Star Wars Launch Bay

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars Launch Bay opened as a walkthrough experience, unveiled the same day as two much bigger Disney projects. Those were Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, along with its promised Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance rides. Launch Bay itself carried none of that scale. It was an interactive space built inside three separate Disney resorts: one in California, one in Orlando, one in Shanghai. Each version would open on its own schedule, close for its own reasons, and vanish in its own way. What made an attraction built to hold fans over eventually get erased at every single park that hosted it?

• 2. Season Of The Force

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  On the 15th of August 2015, Disney used the D23 Expo's Disney Parks Presentation to unveil the plans for Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The same event also introduced Season of the Force, a themed celebration set to run at each park. It came bundled with an updated scene for Star Tours - The Adventures Continue.

  Disneyland's version opened first, on the 16th of November 2015, timed to that park's own Season of the Force kickoff. Disney's Hollywood Studios followed on the 1st of December 2015, opening its version the same way. Shanghai Disneyland came last, opening its Launch Bay on the 16th of June 2016, inside the resort's Tomorrowland Pavilion. Three parks now each had their own Launch Bay, but pandemic closures and a changing Disney parks map would treat each one differently.

• 3. Divergent Closures

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  The Orlando version of Launch Bay shut down on the 16th of March 2020, and did not reopen until the 17th of July 2022. In between, the building became a Relaxation Station, letting guests safely remove facial coverings while keeping their distance from each other.

  The California version closed two days earlier, on the 14th of March 2020, when the whole resort shut down. Stay-at-home orders from California Governor Gavin Newsom, issued twice during the pandemic, kept the park and its Launch Bay closed for months. At some point before May 2025, the attraction reopened, though now hosting character meet-and-greet sessions instead of its original walkthrough.

  The Shanghai version shut down in June 2019, more than half a year before COVID-19 reached the world. Only the Orlando version still operated under the Launch Bay name, its future about to be decided in a single Disney announcement.

• 4. The Final Announcement

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  On the 22nd of July 2025, Disney announced that Launch Bay's version at Disney's Hollywood Studios would close, though no date was set. The closure would also take out the surrounding Animation Courtyard area at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

  In its place, Disney plans to reopen in 2026 with a reimagined version of The Magic of Disney Animation. That reopening is tied to a larger construction plan for a new land called The Walt Disney Studios Lot. Until Disney names an exact closing date, Star Wars Launch Bay's last version keeps welcoming guests inside Disney's Hollywood Studios' Animation Courtyard.