Planet of Batuu to feature in upcoming book ahead of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opening

Apr 02, 2018 in "Star Wars Galaxy's Edge"

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Posted: Monday April 2, 2018 12:56pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The upcoming 'Thrawn: Alliances' book will introduce readers to the planet of Batuu, the remote outpost that will be the setting for the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge lands when they open in 2019.

'Thrawn: Alliances' will be released on July 24 2018, and finds Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader joining forces for a secret mission. You can read more about the story with an excerpt at starwars.com.

This new book will be the second time that Batuu has been part of a Star Wars story, with Star Tours receiving an update in November 2017 to include a visit to Batuu.

Planet of Batuu

Walt Disney Imagineering's Scott Trowbridge described Batuu:

This remote outpost on the galaxy’s edge was once a busy crossroads along the old sub-lightspeed trade routes, but its prominence was bypassed by the rise of hyperspace travel. Now home to those who prefer to stay out of the mainstream, it has become a thriving port for smugglers, rogue traders and adventurers traveling between the frontier and uncharted space. It’s also a convenient safe haven for those intent on avoiding the expanding reach of the First Order. While Batuu may be new to us, it is clearly already familiar to many characters from the Star Wars saga as a stepping off point for epic adventures.

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Jobacca22 days ago

Star Wars Weekends were 1000x more fun than Galaxys Edge

mickEblu22 days ago

I agree. I think a lot of people think not going with the OT was the main issue but I don't think that's the case.

HauntedPirate22 days ago

I didn't say they should have focused on the OT, just that their focus on the ST was a mistake. One of many.

999th Happy Haunt22 days ago

mickEblu22 days ago

I don’t think focusing on the OT would have brought more people to the land as much as I think more fun/whimsy throughout the land would have. The Falcon ride should have been a coaster. They missed the mark on Smugglers Run and thought it would make Star Tours obsolete. The OT would have just been a cherry on top of the land being more full of life and being more fun.

HauntedPirate22 days ago

Almost as if those in charge were so sure they'd be printing money with their sequels for decades that they'd have to ration access to their wondrous land dedicated to them because people would be coming in droves to see Kylo and other ST stuff. Just another misguided spending spree, this one resulting in another under-built Bob-land.

LSLS22 days ago

Personally, no, that's not what bums me about it. The lack of rides, and the narrow pathways is what I still don't really like about it. Give me some room and a lot more to do (and no, I don't consider shops things to do).

mickEblu22 days ago

Well good news is they don't have to do any swapping. Just get some OT characters walking around, have more of a "Force" presence, lightsaber duels at various times in the day, a AA Yoda walk through attraction, a Jabba's palace dinner theatre show and base the lands third attraction on the OT. Oh yea some more missions in the Smugglers Run with some of them being OT centric.

MagicHappens197122 days ago

Nothing about Galaxy’s Edge was built to be “swapped”. The land was built based on the directive from “up top” to make it based around the sequel trilogy. End of story

Purduevian22 days ago

Looks like we are in agreement that it is possible! I was just saying I don't think ROTR was specifically designed to be a quick swap to the OT based on the specific FO stuff that would be difficult to replace

𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗9722 days ago

Retheme of Big Thunder confirmed

mickEblu22 days ago

True just find some room for a Trench Run coaster somewhere.

999th Happy Haunt22 days ago

Not denying those would be decently big changes, but I refuse to believe the retheme is not possible because of them. Look at Splash Mountain. By relatively fast I mean like around a year to switch over.

Purduevian22 days ago

I think that is a rumor there quite a few large things that really can't super easily be swapped to the OT. Off the top of my head: BB8 animatronics in the preshow All of the storm troopers are First Order not empire and would need to be re-skinned The Tie wings in the hanger are First Order The AT-ATs are FO Sure anything is possible, but it's not as simple as changing Kylos outfit/helmet to a vader one and changin dialog.