Project Overview:
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance - Queue Design
One of my favorite assignments from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge project was the conceptualization and execution of the queue space for the attraction Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. When I was given the assignment, all I had was a basic set of architectural drawings to designate wall placement, but everything else was a blank canvas that needed strong creative direction and visual storytelling.
My prompt was to think of this queue as some type of ancient dwelling. Who lived in these spaces? What did they do here? How would these spaces have been built to serve their everyday needs? Like an anthropologist, I began to think about how utilitarian or societal needs influence the design of a dwelling. I filtered these cultural studies through the Star Wars brand vernacular and formed a story that felt inherent to the planet of Batuu. I pulled obscure references from real ancient civilizations that I shared with my construction crews. Together, we’d study the references and tweak them as we were building, which created an immersive environment with a rich sense of authentic craftsmanship.
In order to push that sense of authenticity, we thought carefully about how we executed every detail, from floor to ceiling. We wanted to emphasize that this dwelling was created long ago with natural resources. We carved the surfaces so that they appeared to be created with handheld tools and painted the walls with “naturally occurring” pigments. This rich ancient backstory helped emphasize the contrasting high-tech props and set pieces from our second layer of storytelling: a makeshift Resistance basecamp. Many of the secrets of this dwelling have yet to be discovered, which gives us a wonderful opportunity to team up with our LucasFilm partners and extend this environment further into the Star Wars franchise, as accomplished in the novel “Galaxy’s Edge - Black Spire”.
exCerPt from chapter FOURTEEN:
"But here, there were interesting shapes integrated into the landscape, carved into and cut out of the mountain crags… It all looked quite intentional but ancient. Forgotten.
So these were the ruins she’d bet on— the dangerous caverns that she hoped to turn into a Resistance refuge…
She was closer to the rock structures now. Ancient, crumbling stairs were cut into stone, while the remains of carved patterns decorated the walls. A curving path around the cenote led into the darkness of the caves, and Vi took a last, deep breath of the soft, warm air before heading in that direction. In her experience, pitch-black darkness full of traps was never as serene as a garden”.
