WDW Magazine April 2016 - Disney's Hollywood Studios | Page 14

Never-beforeseen Star Wars
Land concept
images at the
D23 keynote
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A new name for a new-age Hollywood…

The contract with MGM expired in 2005 and, in effort to shift the focus of the park from
the Golden Age to the modern age, Disney decided not to renew it. With rebranding came
renaming and on January 7, 2008, it officially became Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Since the name change DHS has seen the growth and expansion of its most popular
sections, such as Pixar Place—with the addition of the insanely popular 4-D Toy Story
Midway Mania! Ride—and the area surrounding Star Tours—including Star Wars Launch
Bay/Theater, Star Wars: Path of the Jedi, and Tatooine Traders.
The popularity of these expansions mixed with the success of newer Disney projects,
specifically Pixar’s Toy Story films, and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars, DHS was looking to appeal to
a new generation of movie-goers with huge new “lands” being added to the park.
Though this is an exciting time for DHS, a number of park favorites have unfortunately been
cut to make-way for the transition. In 2014, the Studio Backlot Tour and The American Idol
Experience both closed their doors for good. Followed by even more closings in 2015,
including the Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, and the
announcement that the parks original icon, Earffel Tower, would be removed.
And if you still weren’t clear that DHS was amidst some major changes, The Sorcerer’s Hat was
official dismantled on January 7, 2015, leaving all of us wondering: “What’s next for DHS?”

The future of Disney’s Hollywood Studios…

The D23 Expo was full of surprises on August 16, 2015, when Disney CEO, Bob Iger (since 2000)
revealed that a huge 11-acre “Toy Story Land” would be added to DHS, as well as a massive expansion
of the Star Wars area to create an entirely new “Star Wars Land” at both WDW and Disneyland.