Let’s be honest about something. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run has always been the ride that lives in Rise of the Resistance’s shadow, and not entirely unfairly.
You walk through Galaxy’s Edge, you see the actual Millennium Falcon parked there in all its battered glory, and the promise of that moment is enormous. Then you get assigned engineer, you press a button twice, and you emerge from the ride wondering if that was really it.
Disney heard you. All of you. And what they are doing about it launches May 22, 2026.
Starting that day, both the Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios versions of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run will be completely reimagined with Din Djarin, the Mandalorian, and Grogu, yes, Baby Yoda, permanently joining the ride experience. This is not a limited-time overlay or a seasonal addition. This is the new permanent version of the attraction at both parks, and the changes go so much deeper than just swapping in new characters.
May 22 is also the theatrical release date of The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars movie to hit theaters since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. Disney is opening the new version of the ride on the same day the film opens nationwide. That kind of coordinated rollout is exactly how you make a theme park attraction feel like a cultural moment rather than a maintenance update.
Here is everything that is different and why it matters.
The Ride Is Going to Different Places Now
In the current version of Smugglers Run, guests leave Batuu, travel to Corellia, and help Hondo Ohnaka with a coaxium smuggling run. It is fine. The cockpit is incredible. The mission is functional.
In the new version, guests still leave from Batuu but the second stop is Tatooine, Luke Skywalker’s home planet and one of the most recognizable locations in the entire Star Wars universe. Then things get interesting. After Tatooine, riders visit one of three possible final destinations, and here is the part that changes everything: they get to choose which one.
The three options are Bespin, home of Cloud City as featured in The Empire Strikes Back; Endor, covered in Death Star wreckage as seen in The Rise of Skywalker; and Coruscant, the galaxy-spanning cityscape that shows up across the prequel trilogy and more recently in Andor. The mission running through all of it involves the crew hunting down ex-Imperial officers.
This is a direct response to one of the things that frustrates repeat riders about Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. That ride randomizes destinations, which is fun in theory but can lead to seeing the same combination multiple times in a row when you were specifically hoping for something different. Smugglers Run is giving riders the choice, which means you can target the Bespin experience on your first visit, come back specifically for Coruscant, and never have to ride the same version twice unless you want to.
The Engineer Problem Has Been Solved
We need to talk about the engineer role because it has been the single biggest complaint about this ride since it opened in 2019 and Disney finally did something about it.
Current engineers press a button when the ride tells them to. That is genuinely the job. Pilots steer, gunners shoot things, engineers press a button. The role disparity has been obvious and much-discussed, and it has made the role assignment moment at the start of the ride carry a little bit of dread for anyone who has been through it before.
In the new version, the engineer is responsible for communicating with Grogu and choosing the crew’s third destination. The exact mechanics of how the Grogu communication works have not been fully revealed yet, and honestly that makes it more exciting. The engineer goes from the least desirable assignment to potentially the one everyone is going to want. That is a complete reversal, and it is the kind of design change that makes the whole ride feel more balanced for everyone at the table.
The Visuals Are Getting a Major Upgrade Too
The original Smugglers Run opened in 2019. The visual technology powering the ride has not been updated since then. Walt Disney Imagineering is now using Unreal Engine in partnership with Epic Games to rebuild the ride’s real-time visuals from the ground up. Nearly a decade of advancement in gaming and rendering technology is being applied to how the ride responds to rider input and how the environments look during gameplay. The result is expected to be significantly sharper and more responsive than what guests have experienced since the attraction opened.
No closure is needed for any of this. The ride runs in its current form through May 21. Overnight, Disney installs the changes. May 22 morning, the new version opens. No downtime. No gap in operations. You either visit before May 22 and experience the current version or you visit on May 22 or later and get the new one.
Hondo Ohnaka, the beloved character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels whose Audio-Animatronics figure currently runs the pre-show, is expected to remain. Replacing a physical Audio-Animatronics figure would require a closure period that Disney is clearly not building into this transition. His presence also makes timeline sense since the Mandalorian era falls between the original and sequel trilogies, and Hondo’s existing appearances confirm he is still around during that period.
What This Means for Your Hollywood Studios Day
If your Disney trip includes Hollywood Studios and you have historically skipped or been indifferent to Smugglers Run because the experience did not match the environment, May 22 is your reset date. The setting has always been exceptional. Now the ride attached to that setting has been comprehensively redesigned to live up to it.
Rise of the Resistance remains untouched and still anchors Galaxy’s Edge as one of the best attractions in any theme park anywhere. The two rides together, once Smugglers Run launches in its new form, should make Galaxy’s Edge one of the strongest double-ride combinations at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. Lightning Lane for both attractions is worth securing early on your park day.
Hollywood Studios also has Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets opening May 26, replacing the Aerosmith version permanently. Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! debuts the same day. The Magic of Disney Animation, featuring a short film, character greetings, and a drawing class led by an Audio-Animatronics Olaf from Frozen, arrives later this summer in the former Star Wars Launch Bay building.
At Disneyland, starting April 29, Galaxy’s Edge is adding original trilogy character appearances including Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Darth Vader, and Han Solo. That change is California-only and does not apply to Hollywood Studios.
May 22 is the date to build around if the reimagined Smugglers Run is on your list. Put it in your calendar, set your Lightning Lane strategy before park open, and go in with real expectations rather than the ones the current version may have given you. We will have full coverage of the new ride experience once it opens, including how the Grogu mechanic actually plays out and which of the three planet destinations is worth riding first. We cannot wait to find out.
