Playing The Part: Star Wars Bounding At Galaxy’s Edge

Given my lifelong love of anything related to Star Wars (with the possible exception of the Holiday Special), it sorta goes without saying that I was thrilled when Disney created Galaxy’s Edge. The opportunity to go play in a “real” Star Wars spaceport was something I had always dreamed of but never thought would happen, and then Disney went ahead and made one. It took a while for us to plan a trip to the galaxy far, far away, and when the opportunity finally became a reality I intended to go all out.

So, as we planned our trip to the Outer Rim planet of Batuu, my wife and I decided that if we were going to do this we were going to really get into it. Which meant, of course, creating costumes. My wife isn’t nearly as big a Star Wars fan, but she does enjoy playing dress-up, so she was happy to take part as well.

The Jedi and the General (pic taken by a random couple who were also in costume).

There were a few things to consider as we started building our outfits. Disney does have some rules in place to ensure that you’re not too screen accurate (though it does seem like those rules are somewhat fluid) so we wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to get stopped by security and sent back to our hotel to change. We also had to take the weather into account, as the more layers we’re wearing in the Southern California sun the sweatier things could get. Ease of movement was something to consider, too, as was comfort. Of course, too, the overall look had to be clearly something that could fit into that universe.

After kicking around a variety of ideas, I eventually settled on a Jedi and my wife went with an outfit inspired by General Leia.

So what went into creating these costumes? Well, aside from more money than we had initially intended to spend (isn’t that always the way, though), here’s how it all happened:

First up was finding all of the pieces we needed. There was a lot of searching online and in stores, lots of saving things in carts and reassessing the concepts as we found new things, and a fair bit of frustration when we knew what we wanted but just couldn’t find it.

The various parts of my Jedi costume can be seen in the pic below: a poncho, a linen shirt, and sneakers from eBay (boots would be more costume-accurate, but sneakers are way more comfortable for walking around all day), and brown jeans from Target. I really considered linen pants, but went with jeans for comfort and pockets, and I was able to find a pair that worked well enough with the outfit.

Without knowing how much the “no exact costumes” rule would be enforced at the parks, I wanted to evoke the concept of Jedi without going for the exact outfit. I had thought the robe I bought was hooded (the listing said it was, and the pic does look like it is) but it wasn’t. Oh well.

My wife found her vest and pants on Amazon, and a great shirt (with rolled sleeves like Leia’s) through Land’s End.

This is based off of an outfit that General Leia wore in the new trilogy, and again the goal was to evoke the look without exactly replicating it. Gilly opted to wear a pair of black dress sneakers, also opting for comfort when planning to walk around all day.

Gilly also had a short black cape to pull over in case it got chilly in the evening, but when we got to the park’s front gate we were informed by security that the cape was not allowed due to safety concerns, since it ended below the waist and did not have a breakaway clasp. We left it in a locker for the day. Fortunately, it didn’t get that cold.

So now that we had the basic pieces all set, it was time to accessorize!

Jedi belt — The one true Star Wars costume piece that I bought was this Obi-Wan Kenobi belt from Amazon. I looked at building my own, and found some good options with which to do so, but they’d all end up costing more than this. Plus this is really recognizable as a Jedi thing, and I really like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I knew that I wanted to turn my phone into a datapad-type thing that would look at home in the technology of Star Wars. Gilly wanted the belt buckle that General Leia wore, and as we fleshed out our backstories I suggested that we add in an Alderaan crest to her outfit. It’s one thing, after all, to have clothes that look the part, but it’s the little bits and bobs that really pull it all together. Fortunately, a buddy of mine has a 3D printer and is more than happy to use it to help friends out with projects.

The prepainted belt buckle and Alderaan symbol (which we later added a pin back to). These were the two major add-ons to Gilly’s outfit, and they really helped bring it all together. She used a wide black elastic belt and attached the buckle at her back, under the vest, so it wasn’t visible.

The various 3D printed “greeblies” (a word for random little prop bits, that I picked up from the autobiography *I Am C-3PO* by Anthony Daniels) attached to my datapad. It’s all built on a cheap phone case I bought on eBay, and then I used our Cricut craft machine to cut silver vinyl for the base color.

