Star Tours 2.0 Return Date Set

I’m definitely looking forward to what Imagineers have done with the motion simulator attraction Star Tours. It will open as part of this year’s Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Inquiring minds want to know if George Lucas will finall make an appearance at a SWW.

From the time Star Tours debuted at Disneyland Park in 1987 and at Walt Disney World Resort in 1989 until the attraction went dark for “reimagining” in fall 2010, guests embarked on a journey to the Moon of Endor and beyond, with a trainee pilot named REX at the controls of 40-passenger Starspeeder 3000 spacecraft.

Now the Star Tours attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida (scheduled to reopen May 20) and at Disneyland Park in California (scheduled to reopen June 3) puts a whole new twist on virtual space travel with Starspeeder 1000 craft — predating the Starspeeder 3000 because the new show depicts an earlier chapter of the Star Wars saga than the original Star Tours did. But fear not: Techno-wizards are equipping passengers on the 1000 with the ability to experience the new adventure in eye-popping 3D — wherever that adventure may take them.

The destination is not necessarily what guests expect — unless they expect the unexpected — as C-3PO, a new pilot (by accident) takes the controls for a journey to the “metropolitan” planet Coruscant or to Tatooine an arid planet on the “Outer Rim,” or to some other planet within Star Wars’ mythical universe. Even the outcome of the adventure may change from one “launch” to the next.