It was just a few short years ago that the Walt Disney Company was proudly announcing and opening their “Star Wars” themed land in multiple parks across the country.

Disney invested billions of dollars in the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge design and construction, based on a fictional world called “Batuu.” They hyped up technology and immersive elements meant to enhance the guest experience and allow for fans to spend hours in Galaxy’s Edge. And return time and time again to build up experience points by interacting with props and characters.

“Batuu” was purposefully set in the world of the newest trilogy, led by characters like Rey and Kylo Ren. All thanks to advice from then-head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, to then-Disney CEO Bob Iger.

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And now, after just a few years in operation, new leadership at the top is completely changing the entire plan behind Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. In the process, admitting they completely missed the mark with their multi-billion dollar project.

Star Wars Lands Bringing Back Original Characters

One former top executive at Walt Disney World once explained in an interview why Galaxy’s Edge focused on the new trilogy and not the beloved original movies and characters. Because Kathleen Kennedy gave awful advice to Bob Iger.

“We got a call one day,” said former WDW VP Dan Cockerell. “They said, ‘Well, we got some news for you all.’ And the Imagineering guys, they’ve heard this line many, many times during their careers. And I had never been through this.” “They said, ‘Well, yesterday Bob Iger met with Kathleen Kennedy, who as a lot people may know was sort of George Lucas’ protégé and headed up Lucasfilm. And they had a conversation. They had a meeting. And Kathleen Kennedy, her point of view was, there are way more Disney Star Wars stories ahead of us than behind us. So we really should think about do we want to build a Tatooine, and build what all the fifty-somethings remember Star Wars is or do we want to build something else which is going to appeal to all the upcoming generations who are going to know the new stories.'”

Don’t focus the land on characters people like, focus it instead on the new movies, Kennedy said. And Iger listened. Well, those new movies have come and gone, and “Star Wars” has never meant less in the national conversation. Sure enough, under new CEO Josh D’Amaro, Disney announced this month that they were bringing Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker into Galaxy’s Edge, as well as finally incorporating John Williams’ beloved score from the original films.

That’s how you know they’re admitting they made a gigantic mistake listening to Kathleen Kennedy. 

Bringing these characters into Galaxy’s Edge makes no logical or thematic sense, particularly since they’re being portrayed as their younger selves from the original trilogy. But Disney is desperate to make their gigantic investment in Galaxy’s Edge worth it, so they’re hoping characters people actually like will bring new fans and keep them there longer. 

It’s a series of unforced errors. They made mediocre movies that have been mostly forgotten, assumed that people cared about Rey and Kylo Ren or Fin or Poe Dameron, and then bet billions of dollars that their newer stories would be more popular moving forward than the old ones. They were wrong about all of it. None of the depth, complexity, charm, or swashbuckling excitement of the original characters is present in the new movies. Because Kathleen Kennedy was involved in creating them. They haven’t released a new “main trilogy” Star Wars movie in years, and aren’t close to releasing one. 

Now they’re having to undo these mistakes, without spending billions to reconfigure the land. What a disaster. And even more frustratingly, a predictable and avoidable one.

“Politics War Room” James Carville and Al Hunt speculated on whether Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., may switch parties and throw Democrats’ Senate plans in disarray.

As Carville and Hunt took questions from listeners, one asked why Fetterman, who has been known for taking surprisingly bipartisan stances, doesn’t just go all the way and switch parties.

“I am not a big Fetterman fan,” Carville said, declaring he thinks Fetterman is often motivated by wanting to see his name featured in newspapers. “He may switch, because they are going to correctly say if he wants to run again – I don’t know, but most politicians do – he has no chance in a Democratic primary.”

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“If I am the Republicans, I go to Fetterman,” Carville continued. “I said, ‘If you switch your final two years in the Senate, we will give you prime committee assignments. You will be relevant. You will be loved in here.’”

“And that’s why I am saying the Democrats need to have a big year in the Senate, because picking up four seats may not be enough. That’s a real threat.”

The best scenario, Carville argued, was one where Democrats win enough Senate seats to the point where a Fetterman defection would not matter. But even so, a potential Fetterman defection may shake up Democratic plans in a closer victory.

DAVID MARCUS: CAN JOHN FETTERMAN SAVE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FROM ITSELF?

Carville went on to argue that three Senate races will reveal whether Democrats are heading for a massive wave or just a narrow win, with him assuming the party will have a “monster year.”

One scenario discussed was Democrats eking out a modest victory, winning just enough seats to control the chamber, in which case every single vote matters. And in that case, the possibility of someone like Fetterman switching parties becomes a real threat that could undermine their majority.

“If you win all three of them, you’re going to probably pick up, you know, eight or 10 seats. If you don’t win any of them, the Fetterman nightmare could come true,” Al Hunt warned.

Fox News Digital reached out to Fetterman and did not receive an immediate reply.

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President Donald Trump said the first releases from a Pentagon study on UFOs will come out “very, very soon.”

Speaking at a rally at Dream City Church in north Phoenix on Friday night hosted by Turning Point USA and Turning Action, Trump told the audience they seemed like the right crowd to hear about the study because Arizonans are “really into that.”

The comments come as interest in unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, continues to grow in Washington, with lawmakers pushing for greater transparency and the Department of Defense expanding efforts to investigate unexplained incidents.

“I figured this was a good crowd because I know you people, you’re really into that. I don’t know if I am,” the president told them.

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He said he recently spoke with War Secretary Pete Hegseth about releasing the study’s findings to the public before giving the crowd a brief tease of what he saw.

“We found many very interesting documents, I must say,” Trump said. “And the first releases will begin very, very soon. So you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct.”

“You’ll figure it out. Let me know,” he added. “But we’ve had a lot of questions. It’s something that — it really captivates the mind, there’s no question about it.”

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Trump first said earlier this year in February that he would direct the release of government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life and unidentified aerial phenomena.

The president said at the time there was “tremendous interest” in the topic following remarks from former President Barack Obama, whom Trump said shared classified information suggesting aliens are real.

“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

Interest in UAPs has grown significantly in recent years, attracting increased scrutiny from federal lawmakers and defense officials. In 2023, Congress enacted the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act, while the Department of Defense created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office to investigate these incidents more thoroughly.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.