Disney Rumors for April 2024
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
I’m unashamed to admit that I sing that Semisonic song loudly and with my eyes closed. And it matters to Disney fans today.
That’s because the reimagining of EPCOT ends in two months when CommuniCore Hall & Plaza finally open for the first time.
Not coincidentally, Disney is ready to build a new hidden intel center at a different park as it prepares for what’s next.


Disney
In this month’s Disney Rumors, we’ll talk about the new beginning of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and more.
Reading the Tea Leaves


Photo: Universal
In this day and age, public-facing companies struggle to keep secrets, and that’s particularly true at theme parks.
I’ve already watched detailed testing of three different roller coasters at Universal Epic Universe, which won’t open for a year.


Photo: Universal
Unless Universal built a dome around this space and blocked out the sun, these tests were impossible to hide.
Similarly, Disney must file paperwork whenever it works on a construction project. And its latest filing sure seems definitive.


Photo: Disney
Disney just revealed the “Project Ro Trailer Compound” on March 1st. You don’t need to know the details beyond the simple fact.
Animal Kingdom will add a kind of hidden headquarters for Walt Disney Imagineering and other Cast Members.
Well, that’s the best guess right now. As always, plans can and sometimes do fall apart with such projects.
For the time being, it definitely appears that Animal Kingdom will host an on-site office for people working on various expansions.
I probably should hedge my bets here, but this is the Rumors column where I’m speculating rather than reporting.
So, I’ll just level with you. Disney wouldn’t do this unless it had something big in mind at Animal Kingdom.


DinoLand USA
We’re talking about more than simply a reinvention of DinoLand U.S.A., too.
After all, Disney works on redesigned lands quite frequently. It rarely builds office space at those parks, though.
Now, we’ve got paperwork showing sizable structures (relatively) close to Kali River Rapids in a currently unused area.
Disney only builds something like that if the Imagineers are gonna be at Animal Kingdom for a while.
So, it’s time to sing Semisonic some more. With EPCOT ending, we’re apparently starting a massive overhaul of Animal Kingdom.
What’s Coming to Animal Kingdom?
While you haven’t heard the piece yet, I recently wrote a hot takes article in which I said Animal Kingdom needs help.
Apparently, park officials agree, and some of the rumors exist beyond the ones Disney has previously indicated.
During a recent D23 Parks Panel, Josh D’Amaro and his staff discussed the possibility of a Central Americas themed land.
As part of that build, Disney would add attractions based on Indiana Jones and Encanto.


Photo: Lauren S
That’s the DinoLand replacement project I referenced earlier. As part of the transition, we’d lose DINOSAUR.
On the plus side, Walt Disney World would finally get its own version of Indiana Jones Adventure…and a more modern one at that.
Imagineers have privately hinted that the Animal Kingdom version would stand on its own.
This DinoLand transition appears so likely that I hesitate to call it a Disney Rumor at this point.
Disney speculated on the subject at D23, and recent moves all but shout from the rooftops that the change is coming.
Frankly, if Disney doesn’t add the Central Americas now, executives must explain what went wrong.


Photo: Also Disney+
But again, you don’t build an Imagineering office just for that.
Even if Disney built an entire Encanto themed land rather than a Madigral House attraction, it wouldn’t justify that.


Photo: Disney
In fact, let’s just go ahead and assume that Disney was being honest about a Zootopia themed land at Animal Kingdom.
Even the combination of those two moves probably wouldn’t justify Imagineers on-site in a semi-permanent workspace.


Photo: D23
Do you know what would? An Avatar expansion.
Is Avatar 2.0 in the Plans?


Photo: D23
Okay, now we are waaaaay into the Disney Rumors side of the conversation.
A lot of this is merely me connecting some dots that may not even exist anywhere other than my own mind.


Pandora — World of Avatar
PLEASE keep that in mind as you read what I’m about to say.
However, I’ve been doing this a while, and my memory runs long about otherwise forgotten parts of Disney history.


Pandora in Animal Kingdom
For example, Joe Rohde and his team designed Pandora – The World of Avatar with a backdoor of sorts.
Disney reclaimed a lot of park space for Pandora and left open even more for future expansion.


Floating mountains in Pandora
When Imagineers did that, they had no idea that Disney would one day swallow Fox’s assets and own Avatar.
While many people expected an Avatar sequel, The Way of Water was entirely theoretical when all this happened.
Since then, that film has debuted in theaters and become one of the three most successful blockbusters ever.
Currently, Disney is planning three more Avatar sequels, the first of which will debut in December 2025.


Photo: Complex.com
Due to how calculated James Cameron is with his work, he has already blocked out the final (?) three Avatar stories.
From Disney’s perspective, Pandora is set several centuries after the first film.


Photo: Vulture
So, Imagineers have plenty of wiggle room here to introduce more stories at Animal Kingdom without disrupting what’s already there.
As a reminder, Avatar executive producer Jon Landau has visited Imagineer HQ recently, and Joe Rohde is at least marginally back at Disney.


Credit: Disney
Pandora was Rohde’s project, and Avatar is Landau and Cameron’s baby.
We know that Disneyland Resort will add an Avatar experience, but the question hangs in the air.


Photo: Disney
Is that Pandora Phase Two back on the menu?
Why We Could Get More Avatar


Avatar: Flight of Passage
I can give you $5.24 billion reasons why Disney would add more Avatar at Animal Kingdom.
That’s the combined box office of the two Avatar films to date, with the infinitely marketable “evil fire Na’vi” on deck for round three.


Photo: OC Register
That 2025 Avatar movie appears all but certain to wreck the box office as well.
At the moment, Disney is only 40 percent of the way through its Avatar theatrical plans, with another 20 percent coming next year.


Photo: Disney
That’s a vast amount of storytelling available at the parks, and it’d offer other positives as well.
For starters, Pandora lacks Table Service dining. Can you imagine a character meal with the Na’vi?


Photo: Livingbydisney.com
Similarly, the interactive Banshee toy has become a must-own item at Disney parks over the past few years.
I’m confident something from one of the upcoming films could add another highly desirable, wildly overpriced toy at the stores.


Photo: Avatar
Then, we have the rare Imagineering opportunity to fill in some blanks.
Disney showed deference to Cameron’s vision while creating Pandora.


Source: 20th Century Studios
Establishing the timeline as the distant future allowed for a companion land to be set at an earlier point, one closer to the films.
Alternatively, Disney could follow the same post-Avatar strategy, but it could show the remnants of encounters we haven’t watched yet.


(Disney)
In short, there’s plenty of storytelling opportunities available here, and the pieces on the board – Rohde, Cameron, and Landau – have aligned.
So, something even bigger is possible at Animal Kingdom. Even if it’s not, we’re “settling” for Zootopia, Encanto, and Indiana Jones.
We’ll all happily take that offer, won’t we?
Animal Kingdom appears poised for the same many-year transformation that EPCOT has just experienced.


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