Bringing Star Wars Experiences to Life With Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Live Entertainment

Star Wars Celebration gave us a sneak peak at the future of Disney Parks experiences, and IGN had the chance to talk to Walt Disney Imagineering’s Asa Kalama and Disney Live Entertainment’s Michael Serna about The Mandalorian & Grogu-themed update headed to Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, the impossibly adorable BDX droids headed to Disney Parks, and so much more.

Alongside revealing these exciting new experiences headed to Disney Parks around the world, Kalama and Serna also gave us a look into how they bring this Disney Magic to life and allow us to experience our favorite stories and characters in moments that will last with us for a lifetime.

The Mandalorian and Grogu-Themed Update to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Will Let Engineers Take Care of GroguOne of the biggest reveals at Star Wars Celebration was that Engineers will be able to take care of Grogu aboard Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run when The Mandalorian and Grogu-themed update arrives on the attraction alongside the film on May 22, 2026.

While the storyline featured on the attraction will follow a “different path” than the film, it will put each crew member on a team with Mando and Grogu. The Engineer, however, appears to be the seat fans should be looking forward to sitting in as they will get to not only interact with Grogu, but also choose where in that galaxy far, far away we’ll be headed to.

The Mandalorian and Grogu Mission Concept Art for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run”Throughout the mission, we’re going to be giving the engineers the opportunity to actually get to communicate with Grogu,” Kalama said. “So, we think it’s going to be a ton of fun. There may be times when Mando has to deboard the Razor Crest and Grogu, left to his own devices, might get a little happy on the control panel. So, we love the idea of there being these fun little vignettes and moments where you’re sort of on the comm with Grogu.”

As for the choose-your-own-adventure side of it, Kalama tells us there will be “sort of a critical moment in your adventure where you are strapped for time and have to make a lightning quick decision about which of our particular bounties we want to pursue. And that’s going to be the sort of inciting incident that allows us to decide which are the different destinations we go to.”

That choice looks to take players to Bespin, the Death Star wreckage above Endor, and the newly-announced location of Coruscant. And yes, all of this is wrapped around a new story where “Hondo Ohnaka catches wind of a deal on Tatooine between ex-Imperial officers and pirates, setting the stage for a high-stakes chase across the galaxy. Guests will team up with Mando and Grogu to track them down and claim a bounty in a dynamic, galaxy-spanning adventure.”

The BDX Droids Will Be Traveling From Disney Parks Around the World Right Into Your HeartThe wonderful BDX Droids that have been taking over the hearts and minds of Star Wars fans around the world will officially be headed to Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Tokyo Disney, and we couldn’t be happier.

These droids, that will also appear in The Mandalorian & Grogu, have been under development for some time, and the goal was to bring new experiences to guests at Disney Parks that will immerse them more in the stories they love.

Image Credit: Disney”The goal of the BDX Droids was to look at how we bring characters to life in our parks in different ways, and this is really technology merging with this piece of entertainment and a backstory we created specifically for the parks because these kind of originate with the parks,” Kalama said. “They’ve appeared in games and other places, but we created an original story just for us and we’ve sort of evolved that as we’ve moved on to sites all over the world.”

“And they have lot of fun childlike qualities and do all sorts of cute things that people would do,” Serna added. “So, we realized we kind of needed to identify each one of them with a personality. It made it much more interesting to engage with them and allowed us a lot of flexibility and a lot of ways to continue to expand that world. So, in the same way we love R2-D2 and other droids that we become connected to, we think you’ll become connected to certain colors of the BDX droids. Each color is really a unique personality.”

These BDX Droids are just one way the teams at Disney are evolving Disney Park’s experiences, and Kalama and Serna discussed how they are all thinking about making these interactions and moments we all cherish even better.

“The technology behind the animatronics is influencing how we’re looking at robotics and character experiences and these up close experiences that continue to inspire us,” Serna said. “So, we see those amazing animatronics in, for example, the Frozen attraction, and we start to think how we bring those out of an attraction and onto a street. I think you’re going to see a lot more of those kinds of things in our parks around the world, which means using technology in ways you’re not expecting when they are so close to you.”

