Photos: Star Wars Launch Bay Becomes One With the Force on its Final Day Open at Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World version of Star Wars Launch Bay is closing its doors forever today at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and we paid a last visit to the exhibit to bid farewell.
The WDW version of Star Wars Launch Bay opened just a couple months shy of a full decade ago, on December 1st, 2015, during the first Season of the Force event, done in conjunction with the opening of the first Disney-released Star Wars movie that same month, The Force Awakens.
The area is filled with a mixture of costumes, models, concept artwork and actual movie props from the Star Wars series, along with some full sized replicas created for the exhibit. There were also meet and greets with Star Wars characters.
However, Star Wars Launch Bay has felt like a shell of its former self for quite awhile, receiving no updates since 2019, when The Rise of Skywalker opened.
Located in Animation Courtyard, Star Wars Launch Bay had the obstacle of not being located close to Star Tours and then feeling notably extraneous when the entire Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land opened at Hollywood Studios.
After closing at the start of the pandemic, Launch Bay reopened in the summer of 2022, but many interactive elements that had once been a part of it – like the Jawas you could encounter and barter with – were dropped as the area began to feel increasingly neglected.
Launch Bay is now closing permanently to make way for a new version of The Magic of Disney Animation coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Animation Courtyard in 2026.
Star Wars Launch Bay technically still exists at Disneyland, though it’s also seen far better days. It’s currently being used for Darth Vader meet and greets, and was used for other character encounters during Disneyland After Dark - Star Wars Nite earlier this year, but otherwise feels somewhat like a ghost town. All of which makes many wonder when the space might be turned into something else entirely.
You can see more photos from the Hollywood Studios version of Star Wars Launch Bay – and ponder if, perhaps, any of its elements might be reincorporated into Galaxy’s Edge in some way – below.
And last but not least, here’s one last look at one of the more fun and specific Hidden Mickeys in Walt Disney World - a tiny Mickey and Minnie version of a Star Wars poster that can be glimpsed through the front window of the miniature of the Tantive IV - AKA the Blockade Runner seen in the original Star Wars’ iconic opening shot.
