The Hottest Disney Rumors for December 2019
As the 2010’s wind down, The Walt Disney Company has cast an eye toward the future. In 2021, Walt Disney World will celebrate its 50th anniversary, making it the primary Imagineering focus now. But plenty of other projects have a chance to get the greenlight after that. Let’s take a look at some potential projects in the latest batch of Disney Rumors.
The Other Main Street Live Theater
Disney executives never like to backtrack. The company’s policy is to stick with the plan whenever possible. It’s always a black eye when a Disney official announces something, only for the project to fall by the wayside. This elimination of a planned update does happen, though.
The most recent example occurred during the 2017 D-23 Expo in Anaheim. Disney proudly announced that a live theater would come to Magic Kingdom. Imagineers had already finalized the blueprints for a second theater near the main entrance, one close to Town Square Theater.
At the time, Bob Chapek, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Chairman, stated that Disney would model the building after the Hyperion Theater at Disney California Adventure. However, it would have the theming of the Willis Theater in Kansas City circa the early 1920s.
By constructing the theater with this style, the facility would pay homage to Walt Disney, who lived in the area up until he moved to Hollywood in 1923. Thanks to the Hyperion-esque design, it would possess the capability of hosting live Broadway-quality shows.
Details about the Canceled Theater
The plans for this project called for 1,500 seats in the main section of the theater. Then, the upper mezzanine could host another 500 guests, giving the building a 2,000-person capacity. That’s a lot of foot traffic Disney could have taken off the streets of Magic Kingdom, which explains why they were excited about the project.
Unfortunately, the company faced a dilemma. Disney needed those funds to complete other projects at theme parks across the country. Meanwhile, even the most optimistic plans for the new Main Street, U.S.A. theater suggested it wouldn’t open until the summer of 2020. Other projects faced more immediate deadlines, and so Disney reassigned the money for the theater project.
No one could rightfully question this decision. It’s the same reason why Toy Story Land, which opened the following year, faced budget cutbacks. Park officials would have been foolish to hold back resources for 2020 that the company needed in 2018 and 2019.
Obviously, I’m speaking about this project for a reason, though. Today, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is open, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and the Ratatouille Ride will debut over the next six months or so. Park planners can start thinking about other projects.
The Willis Theater at Main Street, U.S.A. makes as much sense today as it did in 2017. For this reason, Disney officials have at least toyed with the idea of restoring the project. It likely wouldn’t get finished until after the 50th-anniversary celebration. For that matter, it may not even start before then. But this presumed dead project suddenly has a pulse, albeit a weak one.
The Other Side of Magic Kingdom
Many Disney rumors have their basis in real estate. People inside Disney and outside observers examine the available property to perform educated guesses about what might come next. Over the years, one prime piece of property has led to much speculation.
There’s a section near Adventureland at Magic Kingdom that sits behind Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. A couple of years ago, rumors flew that Disney had planned a water park here. Imagineers had allegedly created plans for a massive volcano that would become the weenie for this expansion.
At the time, Pixar’s Lava had garnered a lot of attraction. The water park may have had theming in support of this animated short. It always seemed like a stretch since Disney wasn’t likely to build an entire water park based on a Pixar short.
That seemed especially true once Volcano Bay opened at Universal Orlando Resort. As you might know, its central structure is a volcano. Disney might have seemed like a copycat to create something similar.
Credit: Universal Orlando Resort
Nothing ever came of the rumor, but it did morph into something more interesting. A new version of the rumor suggested that Disney would construct an entire hotel with an active volcano theme.
Beyond the central landmark, the rest of the hotel sounded eerily similar to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. So, most people dismissed it. However, some insiders acknowledged that Disney really wanted to do something with that land, and a Deluxe Tier resort seemed like the best way to monetize it.
The Second-Newest Rumor for Adventureland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLq3fluIEWs
The sheer volume of rumors surrounding this piece of real estate suggests that Disney’s intent on building on this land. Last year, I mentioned the most popular rumor about an Adventure expansion. It involved…a lava monster. Friends, somebody at Disney really wants to build a volcano.
Unlike the other suggested land usages, this one would be an attraction. Specifically, Disney would build a roller coaster with a Moana theme. As you’ll recall from the movie, the plucky heroine encounters a vicious Te Kā, a Te Fiti that has turned to violence. And this creature takes the shape of — you guessed it — a lava monster.
Well, you’ve probably heard that the next major attraction at Magic Kingdom is a Tron-themed roller coaster. The last major attraction at Magic Kingdom was a Seven Dwarfs-themed roller coaster.
A Moana-themed roller coaster sounds excellent in theory until you think about it in those terms. Park planners are understandably reluctant to move forward with a project that seems eerily similar to other recent additions.
The Latest Rumor for Adventureland
Now, another rumor has gained popularity for this land. The prevailing belief is that Disney officials still favor a Deluxe Tier hotel here. It’d earn the most money from the space, and that’s clearly important to all involved.
After all, three out of the four rumors I’ve mentioned would provide a reliable revenue stream. Meanwhile, a roller coaster would cost a lot of money to build without necessarily driving ticket sales.
A hotel at this site would come with a strong selling point, too. At the moment, Imagineers are hard at work on Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. It’s a boutique hotel with a Star Wars theme, and it’ll have a private entrance to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Park planners would love to have a similar setup at Magic Kingdom. Presuming that Disney builds a hotel at this location, it’d include an exclusive park entrance. Plus, this resort would feature one of the best fireworks views ever. Most importantly, it’d provide guests with similar access to Magic Kingdom as Disney’s Contemporary Resort has had for nearly 50 years now. There’s a lot of money in that kind of rarefied logistics.
One Final Comment about Disney Rumors in 2020
As we enter 2020, I can’t promise that Disney will act on this or any other rumor that I discuss. There are two explanations for this situation. The first is that Bob Iger’s situation remains unsettled. The Disney CEO’s contract expires in 2021. He may not want to finalize plans for park operations that he won’t oversee. Until Disney names a successor, we’re in a state of flux.
The other reason why park officials might sit on the news involves what just happened with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Once Disney confirmed that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance would open later, many Disneyland fans skipped their annual visits. Instead, they chose to wait until the E-ticket attraction opened. Walt Disney World has suffered similar behavior, albeit to a lesser extent.
Guests race past massive AT-AT walkers aboard a First Order Star Destroyer as part of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the groundbreaking new attraction now open inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and opening Jan. 17, 2020, at Disneyland Park in California. (Matt Stroshane, photographer)
Moving forward, Disney’s PR team may wait to share information about coming projects. As an example, Imagineers had already broken ground on Avengers Campus before Disney officially announced it. Attentive Disney analysts already had blueprints of the Spider-Man attraction many months before park officials acknowledged its existence.
Disney might be going low-key with their future announcements. We’ll know a lot more as information leaks out about the 50th-anniversary celebration at Walt Disney World.