“I think that idea of using technology in both unexpected ways and invisible ways is really important to sort of how we approach all of this stuff,” Kalama added. “I think we are very much in the business of creating that sense of suspension and disbelief, and oftentimes there’s no other way to bring a character to life than through robotics. But one of the things that’s incredibly unique to the work that we do, as compared to what you might see in an automotive factory, is we have to figure out how to bring character, emotion, and personality to life. That’s an entirely different technical challenge than just getting a robot to be able to balance on its own as a for instance. How do you get it to do that in a way that makes you feel something?”

From Peter Pan and Star Tours to Creating the FutureIn a smiliar fashion to many of us, those like Kalama and Serna at Disney grew up loving Disney Parks and certain attractions that inspired them to one day be part of the team that creates new experiences they hope will do the same thing for a new generation.

We spent a few moments talking about our shared love of certain attractions and it was a surprising insight into how the future is crafted.

“As a little kid, riding Peter Pan was most exciting for me,” Serna said. “To fly in this vehicle… I think it really blew my mind. I had no idea how it worked. I just thought, “Oh my God, we’re flying!” And then, as I got a little older and became a huge Star Wars fan, Star Tours was really the ride that changed my life as far as what I thought theme parks can do. Peter Pan was an amazing story, but it was sort of something from the past. However, seeing something that I love from the Star Wars films represented that way… I mean, if you remember back then, we were in an era of no new Star Wars stuff and this was a new adventure and I couldn’t believe I was now in a Star Wars story myself.

“And so I think when we do our jobs well, we invite the entire family, regardless of how old you are right now, to feel truly transported and completely lost in a fantasy.”

“I think that inspires me every day when I think about the work we do. It’s not necessarily about what I want to do, but it’s mostly what 10-year-old Michael really wanted to do. That’s what I want to put out there for our guests. I feel like if 10-year-old Michael will love it, you’re probably going to love it too, whatever age you are.”

“I only had the opportunity to visit the park one time before I became a cast member, and I was probably eight years old and I was so obsessed with all things science fiction,” Kalama shared. “I literally refused to leave Tomorrowland. So, the first time I ever encountered any of the other lands was as an adult. But again, for me, as Michael said, I have one vivid memory and it was Star Tours. That was the attraction for me. I mean, the suspension of disbelief was through the roof and I fully believed that I was on a star speeder and that I had traveled through the galaxy. I think that sense of magic of disassociation with reality and entering into this complete fantasy world is powerful, not only for kids, but I think it’s just as important for adults. And so I think when we do our jobs well, we invite the entire family, regardless of how old you are right now, to feel truly transported and completely lost in a fantasy.”

And now, thanks to these rides, Kalama and Serna are helping craft the future of Disney Parks experiences. To end, we wanted to see what they were proud of in the work they’ve done so far, and they shared a couple great stories.

Serna helped bring to life Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga at Disneyland, which is a projection show at Galaxy’s Edge that let’s guests experience not only the fireworks with a Star Wars flair but also a special story even on nights when there aren’t any.

Image Credit: Disney”That was actually about a two year process of looking at something that was happening in the parks daily, which was fireworks. People would sit in Batuu and watch the fireworks, but there was no music or anything. You were just sitting there in silence watching fireworks. So, we sort of looked at that as an opportunity to say, well, maybe we need to create something here and create it in the world of Star Wars.

“So, we worked really closely with Lucasfilm to sort of look at what would a fireworks type show be in Galaxy’s Edge. We created a character that was our storyteller. We created a droid that was part of the experience. We created a whole sort of performative piece around it and that actually led us to our next stage. There are some nights when there aren’t fireworks. What are you going to do those nights now? So, Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga is really looking at using the spires as a projection space and creating something immersive that we’ve never done in a theme park before. This is the idea of a storyteller who has traveled around the galaxy, who has heard the story of Anakin Skywalker, and has now created an experience for us to sort of learn that tale in a new way.”

For Kalama, it’s all about those little touches you may never know but add up to something spectacular.

“I think something that I hope is invisible to our fans, but something that they appreciate, is that there is just an obsessive level of attention to detail that we put into everything,” Kalama said. “The number of very serious conversations we’ve had around the type of screw head that we should put on a panel wall, because… well… Phillips doesn’t exist in the Star Wars timeline or the receipt paper that comes out of the printer when you make a purchase. We really go above and beyond to think about what are all of the small infinitesimal details that might not seem all that important on their own, but when they add up together they make the space feel truly authentic and immersive.”

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.