Star Tours 2.0 To Open On May 20th, Star Wars Blu-Rays Get Dated

Disney has finally announced that the new Star Wars' Star Tours: The Adventures Continue attraction will open at its Hollywood Studios theme park at Walt Disney World resort on May 20th 2011.

Also, LucasFilm has finally disclosed the release date of the upcoming Star Wars Blu-Rays. When the sets were announced, we were told "September 2011," but not an actual day. We now know that the sets will arrive on September 27th 2011.

Previously:

Star Tours: The Adventures Continues includes an entirely new 3D version of the ride, which will include locations and characters from both the original trilogy (Chewbacca, c-3PO, R2-D2, Aqualish. Bith, Rodians, etc) and prequel trilogy (like Naboo citizens and Geonosians) as it takes place after the events of Revenge of the Sith and before A New Hope. One action sequence will feature the Star Tours vehicle is now going to be chased by Boba Fett, and Admiral Ackbar holographically communicates with the passengers.

The new attraction will take voyagers — for the first time ever — to Coruscant, as well as other destinations in the Star Wars galaxy. While Bespin, Endor and Alderaan are also mentioned in the promotional tourism video for the Star Tours Travel Company, DisneyParks features a disclaimer "we cannot confirm that you will travel to any of the destinations shown in this video . . ."

Disneyland Resort President George Kalogridis inadvertently announced during D23's "Destination D" event that the new ride will feature 54 possible different experiences. That excites us but we wonder just how different these 54 possibilities will be. We didn't report this fact when it was revealed as we were waiting for more infomation about how this would be handled, but nothing has come out since. Does anyone know any more about this bit of news?

We also recently learned that composer Michael Giacchino (Lost, Up, Star Trek) will score the new ride.

It was originally revealed that the StarSpeeder 1000 series spacecraft would be flown using one of the latest AC-series Tour Droids, a new character named Ace. Well it turns out that might not be the complete story. Imagineers "decided to take the story in a very different direction" after having "discussions with George Lucas" during the course of production. We don't know exactly how this will play out, but C-3PO will appear as the pilot of the new ride, replacing the AC-38 droid better known as Ace. Here is the photo they have released:

And here is the previously released high resolution photo of Ace:

Rex, the robot pilot we all remember and love from the original Star Tours ride will have a place in the new show, however where that will be is unknown. You might recall that Rex mentioned in the original introduction that Star Tours was his first flight, which is the reason the droid was not brought back as pilot for Star Tours 2.0.Disney has mentioned that Ace's personality is "as different from Rex as you can imagine."

The imagineers have also created a new "spokesbot" named Aly San San for the new ride, modeled after the WA-7 "Waitress Droid" from the Star Wars – Episode II – Attack of the Clones. The droid is voiced by Allison Janney, and her droid name was suggested by George Lucas as a tribute to the actress.

Here is the previously released Queue video:

Previously released images:

Previously released video trailer: