Disney Resorts will offer a Virtual Reality Star Wars land this year
Star Wars Land -- or as Disney now insists on calling it, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge -- is heading towards our planet at the speed of an asthmatic Bantha. We won't see it until 2019.
But if the thought of having to wait a whole two years to see it has you staring mournfully at a double sunset, there's good news Thursday from the world of virtual reality.
Both Disneyland and Disney World resorts will be offering an immersive Star Wars VR experience called Secrets of the Empire, starting this holiday season.
There are precious few official Secrets of the Empire details available right now -- just that it was designed by Lucasfilm's own Industrial Light & Magic in its VR lab, and is being presented by a Utah company called The Void.
However, a promotional image for the experience shows everyone's favorite Rogue One droid, K-2SO, guiding children in Stormtrooper outfits through what appears to be an assault on Darth Vader's castle on Mustafar.
And that would explain the VR experience ILM showed off at Apple's WWDC keynote this year, where you get to see Darth Vader up close near a downed TIE fighter -- also on Mustafar.
Disney guests "will move freely throughout the untethered, social, and multi-sensory Secrets of the Empire experience in a way that allows them to interact and engage with friends, family and Star Wars characters," the Void's press release says.
Added ILMxLab executive Vicki Dobbs Beck: "combining Lucasfilm’s storytelling expertise with cutting-edge imagery, and immersive sound from the team at Skywalker Sound, while invoking all the senses, we hope to truly transport all those who experience Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire to a galaxy far, far away.”
The key part of that quote may be "invoking all the senses." Void co-founder Curtis Hickman noted that a true VR experience should include smell -- so if you ever wondered what the Star Wars galaxy smells like, you may soon have your answer.
The Void got its start with a $50 Ghostbusters VR experience at Madam Tussauds in New York's Times Square last year, which was met with mixed reviews.
We don't know how much Secrets of the Empire will cost yet or exactly when in the holidays it will open, but it will be available at two brand-new Void Experience Centers: one at Downtown Disney at Disneyland Resort and Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort.
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
