Disney unveils new Star Tours 2 video, hints at possible new destinations at Star Wars Celebration V

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At the tail end of the Disney Parks panel presentation during the first day of Star Wars Celebration V, Imagineer Jason Surrell, with help from C-3PO himself, actor Anthony Daniels, offered the audience a glimpse at a new video for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, the upcoming update to Disney’s popular Star Tours attraction.

The video is a “commercial” of sorts from the Star Tours company promoting three of their exciting intergalactic destinations, Bespin, Alderaan, and Endor:

Moments after premiering for the Celebration V audience, the Disney Parks Blog revealed this video will be shown in the queue of the revamped Star Tours attraction when it reopens in 2011 after being “reimagined” into a new 3D experience. But Disney still insists they “cannot confirm that you will travel to any of the destinations shown in this video,” still leaving fans guessing where Star Tours II will take its passengers.

The only confirmed destinations thus far are across the sands of Tattooine for a little pod racing and through the city skies of Coruscant.

Prior to showing this video as the presentation’s finale, Surrell and Daniels showed off concept art from the original Star Tours and fielded a few questions from the audience. But Star Tours II information remains tight, as any questions asked about it by fans were met with the response, “Too early to say.” It was said often enough that Daniels even jokingly prompted the audience to chime in, repeating it along with Surrell.


When asked about the meaning of the new Star Tours tag line “The Adventures Continue” (note the plural on “Adventures”), Surrell would not comment any further than to reply, “You know, the reason the Bothan spies die is because they possess too much information. I possess similar information about our plans and I’d like to stick around for a while.” But the fact that the updated version of Star Tours will feature multiple different experiences is no secret.

Two months ago, Al Weiss, president of Worldwide Operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, revealed on the D23 web site that the new version of the attraction will not only include many variations but also some level of audience interactivity. So Surrell needn’t worry about any bounty hunters coming after him any time soon… or at least not for what he did or did not say at the Star Wars Celebration V presentation.

Star Tours has already “powered down” at Disneyland for the update and will be closing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando on September 8. Both versions of the attraction are expected to reopen with enhancements some time around May 2011.

To listen to the entire Disney Parks presentation from Star Wars Celebration V, download the Inside the Magic podcast show #280, to be released on Sunday, August 15, 2010.

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