I walked into the newly overhauled Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run with one goal: see every single nook and cranny across Tatooine, Coruscant, Cloud City, and the Death Star. I’m a Star Wars fan, a gamer at heart, and a completionist by compulsion. I figured I’d be able to see everything. Right?
Eleven rides later, I still hadn’t.
When Disney announced “a new Mandalorian and Grogu mission,” I think a lot of people pictured a quick movie tie-in cameo. That you’d see Mandalorian and Grogu fly by as you go on the same coaxium gathering mission since 2019.
But this isn’t just Malibu Stacy with a new hat (er, a new Beskar helmet.) In other words, they didn’t just add Grogu to the old ride and call it new. The line and the pre-show have subtle changes most guests won’t even notice, but once you’re in the cockpit, the whole experience has been overhauled.
There’s a reason it went this deep. The Harvard Business Review reported that new CEO Josh D’Amaro sat in on a design session with about 30 Imagineers and diagnosed the old ride bluntly: “Guests like it, but they don’t love it.” His read on why was the same one fans had for years, which I’ll get to. The whole overhaul set out to flip that like into love, especially for Star Wars fans.
Spoiler from my 11 rides: it worked on me.
Watch the Full Disney World Summer 2026 Review
Disney invited me to experience everything new at Disney World this summer. The new Falcon is one of nine summer updates I covered. The full video has the rest.
What Was Actually Wrong With the Old Smugglers Run?
The original wasn’t bad. It just never quite soared, and it had the same handful of issues from opening day in 2019.
There was only one destination: Corellia, chasing coaxium for Hondo Ohnaka. There was some gameplay variability, but the rails were tight enough that every ride felt about the same, like playing the same level of a video game over and over. The interactivity was binary. You either got the coaxium or you didn’t. The roles were lopsided, too. Pilots were by far the most coveted seats, gunners shot at TIE fighters but the environment didn’t react to them, and engineers (a role I actually liked, putting me in the minority) mostly pressed buttons as they lit up and launched the occasional harpoon.
That’s exactly what D’Amaro flagged in that design session reported by HBR: the pilots controlled the adventure while the gunners and engineers had much less to do.
And tonally, the whole thing tied into a planet you only saw in Solo: A Star Wars Story (which is everyone’s favorite, most memorable Star Wars movie).
So it never quite had that classic Star Wars feeling.
So What Changed? (Almost Everything, Once You’re in the Cockpit)
The new mission debuted May 22, 2026 at both Disney World and Disneyland, the same day The Mandalorian and Grogu hit theaters. Hondo now sends you to Tatooine after a band of ex-Imperial officers and a pirate, and you team up with Mando and Grogu to track them down.
Under the hood, Disney rebuilt the attraction on Unreal Engine 5 through a partnership with Epic Games and ILM, the same toolset ILM uses to create the virtual sets for The Mandalorian (see my short video above for more details on that tech). And they pulled the whole thing off in about 18 months, on both coasts, without ever closing the ride to the public, a timeline Imagineering’s Asa Kalama walked through on Disney Unscripted.
The first thing I noticed are the graphics. They’re instantly, obviously upgraded. Everything’s been upscaled to 4K and 60 frames per second (as CNET reported), and the frame rate held steadier too. I didn’t catch a single dropped frame across 11 rides. It was buttery smooth. There are better particle effects, motion blur, the whole fit and finish of a high-end PC game in 2026.
The previous mission looked like a Star Wars video game; this looks closer to a Star Wars movie. It’s not quite Star Tours, which is pre-rendered, but since the Falcon is rendered in real time on those graphics cards, that gap has closed a lot. If you compare video games from 2019 to 2026, that’s the kind of leap you should expect.
The Music Does the Heavy Lifting
But the moment it all clicked for me wasn’t the visuals. It was a sound.
The old mission played the Galaxy’s Edge theme as you took off from Batuu. This time, the Star Wars main theme kicks in the second you leave the hangar. It gave me an instant, Pavlovian rush of “yes, I am in a Star Wars adventure,” which the previous mission never quite managed. There is power to that music. Iconic John Williams cues are woven throughout the ride now, with different ones for different planets, and every destination is a location from the first six films.
This is the part the Corellia mission was missing, and it’s the part that makes the whole thing finally feel like Star Wars. A Millennium Falcon ride should be the ultimate Star Wars wish fulfillment. Having more of those iconic Star Wars touchstones helps it fulfill that promise.
You Finally Choose Where You Go (and the Engineer Got the Biggest Glow-Up)
The headline gameplay change is that you pick your destination. Every mission starts on Batuu, jumps almost immediately to Tatooine (which now works as the tutorial), and then one of the engineers chooses the final destination, which is the bulk of the ride. Which engineer gets to pick is randomized, so you won’t have a better chance sitting on the left side or right side.
You’re tracking three bounties who split up, so you choose which to chase: Coruscant (the neon city-planet from Attack of the Clones), Cloud City (the floating metropolis from Empire Strikes Back), or the wreckage of the second Death Star at Endor (from Return of the Jedi, with some fun nods to the original Star Tours, which was supposed to take you to the Forest Moon of Endor). Each one has its own iconic moments and surprises. For example, on Coruscant you can trigger the Cantina music, which Grogu adorably dances along to.
