Millennium Falcon Experience

The Millennium Falcon Experience was a touring event developed by Lucasfilm as part of the company's press tour for the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story. Ideated by Lucasfilm Senior Events Manager Este Meza, the exhibition was a walkthrough of an almost full-scale replica of the interior of the Millennium Falcon as it appeared in the film, including the cockpit and lounge. The exhibit visited five cities across the United States during its month-long tour.[1]

Development

Preparations

The Millennium Falcon Experience was first ideated by Lucasfilm Senior Events Manager Este Meza in October, 2017 as a touring fan event to promote the then-upcoming film Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lucasfilm collaborated with Belgian Prop Crew (aka Belgian Costume Division, BCD), the fan group Project X1, and Pinewood Studios to bring a the version of the Millennium Falcon to life as it appeared in the 2018 film.[1]

After several months of design work,[1] the exhibition was constructed by 20 volunteers[4] over the course of five weeks on an orange farm in Southern California.[5] The final design was a semi-linear walkthrough of the ship highlighting the cockpit and the main lounge, all contained within three 40-foot shipping containers.[1]

Punch it

The first component constructed was the cockpit, since the Lucasfilm events team had agreed to loan their new replica set piece to a commercial shoot and for filming other Solo promotional video content. As such, the team only had two weeks to have the cockpit portion complete and screen-ready. A week into building the cockpit within the shipping containers, however, the team realized that they would need to build the cockpit inside the shipping containers, disassemble it for transport, then rebuild it on the soundstage for the shoots. This revelation forced the construction team to work around the clock, many nights without sleep, to meet the deadline.[1]

The final version of the cockpit was a realistic replica. It included many interactive buttons and switches created from the same casts used for the film set decoration.[4] Some of the buttons affected the cockpit lighting. Given physical constraints of the shipping containers, the cockpit had to be slightly down-scaled.[1]

Let the Wookiee win

The majority of the exhibition was dedicated to the Millennium Falcon's main hold. This was positioned adjacent to the cockpit, massively truncating the hallway which connected the in-universe ship's cockpit to main hold to just a few meter or two. The hold was clad in the bright white paneling installed by Lando Calrissian, and the exhibit showcased the lounge seating around the Dejarik table and the kitchen/bar.[1]

The lounge seating was padded in bright yellow cushioning created at Pinewood.[4] The Dejarik table, on the other hand, was a loan from Lucasfilm's San Francisco headquarters, where it had sat in an office.[1] Lando's bar was recreated using footage from the film set. The team at BCD scoured the internet for many of the antique kitchen equipment modified to give the area an in-universe aesthetic.[1][4]

Tour schedule

The Millennium Falcon Experience officially toured four cities,[2] with an additional midway stop in Los Angeles for the Solo press junket. In general, the tickets were free to the public, operating on a first-come, first-serve basis, from Friday through Sunday, though the different locations leveraged different schedules and ticketing structures.[6][2]

The exhibition debuted at BB&T Arena at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky (in the Cincinnati metropolitan area)[6] on April 27, 2018.[2] It ran for three days (through April 29) from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. [6]

The second stop was in Cobb County, Georgia, in the Georgia Power Pavilion, a grassy portion of the The Battery, itself a mixed-use development associated with the larger SunTrust Park, home of the Major League Baseball team the Atlanta Braves. Here it ran from May 4 to May 6, coinciding the baseball team's own Star Wars-themed ballpark events.[7] Since the Braves played games all three days,[7] local press anticipated a high turnout for the exhibition and challenges for fans who were not attending the games.[8] The exhibition ran from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the first two days, but only until 5:30 p.m. on the third. The ticketing structure involved timed passes for groups of up to five people, which could be secured starting at 10 a.m. for each day at the park's ticketing window.[7]

Following the first two legs of the tour, the Millennium Falcon Experience's next stop was the Solo press junket on May 12, 2018, in Los Angeles California. There, members of the press were able to experience the exhibit with the addition of meeting Chewbacca himself in the cockpit.[3]

The penultimate stop on the Falcon's tour was the Megaplex movie theatre at Jordan Commons in Sandy, Utah, near Salt Lake City. The exhibition was installed in the theatre's parking lot[9] and ran from Friday May 18 through Sunday May 20, 2018.[2] Supposedly, much of the exhibition was damaged in transit between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, such that only the cockpit portion was used for the remainder of the tour.[10] The theatre added additional Star Wars-related festivities including character interactions, trivia games, a bounce house, and live music. Hours were 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with tickets becoming available at 8 a.m. each day, following a similar time-slot for group of five structure as previous stops.[9]

The final stop on the tour was the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Littleton, Colorado, in the Denver area.[10] It ran from Friday May 25 (the date of Solo: A Star Wars Story's premiere) through Sunday May 27, 2018.[2] Again, this was just the exhibit of the cockpit. Its hours were from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For this leg of the tour, tickets became available at 7:30 a.m. each day outside the theatre.[2]

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 StarWars.com 7 Things We Learned Inside the Millennium Falcon Experience on StarWars.com (backup link)
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 StarWars.com UPDATED: Millennium Falcon Experience Prepares to Launch on StarWars.com (backup link)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Premium-Era-real The Solo: A Star Wars Story Junket Was Out of This World on My Big Fat Cuban Family (May 23, 2018) (backup link archived on March 5, 2019)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The star wars show logo The Star Wars Show: We Build a Millennium Falcon Out of SOLO Cups and Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige Talks Star Wars on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)
  5. ↑ Steele, Bruce. One Day at Disney: Meet the People Who Make the Magic Across the Globe, Disney Editions, 2019-12-03. ISBN ‎9781368052245.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Premium-Era-real Millennium Falcon lands in Northern Kentucky by Manley, Mackenzie on Cincinnati CityBeat (April 27, 2018) (backup link archived on December 9, 2022)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Premium-Era-real Atlanta Braves Homestand Highlights: Friday, May 4 - Sunday, May 6 on MLB (May 2, 2018) (backup link archived on December 24, 2025)
  8. ↑ Premium-Era-real Tour a full-size Millennium Falcon model at The Battery this weekend by Brasch, Ben on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (May 4, 2018) (backup link archived on August 9, 2025)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Premium-Era-real Millennium Falcon lands in Sandy ahead of new 'Star Wars' movie on KSL (May 18, 2018) (backup link archived on December 25, 2025)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Premium-Era-real A Life-Size Replica of The Millennium Falcon's Cockpit is Coming to Denver by Anderson, Corinne on 303 Magazine (May 23, 2018) (backup link archived on November 9, 2020)