Virtual Star Wars experience coming to Disney Springs, Downtown Disney

0
826
Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire concept art
Concept art for the Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire experience. Courtesy of Disney.

Disney has just announced that a brand new Star Wars virtual reality experience called Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire will make its way to Disney Springs in Florida and Downtown Disney in Anaheim by the holiday season.

This new experience is being created by The VOID, a company specializing in virtual experiences that equips users with VR headsets and other tactile props, likely a lightsaber or blaster analog in this case, and a physical space that becomes your new world. In a lot of ways it looks like it combines a virtual experience with the sensory effects Disney fans will be familiar with from 4D shows like It’s Tough to Be a Bug! and Muppet Vision 3D. It’s kind of hard to explain, so watching an intro video to The VOID might make things clearer.

What’s particularly exciting about the story for the experience itself is that you can see a KX-series security droid, possibly the Rogue One scene stealer K-2SO, which could give us a reference point for where we’ll be placed in the Star Wars universe timeline.

The VOID created a Ghostbusters experience for Madame Tussaud’s last year that looks like a lot of fun. In that experience, you were given a blaster that works as a proton pack once you’ve entered the world. Check out a short video of that gameplay experience.

When Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire comes to Disney Springs later this year it will be in the space formerly occupied by Once Upon a Toy. The Disney World shopping district also just got its own Star Wars merchandise store in the form the Star Wars Trading Post, taking over the former Fun Finds store.

Barring excessive ticket prices or incredibly long waits, we’re certainly interested in going inside the world of Star Wars more than a year ahead of the new lands coming to both coasts. Are you as intrigued as we are?