Want to travel to the galaxy far, far away and do it while actually travelling aboard a ship? Star Wars: Hyperspace Lounge, an immersive Star Wars bar for adults coming to Disney Cruise Lines latest ship the Disney Wish might just be the best way to do it, and Danny Handke, a senior creative director of Walt Disney Imagineering talks with StarWars.com about bringing this dream to fruition.
“We always talked about the fact that kids get to immerse themselves in Star Wars,” Handke says, having overseen the Star Wars-themed kids spaces on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. “But as a grownup, and a parent, I’m jealous that I don’t have my own space on the ship where I can immerse myself in Star Wars, since Star Wars is multi-generational. So we pitched the idea, ‘What if we did a lounge that’s for grownups only at night? It becomes an adult playground for the world of Star Wars.’ And everyone just loved that idea.” (Parents, don’t worry: the lounge will be open to your younglings in the daytime, with plenty of non-alcoholic drinks.)
After getting the green light, brainstorming started almost immediately between Imagineering and Disney Cruise Line. Would the lounge be set in a cantina? On a planet? Somewhere strange in the galaxy? “We decided that since we’re on a cruise ship, it would be fun if the lounge is on a Star Wars ship,” Handke says. “Around that time, we had The Last Jedi and Solo, and it was kind of the more refined side of Star Wars, like Canto Bight and Dryden Vos’ ship. We thought, ‘Boy, that’s really unique and different. You know, we have Oga’s Cantina at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. What if we explored, as a nice juxtaposition to that, doing kind of a Dryden Vos yacht ship?’ We landed on that, doing something sophisticated, which also matches the design of the Disney Wish.”
“The visual effects are all-new for the Disney Wish,” Handke says. “We worked with ILM. Each sequence is almost like a mini-storyline that plays out. You’ll see iconic ships, you’ll see really cool things happen. ILM adds so much eye candy and they take it to a whole other level for us, which is so awesome. They work in all sorts of Easter eggs and little details.”
JUST ANNOUNCED! Our newest ship, the #DisneyWish, will immerse guests in the stories of Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Star Wars like never before. Check out the full list of new spaces coming to life when the Disney Wish sails in Summer 2022: https://t.co/yqBCRLHeWZpic.twitter.com/4XcjszSl9R
Some of the galactic destinations that fans can look forward to include Tatooine (set during The Mandalorian), Batuu (“almost a day in the life of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge,” featuring the Star Destroyer from Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Hondo Ohnaka’s ship), and Mustafar (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story era).
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in 1981 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He's contributed to Star Wars Insider (since '06) and Starburst Magazine (since '16) as well as ILM.com, SkywalkerSound.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine and StarTrek.com. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host, the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since the stage began in 2015, the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
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Want to travel to the galaxy far, far away and do it while actually travelling aboard a ship? Star Wars: Hyperspace Lounge, an immersive Star Wars bar for adults coming to Disney Cruise Lines latest ship the Disney Wish might just be the best way to do it, and Danny Handke, a senior creative director of Walt Disney Imagineering talks with StarWars.com about bringing this dream to fruition.
“We always talked about the fact that kids get to immerse themselves in Star Wars,” Handke says, having overseen the Star Wars-themed kids spaces on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. “But as a grownup, and a parent, I’m jealous that I don’t have my own space on the ship where I can immerse myself in Star Wars, since Star Wars is multi-generational. So we pitched the idea, ‘What if we did a lounge that’s for grownups only at night? It becomes an adult playground for the world of Star Wars.’ And everyone just loved that idea.” (Parents, don’t worry: the lounge will be open to your younglings in the daytime, with plenty of non-alcoholic drinks.)
After getting the green light, brainstorming started almost immediately between Imagineering and Disney Cruise Line. Would the lounge be set in a cantina? On a planet? Somewhere strange in the galaxy? “We decided that since we’re on a cruise ship, it would be fun if the lounge is on a Star Wars ship,” Handke says. “Around that time, we had The Last Jedi and Solo, and it was kind of the more refined side of Star Wars, like Canto Bight and Dryden Vos’ ship. We thought, ‘Boy, that’s really unique and different. You know, we have Oga’s Cantina at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. What if we explored, as a nice juxtaposition to that, doing kind of a Dryden Vos yacht ship?’ We landed on that, doing something sophisticated, which also matches the design of the Disney Wish.”
“The visual effects are all-new for the Disney Wish,” Handke says. “We worked with ILM. Each sequence is almost like a mini-storyline that plays out. You’ll see iconic ships, you’ll see really cool things happen. ILM adds so much eye candy and they take it to a whole other level for us, which is so awesome. They work in all sorts of Easter eggs and little details.”
JUST ANNOUNCED! Our newest ship, the #DisneyWish, will immerse guests in the stories of Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Star Wars like never before. Check out the full list of new spaces coming to life when the Disney Wish sails in Summer 2022: https://t.co/yqBCRLHeWZpic.twitter.com/4XcjszSl9R
Some of the galactic destinations that fans can look forward to include Tatooine (set during The Mandalorian), Batuu (“almost a day in the life of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge,” featuring the Star Destroyer from Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Hondo Ohnaka’s ship), and Mustafar (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story era).
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in 1981 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He's contributed to Star Wars Insider (since '06) and Starburst Magazine (since '16) as well as ILM.com, SkywalkerSound.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine and StarTrek.com. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host, the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since the stage began in 2015, the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
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“We always talked about the fact that kids get to immerse themselves in Star Wars,” Handke says, having overseen the Star Wars-themed kids spaces on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. “But as a grownup, and a parent, I’m jealous that I don’t have my own space on the ship where I can immerse myself in Star Wars, since Star Wars is multi-generational. So we pitched the idea, ‘What if we did a lounge that’s for grownups only at night? It becomes an adult playground for the world of Star Wars.’ And everyone just loved that idea.” (Parents, don’t worry: the lounge will be open to your younglings in the daytime, with plenty of non-alcoholic drinks.)