While researching Jedi costumes, I came across a website that showed how a clever human built themselves a Jedi Crusader pendant (that site is here) and I thought that it would make a great addition. So I made one of those, relying heavily on the instructions from the site while also making it my own. I’m particularly proud of this, and it did really add to the costume.

It’s amazing all the things you can make with a small piece of amethyst, some suede cord, some beads, an ear bud cover, a bit of glue, and a coax compression connector. Well… I suppose you can pretty much make this one particular thing.

So now everything was coming together. We had our outfits, our accessories, and we were creating character backstories. But wait… what’s a Jedi without a lightsaber?

Several trips to Home Depot later, I built a saber hilt out of PVC and paint with some leather and wire for the handle. I had initially considered making it light up, but opted not to because A) I wanted the piece to weigh as little as possible, as it would be on my belt all day, and B) going through airport security with a homemade PVC pipe full of wiring seemed like a terrible idea. I sketched out some concepts, bought a bunch of various piping pieces, painted, wrapped, and ultimately created a lightsaber. It wasn’t perfect, but it was fine for having tied to my belt as a part of the costume.

It helps to have access to a professional theatrical prop shop, like I did. Not that I couldn’t have done this at home, but the specially ventilated indoor paint area was quite helpful.

Now that we had our base costumes and our props, we were pretty much ready to go. We added some last minute pieces as we fine-tuned: I got a brown canvas pouch from an Army-Navy store which I attached to my belt to hold my phone, and I bought a leather cuff (that had a cool rough-hewn stitched look to it) for my Apple Watch. Gilly had a subtle little black purse for her stuff, which worked well with her outfit.

We finally had our outfits, we had our characters and backstories fleshed out, and now we were ready to go to a galaxy far, far away.

So now that I’ve covered how these costumes were created, some of you may be asking why. I mean, it’s not like people dress up like cowboys to go into Frontierland or wear space suits when they go to Tomorrowland (there is Adventureland Day, in which folks go to the parks in explorer attire, but that’s not quite the same thing).

Like I said at the start of this, it’s been my dream since I was a kid to be a “part” of Star Wars. Galaxy’s Edge would be fun either way, but we figured that it could be even more fun if we were dressed up. It was, quite simply put, an opportunity to play. We did spend a lot of time just walking around taking photos (ie: taking scans with my datapad) and talking like normal guests rather than our Star Wars personas, but we also had some great character interactions: I got arrested by stormtroopers twice throughout the day (using Force persuasion on them the second time to get out of it), and we went halfway across the outpost with Resistance agent Vi Moradi on a mission to help her escape the First Order. On Rise of the Resistance, when we were waiting for a door to open so the ride vehicles could start their journey, a cast member saw my Jedi costume and encouraged me to use the Force to open it. I held out my hand, and when the door opened he was really excited that I had successfully helped our escape. It was this sort of thing that we were hoping would happen while we were in costume, and we were not disappointed. We weren’t just visiting Galaxy’s Edge and watching the story unfold around us. We were a part of it.

It’s a little hard to hear me, but basically I told the stormtrooper that he had orders to let me go. Moments later, he said that he had orders to let me go (it helped that this was my second “arrest” that day, so I had an idea of how it might go and could play along more).

Would we go to Galaxy’s Edge in costume again? Absolutely. I mean, we already spent time and money making these, and I already have all sorts of ideas on upgrades: a new datapad phone case, new ways to attach the lightsaber to my belt (it was tied on this time), and some new accessories. I’m considering having some Republic credits 3D printed, so when I go to buy something I can offer the cashier those or my credit card as payment. I’ve even got concepts on how to incorporate a MagicBand for when we eventually get to the Walt Disney World version of Batuu. I’d also love to play it even more in character next time, now that we know what to expect. I even have a second costume/character designed, a gruff ex-Rebel pilot, that I’m slowly starting to pull together in case I ever decide that I need a break from being a Jedi.

We both had a lot of fun making these costumes, playing in Galaxy’s Edge, and we enjoyed the reactions from cast members and guests as they interacted with us. I’m not saying that doing this is for everyone, or that we would have had less fun there if we weren’t in costume, but I definitely think it elevated the experience for us. I can’t wait to wear these again when we someday return to Black Spire Outpost on the Outer Rim planet of Batuu.

Until then, please enjoy the photo gallery below… and may the Force be with you!