{"id":460734,"date":"2026-04-30T03:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/460734\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T03:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:11:16","slug":"darth-vader-arrives-at-star-wars-land-marking-a-pivot-for-disneyland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/460734\/","title":{"rendered":"Darth Vader arrives at &#8216;Star Wars&#8217; Land, marking a pivot for Disneyland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Not every crowd will gleefully applaud and cheer a known notorious villain. But the Disneyland faithful certainly will, as when Darth Vader set foot in the park\u2019s Star Wars: Galaxy\u2019s Edge on Wednesday morning and the audience erupted in approving hollers. <\/p>\n<p>Kylo Ren has officially been evicted from the fictional \u201cStar Wars\u201d town of Black Spire Outpost. Vader has instead taken up residence, and he will appear multiple times daily in front of the land\u2019s militaristic TIE fighter before stalking the area on the prowl for Luke Skywalker.<\/p>\n<p>In Vader\u2019s first two appearances 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 showing \u2014 one time critiquing Black Spire Outpost and later talking of a run-in with a Jedi. <\/p>\n<p>           <video playsinline=\"playsinline\" loop=\"\" preload=\"none\" title=\"Darth Vader arrives at Disneyland\u2019s Galaxy\u2019s Edge\" data-video-id=\"0000019d-da7c-dce6-a7dd-fe7fd0790000\">               <\/video>               <img class=\"image\" alt=\"\"   width=\"473\" height=\"840\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777518676_711_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>             <\/p>\n<ul data-element=\"action-bar-menu\" class=\"flex gap-2 list-none  absolute w-full h-10 top-0\">\n<li data-element=\"action-bar-share\" class=\"flex  w-full h-10 top-0 lg:items-center lg:justify-center \">\n<p> Share via     Close extra sharing options  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Vader isn\u2019t the only new addition to the area. Leia, Han and Luke, the latter of whom previously appeared in the land for a limited time last year, are also now regularly appearing in Galaxy\u2019s Edge. <\/p>\n<p>Their presence marks a major shift in direction for the 14-acre theme park land. When Galaxy\u2019s Edge opened in 2019, it was set at a fixed point in the \u201cStar Wars\u201d timeline, namely one in the middle of the latest films in the series. <\/p>\n<p>This was done in part to promote the new cinematic works, but to also facilitate interaction, placing guests on an unknown adventure rather than one with a fixed outcome. It was <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/travel\/story\/2026-01-14\/disneyland-star-wars-galaxys-edge-whats-new\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a theme park experiment<\/a> to see how much Disneyland attendees would lean in and role play.<\/p>\n<p>But Disneyland wisely hasn\u2019t completely pivoted on the Galaxy\u2019s Edge mission. The characters appear out in the land and on a quest rather than simply standing and posing for photos. <\/p>\n<p>Leia, for instance, spent the bulk of one appearance working with the furry Chewbacca to fix up the starship Millennium Falcon. Later, she joked around with Luke and asked young fans if they wanted to train to learn the ways of the Force. <\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll have more on the changes to Galaxy\u2019s Edge and what they mean for the future of Disneyland in <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/newsletters\/mr-todds-wild-ride-sign-up\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">our theme park newsletter, Mr. Todd\u2019s Wild Ride<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not every crowd will gleefully applaud and cheer a known notorious villain. But the Disneyland faithful certainly will,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[40001,202614,118786,134414,37215,18,117,7443,19,17,11661,202613,42318,327,202615,202617,8127,202618,34232,202616],"class_list":["post-460734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-area","tag-black-spire-outpost","tag-darth-vader","tag-disneyland","tag-edge","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-galaxy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-land","tag-leia","tag-luke-skywalker","tag-movies","tag-multiple-time","tag-pivot","tag-star-wars","tag-theme-park-experiment","tag-wednesday-morning","tag-young-jedi"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116491471212441624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}