Close your eyes. Tell me what comes into your mind when you hear the words “Season of the Force.” Do you see life? Balance? Fire? Or a whole bunch of Star Wars stuff coming to Disneyland?
If that last one is your answer, then you hit the womp rat right in the bullseye. Disneyland’s celebration of all things Star Wars returns to the park on April 5, and will run through June 2. So the “season” of the Force is Spring, basically.
This year’s hijinks includes a new “nighttime experience” in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge called Fire of the Rising Moons. It’ll offer a new vantage point for Disneyland’s legendary fireworks shows, and feature excerpts from John Williams’ iconic music from the movies. Between Galaxy’s Edge’s immaculately detailed desert planet of Battuu and that Williams bombast, this should feel a lot different from watching the fireworks anywhere else in the park.
Star Tours—The Adventure Continues, the current version of Disney’s original Star Wars ride, will also be getting new scenes during Season of the Force. You’ll be able to visit and see characters from three of Disney+’s best Star Wars shows, Andor, Ahsoka, and The Mandalorian. Will Grogu do some amazing Jedi magic before eating or spitting up a gross alien in 3D in what looks like mere inches in front of our face? I mean, he kind of has to, right?
Season of the Force will also have new themed food and drinks, which will be revealed later on, along with limited edition merch and other collectibles. And Hyperspace Mountain, the Star Wars-themed overlay of Space Mountain, will be back in action for the whole run, from April 5 through June 2.
If you’ve never been to Season of the Force before, and have any interest in Star Wars, it’s worth a trip out to California. It’s not the immersive wonder that is Galaxy’s Edge, but in some ways that’s an advantage: it isn’t beholden to the strict timeline that Galaxy’s Edge is locked into, meaning it can encompass the whole history of Star Wars and not just a specific little slice of it. Season of the Force runs at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., from April 5 to June 2.