Disney Rumors for January 2023
Believe it or not, some park rumors are starting to heat up as we enter 2023.
A handful of insiders suggest that Bob Iger wants to do something splashy to garner some much-needed positive publicity for Disney.
Still, we do know about one project that Disney has confirmed and another that may receive an expansion.
We’ll talk about Thanos and Pandora in the latest batch of Disney Rumors!
All Hail King Thanos
Something I’ve always admired about Imagineers is how they recognize opportunities that most people could never see.
For example, someone at Disney was watching Avengers: Endgame for the hundredth time and suddenly had a thought.
If Doctor Strange envisions millions of scenarios wherein Thanos wins but only one where the Avengers overcome him, isn’t that a story?
No, I don’t mean the one where Hulk snaps his fingers to reset the world, and then Tony Stark does the same to end the alien incursion.
I’m talking about the times when none of that happens. Isn’t there a kernel of an idea about the Thanos who wins?
That’s the basis for an upcoming E-ticket attraction at Disney California Adventure.
In fact, if we exclude the re-theming of Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, it’s the only confirmed Disneyland Resort project after 2023.
Disney anchored the 2022 D23 Expo with a combination of theoretical attractions/parks/themed lands that may never happen…and this idea.
Everyone felt comfortable doing this because they knew that Disney fans have an insatiable appetite for all things Thanos.
The character has appeared in episodes of What If…? as a friendly dreamer with a strange idea about the solution to supply and demand.
For fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most rumors start with, “When will Tony Stark come back to life?” But “How will Thanos return?” is a close second.
Disney has capitalized on this idea in a legitimately breathtaking way. When guests experience this attraction, they’ll encounter the most fearsome villain of all.
This King Thanos has outlasted all other versions of Thanos and proved himself the mightiest of them all.
If that concept sounds vaguely familiar to you, that’s because you know your comics. It’s also loosely the basis for Kang the Conqueror’s appearance on Loki.
King Thanos Is Coming Soon
Disney has protected Thanos thus far. You won’t find the character at Avengers Campus.
Park officials may have known this plan for a while and wanted to make Thanos’ debut special.
We have heard that Disney is pulling out all the stops for the strongest version of Thanos.
Since this villain has become the ruler of the multiverse, he cannot be stopped by any single universe of Avengers.
Instead, Disney will summon the players of Avengers from across the multiverse to stop King Thanos once and for all.
Again, that concept may sound familiar to Disney+ viewers. What If…? season one told a similar story involving Ultron.
With King Thanos, Disney will pull from its entire library of Avengers. More importantly, it’ll have the creative license to create some new ones.
The early images show a couple of Avengers that nobody could identify. That’s exciting in and of itself.
Still, the most fascinating part of this attraction is what it represents. Disney had long planned a Quinjet attraction. That ride is either on hold or canceled.
As such, the King Thanos attraction will instantly become the featured ride at Avengers Campus when it opens. I’d expect that to happen in 2025.
The Pandora Expansion
I just wrote about Avatar: The Way of Water in the latest batch of Disney Headlines.
At the time, I only had box office numbers through Christmas Day.
Since then, the Avatar sequel has performed almost as well in its second week as in its first one! Folks, that’s not supposed to happen.
Director James Cameron had previously joked that the film needed to earn about $2 billion to break even, which led to some terrible takes on the subject.
However, from Disney’s perspective, the sustained popularity of The Way of Water demonstrates that there’s ample demand for the franchise.
As such, Avatar 3 and 4, which had either partially or mostly filmed, are foregone conclusions now.
Cameron has indicated that he has ideas for five stories in total. Remarkably, none of them will retrace previous ideas.
In other words, we’ve met the forest and sea people of Pandora. The next two or three projects would introduce other types of Na’vi.
This brings us to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. As we’ve referenced many times, Pandora – The World of Avatar has succeeded beyond Disney’s wildest dreams.
This themed land functions as the primary draw of Animal Kingdom these days if we don’t count the animals themselves.
Previous rumors have suggested that Disney might create a Pandora expansion on the other side of the park, the spot currently occupied by DinoLand U.S.A.
During calendar 2022, those rumors shifted to the development of Zootopia and Moana attractions in this area.
Disney hasn’t confirmed those plans with a final greenlight yet, but work remains in progress. In Hollywood terms, these attractions are in active development.
Animal Kingdom still includes plenty of other unused plots of land, though…
Pandora II
How likely is a Pandora expansion at this point? I’d describe the situation as the anti-Mary Poppins Returns.
Bob Chapek famously championed the Mary Poppins attraction at the United Kingdom pavilion at EPCOT.
A strong box office showing for Mary Poppins Returns would have secured the project. Instead, the film did…fine.
There wasn’t enough demand to prioritize the ride’s creation, though. As such, those plans fell by the wayside and are likely dead.
The opposite is true with The Way of Water. This film has had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow to earn its money.
Pretty much every box office factor works against it straight down to the calendar configuration.
Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve occurring on Saturdays are nightmarish for box office.
Meanwhile, Hollywood’s international box office has collapsed due to the pandemic and nonsense occurring in China, Russia, and the Middle East.
By all rights, Avatar 2 should have underperformed at the box office. Instead, it’s done the opposite.
As such, Bob Iger can easily justify a Pandora expansion. He’d like to do that, too.
Remember that Iger is friends with James Cameron. Also, one of the selling points of the Fox acquisition was the Avatar brand.
Disney stopped paying licensing rights and gained the franchise in that deal.
I presume a Pandora expansion would involve water, but that’s speculation. In truth, a water-based themed land would be mega-expensive.
So, if Avatar 3’s Na’vi setting is something different, it’d probably be cheaper, albeit probably not as stunningly gorgeous.
If you haven’t watched The Way of Water yet, it’s eye candy personified.
As such, I’m hopeful that the next iteration of Pandora at Animal Kingdom uses the visuals from Avatar 2 as the baseline. And I do think this will happen.