Celebrating The High Republic (and meeting a Jedi legend) at Season of the Force
Further adventures in a galaxy far, far away
As I mentioned a couple of posts back, I was recently in Los Angeles for a host of meetings with George Mann. But it wasn't all business. The week ended with a visit to Disneyland with some of our other Star Wars: The High Republic pals to celebrate the launch of his year’s Season of the Force event.
Thanks to Lucasfilm and Disney, we were lucky to have a brilliant VIP tour guide to accompany us around the park and give us a unique visit to the various lands in the Happiest Place on Earth.
Talk about being spoilt! Of course, that didn’t stop us from slipping into the park the previous evening to head straight for my favourite ride, the Haunted Mansion!
We also swung by Galaxy’s Edge and made sure we rode Star Tours before the night was done (getting treated to a transmission from a very cheerful Cassian Andor mid-mission!)
The Season of the Force preview day itself featured so many highlights that I can’t share them all with you, but here are just a few:
THAT'S NO MOON...
The celebrations began before we even left the hotel when we discovered that this had materialised in the lobby overnight...
Just look at that ingredient list:
No wonder it took the Empire so long to construct!
A HIGH REPUBLIC SURPRISE IN OGA'S CANTINA
After a hard morning, ahem, enjoying rides, we weren't prepared for another surprise as we entered Oga's Cantina. Batuu’s premiere drinking establishment has a new cocktail on the menu.
Yup, the High Republic is basically a bizarre mix of a margarita and red wine, but – do you know what? – it really, really works!
Of course, we had to raise a glass… or two.
Okay, so Claudia also had a Fuzzy Tauntaun, but you can't blame her when Rex was spinning such tunes!
And the surprises didn't stop there as we discovered a new dessert in the Docking Bay diner — Vintian Mineral Mouse, inspired by our very own Geode.
Absolutely delicious! You could say it rocked!
Meet George Mann
Suitably refuelled, we headed to the main preview event where we were on hand to wax lyrical about the park, Season of the Force and, of course, the High Republic.
It‘s fair to say that we were a little giddy by this point, but only from the excitement of being together. It had nothing to do with hijinks in the Cantina.
Honest.
Just some of the goodies in the Season of the Force preview, including the moment Alyssa Wong fell in love with the new Droid Depot remote control Mouse Droid!
Some of the interviews from the press event have started to be released, and you can catch them below!
What most people didn’t see was that the event also gave us a gift from the Force in the form of the official 'Meet George Mann' sign.
George had been given his own little spot to talk about the parts of his Star Wars work that feature Batuu.
Of course, we proceeded to rib him mercilessly about the sign for the rest of the day, even going so far as liberating said article after the event had come to an end and we’d been given our goodie bags. We made sure that everywhere we went, people knew that, yes, they could meet the great Mann.
FOR LIGHT SHOW AND LIFE
The day ended with the first showing of the Shadows of Memory light show, projected against Batuu’s towering Black Spire above the Falcon.
It.
Is.
SPECTACULAR!
I didn’t take that many pictures as I was completely spellbound, my hairs standing on end as we were treated to a beautiful summary of the first six movies in the Skywalker Saga, culminating in a notable reference to staging a resistance to the returning darkness. It was a truly special moment, and I was pleased to be able to offer my congratulations to Matt Martin, who watched it with us after working on the show with the Imagineering team.
And talking about special moments...
MEETING LUKE SKYWALKER
Character photo op.
Those three words cropped up halfway through our itinerary for the day, and so we dutifully arrived to meet Batuu’s latest visitor, none other than Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, on his first day in the park.
I have to admit, I was a little underwhelmed when we were waiting for the photographer to call us over. I mean, it was my favourite version of Luke from my favourite Star Wars film, but it wasn’t like it was the real deal, right?
Wrong.
The moment he introduced himself as Luke, I was suddenly ten again.
As we posed for the photo, he asked how we wanted to stand. ‘Using the Force’ I blurted out and so he asked us to raise our hands. I tell you, I was like a kid, especially when Master Luke congratulated me on my pose but advised me to relax my hand to let the Force flow freely.
That’s what's truly magical about Star Wars and Disneyland as a whole. There is always a moment where the magic gets to you, no matter how cynical you’re feeling.
It truly was a special day. As we walked back to our hotel, I chatted with Charles about all the incredible moments like this we‘ve shared over the last few years, from first visiting Skywalker Ranch way back in 2018 to meeting its namesake in Batuu. This was probably the last time this many of us will be together before this initial phase of the High Republic ends and I wouldn’t have missed it for all the worlds.
