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Star Wars is a franchise that has gone through a lot of changes over the past few years. Disney doesn’t so much treat it as a singular narrative to tell as much as a playground to tell different stories in, which is why we’ve had shows like Andor and movies like the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter, which all feel disconnected from the Skywalker family drama. That seems to be influencing the characters joining Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge attraction, which is adding characters from the original Star Wars trilogy to those from the sequels.

Starting on April 29, 2026, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland will feature Darth Vader, Leia Organa, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker, joining Rey and Kylo Ren and other more recently introduced characters. This might seem like an obvious choice – why wouldn’t Disney want to add four of the most iconic film characters to their park? – but it blurs the timeline slightly and transforms Galaxy’s Edge from a snapshot of Star Wars history into a more general collection of features from a galaxy far, far away.

It begs the question of what Star Wars means in the modern era; is it a set of films telling a specific story or a setting that serves as a playground for storytellers and fans? While the core Skywalker saga has always been supplemented by books and video games, everything that appeared on our screens had always been focused on a Skywalker seeking to bring balance to the Force. Disney has been more eager to use the property to allow creators to tell stories in a setting we’re all familiar with.

Still, we’d love to see some of the interactions this change to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge sets up. How does Darth Vader deal with Kylo Ren fanboying all over him when the two cross paths? We suspect that Rey is going to have firm words with a younger Luke – namely, don’t be so weird while drinking the blue milk.

Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker are joining Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland on April 29, 2026, mixing with Rey and other characters from the sequel trilogy and further blurring the line of what Star Wars means to Disney in the modern era.

Get to know, understand, and love the Star Wars franchise more with our Star Wars watch order, guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, and all the Star Wars movies and Star Wars TV shows ranked.