The galaxy far, far away is about to get a lot closer.
Cosm and Disney have announced a multi-year, multi-film partnership that will bring the studio’s films to the theater’s shared reality experience, beginning with “Star Wars: A New Hope.”
Set to debut in March, Cosm’s LED Dome will immerse audiences in the ongoing battle between the Rebel Alliance and Darth Vader’s Galactic Empire. Viewers will land on Tatooine, join the Rebel Alliance on Yavin 4, step inside the Death Star and fly alongside the Millennium Falcon at lightspeed.
“Since we’ve launched experiential cinema at Cosm, people have been asking for this film for the last year and a half,” Alexis Scalice, the VP and head of Cosm Studios, tells Variety. “We’ve listened, and trust us, we are just as excited. We can celebrate with the fans, too.”
The film, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2027, will be screened in its original format on the center of the Dome’s LED screen, with immersive visuals surrounding it. When deciding which elements to incorporate into the experience, Scalice says she looks to the fans to understand what they prioritize and respond to, a process she calls “decoding the fan.”
“The film remains the hero, and how can we expand?” she says about the creative process. “We pick those moments that are almost like the greatest hits of an album, like the trash compactor scene and the lightspeed [in ‘A New Hope’]. But then there’s these other elements that may not have been a come-out scene, but in shared reality, it becomes a moment.”
“Star Wars: A New Hope” at Cosm is developed alongside Disney, Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic and MakeMake and will be available at Cosm’s locations in Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit and Los Angeles, with tickets going on sale in 2027.
Disney is the third major studio to partner with Cosm, following Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Film. The shared reality theater will next feature “Shrek” beginning Dec. 15, marking the first animated film to play at the Cosm.
