Star Wars is an iconic piece of cinematic history and ever since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, it’s had an increasing presence in the Disney Parks.
FromStar Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to the Galactic Starcruiser hotel, Disney has fully incorporated the IP. But before those two Star Wars-centric locations debuted, only a few smaller Star Wars installations existed in Disney Parks. One of those was Star Wars: Path of the Jedi — a short film located in Disney’s Hollywood Studios across from Echo Lake.
Most Star Wars fans love the immersive additions to the Parks, but the short film was far too much for one visitor. Twitter user @NintendoFanGirl shared her 2015 experience with this short film in celebration of May the 4th.
Having never seen any of the original Star Wars films, @NintendoFanGirl planned to watch them all when she returned from her Walt Disney World vacation in December 2015, before the release of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015):
It was December 2015, one week before The Force Awakens was set to launch. I had never seen ANY Star Wars movie, my boyfriend was a fan though so we had midnight showing tickets for TFA and plans to marathon the 6 prior movies the week after this Disney trip (before TFA release.)
She even mentions that she managed to avoid every spoiler for the films except the iconic line, “No, I am your father,” though she made the common error of believing the line is “Luke, I am your father”:
I had somehow made it many years on this earth without really knowing the plot/ending of any Star Wars story outside of “Luke, I am your father” I had pretty high hopes and was actually excited to watch through them all with my clean slate brain.
I had somehow made it many years on this earth without really knowing the plot/ending of any Star Wars story outside of “Luke, I am your father”
I had pretty high hopes and was actually excited to watch through them all with my clean slate brain. pic.twitter.com/KFiXL1Y4vV
— NintendoFanGirl 🎮 (back home from PAX East) (@NintendoFanGirl) May 4, 2022
So when @NintendoFanGirl was on vacation and spotted Path of the Jedi, she read the description outside the theater before viewing. It read:
Master the ways of The Force in this exclusive screening that follows Luke Skywalker on his journey from farm boy to Jedi Knight.
Since she found this description a little vague, she asked a nearby Cast Member what the short film was about. She wrote:
So cue coming across this theater in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The show description is brief (seen here) so I ask a CM what it actually was and got a response that was something like… “oh you know just a cute show about Star Wars.”
So cue coming across this theater in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The show description is brief (seen here) so I ask a CM what it actually was and got a response that was something like… “oh you know just a cute show about Star Wars.” pic.twitter.com/gp1pUMQlRb
— NintendoFanGirl 🎮 (back home from PAX East) (@NintendoFanGirl) May 4, 2022
Since it seemed not to require a ton of knowledge about the Star Wars franchise, @NintendoFanGirl went ahead into the screening. It only took a few minutes to realize she was led wrong. The short film takes the audience through the original trilogy — Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) — showing clips from the major conflicts in each movie and their respective resolutions.
She found herself laughing the whole way through, realizing decades of spoilers — including the destruction of the Death Star, the Battle of Hoth, and the Battle of Endor — that she’d managed to avoid had been shown to her en masse in less than 15 minutes.
Credit: Lucasfilm
She shared Tweets about the entire experience:
I’ll tell you what the show ACTUALLY was. 10 minutes zipping through episode 4-6 basically playing 1-2 clips of each movie’s conflict followed by 1-2 clips of the movie’s resolution. It was literally just a 10 minute overview of every spoiler in the original Star Wars trilogy 😂 I laugh-cried through the whole thing because it was funny to me that I made it 25 years without spoilers and then had them ALL played for me, in a movie theater format, in Disney World, less than one week before I was prepared and excited to actually watch these 35+ yo movies.
I laugh-cried through the whole thing because it was funny to me that I made it 25 years without spoilers and then had them ALL played for me, in a movie theater format, in Disney World, less than one week before I was prepared and excited to actually watch these 35+ yo movies. pic.twitter.com/Cu4oMeiFyx
— NintendoFanGirl 🎮 (back home from PAX East) (@NintendoFanGirl) May 4, 2022
For anyone concerned, @NintendoFanGirl didn’t let this ruin her Star Wars fan experience. She still watched all of the films and finds herself buying plenty of intergalactic merchandise. She wrote:
End story. I did still watch them all. Rogue One is now my favorite Star Wars movie. I’m not up speed on the side series [The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, etc.] but would like to watch them eventually. And I’ve continued to spend too much money to see/buy Star Wars things inside disney even though they betrayed me.
End story. I did still watch them all. Rogue One is now my favorite Star Wars movie. I’m not up speed on the side series but would like to watch them eventually. And I’ve continued to spend too much money to see/buy Star Wars things inside disney even though they betrayed me. pic.twitter.com/ONooMM2o7F
— NintendoFanGirl 🎮 (back home from PAX East) (@NintendoFanGirl) May 4, 2022
Has anyone ever spoiled a Star Wars film for you? Tell us your story in the comments.
If you want to visit Walt Disney World on your next family vacation to experience any of the four theme parks — Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios — but aren’t sure where to begin planning, then don’t hesitate to reach out to our friends over at the Authorized Disney Vacation Planners at Academy Travel for a free quote.
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Credit: Disney
