It shocked LEGO and
Star Wars fans around the world when
we shared the news that LEGOLAND was permanently closing its popular
Star Wars Miniland feature at all of its LEGOLAND parks during the winter period, with the all the models to be carefully removed and disappeared.
Since then fans have been asking two questions - "When?" and "Why?". The first can now be clarified, thanks to
Orlando Weekly, who did some sleuthing:
Legoland has confirmed their Star Wars mini-lands will close within the coming weeks. Legoland Windsor will close theirs on December 31. Legoland Deutschland, which is already closed for winter, has confirmed theirs will be removed prior to the start of the 2020 season in March. In America, both Legoland California and Legoland Florida will close their respective Star Wars lands on January 6. All of the Star Wars mini-lands will be closed and removed by this coming summer.
As for the second, LEGO has not commented on the reason for removing
Star Wars Minilands but word is that it is over the license agreement that covered the
Star Wars Minilands was between Lucasfilm and the parks' previous financial custodian, Merlin Entertainment, which has allegedly come to an end. Earlier this year
LEGO gained a controlling share of Merlin and now own the parks again, but why they neglected to negotiate the continuation of their
Star Wars Minilands with Disney is a mystery.
Those speculating that Disney would prefer park-goers to enjoy its two Galaxy's Edge worlds at their Anaheim and Orlando resorts are also pointing to the
end of Star Wars Days, a highly popular annual celebration of
Star Wars which ran from 2005 to 2018, which occurred under similarly stifled circumstances.
At this point, LEGOLAND has yet to confirm what will be filling the five holes where the
Star Wars Miniland were situated, nor if the numerous LEGOLAND Discovery Centres that have the attraction will be doing the same.
