Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro has acknowledged that guests don’t truly love Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and Walt Disney Imagineering is doing something about it.
In a Harvard Business Review article published February 12 by leadership researcher Marcus Buckingham, D’Amaro was observed during a design session with approximately 30 Imagineers and operators. His assessment of the Galaxy’s Edge attraction was direct: “Guests like it, but they don’t love it.”
The Problem With Smugglers Run
According to the HBR piece, D’Amaro identified a structural issue with how Smugglers Run distributes the experience. The ride assigns six guests to three roles: two pilots, two gunners, and two engineers. Pilots get genuine control of the Millennium Falcon, steering the ship and shaping the mission. Gunners and engineers perform tasks with far less influence over the outcome.
That means only one-third of riders per mission get the experience Disney actually wants to deliver. D’Amaro and the Imagineering team saw this as a fundamental design problem, not just a minor complaint.
Despite consistently drawing long wait times and strong attendance, D’Amaro viewed Smugglers Run as falling short of the emotional connection Disney expects from its flagship attractions. Buckingham described D’Amaro’s approach as “experience intelligence,” the ability to read and shape human experience beyond standard satisfaction metrics.
What’s Changing on May 22
Disney has already confirmed the fix. Starting May 22, 2026, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run will receive a major update at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, coinciding with the theatrical release of The Mandalorian and Grogu.
According to the Disney Parks Blog, the updated ride will let the crew control their own destination for the first time, with potential missions to Bespin, the wreckage of the second Death Star around Endor, or Coruscant. Engineers will be able to communicate directly with Grogu during the mission.
The new storyline puts guests alongside Din Djarin and Grogu. Hondo Ohnaka has learned of a deal going down on Tatooine between ex-Imperial officers and a band of pirates, and there’s a bounty for their capture.
On the technical side, the attraction is transitioning from pre-rendered projection to real-time rendered media built on Unreal Engine 5 by Epic Games, the same tools Industrial Light and Magic uses on The Mandalorian series.
D’Amaro’s Philosophy
The HBR article frames the Smugglers Run redesign as a case study in D’Amaro’s leadership style. Rather than accepting strong operational numbers as proof of success, he pushed for changes because guests weren’t forming the deeper emotional connection that drives long-term loyalty.
“Disney is a delicate brand,” D’Amaro said during the observed session. “Anything I can do to help more guests say they love Disney is a valuable use of my time.”
The full Harvard Business Review article, titled “Disney’s New CEO and the Rise of ‘Experience Intelligence,'” is available on hbr.org.
