Luke Skywalker coming to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland — but when in the timeline?
Luke Skywalker will appear in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland for the first time during Season of the Force 2025.
Luke Skywalker’s going to Disneyland
Disney Parks teased the arrival of Luke Skywalker to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in a social media video posted Feb. 7, 2025.
The video shows a hooded figure, presumably Luke, standing in front of the Millennium Falcon. R2-D2 rolls into the frame and joins him, and Luke places his hand on R2’s head. The caption reads, “A Jedi … like his father before him.” (On YouTube, Disney instead wrote, “He’s strong … like his father before him.”) Disney included the hashtags #Disneyland and #SeasonoftheForce in the post. The company will share more information on Feb. 10.
Season of the Force is an annual lineup of limited-time attractions and entertainment at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif. This year’s Season of the Force dates are March 28 – May 11, 2025 — coinciding, of course, with May, aka Star Wars Day, aka “May the 4th Be With You.”
Though this will be the first time Luke has been in Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge since the area opened in 2019, it’s not the hero’s first visit to Disneyland. He greeted guests the past few years, alongside Leia, during Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite, an after-hours party that will return this spring. During those events, Luke has previously appeared as his young-adult self, seemingly during the events of the original “Star Wars” trilogy, as seen in this video from Daps Magic:
Luke Skywalker at Disney World’s Galaxy’s Edge in Florida?
Disney has not announced or indicated anything about Luke Skywalker coming to the east-coast version of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World.
Luke is much more of a rare character in Florida, where he’s been absent since the days of Star Wars Weekends, an annual event that concluded in 2015.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Mickey Mouse also previously appeared dressed as Luke; his other pals joined him, with Minnie as Leia, Donald as a Stormtrooper, Goofy as Darth Vader, and Chip and Dale as Ewoks. The characters no longer greet guests in these costumes.
Season of the Force
As previously announced, 2025’s other Season of the Force festivities at Disneyland will include the return of the Hyperspace Mountain overlay to the classic Space Mountain coaster. New this year, projections will accompany the “Star Wars”-tailored fireworks display in Galaxy’s Edge; a unique presentation in that when viewed anywhere in the park outside of Galaxy’s Edge, the show is not “Star Wars”-specific, but rather Disneyland’s standard nighttime show.
Luke Skywalker and the Galaxy’s Edge timeline
When Galaxy’s Edge first opened, the land was firmly fixated in the “Star Wars” timeline at the exact moment between 2017’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” with virtually no leniency to disrupt that continuity. At that point in the story, Luke has just passed away, and the narrative mainly focuses on the adventures of Rey and Kylo Ren, both of whom appear in Galaxy’s Edge as walk-around characters and in the land’s signature ride, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Photo by Matt Stroshane / Disney
Over the years, Disney has gradually relaxed its timeline rules on both coasts’ Galaxy’s Edge to include characters from “The Mandalorian.” That series takes place about 20 years before the events of the Galaxy’s Edge attractions.
Photo courtesy of Disney
Image courtesy of Disney
Where Luke is concerned, the character is part of quite a few eras across the “Star Wars” timeline. His appearance in Galaxy’s Edge could theoretically be from any of them (including his older self from the sequel trilogy), though the character’s gloved hand + lack of facial hair in Disney’s video indicates this Luke is visiting Batuu during the “Return of the Jedi” or “Mandalorian” era: he’s already lost his right hand, but he’s not yet his older, bearded self of the sequel trilogy.
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