Not all crowds will happily applaud and cheer for a well-known and notorious villain. But the Disneyland faithful certainly will, like when Darth Vader set foot on the park's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Wednesday morning and the crowd erupted in cheers of approval.
Kylo Ren has officially been evicted from the fictional “Star Wars” city of Black Spire Outpost. Instead, Vader has taken up residence and will appear several times a day in front of Earth's militaristic TIE fighter before stalking the area in wait for Luke Skywalker.
In Vader's first two appearances on Wednesday, he spoke of his quest to hunt down the young Jedi. He was flanked by two classic Stormtroopers, who had different dialogue in each presentation: once criticizing Black Spire Outpost and then talking about an encounter with a Jedi.
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Vader isn't the only new addition to the area. Leia, Han and Luke, the latter of whom previously appeared on Earth for a limited time last year, now also appear regularly in Galaxy's Edge.
Its presence marks a major change in the direction of the 14-acre theme park site. When Galaxy's Edge opened in 2019, it was set at a fixed point in the “Star Wars” timeline—that is, one in the middle of the final films in the series.
This was done partly to promote new cinematic works, but also to facilitate interaction, placing visitors on an unknown adventure rather than one with a fixed outcome. It was an experiment at a theme park to see the extent to which Disneyland-goers leaned in and role-played.
But Disneyland, wisely, hasn't focused entirely on the Galaxy's Edge mission. The characters appear on the ground and on a quest rather than simply standing and posing for photographs.
Leia, for example, spent most of one appearance working with the furry Chewbacca to fix the Millennium Falcon spaceship. Later, he joked with Luke and asked the young fans if they wanted to train to learn the ways of the Force.
We'll have more on the changes to Galaxy's Edge and what they mean for the future of Disneyland in our theme park newsletter, Mr. Todd's Wild Ride.
