Yesterday, Disneyland heralded the impending arrival of its timeline shift for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge back to the era of the original trilogy with a look at one of the new wandering characters heading to Batuu, Han Solo. It… kind of didn’t go well, with some people ruminating on the fact that accepting someone other than Harrison Ford in Han’s boots remains a wildly daunting task and some being a bit meaner than they probably should be to a random Disney cast member who’s been told to put on some bloodstripe-print pants.
Perhaps to make up for that oddly specific wave of backlash, today Lucasfilm and the Disney park decided to offer up something to distract people in the form of the last new character coming to Galaxy’s Edge, Princess Leia. And good news! She looks much better.
Ensuring the galaxy’s freedom. Meet the leader of the Rebellion, Leia Organa, at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland Park starting April 29. pic.twitter.com/cLgNfggvL5
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 16, 2026
Now again, there wasn’t anything super wrong with the Han. The performer was fine; his costume was a little too clean (you can say the same for Leia, really). If there was anything particularly off about it all, it was that he had a bad wig on. The thing with Han really is that it’s a huge challenge to even get him in your mind’s eye without it just being Harrison Ford, a problem not even Lucasfilm could solve by throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at a movie. But Leia? Pretty great!
Her look is heavily inspired by adventuring gear that was initially introduced back in 2015 for Marvel’s Princess Leia miniseries by Mark Waid and Terry Dodson, itself a spiritual riff on Leia’s all-time-greatest look, her Hoth gear—so unlike Han, you don’t have that issue of it looking like a slightly off version of his movie costumes. It’s distinct, but still thoroughly Leia. Meanwhile the hair, which is just straight up Leia’s crown braid from Empire Strikes Back instead of the updo she had with this costume in the comics, is still not quite 100%, but at least it isn’t as decidedly wiggy as the Han one is. It’s the best of both worlds, and in the end, it serves to match Leia’s vibe.
Again, it really shows just how inextricable Ford feels from Han that there was such a vociferous reaction to his Galaxy’s Edge reveal, while there isn’t with Leia (and wasn’t with Luke when he was added, but then again, with him we’d already gotten used to an off-looking digital avatar of Luke wandering through The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett, so the uncanny effect was less noticeable). Hopefully things will feel less off in person when Han and Leia join Vader, Luke, Chewie, and more at Galaxy’s Edge starting April 29.
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