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How does the new Star Tours even remotely fit into the Star Wars canon?




Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I have a giant problem with Star Tours, the ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, FL.


For those who are unfamiliar with it, you board a Star Tours 1000 starship for a likely tour of the galaxy when...



Darth Vader appears and takes hold of the ship using the force, demanding a "Rebel spy" on the ship must be turned over to him. During the exit, you clearly see Imperial Star Destroyers, TIE Fighters and other Galactic Empire type ships from the original trilogy.



After the jump into hyperspace...



You wind up in a podrace, which absolutely makes zero sense how (a) you enter the planet's atmosphere so quickly and (b) a starship carrying 20+ people has to be much larger than a podracer. But I digress. It's safe to assume podracing still exists in the original trilogy area, so this isn't my issue. Admiral Ackbar shows up via holocom and asks us to deliver the "spy" to him at the given coordinates.



Again, we make a hyperspace jump and...




We wind up at a giant battle above Coruscant that involves Republic-era warships, fighters, and droids. Considering we know that this "tour" takes place during Darth Vader's lifetime, the appearance of original-trilogy era TIE and Star Destroyer designs are being used and Admiral Ackbar is a leaderhead in the Rebel Alliance, this makes no sense. Also, why would Ackbar need a Rebel spy delivered to Coruscant? The Rebel Alliance would not likely be operating on the planet during the rebellion.



Considering Disney owns the canon to Star Wars now, and this ride is at their park, how does any of this fit into the actual Star Wars universe? Because it really seems like it cannot at all (not including the obvious violations in physics). The time frames of events make absolutely no sense.



Answer



It does not exist within the primary canon.


Exactly what level of canon it is, has not been specified, but it is likely of The Infinities level, though it could be Legends.


Last year, Disney specified exactly what is or isn't fully canon..



This includes the six Star Wars episodes, and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. These stories are the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align.




(snip)



In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded.



The events of Star Tours does not fall within any of the mentioned fully canon works, add in the logical issues of the possible events during Star Tours, and you have a work that should not at all be considered to exist within either of the two main canons.


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