Star Wars Launch Bay
| Star Wars Launch Bay | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disney's Hollywood Studios |
| Land / area | Animation Courtyard |
| Type | Walk-through exhibit and character greetings |
| Opened | December 1, 2015 |
| Closed | September 24, 2025 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Closed |
Star Wars Launch Bay was a walk-through Star Wars exhibit at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, combining galleries of props, replicas and models with character greetings, a theatre and a shop. It opened on December 1, 2015, in Animation Courtyard, in the former home of The Magic of Disney Animation, and closed permanently after its final operating day on September 24, 2025.[1]
History
Launch Bay was announced at the D23 Expo in August 2015, at the same presentation that unveiled Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, as part of a rapid build-up of Star Wars in the park ahead of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which reached cinemas on December 18, 2015. Galaxy's Edge was years away; Launch Bay gave Walt Disney World a substantial Star Wars presence immediately, as the centrepiece of a December 1, 2015 package that also brought Star Wars: Path of the Jedi, a saga film overview, and a revised Jedi Training.[2]
It took over the park's animation building, an opening-day structure whose Magic of Disney Animation tour had closed in July 2015. A version of Launch Bay also opened at Disneyland in California in November 2015, in that park's Tomorrowland.
For its first years Launch Bay functioned as the franchise's park headquarters and preview centre, its galleries refreshed for each new film. Its role changed when Galaxy's Edge opened in August 2019, placing a full Star Wars land at the other end of the park: Launch Bay remained the home of character greetings that the land did not offer, but it was no longer the park's only Star Wars address. In its later years its offerings narrowed — its theatre, which had shown a short behind-the-scenes film about the saga's filmmakers, stood closed while the galleries and greetings continued.
Experience
The attraction was self-guided. A queue and entrance area lined with concept artwork led into a series of galleries divided broadly between the light and dark sides of the saga. The Celebration Gallery displayed models of the fleets' ships; the Preview Gallery showed replicas of props, costumes and artefacts from the newest films, beginning with The Force Awakens. Displays across the building included starfighter and vehicle models, helmets, lightsabers and blasters, costumes, and full-size pieces, among them an actual speeder bike from Return of the Jedi and Anakin's podracer from The Phantom Menace. A mock-up cantina corner, with a holochess table, served as a photo spot.
The greetings were, for most guests, the main event, each in its own themed setting with its own queue. Chewbacca received guests in a Rebel base; Darth Vader confronted them in an Imperial setting; and BB-8, mounted at photo height, beeped and reacted to visitors. Kylo Ren occupied the dark-side greeting in the attraction's earlier years before Vader took the spot. A separate Vader greeting was reserved at times for Disney Visa cardholders.
The route ended in Launch Bay Cargo, a shop pitched above ordinary merchandise, selling higher-end collectibles, replicas and autographed memorabilia alongside standard souvenirs.
Closure
On July 22, 2025, Disney announced that Animation Courtyard would be reimagined as the Walt Disney Studios Lot, and that the Launch Bay building would become a new version of The Magic of Disney Animation, restoring the building to the purpose it had served from 1989 to 2015, beneath a recreation of the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, topped by a Sorcerer's Hat.
September 24, 2025 was Launch Bay's final operating day; Animation Courtyard closed from September 25 for the transformation, with the new animation experience expected to open in 2026.[3] The character greetings were relocated elsewhere in the park, and Star Wars in the park consolidated in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. The Disneyland version of Launch Bay was not part of the Florida closure.
See also
- Disney's Hollywood Studios
- Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
References
- ↑ https://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/star-wars-launch-bay/news/01dec2015-photos---the-force-awakens-at-disneys-hollywood-studios-with-new-star-wars-launch-bay.htm
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Launch_Bay
- ↑ https://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/star-wars-launch-bay/news/23sep2025-final-chance-to-visit-star-wars-launch-bay-at-disneys-hollywood-studios-before-permanent-closure.htm