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Credit: DisneyDisney’s Hollywood Studios is changing faster than it has at any point since its early years.
Over the past several years, the park has undergone a dramatic transformation. Entire sections have been rebuilt, classic attractions have disappeared, and new intellectual properties have taken center stage. With construction continuing across the park, it seems increasingly clear that Disney isn’t finished yet.
As part of our ongoing series examining each Walt Disney World park and predicting what could happen next, Hollywood Studios may offer one of the easiest forecasts of all.
If Disney decides another attraction needs to go, our prediction is Star Tours.
While the attraction remains operational and Disney continues to add occasional updates to its randomized ride system, the long-term future of Star Tours feels more uncertain than ever.
Hollywood Studios Is Already Being Reinvented
The biggest clue comes from everything happening around Star Tours.
Disney has already replaced Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets, one of the largest attraction rethemes the park has seen in years.
Meanwhile, the Walt Disney Studios Courtyard has reopened to guests. The area now includes a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse stage show, while Drawn to Life and Drawn to Wonderland are expected to open in the near future.
Just down the pathway, Disney is actively constructing Monstropolis on the former Muppet Courtyard footprint. The new land will bring an entirely new identity to a section of the park that remained largely unchanged for decades.
Taken together, these projects represent a massive overhaul of Hollywood Studios.
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But once Monstropolis is complete, Disney will likely begin looking elsewhere for future expansion opportunities.
That’s where Star Tours enters the conversation.
Galaxy’s Edge Changed Everything
When Star Tours opened, it was the definitive Star Wars attraction at Walt Disney World.
Guests could board a Starspeeder and travel to locations from throughout the galaxy. For years, it was one of the park’s marquee experiences.
Then Galaxy’s Edge arrived.
Suddenly, Star Wars fans weren’t limited to a single simulator attraction. They could walk through Black Spire Outpost, pilot the Millennium Falcon, encounter characters throughout the land, and experience one of Disney’s most ambitious attractions ever created with Rise of the Resistance.
The scale difference is impossible to ignore.
Star Tours once served as Disney’s primary Star Wars destination. Today, it’s essentially a Star Wars attraction sitting outside Disney’s much larger Star Wars land.
That’s not necessarily a problem today, but it does raise questions about whether Disney still needs two separate Star Wars areas occupying valuable real estate inside the same park.
The Crowds Tell Part of the Story
Another factor is guest demand.
While Star Tours still attracts riders throughout the day, it rarely generates the kind of wait times seen at many of Hollywood Studios’ biggest attractions.
Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway routinely command much larger crowds.
Star Tours often operates with relatively modest waits compared to the park’s headliners.
That’s partly because the ride has been around for decades and partly because many guests prioritize Galaxy’s Edge’s newer offerings during limited vacation time.
For Disney, attraction popularity matters.
When evaluating future projects, the company has historically looked at guest demand, operational costs, intellectual property strategy, and land utilization. An attraction occupying a large footprint while drawing moderate crowds naturally becomes part of that conversation.
The Real Estate Is Extremely Valuable
Perhaps the biggest argument for Star Tours eventually closing has nothing to do with Star Wars at all.
It’s about location.
Star Tours occupies a significant area of Hollywood Studios, and it’s positioned immediately adjacent to where Monstropolis is taking shape.
If Disney eventually wants to expand Monstropolis beyond its initial phase or create a brand-new land, Star Tours represents one of the most logical opportunities.
The company has repeatedly shown a willingness to remove older attractions when larger projects require space.
We saw it with Muppet*Vision 3-D.
We saw it with the former Streets of America.
We saw it with the Great Movie Ride.
Disney is no longer hesitant to replace existing attractions when a new land or intellectual property offers greater long-term value.
A future expansion connecting Monstropolis deeper into that side of the park could make Star Tours’ location particularly attractive.
Disney Has Already Solved the Star Wars Problem
Years ago, closing Star Tours would have been nearly impossible because it represented the park’s primary Star Wars experience.
Today, Disney has a built-in solution.
Galaxy’s Edge already fulfills that role.
In fact, many newer visitors likely associate Hollywood Studios’ Star Wars presence almost entirely with Galaxy’s Edge rather than Star Tours itself.
The land has become the franchise’s permanent home inside the park.
That reality makes Star Tours far less essential than it once was.
Will It Happen Soon?
Probably not.
Hollywood Studios already has enough construction underway. Disney is focused on finishing Monstropolis, completing the remaining Walt Disney Studios Courtyard projects, and continuing to refine the park’s newest offerings.
There is no indication that Star Tours is on the chopping block today.
However, when looking several years into the future and asking what attraction makes the most sense as the park’s next major closure, Star Tours stands out as the most likely candidate.
Disney has already demonstrated where its priorities are headed. The company continues investing heavily in immersive lands built around major intellectual properties, and Hollywood Studios is increasingly becoming a collection of those large-scale environments.
If that trend continues, the aging Star Wars simulator sitting outside Galaxy’s Edge may eventually find itself without a clear role.
For now, guests can still board the Starspeeder and take one more trip through a galaxy far, far away.
But if Hollywood Studios’ transformation continues at its current pace, Star Tours may ultimately be preparing for its final flight.
