ANAHEIM, Calif. — May the Force be with visitors to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando Aug. 29 as Walt Disney World debuts Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

It’s an identical twin of the same land that opened at California’s Disneyland in May.

Although “Star Wars” has long been a part of Disney’s Hollywood Studios — Star Tours opened there in 1989 — this new land offers theming unparalleled within the Disney Parks portfolio.

Galaxy’s Edge is not just a collection of rides and attractions under one umbrella theme.

The new land is intended to transport visitors to Black Spire Outpost on the planet Batuu.

“One of the things that we decided very early on is to build a new place, a place that was not a memory of somebody else’s ‘Star Wars’ story, not a place that we visited in one of the early films,” said Disney Imagineering portfolio creative executive Scott Trowbridge at a Disneyland press conference in May. “This is a place that is purpose-built so that you can live your own ‘Star Wars’ story and become an active participant in the world of ‘Star Wars.’”

That choice proved somewhat controversial at Disneyland, said Doug Barnes, producer and cohost of the MiceChat.com podcast, who notes visitors are used to walking through familiar media properties populated with familiar characters at theme parks but they’re not as accustomed to inventing their own stories.

“The reaction [to Galaxy’s Edge] has been very mixed,” he said. “People like it but they’re not over-the-top.”

Micechat.com reported Disney Parks executives cut one ride during the land’s development and dropped some interactive elements intended for Galaxy’s Edge, including live-action role play and rooftop stunt shows, to avoid the higher labor costs of union actors.

Cast members play characters with established backstories in Galaxy’s Edge who express local greetings (“Bright suns!” for good day and “Rising moons!” for good night) but during a May visit to Disneyland the employees — not union actors — were still learning to stay in character. (When asked where they were from, most of the Galaxy’s Edge workers said they were from the same Batuu fishing village but one Disney cast member offered “Garden Grove,” a community near Anaheim.)

Still, the attempt to create an immersive environment largely works, especially at Oga’s Cantina, a Black Spire Outpost bar where bartenders, in character, serve tasty treats and alcoholic beverages (reservations are highly encouraged) while a robot deejay spins cantina-ready tunes.

“Star Wars”-themed shops and restaurants are plentiful, including a secretive workshop where, for $200 visitors can buy and build a durable lightsaber as part of a roughly 30-minute experience.

The Droid Factory allows visitors to put together a remote control robot (starting at $100) and an alien pet shop offers a wealth of critters of varying sizes and prices for adoption (I’ll cop to blowing $70 on an articulated Salacious Crumb-like puppet who sits on my shoulder).

A special app is designed to engage visitors while in Galaxy’s Edge — be sure to take at least one spare phone charger — but it was a work-in-progress in May at Disneyland. It was unable to translate signage in the “Star Wars” language Aurebesh via scanning (you had to key in every character instead).

At this point you may ask, Yoda-style, “About the rides, what can you tell?”

Only two rides are currently planned for Galaxy’s Edge with one, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, in operation when the land opens in Florida. And that may be the biggest gripe with this “Star Wars” land: There’s not a lot to do that doesn’t involve spending more money.

At the Disneyland opening, “Star Wars” creator George Lucas described the Millennium Falcon ride as “Star Tours on steroids.” Like Star Tours, the new ride is a motion simulator but with just six passengers in each ride compartment instead of 40. Each cockpit seats two pilots, two gunners and two engineers. Children will likely enjoy the opportunity to experience flying on the Falcon — once they’re done squabbling over who gets to pilot the freighter — but it’s a somewhat nerve-wracking experience as smuggler Hondo Ohnaka shouts piloting instructions throughout the ride.

The land’s second ride, Rise of the Resistance, will be more technologically advanced and perhaps a game-changer for visitor perceptions of Galaxy’s Edge. Opening in Florida on Dec. 5 (and in California on Jan. 17), Rise of the Resistance “is the most ambitious attraction we’ve ever built,” Disney Parks chairman Bob Chapek told USA Today earlier this year. “It’s almost like being on four attractions at once.”

Guests will enter a spaceship that gets caught in a Star Destroyer’s tractor beam and pulled into the First Order ship. Then they’re arrested by Stormtroopers and witness a battle between the First Order and the Resistance.

Galaxy’s Edge is not the only thing that’s new at WDW this fall. A new fireworks show debuts for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, a specially ticketed event (starting at $79) through Nov. 1, and there’s also the Sept. 29 launch of the Disney Skyliner, a gondola system that will ferry park guests from four resorts (Art of Animation Resort, Pop Century Resort, Caribbean Beach Resort and opening-in-December Riviera Resort Disney Vacation Club) to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Unlike California, where Disneyland implemented a virtual queue in the event of Galaxy’s Edge overcrowding — it’s gone mostly unused — the Florida outpost will instead feature Extra Extra Magic Hours (6-9 a.m.) at Galaxy’s Edge and Hollywood Studios’ Toy Story Land for guests staying at WDW resorts Sept. 1 through Nov. 2. (Hollywood Studios opens for all guests at 6 a.m. Aug. 29-31.) FastPass+ is unavailable for Galaxy’s Edge attractions.

Observers expected Disneyland would be overrun after the opening of Galaxy’s Edge but that onslaught of visitors never materialized with Disneyland feeling more empty than usual for summer. MiceChat.com’s Mr. Barnes theorized visitors are waiting to visit for two primary reasons.

“They’re spooked. People thought it was going to be overcrowded” and made other vacation plans for this summer before it became clear Disneyland was not busy, he said. “The other reason — and I think this has become the biggest reason — is Rise of the Resistance is not open yet.”

Of course, the Florida situation is different. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge hasn’t been added to the Magic Kingdom; instead, it’s at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a park long in need of more for guests to do, particularly given Disney’s competition with the growing Universal Resort, which announced plans for a fourth theme park earlier this month.

Mr. Barnes said the relatively subdued response at Disneyland may not be predictive of how Galaxy’s Edge will be greeted at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida.

“I do think Hollywood Studios is definitely going to see a much greater response to this,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot of love for the Studios at Disney World so this is the perfect land for Florida.”

TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Read the Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook.

First Published: August 22, 2019, 2:01 p.m.