
“The original Star Wars movie, that really left sort of an indelible impression.” The design of the galaxy far, far away inspired him to seek out a Joe Johnston sketch book and begin honing his own skills as an artist. Tiemens, like Chiang, owes his career to being completely enveloped in Star Wars from the moment he saw it as a seven-year-old. It kind of grounds it in something that’s very familiar, but yet it kind of takes it to another level.” “We had to make sure that the landscape actually had a geological history, that you could actually understand how the land was formed and that made it feel real, that it wasn’t fantasy….So you saw these horizontal strata mixed with a vertical spires. “One of the fun challenges of designing Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is that we were creating a unique landscape that was grounded in reality,” Chiang adds. “The first exploration was between good and evil in the landscape.” Color was peppered throughout to evoke emotion and symbolism, with playful pops and washes in the marketplace acting almost as an invitation to come wander the stalls. “I wanted it to be very simple,” he says. Tiemens dug into geological research of petrified trees and sedimentary rock work, merging the two. Reference photo taken by Erik Tiemens in Istanbul for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge park design.Īt its core, Black Spire Outpost could only be realized fully if the planetary surface felt natural and authentic. Erik Tiemens, a longtime concept design supervisor for Lucasfilm and Star Wars : Galaxy’s Edge, was part of the crew that traveled to Turkey and Morocco in search of real-world inspirations, personally shooting nearly 3,000 reference photos to help inspire those earliest iterations. The planet of Batuu and Black Spire Outpost started out just like any other Star Wars setting: as concept art.
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However, making something feel real in a movie and making something realistic that holds up to the naked eye and all five senses are two very different things. “We want our guests to feel like they’re in a new environment that also feels familiar to the world of Star Wars, but gives them a sense of adventure that they can actually make this world their own.” “ It really just looks so realistic,” says Kirstin Makela, Walt Disney Imagineering’s art director on the project. “Who has been living here? What have they done here?” “We try to give it that layer of reality, that history,” Chiang adds. The truth is, from the beginning, Star Wars storytelling has been grounded in reality, an attribute that helped the design team for the new themed-land now open at Disneyland® Resort and opening August 29 at Walt Disney World® Resort. But I really wanted to go there and visit that place.

When I saw it in the cinema, it was amazing. “It reminds me of when I first saw Star Wars when I was 15. “Of all the Star Wars experiences, whether it’s a video game or a film or a themed attraction, this is one of the most challenging and the most fulfilling for me,” he says. The project is the culmination of Lucasfilm VP and Executive Creative Director Doug Chiang’s lifelong love of the saga and individual artistic expertise.

It’s a universe unlike any other, filled with planets and creatures that are at once completely alien and somehow totally familiar.īut to make the galaxy out of brick and mortar inside Star Wars : Galaxy’s Edge, where fans could step onto the dusty surface of a real Star Wars planet for the first time, artists and designers couldn’t entirely rely on the same movie magic that brings those worlds to life on screen. For years, the cinematic wonder of the Star Wars galaxy has captured imaginations, transporting viewers off this rock and hurtling into adventure through hyperspace.
