Disney’s New CEO Admitted Smugglers Run Isn’t Good Enough—Then Personally Fixed It

When was the last time a Disney CEO walked into a room of Imagineers and said, out loud, that one of the company’s biggest rides just isn’t doing its job? That moment happened recently, and the result is a complete redesign of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run launching this May.

According to a report from the East Bay Times, incoming Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro sat down with the Harvard Business Review and invited them to observe a live design session with roughly 30 Imagineers at Walt Disney Imagineering. The subject: what to do about Smugglers Run. D’Amaro’s assessment was remarkably candid.

“Guests like it, but they don’t love it,” D’Amaro told the Harvard Business Review.

That single sentence is worth pausing on. Smugglers Run opened in 2019 as one of the most anticipated theme park attractions in years — a fully operational Millennium Falcon where guests could actually pilot the ship. And yet, by D’Amaro’s own account, it never quite reached the emotional ceiling it was built for. His diagnosis was clear: pilots control the adventure while gunners and engineers are left with significantly less to do. Half the cabin ends up feeling like passengers.

The fix, which D’Amaro helped directly shape in that Imagineering session, debuts on May 22, 2026 at both Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios — timed to coincide with the theatrical release of The Mandalorian and Grogu.

What’s Actually Changing

The redesigned experience introduces a new storyline featuring Din Djarin and Grogu. Hondo Ohnaka has gotten wind of a deal between ex-Imperial officers and pirates on Tatooine, and guests are recruited to borrow the Falcon and track them down.

But the real shift is in how the ride plays. For the first time, the crew — all six positions — will have genuine control over where the mission takes them. Guests can end up on Bespin, at the wreckage of the second Death Star near Endor, or on the city-planet Coruscant. The engineer positions will also be able to communicate directly with Grogu during the mission, a new interactive layer that gives those seats actual story weight.

Imagineers built this experience using Unreal Engine 5 — the same technology that Industrial Light & Magic uses on the Disney+ series — which means the visuals will carry the same quality bar as the show itself. That is not a minor upgrade.

Why D’Amaro’s Involvement Matters

D’Amaro officially becomes Disney CEO on March 18, 2026, taking over from Bob Iger. His decision to personally sit in on an Imagineering design session — and to let a major business publication watch — signals something about how he intends to lead the parks division.

Most executives in his position commission the work. D’Amaro walked into the room.

“Anything I can do to help more guests say they love Disney is a valuable use of my time,” he told the Harvard Business Review.

That framing — moving guests from “liked” to “loved” — is a useful lens for what we can expect from his tenure. Smugglers Run was never a broken ride. It was a technically impressive attraction that left a significant portion of its riders feeling peripheral. This fix addresses that directly, and the fact that D’Amaro was in that creative room suggests the parks may be entering a period where guest experience gets real executive attention, not just budget conversations.

What This Means for Your Trip

If you have a visit to Disneyland or Disney’s Hollywood Studios planned this spring or summer, May 22 is now a meaningful date. The original Smugglers Run mission will presumably give way to the Mandalorian storyline at launch, though Disney has not specified whether both will rotate or whether the new experience fully replaces the original.

Given that the launch is tied directly to the film’s release, we expect this to be a high-traffic moment at Galaxy’s Edge. Anyone hoping to experience the new mission in its opening weeks should plan accordingly — especially at Hollywood Studios, where Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance already draws some of the park’s longest standby lines.

For guests who found Smugglers Run underwhelming in past visits, this is a genuine reason to give it another look. The complaint that motivated the redesign — that half the crew never felt like they were really flying — is exactly what the new mission was built to solve.