The Star Wars weekends may be over, but one of their most popular features is about to become a permanent attraction at Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World. As a Star Wars fan, I’m excited about this. Disney is working on completing construction of a new stage for the Star Wars Jedi Training Academy.
It will be located on a large patio area that is outside the Star Tours attraction. At this time, Disney officials haven’t commented on whether the construction will be removing the AT-AT Walkers or the Ewok Forest. Hopefully not, but papers were filed with Orange County detailing that the stage will be about 140 feet long and 96 feet wide.
During the show, Jedi masters chose children from the audience to train in Jedi skills and light sabers. Darth Vader and a troop of storm troopers join in the fun later on. Currently, the plan is for eight shows a day that will allow a dozen or more children to participate at each show. According to Zoraya Suarez, a Disney spokeswoman:
They loved it, so we’ll build it.
In other MGM News:
Disney will be replacing the “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” attraction with a new one called Toy Story Mania. The attraction will allow guests to submerse themselves into the Toy Story world with 3D glasses and they even get shrunk to the size of a toy and sent down a midway themed route.
In December, from the 26th through the 31st, MGM will be hosting 3 shows a night of its incredibly popular laser light show: Fantasmic. The shows will begin at 6:30, 8:30 and 10 p.m. A large number of people book their visits to Disney World during the week between Christmas and New Years and the extra shows are likely an answer to the heavier crowds during that time of year.