Since the original opened way back in 1987, Star Tours has taken countless travellers on adventures across the galaxy, from a handful of planetary destinations to a potential 250 storyline variations today. The latest addition to the itinery of the StarSpeeder 1000 is the skies of Seatos, where a pod of Purrgil travel together as you bob and weave between them while avoiding enemy fire, and speaking with StarWars.com senior creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering Tom Fitzgerald discussed this new adventure and how it came together along with urgent messages from Cassian Andor, Ahsoka Tano and Din Djarin.
As part of more than 250 storyline variations available aboard the attraction, riders who travel to Seatos are thrust into the action as Ahsoka Tano’s T-6 tries to evade the enemy amid the peaceful purrgil preparing for their own migration. The sheer size of the creatures posed unique difficulties for the Disney Imagineers bringing the experience to life. “One of the key challenges with the purrgil was how to establish their massive scale,” Fitzgerald says. They called upon Industrial Light & Magic and longtime visual effects supervisor Bill George for help. “With the stereoscopic format, we were able to use tricks of the trade to convey their size,” notes Fitzgerald. “Since the motion of our simulator is a key storytelling device in Star Tours, we look for ways to add moments and movements that are unique to our show yet feel like a natural extension of what the audience would see in the original shows.” Like, for example, when the Starspeeder must navigate through the sea of purrgil tentacles and avoid almost being sucked into the mouth of one of the beasts.
