Star Wars: The Experience opens Feb. 13, 2027, at The Franklin Institute. Member presale starts next month, public tickets in November, and pricing still has not been announced.
Star Wars: The Experience – A Journey Through the Galaxy makes its world premiere at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on Feb. 13, 2027, running through Sept. 6.
It is the only official Star Wars exhibition during the franchise’s 50th anniversary year.
Member presale begins in October. Public tickets go on sale in November. Pricing has not been published.
Eighteen thousand square feet, and more than 70 artifacts
The exhibition spans interconnected galleries across 18,000 square feet, with over 70 artifacts pulled from the Lucasfilm archives.
Darth Vader‘s costume is in there. So is Queen Amidala‘s throne room, rebuilt as a walk-through space. There is a carbonite photo op where you end up frozen next to Han Solo, which is going to be the most photographed corner of the building.
The galleries cover costume design, creatures, sound, visual effects and gaming, tracing the work from storyboards and scripts through digital reinvention.
The toy finale is the part collectors will care about
The exhibition closes on action figures.
More than 90 collectible figures are on display, including vintage pieces and over 20 rare prototypes, tooling samples, development models and original design materials. Some have never been shown publicly.
The material comes from Kenner and Hasbro and traces how the figures evolved alongside the films. For a certain kind of visitor, that final room is the whole ticket.
Who made Star Wars: The Experience?
The Franklin Institute developed it with Lucasfilm, Disney Consumer Products and MDSX, a company that builds museum-based attractions.
Lynwen Brennan, co-president of Lucasfilm, called it a testament to five decades of storytelling and said the goal was honoring both the people who built the franchise and the fans around it.
Details were first revealed at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24, with renderings and key art released the same day.
Why Philadelphia?
Partly logistics, partly a decent joke that happens to hold up.
The Franklin Institute is a science museum named for Benjamin Franklin, who spent his life pushing technology past where anyone thought it went. That is roughly the pitch for Industrial Light & Magic in 1977.
The exhibition’s creative team has leaned into that parallel publicly. Whether it drives ticket sales in Philadelphia is a different question, though the city being first in the world to see it probably does.
Where does the tour go after Philadelphia?
Nobody knows yet.
After the Sept. 6, 2027 close, the exhibition begins a five-year North American tour. The next city has not been announced.
Five years is a long commitment for a touring show, and it suggests Lucasfilm expects the anniversary interest to hold well past 2027.
What else is happening for the Star Wars 50th?
The anniversary itself lands on May 25, 2027, fifty years after the first film’s release. That date falls inside the exhibition’s run, which is almost certainly deliberate.
Lucasfilm is also mid-reset on the film side. Star Wars: Starfighter, with Ryan Gosling, arrives in 2027 as the franchise’s first original big-screen story with all-new characters since Disney bought Lucasfilm.
Kathleen Kennedy stepped down as Lucasfilm president in January, with Brennan and Dave Filoni taking over leadership.
So the 50th arrives with new people running the company, a new movie built on new characters, and a traveling museum show about the last 50 years. One of those three is already scheduled down to the day.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
StarWars.com and the Lucasfilm and Franklin Institute release (July 24, 2026), the dates, the collaboration, the action figure finale and the Brennan comments
The Philadelphia Inquirer (July 27, 2026), the 18,000-square-foot figure, the carbonite and throne room details and Brennan’s title
PhillyVoice (July 2026), the artifact count and the five-year tour plan
The Franklin Institute, the October member presale and November public on-sale timing
Syfy Wire (July 2026), the creative team interviews and the Philadelphia rationale
The Direct (Sept. 13, 2026), the Lucasfilm leadership change and the Starfighter context
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