily need a lot of new material to work with. Lots of kids (mine included) are just experiencing the Harry Potter books and movies for the first time. It appears to have real staying power.

There's been a major Star Wars presence at Disney since long before they acquired Lucasfilm. (Marvel, not so much.)

(Oops; duplicate post.)

Confirmation arrives:

http://media.universalorlando.com/PressRelease/detail.aspx?id=1576

Scheduled to open in 2014, the world’s first centrally themed, multi-park experience expands The Wizarding World of Harry Potter across both Universal Orlando theme parks and allows Universal’s creative team to bring an unparalleled vision to this unique project. The new area will bring to life some of the experiences and places found in and around London in the Harry Potter books and films, offering brand-new adventures for fans and theme park guests from around the world.

Diagon Alley and ‘London’ will be located within the Universal Studios Florida theme park, which is adjacent to Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park, where guests now experience Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. The new area within Universal Studios will be just as expansive, immersive and authentic as the existing themed environment.

And – just like in the books and films – guests will be able to travel between ‘London’ and Hogsmeade aboard the Hogwarts Express.

Work on the new area is already underway. When complete, it will feature shops, a restaurant and an innovative, marquee attraction based on Gringotts bank – all directly inspired by the fiction and films.

Click to expand...

Let's go, Disney! Take me to Coruscant!