The roles all got a boost, but the engineer changed the most. The once-maligned back row now picks the planet, which means it shapes everyone’s mission. Pilots get branching paths to navigate, starting with an early left-or-right choice on Tatooine. Gunners get an environment that actually reacts to them, with objects to shoot and destroy (helping clear the way for the pilots), plus a missile button that charges up and can hit up to five targets at once.
Even the tutorial is smarter: pilots immediately get a branch to choose, gunners practice on Tie fighters up and down, and engineers test the tractor beam. It’s a much better ramp into the action.
The original was on rails, and the interactivity felt binary (you either get the coaxium, or you don’t). The new version is still on rails, but the rails are much looser, and you have a lot more impact on how the adventure plays out. As for the headliners, Mando and Grogu are the icing on the cake. They add characters you know to a mission that already works, and the engineer gets a Grogu button that plays cute Grogu videos on your screen.
But if you remove Mandalorian and Grogu, all these changes make for a much better Star Wars ride.
What It Doesn’t Fix
The overhaul doesn’t solve every complaint people have. Smugglers Run is a complex attraction, and plenty of guests find it intimidating or overwhelming. These upgrades, for everything they add, also add complexity. I rode it 11 times and didn’t clock the gunner’s missile button until I read Disney’s own blog post.
The saving grace is that the interactivity rewards you for engaging with it but doesn’t punish you for just going along for the ride. In fact, because of those “looser rails,” it feels much less of a big deal if you don’t grab a crate (the equivalent of the coaxium).
If it all feels like too much, my advice is to pretend it’s Star Tours and enjoy the flight. And if you want to go deep, there is a lot to dig into.
It also doesn’t fundamentally change the structure of the ride: Even with the improvements, I think Pilot is still the best position that has the most impact on the adventure. But the changes to the other positions close the gap quite a bit.
(Whether the overhaul fixes the ride’s deeper reputation is a bigger question, and one I’m saving for a full breakdown of how Disney pulled this off, coming soon.)
How to Ride the New Smugglers Run
The ride is in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at the back of Hollywood Studios, with a 38-inch height requirement. It’s a Lightning Lane Multi Pass Tier 1 pick, and there’s a Single Rider line.
A few specifics from my 11 rides. Pilot is still the most immersive seat (left controls horizontal movement, right controls vertical and it’s inverted). If you’re a gunner, pick manual mode over automatic at the start. You choose whether to shoot high, middle, or low, which is far more satisfying now that the environment reacts to your blasts and not just the TIE fighters. Engineer has the most gameplay variety now and picks the planet. The choice comes up on your screen, and you have about 5 seconds to make the decision. Your first press doesn’t lock in the planet. You can change your mind on which planet to pick until the timer runs out.
Here’s the Single Rider tip worth knowing: it’s a great option if your goal is to see all the destinations, because as a single rider you’ll most likely be assigned Engineer, and the Engineer chooses where you go. The only real downside is you skip the queue and the Hondo pre-show, which is barely changed from before.
The Verdict
This is the Millennium Falcon ride I was hoping for when they announced Galaxy’s Edge. D’Amaro wanted guests to love it instead of just liking it, and I’ll be honest: consider me converted. I went in trying to see everything and couldn’t, even after 11 rides. For a ride built on reriding and interactivity, that’s about the highest compliment I can give it.
Quick Reference: The New Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Location: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- New mission debuted: May 22, 2026 (Disney World and Disneyland)
- Tech: Rebuilt on Unreal Engine 5 (Epic Games + ILM partnership)
- Destinations: Tatooine (tutorial), then Coruscant, Cloud City, or the Death Star wreckage at Endor
- Height requirement: 38 inches
- Lightning Lane: Multi Pass (Tier 1); Single Rider line available
- Best role tips: Pilot = most immersive; Engineer = most variety + picks the planet; Gunner = choose manual mode
- When to ride: Rope drop or late night; expect high waits all summer
Frequently Asked Questions
When did the new Millennium Falcon mission open?
The Mandalorian and Grogu mission debuted May 22, 2026 at both Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland, the same day the film The Mandalorian and Grogu opened in theaters. It replaced the original Hondo Ohnaka coaxium mission that the ride launched with in 2019.
Is it just a Mandalorian and Grogu overlay?
No. While the marketing leads with Mando and Grogu, the cockpit experience was rebuilt on Unreal Engine 5, with upgraded graphics, John Williams music, branching paths, reactive gunner targets, and multiple selectable destinations. The characters are meaningfully integrated into the story (Mando narrates your mission and gives you instructions, Grogu shows up on screen). But the new characters are the icing, not the whole change.
What are the new destinations on Smugglers Run?
Every mission starts on Batuu, like before. But you instantly jump to Tatooine. Then one of the Engineers picks one of three destinations: Coruscant, Cloud City, or the wreckage of the second Death Star at Endor. Which Engineer chooses is randomized, so the bulk of each ride can be different.
Which role is best on the new Smugglers Run?
Pilot is still the most immersive. Engineer now has the most gameplay variety and picks the destination, which makes the formerly weakest seat one of the most important. Gunners should choose manual mode for the most satisfying experience.
How tall do you have to be to ride?
The height requirement is 38 inches, the same as before the update.
If you want this kind of breakdown on Disney news as it happens, that’s exactly what I do every week in my newsletter, The Tip Board.
What’s your go-to destination on the new Falcon, and have you cracked any of the secrets I missed? Let me know.
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