The Riverside Press-Enterprise
One less face in Galaxy’s Edge orbit
An alien singer planned for a dinner theater makes the hyperspace jump to a Florida park
A “Star Wars” dinner theater run by an interstellar pop star, once planned for the Galaxy’s Edge themed land at Disneyland, will become part of the new Galactic Starcruiser hotel opening soon at Walt Disney World.
Alien singer and restaurateur Gaya will be the headline entertainer aboard the Starship Halcyon when the “Star Wars” hotel departs on its maiden voyage March 1 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida.
Walt Disney Imagineering initially envisioned Gaya as an underworld boss who owned the Kalikori Club restaurant and lounge next to Oga’s Cantina in an abandoned concept created for the twin Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge themed lands in California and Florida.
“The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” coffee table book includes more than 40 pieces of concept art created by Lucasfilm and Imagineering for the Kalikori Club table-service restaurant once conceived for Galaxy’s Edge.
Now Gaya is taking her act and restaurant to the stars aboard the Galactic Starcruiser, the pricey new “Star Wars” hotel conceived as an intergalactic cruise ship. Berths aboard the Halcyon start at roughly $5,000 per room for a two-night stay.
If the new “Star Wars” hotel proves popular — and all signs suggest it’s already a hit, with voyages booked for months in advance — a second spaceport could fit perfectly at Disneyland in the vast, unused space between the Rise of the Resistance attraction and the
Hungry Bear restaurant.
Disney has been teasing Gaya’s appearance on the Halcyon during the recent Destination D23 event and the “Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration” television special.
In one clip, Gaya sang a pop song with lyrics like “change is coming” and “welcome to the new world,” suggesting storylines visitors might encounter once their experiential voyage begins in the starship-themed hotel.
Imagineers have hinted Gaya may also know a thing or two about coaxium, the starship hyperfuel that plays a central role in the Rise of the Resistance attractions at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Imagineering has been sprinkling Gaya-related Easter eggs throughout Galaxy’s Edge, with the pop star’s “Oola Shuka” song in regular rotation at Oga’s Cantina. According to her backstory, Gaya is a mezzo-soprano with a funky, jazzy, neo-soul musical style.
The Twi’lek singer hails from the “Star Wars” outer rim planet of Ryloth, home to a humanoid species distinguished by the lekku appendages protruding from their skulls.
Concept art created for Gaya’s dinner theater envisioned for Disneyland showed R5 astromech droids serving as cocktail servers while a backing band jammed on otherworldly instruments, according to “The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.”
“We had concepts for a Twi’lek club and spice den that were the same thing,” Imagineering managing story editor Margaret Kerrison said in the book. “The final name we came up with was the Kalikori Club, which was our idea for the table service restaurant. It was an old bathhouse converted into a dining establishment.”
In the backstory created for the Kalikori Club, the restaurant and lounge were owned by an underworld boss named Gaya.
“The table service restaurant in concept is supposed to be almost a speakeasy, a hidden club,” Imagineering creative portfolio executive Chris Beatty said in the book. “It is part of the under-the-underground world. It was owned by a Twi’lek proprietor. She is also the performer there. And in early concepts, I think she was running the underworld. Then we ended up shifting that story. When this went away, that character storyline shifted to Oga Garra.”
In the backstory created for Galaxy’s Edge, Garra owns Oga’s Cantina and runs the underworld in Black Spire Outpost on the “Star Wars” planet of Batuu.