The Mandalorian and Grogu Take Over Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and the Falcon Finally Picks Its Own Route

By entgrove · July 27, 2026

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run has an all-new mission built with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni that sends flight crews after ex-Imperial officers with Din Djarin and Grogu. For the first time, the flight engineer chooses whether the ship heads to Bespin, Coruscant or the second Death Star, and crews return to Hondo Ohnaka with anywhere from zero to six crates of cargo.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run has a new job posted on the board, and the client list now includes Din Djarin and Grogu. The rebuilt mission sends flight crews after ex-Imperial officers, hands the flight engineer control over which planet the Falcon jumps to, and pays out in cargo crates depending on how badly the ship gets banged up along the way. It went into service May 22, 2026 at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in both Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Park.

Hondo Ohnaka is hiring again

Hondo Ohnaka, the Weequay pirate who has been recruiting flight crews at Black Spire Outpost since Galaxy's Edge opened in 2019, has a fresh contract to fill. This one puts guests alongside Din Djarin and Grogu as they hunt down ex-Imperial officers scattered across the galaxy, and Hondo would very much like some valuable cargo brought back while the crew is out there.

The mission launched the same day Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu reached theaters. Walt Disney Imagineering built it with director Jon Favreau and Lucasfilm president and chief creative officer Dave Filoni, who helped shape the story and brought the Imagineers onto the film set to capture footage for the ride.

"We were very lucky to get to work closely with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni," said Asa Kalama, vice president, executive for creative and interactive experiences at Walt Disney Imagineering. "Early on, we had lots of conversations with them around how we might want to shape the overall story. Through that close collaboration, I think we arrived at something that feels wholly fresh and like an entirely new adventure."

The Falcon finally goes somewhere new

Every run begins on Tatooine, where the crew and the Mandalorian pick up the trail of the bounties they have been chasing. From there the flight engineer decides which lead to follow, and that choice sets the destination: the floating Cloud City of Bespin, the layered city-planet of Coruscant, or the wreckage of the second Death Star, still drifting in orbit above Endor. That is the first time in the ride's history that guests, rather than the script, decide where the ship goes.

How the run ends is up to the crew. A clean flight can bring six crates of cargo back to Hondo. A rough one can bring back nothing at all.

"We've collaborated with our ILM partners to make sure that every planetary environment has a ton of explorability and branching paths," Kalama said. "The goal is every time you re-ride, there's something new to discover."

What each seat does now

All three cockpit roles were reworked. Pilots get more responsive controls, with hidden guardrails underneath so the flight still looks cinematic no matter how the two people at the yoke actually fly.

Gunners now choose between two targeting modes: an automatic mode that locks onto whatever enemy is in front of the ship, and a manual mode for crews who want to aim themselves. Imagineering also added destructible scenery so that stray shots register.

"To further enhance the experience, we also introduced the idea of destructibles in the environment," Kalama said. "So when those pews do happen to miss a ship, they'll impact the side of a canyon wall, for instance, and you'll see rocks falling off."

Flight engineers, historically the seat people groaned about drawing, come out furthest ahead. Besides picking the destination, engineers now operate a tractor beam for pulling in extra cargo crates, and they get the most contact with Grogu.

"Because so much of the mission is anchored around the Mandalorian and Grogu, we thought there was no better idea than to give those flight engineers maximum face time with Grogu," Kalama said. "Throughout the mission, in addition to occasionally having Grogu make inbound calls to the Millennium Falcon, we're giving flight engineers the ability to make an outbound call to Grogu and essentially see what he's up to on board the Razor Crest."

Easter eggs scattered across four planets

Galaxy's Edge has always rewarded guests who look at the walls instead of the screens, and the new mission keeps that habit. Gonk droids are tucked into corners across the galaxy, and old podracer wreckage litters the surface of Tatooine. Kalama also teased a detail hidden in the Endor sequence.

"There are all sorts of these fun little set dressing moments that pay homage to the films," Kalama said. "There's a particularly cool one in Endor. I won't spoil it, but it harkens back to a moment that's very personal to the Falcon itself."

Star Wars released a short teaser for the new mission ahead of its debut:

What this means for guests

Smugglers Run has spent most of its life with one story and one flight path, which gave repeat riders very little reason to line up twice in a day. Branching destinations, a cargo score that actually swings, and a job that ties into a film currently in theaters change that math for both coasts. The mission is part of standard park admission at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland Park, so the only real cost of trying all three planets is however long the queue happens to be that afternoon.