Could Rainforest Café Be Remodeled Into 'Star Wars' Themed Gift Shop?
If you have always dreamt of doing some Star Wars shopping at a temple that was built 5,000 years ago by the mysterious warrior race known as the Massassi, you might get your wish at some point in the future.
Rumor has it that Disney may be remodeling the now closed Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disneyland, California into something that resembles the Great Temple on Yavin IV, from where the rebels first launched Operation Fracture in order to extract (or to kill, depending on who you ask) Galen Erso, and from where they started their attack on the first Death Star soon afterward. The redesigned building would then house a Star Wars trading post, selling all kinds of merchandise from the galaxy far, far away.
On September 15, 2020, Disney opened a new Star Wars shop at the WonderGround Gallery in Downtown Disneyland, a building where previously Disney artwork was sold. The shop offers merchandise that is also available at the Black Spire Outpost, the in-universe name for the village on the planet Batuu where the events of Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s “Star Wars Land,” take place: clothes, plush toys, and even crystals for the lightsabers that can be constructed by the visitors at Savi’s workshop.
The trading post at WonderGround was “fully operational” even at times when Galaxy’s Edge itself was closed down due to the ongoing pandemic, offering fans and visitors a possibility to satisfy their need for Star Wars stuff.
When the shop opened, Disney said that it would be a permanent venue and not just a pop-up store, but it still seems to be an odd location for a Star Wars shop.
Not too far away from WonderGround is the location of the Rainforest Cafe, a restaurant that was closed down in 2017 in order to make room for a new hotel resort, a plan that was since given up on. Later, Asian Street Eats – a quick dining location - was set up right in front of Rainforest Cafe, but this venue has been removed in January of 2021.
And now a Disney reporter and YouTuber brings up the theory/rumor that Disney could move the trading post from WonderGround Gallery to the building that housed the Cafe, in order to set up a bigger and better merchandise store there. The rumor is actually based on the vague (well, very vague) resemblance of the Rainforest Cafe building to the Massassi temple on Yavin IV: both are kind of reddish, have a lot of plants on them, and share a somehow pyramid-like shape. Undoubtfully, some (if not a lot) of work and money would have to be invested to actually turn the current building into something that convincingly looks like the hidden rebel base, but Disney has done bigger and much more complex building jobs in the past. And if you put an X-wing, maybe one or two astromechs, or even a K2-SO-like security droid in front of the building, it would surely attract customers.
No matter if the trading post is actually moved from WonderGround Gallery (where a Marvel/Avengers shop is rumored to succeed), a bigger shop outside of Galaxy’s Edge would allow Disney to more easily sell merchandise from other eras of Star Wars lore apart from that of the sequel trilogy that Galaxy’s Edge has been set within. And with the company putting plans in motion to move away from the sequel era of the timeline and base projects around/inspired by that of the original trilogy (with projects like the Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Andor series, and possibly the Rogue Squadron movie), the possibilities to sell respective merchandise without having to worry about “canon continuity” seem endless.
Setting up the Rainforest Cafe as the rebel outpost would also allow Disney to present other Star Wars characters in Downtown Disneyland, like Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, or even Luke, Han, Leia, or Darth Vader, searching for the rebels, something that is not possible within Galaxy’s Edge, due to timeline constraints.
Whether or not Rainforest Cafe will actually be turned into the Great Temple remains to be seen, as there currently is no official word from Disney on their plans with the empty building.
Source(s): Inside The Magic