There has never been a rumor that the two Star Wars Lands would open at the same time. The leaks have pretty consistently said the first half of 2019 for CA and the second half for FL. With Toy Story Land opening next year, there’s really zero reason to speed up that plan. There could be a plan underfoot to not get too far behind in case TSL doesn’t bring in the crowds next summer. Then they could work 24/7 to open SWL as quickly as possible. Otherwise, there are more upsides to delaying it than there are to finishing it early.

Disney likes to stretch out construction far longer than necessary to appease their stockholders. With a late 2019 opening, they were going to have trouble with their numbers game. Especially since the true cost of Star Wars was all going to be backloaded so the combined cost of these two lands wouldn’t scare stockholders.

Now that it looks like we won’t be getting Nintendo until 2021 – at the earliest – Disney can go back to their SOP. Disney doesn’t open brand new lands in consecutive years! They couldn’t even open New Fantasyland in the same year! (Similarly, part of Toy Story Land was obviously moved to a Phase Two.) Yeah, they opened Pandora this year and Toy Story is obviously next year, but TS barely constitutes a new land, at least by budgetary standards. The whole thing probably won’t even cost as much as a single E-Ticket.

Delaying Star Wars benefits them greatly. This year Pandora was definitely the forgotten stepchild when it came to new attractions, with Volcano Bay and Mission Breakout hogging all the media attention. This park can’t afford that lack of focus. And Disneyland will always steal the spotlight.

Plus, this gives them a year to iron out wrinkles after it opens in Anaheim. In fact, they can probably soft open for Easter, allowing them about 6 weeks to fine-tune, ensuring a much smoother opening when the media arrives.

There are far more upsides to delaying this until May 2020 than there are to opening it half a year earlier.