Review: 'The Art of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge'

The Star Wars movies have always been a lot like amusement park rides with their dizzying flights through asteroid fields and high-speed races on speeder bikes. So when Disney gobbled up the franchise in 2012, it was just a matter of time before the mega-corporation built some sort of Star Wars land in its theme parks. Indeed, the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge section of Disneyland and Disney World opened to the public in 2019. Little did the Mouse know that there was a pandemic lurking right around the corner that might cut into attendance.

For those of us not dopey enough to risk exposing ourselves to crowds of maskless tourists in Bermuda shorts, The Art of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge should scratch the itch to check out Galaxy's Edge a little. The book is a tour through the theme park section via production illustrations and paintings. The work inside this book is not too different from what artists created to conceptualize the films that inspired the park. There are paintings of fanciful new aliens, spaceships, and environments intended to remind you of such familiar Star Wars territories as Yavin 4 and the Mos Eisley Cantina. As is always the case with books of this sort, there are ideas that didn't come to fruition, such as a cool alien aquarium that would have been the centerpiece of the Galaxy's Edge cantina. It would have been nice if the book included a few actual photos of the rides and concessions developed from the art to get some idea of how they were realized, but I guess there's no substitute for seeing this stuff in person. Just be sure to get your vaccines first, kids.