If you’ve ever climbed out of the Millennium Falcon wishing your smuggling run didn’t have to end at the exit turnstile, Disney just made that wish come true!
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is officially connecting to Fortnite.
The announcement dropped during D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event presented by Visa, and it’s a genuinely first-of-its-kind experience: Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run | Fortnite links the physical attraction at both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort with a brand-new Star Wars adventure called Smugglers Gambit, playable entirely inside Fortnite. Your smuggling run can now start in the queue and keep going on your screen at home…or, honestly, the other way around, starting in Fortnite before you ever step foot in the park.
During a conversation on the Walt Disney Imagineering Center Stage, Ray Gresko, SVP and Head of Product & Development for Disney Games and Digital Entertainment, and Asa Kalama, Executive of Creative & Interactive Experiences at Walt Disney Imagineering, walked through how Unreal Engine 5 is powering ride customization here, along with the creative collaboration with Lucasfilm that led to Smugglers Gambit being developed entirely in-house. Host Ashley Eckstein joined the conversation too, framing this as an early example of Disney connecting a physical park experience with a digital Fortnite world in a genuinely deeper, more immersive way.
Here’s how the actual mechanics work: while you’re in the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run queue, you’ll help collect crates for Hondo. Those crates unlock rewards that carry over directly into Fortnite, meaning your story on Batuu doesn’t just end when the ride does — it continues in an entirely new setting.
That new setting is Smugglers Gambit, a brand-new Fortnite island built by Disney Games and Digital Entertainment, set around Mersa Veta Station on the planet Ord Ryla. It puts players right into the kind of risky business Hondo’s always dabbling in — teaming up with friends, tackling co-op missions, battling pirates and Imperial remnants, running into dangerous wildlife, unlocking new gear, and building a reputation across the Outer Rim. And since it’s Hondo, there’s naturally plenty of room for things to go wonderfully right or spectacularly wrong.
Disney Games worked closely with Lucasfilm to build new characters, locations, and stories that feel authentically Star Wars, while also coordinating with Walt Disney Imagineering to keep everything tied back to the actual ride experience guests have on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
As for when you can actually try this: Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run | Fortnite launches Sunday, August 16th, 2026, when the parks open at Disneyland Park in Anaheim and Disney’s Hollywood Studios near Orlando. Smugglers Gambit goes live in Fortnite that same day, and the whole experience is included at no additional cost with valid theme park admission.
To take part, you’ll accept the special mission either in the attraction queue through the Disneyland app or My Disney Experience app, or directly within the Smugglers Gambit island in Fortnite…any guest logged into either app is eligible. To claim post-ride rewards in Fortnite, including a Forsworn Trooper Outfit, you’ll need to link your MyDisney account with an Epic Games account (or have already done so previously). Guests who ride but aren’t eligible to link accounts can instead redeem a code in Fortnite to grab their reward. And if you don’t already have it, Fortnite is free to download across PC, console, and mobile.
Between the ride-to-game crossover mechanics and a brand-new corner of the Star Wars galaxy built specifically for this, this feels like a genuinely meaningful step toward blending physical Disney experiences with digital ones.
Are you excited to continue your Millennium Falcon adventure in Fortnite? Let me know if you’re diving into Smugglers Gambit this weekend!
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