How Unreal Engine 5 and Grogu Give Disneyland’s Star Wars Ride an Upgrade

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Disneyland offers something for everyone, with thrilling rides like Space Mountain and fun shows like Bluey’s Best Day Ever. However, the most popular area in the park is undoubtedly Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, consistently drawing the largest crowds.

Galaxy’s Edge, the popular Star Wars land, is getting a big update. Originally opened in the summer of 2019, it’s now expanding its story to include events from the original Star Wars trilogy. The popular Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride is also being enhanced with more characters and elements fans will instantly recognize.

TopMob recently got a preview of Disneyland’s Kids Rule Summer, highlighting all the fun the park offers during this season. While Disneyland is always a great place to visit, they’ve added extra special experiences for one of their busiest times of the year. The biggest update is happening on the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run attraction.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run Adds The Mandalorian and Grogu

Smuggler’s Run at Disneyland hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, often overshadowed by the incredibly popular Rise of the Resistance. Some of the tasks guests perform on the ride aren’t as engaging, and the overall atmosphere doesn’t quite feel as immersive or connected to the Star Wars films as other attractions in the park. But that’s changing now.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run at Disney has been updated with characters from The Mandalorian and Grogu, and along with that, a significant visual and interactive upgrade. The biggest change is the use of Unreal Engine 5, which makes the experience inside the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit much more realistic. While the original ride didn’t look bad, the new graphics engine brings a noticeable improvement, especially for those familiar with video games. This upgrade allows for brighter scenes, even with sunlight, showing how confident Disney is in the ride’s enhanced visuals.

How Video Games Helped Disneyland Give Smuggler’s Run an Upgrade

I talked with Asa Kalama, a Vice President at Disney Imagineering, about how upgrading to Unreal Engine 5 is improving the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run ride. This upgrade allows for much more realistic visuals, like better lighting and incredibly detailed environments, creating a high-quality experience that feels right for an adventure featuring The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Our goal has always been to make the experience feel incredibly realistic, as if players are truly looking out of a cockpit. To achieve this, we’re constantly improving the graphics, making sure everything looks detailed and runs smoothly with a high frame rate and resolution.

This upgrade lets us use much more detailed and complex models. We can now work with assets from Industrial Light and Magic without having to simplify them, preserving a lot more of the original detail. This opens up possibilities for advanced dynamic lighting and impressive visual effects that weren’t really feasible in Unreal Engine 4. Plus, the upgrade includes performance improvements, resulting in a smoother, faster experience.

While the basic structure of Smuggler’s Run remains, the ride feels significantly updated. The new storyline follows The Mandalorian and Grogu as they chase pirates who have stolen something valuable. The pursuit begins on Tatooine, then takes you to one of three iconic Star Wars planets: Endor, Coruscant, or Bespin. This variety is a clever addition, much like the randomized destinations in Star Tours. What sets this apart is that one of the riders, acting as an Engineer, can actually choose the second destination, adding a new level of interaction.

The ride is now more exciting and features upbeat music, with plenty of funny moments involving Grogu. Seeing the Mandalorian fly alongside or in front of the ship adds to the spectacle. This update allowed Lucasfilm and Disney to showcase familiar planets in fresh ways and during a new time period – after the fall of the Empire. It’s a different take on places like Cloud City and Coruscant, offering a unique experience.

What’s new in Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run? The three roles – each accommodating two riders – are similar to before, but now offer more ways to participate and interact with the experience.

Pilots

Pilots work together to steer the famous ship through a challenging course, carefully avoiding damage to Han’s vessel. One pilot controls the ship’s vertical movement and engages the lightspeed jump, while the other manages horizontal movement and activates the boosters.

Gunners

Gunners defend against enemy ships by firing blasters and missiles. They can fire automatically by holding down a button, or manually aim by choosing from three buttons that target different areas of the enemy ship: the top, middle, or bottom.

Engineers

When the Millennium Falcon is damaged, engineers repair it by operating controls like buttons and switches. They also activate a mechanism to retrieve stolen goods, earning points in the process. One engineer activates tracking signals, while the other selects the destination. Additionally, engineers have a special button that instantly brings Grogu onto the screen.

The points system in the ride’s game is still a little unclear, but it’s great that everyone has a much bigger role to play than before. Previously, Engineers didn’t feel as important as Gunners or Pilots, so giving them more to do and letting them affect the ride’s story is a good move. My son loves playing the Engineer – who doesn’t enjoy pressing buttons and flipping switches? – and now he gets to do so much more, even when the Pilots are really skilled.

If you don’t have a full crew, any of the roles will be set to autopilot.

The Mandalorian and Grogu Smuggler’s Run Review

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run with the Mandalorian and Grogu additions isn’t a totally new ride, but it’s definitely an improvement. The roles of Gunner and Engineer are much more engaging, the theming feels stronger with these popular characters (though Hondo Ohnaka was good too!), and visiting three different planets adds some welcome variety.

Major updates to a Disneyland ride, and even an entire themed land, are unusual, but it aligns with the idea that Galaxy’s Edge will constantly change and improve. This offers more options for Star Wars fans of every age, and gives a boost to a ride that deserved more attention, creating a nice balance alongside the popular Rise of the Resistance.

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2026-05-27 11:35