What Should We Expect First with Disneyland Forward?
In less than four weeks, DisneylandForward becomes a matter of law.
The Anaheim City Council has unanimously signed off on the agreement, which covers the next 40 years of Disneyland Resort.
Park fans don’t care about the new traffic laws of purchased roads or anything like that.
All we want to know is when the new attractions are coming.
So, what should we expect first with DisneylandForward?
The Avatar Experience
Disney won’t tell us what this is, but the picture definitively shows a boat ride.
From experience, we know that an Avatar boat ride sure sounds like Na’vi River Journey.
There’s just one little problem. This artist’s rendering includes an outdoor setting. That’s decidedly NOT something from Na’vi River Journey.
Has Disney updated its ride concept to add an outdoor element to the ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom?
Alternatively, will Disneyland add an entirely new and presumably better version of a Pandora boat ride?
Could Disney use the already-legendary ride mechanics from Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure for an Avatar experience?
For that matter, are we overly hyping something that could feasibly be a ride overlay for Storybook Land Canal Boats?
No, I don’t think Disney would really do that last thing, but as long as park officials keep us in the dark, I rule nothing out.
To a larger point, there’s a massive debate about whether this “experience” will be a single attraction or an entire themed land.
I’ve talked with people who swore that everyone should lower their expectations.
Others sound convinced that Disneyland’s Pandora will surpass Animal Kingdom’s.
That strikes me as unlikely, given the footprint of Disneyland Resort relative to Animal Kingdom.
Even so, I suspect all of us would be happy for any kind of Pandora – The World of Avatar.
I’m not expecting that, either, but until Disney explicitly states otherwise, I’ll keep hope alive.
As far as timelines go, the “Avatar experience” should arrive more quickly than anything else on this list…except for maybe one thing.
Also, for what it’s worth, what I’m hearing is that it’ll go on the Hollywood Land backlot area, which DOES hint at a full themed land. Here’s hoping….
Frozen…Something
I have no idea whether Disney will build a single Frozen attraction or an entire themed land based on the franchise.
However, I’ve read most of the documents and read most of the comments involving DisneylandForward.
Everyone involved has pointed to the Arendelle creations at international Disney parks.
Since Frozen Ever After debuted at EPCOT in 2016, the franchise has somehow grown even more popular.
Disney has also employed new tech to create better Frozen rides.
For example, here’s Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey at Tokyo DisneySea.
Objectively, that’s the superior version of the attraction, improving on the concepts and technology of Frozen Ever After.
Should Disney build that attraction at Disneyland – and I think they will – the West Coast will have bragging rights.
To a larger point, EPCOT hosts the Norway pavilion, which isn’t a true Frozen-themed land, even if it feels that way sometimes.
World of Frozen as a concept has been duplicated at several parks, and I fully believe Disneyland Resort will add it over the next decade.
King Thanos? Wakanda?
At the 2022 D23 Expo, Disney revealed the previously unknown King Thanos attraction.
Imagineers have leaned hard into the Marvel multiverse concept with this one, choosing a worthy villain in the process.
Your foe on this attraction is the Thanos Who Won, the universe-shattering wielder of the Infinity Gauntlet.
In this Thanos’ reality, the Avengers never defeated him, and he has since conspired to conquer other realms.
Now, you’ll join the greatest heroes of the multiverse in an attempt to stop the reign of tyranny of the Thanos Who Won.
For the body of a year, the description was all we knew about the ride.
Then, during the 2023 D23 Expo, park officials showed off a unique ride cart crafted for the attraction.
To date, Disney hasn’t updated with details in the eight months that have followed.
So, we probably won’t learn anything until the – you guessed it! – 2024 D23 Expo.
However, Disney was working on this attraction before the DisneylandForward negotiations had progressed.
Theoretically, this attraction should arrive before anything else except possibly the Avatar experience.
Since Disney hasn’t provided a timeline for any of this, I’m just speculating.
I’ll add that Disney has mentioned Wakanda a surprising amount, and there are some plans for a Wakanda roller coaster.
Disney executives have said as much, albeit not in that exact order of words.
That fact causes me to wonder whether all this will occur at Avengers Campus or if Marvel will soon add another themed land.
Disney California Adventure doesn’t currently have the space…but it will as soon as the DisneylandForward laws are enacted in June.
Zootopia
There’s a running theme with most of what we’re discussing today.
Save for King Thanos, all the attractions up for consideration at Disneyland Resort trace their origins to other Disney resorts.
That’s the company’s current Imagineering style. Disney can reduce costs by building the same attraction at multiple parks.
The idea even translates to entire themed lands like Arendelle and…Zootopia.
A few months ago, Shanghai Disneyland revealed its Zootopia themed land.
Pretty much everyone who has interviewed anyone involved with DisneylandForward believes a West Coast version of Zootopia will happen.
That’s probably because Zootopia was part of the original 2021 pitch, listed as an example of what Anaheim could expect.
Among the not-yet confirmed projects, this one and Frozen are the no-brainers.
Something dramatic must change for Disneyland Resort to pass on these two franchises.
Of course, I’m still waiting on the PLAY! pavilion and Mary Poppins flat ride. So, anything is possible.
Other Possibilities
Disney officials stubbornly refused to tip their hand about what’s coming to Disneyland Resort.
There’s a good reason why Disney isn’t naming names yet. Nobody quite knows what’ll be hot in a few years.
We just witnessed this with Shogun, a limited series that quickly became the most popular Hulu program to date.
If a Disney release, especially an animated movie, suddenly breaks out, park officials want to capitalize quickly.
For example, Pixar’s Elio will debut in theaters in June 2025. The early buzz for this project is glowing.
Let’s say that Disney announces a different attraction in a spot, but it becomes painfully clear that IP isn’t as good as Elio.
At that point, Disneyland is stuck with something less popular than a newer, hotter IP.
For this reason, Disney isn’t locking itself into the identities of several attractions right now.
One of the most remarkable parts of Imagineering is how translatable many of the ideas are.
Did you know that the same ride engine drives Test Track at EPCOT, Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure, and Journey to the Center of the Earth at Tokyo DisneySea?
Speaking of Tokyo DisneySea, Disney officials brought up the new Fantasy Springs attractions A LOT during DisneylandForward negotiations.
As such, Disneyland fans may want to familiarize themselves with Fantasy Springs.
You should pay particular attention to Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival, which you can watch in full in this TDR Explorer video:
As much as Frozen, Disneyland officials referenced Tangled as a possible ride. This one seems likely, too.
Still, you shouldn’t expect any of this before 2026, and most of it is probably at four or five years away from becoming a reality.
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