New Disney Unscripted Episode: How Walt Disney Imagineering Built the New Mandalorian Smugglers Run Mission

15 days ago in "Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run"

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Inside Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run — The New Mandalorian and Grogu Mission

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Posted: Thursday May 28, 2026 6:19pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has released a new episode of Disney Unscripted taking you behind the scenes of the updated Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run — showing how the new Mandalorian and Grogu mission came together at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run — The New Mission

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run now features a brand new mission at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, with Din Djarin and Grogu at the center of the action.

Hondo Ohnaka sends your crew after two Imperial officers and a pirate moving cargo on Tatooine. Mando briefs you from the Razor Crest, and from there you take the Falcon.

Flying the Millennium Falcon

Your crew picks the destination — Bespin, the Death Star wreckage above Endor, or Coruscant — making each run different. Engineers can interact directly with Grogu mid-mission, while pilots and gunners see improved controls and responsiveness throughout.

Behind the scenes, Walt Disney Imagineering rebuilt the entire visual system in collaboration with Industrial Light and Magic and Epic Games. The ride runs on Unreal Engine 5 with real-time rendering across all five cockpit projection surfaces, using the exact same 3D assets from Lucasfilm's production library that were used to make The Mandalorian on Disney+.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Complete Guide — Mandalorian and Grogu Mission

Gunner Position

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Br0ckford3 hours ago

Also we were at studios just a couple days ago and ride times were similar, give or take. Waited half the posted time for Smugglers and the absolutely full time for rise. So....are they trying to make mando and grogu seem like a must do? Not saying, just saying.

HauntedPirate4 hours ago

You mean like what people like to do around here when they say, "See?!?! Ride X has an 80 minute wait!! The parks are busy!!!". ;) Your point is entirely valid, which is why I qualified my post with "let's see how things look this fall". It's one data point on one day, nothing can be gleaned from that.

gorillaball21 hours ago

Reading a little too much into wait times.

dmc49322 hours ago

bays**

HauntedPirate23 hours ago

Hehehe. I said a while back - If they can do this refurb properly, SR could have longer waits than Rise. Time will tell (like, this fall, when crowds pick up closer to Halloween) if this is an anomaly or something else.

networkpro1 day ago

So Snugglers Run > Rise of the Retcon.

dmc4931 day ago

Yeah but very well could be that some of the days are down so it’s reduced capacity

HauntedPirate1 day ago

Just now, this had a longer wait than Rise, 55 vs 50 minutes.

Tom Morrow3 days ago

That might be it. Steering does seem less sensitive, there is perhaps a little bit of steering assist happening, no "traps", and possibly a wider flight "lane"? It's probably for the better to make the flights a little less chaotic. Also in general this feels a little bit less like a video game and a little more like a simulator ride you have some control over. I still think there is still a better possible version of this ride, but this is overall an improvement.

MisterPenguin3 days ago

The O.G. path had certain 'traps' that tested piloting skills. E.g., the first horizontal obstacle can only be avoided by going under, not over. Tho, most people's instinct is trying to go over... Also, it was very easy to overcompensate like you're on the Speedway. I haven't tried the new 'paths' yet. Perhaps they removed the 'traps' and made steering less over-reactive. ??

Tom Morrow3 days ago

Rode it a second time and was pilot this time. Is it just me or is it a little bit easier to pilot now?

Piebald4 days ago

I've ridden this multiple times and I like it. The original felt much more video game-esque with the setting. Having the engineer choose the location after the initial training is much better. I've gotten endor and coruscant and it's just a big improvement. I see this as a win and can't imagine anyone upset about losing the original. Plus Single Rider line is still very short and engineer is given more to do so the fact that youre getting engineer on SR line like 98% of the time isn't as bad as before

celluloid5 days ago

It helps that Universal had built two critically and commercially successful lands twice before for that property that include multiple E tickets and, supporting attractions, live entertainment and environments. This was Disney's first realized land dedicated in a park that was gutted and starving for new with the biggest such property in cinematic history for it.

Agent H5 days ago

You’re comparing 2 different things. Harry Potter is a franchise that takes place in with a vastly smaller amount of characters that all more or less coexist in the same time period (and even then the lands are riddled with inconsistencies) By contrast Star Wars is a franchise with a lot more of its more popular characters spanning multiple time periods then Harry Potter. The location isn’t what prohibits the original trilogy characters from appearing.