Disney unveils Star Wars Jedi Challenges AR headset

Disney unveiled its own augmented reality headset for Star Wars fans.

Made by Lenovo and Lucasfilm, the AR headset blends the real world with animated overlays, allowing you to experience the Star Wars universe and swing a lightsaber in an experience dubbed Star Wars Jedi Challenges.

Mike Goslin, vice president of development at Disney, came out on stage at Disney’s D23 event to talk about Star Wars augmented reality apps that are in the works.

“Disney has always used new technologies for new ways to tell stories,” Goslin said. “We’ve been working on our own version of augmented reality.”

Star Wars HoloChess.

He teamed up with Lenovo and Lucasfilm to build Disney’s own augmented reality headset. You download an app onto a phone; you slip the phone into the headset; and then interact with the world. In the short video that the companies showed on stage, an actress puts on a headset and then holds a lightsaber in her hands.

You can also play HoloChess with the headset.

Star Wars Jedi Challenges is coming this fall.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.