UNBUILT: Disney’s ORIGINAL ‘Star Wars’ Land Almost Took Over Tomorrowland 40 Years Ago!

“A long time ago in a theme park far far away…”

Picture this: a massive themed experience in the middle of Disneyland themed to the work of George Lucas and anchored by a revolutionary Star Was attraction. Sounds a lot like Galaxy’s Edge right? Well, what if I told you that plans for something very similar actually existed nearly 4 decades before that 2019 addition was built? This is the story of LucasPort, the Star Wars land that almost was…

While most Disney fans likely think that the relationship between Disney and George Lucas began with mid-80s projects like Captain EO and Star Tours, the truth is that Imagineers like Tony Baxter had been dreaming of working with Lucas since the beginning of the decade. Eventually, they zeroed in on using the director’s properties to massively refurbish Disneyland’s Tomorrowland.

(Sidenote: Yes, 40 years ago Disneyland’s Tomorrowland was in rough shape, battered by the so-called “Tomorrowland Problem” and desperately in need of a change. You know what they say, “the more things change, the more they stay the same…”)

So, Imagineers led by Baxter worked with George Lucas on the plan that would become known as LucasPort. There’s some conjecture that this name was simply a blue sky placeholder, a theory backed up by the name VenturePort appearing on some concept artwork signage. Either way, the plan called for a massive new structure to be built in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, partially backstage and partially replacing/integrating preexisting architecture like the Carousel Theater (which at the time was showing the aging America Sings).

The gigantic glass superstructure – – eagle-eyed EPCOT aficionados likely notice that the designs bear a more than passing similarity to the glass structures Baxter had originally envisioned for that park’s original Land pavilion concept – – would have featured multiple levels housing several new attractions, plus food and dining, as well as walking paths. The Monorail and PeopleMover tracks, as well as the Rocket Jets,  would have also been rerouted and integrated into the new structure.

LucasPort’s primary attraction was planned to be a Star Wars-themed roller coaster that frankly would still be revolutionary today, let alone in the early 1980s. Plans for the coaster called it for begin on Dagobah – – the planet where Yoda spent his exile as seen in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi – – where, where Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi would “lift” rider’s vehicle with the Force and position using a clever launch stem utilizing moving track pieces.

From there, the coaster would zoom through a “greatest hits” of scenes from the then-three film Star Wars saga including encounters with Stormtroopers, AT-AT Walkers, a lightsaber dual between Darth Vader and a Jedi, near-misses with meteorites reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon in Empire, and experience the destruction of the Death Star.

Furthermore, throughout the ride there would be “three points strategically placed along the track where guests could choose to either participate in a dog fight with the Empire or flee. According to some sources, this would indicate the difference between choosing the light side or dark side of The Force, while others seem to indicate that “fleeing” would simply lead to a more family-friendly portion of the ride.

In addition, the complex was too house a second attraction: The ExtraTERRORestial Alien Encounter. Given the somewhat muddled nature blue sky timelines, it’s unclear if this would have been a version of the attraction closer to the original intention of being based on the Xenomorph from the Alien film series, or the latter original version that terrified Magic Kingdom guests the following decade.

So, what happened to LucasPort?

Well for starters, as with many blue sky Disney projects, budget became a factor. The project was massive, featuring two groundbreaking attractions, a huge structure that interweaved through Tomorrowland’s existing rides and architecture, and an overall update to the land around it. Truth be told, it likely would never have been built as complex as described above even if the project had moved forward.

The second was the complexity of the anchor coaster. The Star Wars attraction described above would have required a MASSIVE show building with several branches of coaster track, and advanced technology for track switching that would have need to have been designed and perfected. Additionally, the concept of weaving a complex narrative onto a thrilling coaster was something that had never truly been attempted at the time. In fact, one could argue it wasn’t truly perfected until Universal opened Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure decades later.

Given these issues, Baxter and the rest of the Imagineers eventually moved on from the coaster concept, instead embracing the then-nascent concept of using screen-based military-grade flight simulators as rides. This pivot would eventually lead to the game-changing Star Tours, which featured some of the same concepts and “greatest hits” moments that were planned for the coaster in a much smaller, manageable physical package.

Just enough 40 years before Galaxy’s Edge opened, Disney and George Lucas had once planned LucasPort, a previous iteration of the concept that could have changed theme parks – – and maybe even fixed Tomorrowland – – forever. Stay tuned to AE for further deep dives into Disney history.

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Do you wish LucasPort had been built in some form? Let us know in the comments below.