BREAKING NEWS: New Attractions and Surprises Announced for Disneyland

We’ve been waiting for the big D23 news to drop and on Saturday night, it finally did! In his big Disney Experiences Showcase at the Honda Center, Josh D’Amaro took to the stage for a three-hour, star-studded spectacle announcing everything new coming to Disney Parks and Resorts around the world. We were there to take it all in and have everything you need to know about what’s new and what’s next for Disneyland Resort, including some surprises and some disappointments. 

Josh D’Amaro reveals what’s on the Horizon for Disney Experiences at D23

Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro capped off the second day of D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event (formerly the much easier to say D23 Expo) with a three-hour, star-studded showcase previewing what’s in the works at Disney Experiences.  The stakes this year were high for D’Amaro and all of the Imagineering team behind the Disney Experiences programming.  Indeed, Disney was caught flat-footed and even a bit rudderless at the 2022 D23 Expo with a presentation that was full of what-ifs and vague blue sky dreams.  In the two years since, Disney has been scrambling to flesh out and finalize plans. With Bob Iger back as CEO and Imagineer Bruce Vaughn back at the helm at Imagineering, it seems like Disney has once again found its footing. Disney has committed to investing $60 billion in its theme parks and experiences portfolio over the next 10 years and Saturday night’s announcements are the first taste of how that investment will be spent.

While the Imagineering pavilion on the D23 show floor has left a lot to be desired this year, Saturday night’s spectacle was full of actual announcements and real projects.  Indeed, D’Amaro kicked off the presentation by promising the Honda Center’s audience of 12,000 (and the over 1 million streaming the show on Fortnite) that “plans are drawn, dirt is moving.”  It was refreshing and a little surprising to hear D’Amaro be so frank and aware of how restless fans have become over the last few years — he even doubled down and said “I just want to be clear — this isn’t blue sky.” 

And indeed, the show was full of announcements.  Was it three hours worth of announcements?  Well, not exactly.  But it is true that Disney is undertaking a massive amount of work on multiple new lands, attractions, and shows across all of its parks around the world — not to mention adding FOUR new cruise ships to its fleet!    

So yes, there’s a lot in the works, but for all the plans, Josh’s big show was fairly short on details.  Most announcements came without any specificity on where, exactly, in each park the new additions would be built — and worse, often no admission on what these new attractions will replace.  The presentation was chock full of spectacle — and ending every announcement with a celebrity appearance and/or a musical number was a clever sleight of hand that allowed D’Amaro and team the ability to gloss over the kinds of pesky details that could otherwise suppress the cheering approval of fans.  But it is that approval Disney has been desperate to earn back after the disastrous Disney Experiences showcase at the 2022 D23 Expo.  

For Disneyland fans, we’ve been waiting to hear more on what, exactly, will come of Walt Disney’s original park and the Resort that’s sprung up around it as we come off the heals of the DisneylandForward approval and as we head into the park’s big 70th anniversary.  D’Amaro gave us a glimpse at what’s on the horizon for Disneyland, so let’s take a look:

Walt Disney joins Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary celebration in all-new show

D’Amaro kicked off the announcements portion of Saturday’s big show with an appearance by Disneyland’s biggest celebrity fan, John Stamos.  Stamos performed a rendition of “When You Wish Upon a Star” and talked about his love of Disneyland.  

Stamos’ appearance was to announce Disneyland’s upcoming 70th anniversary celebration next year in 2025.  While no details on what the anniversary celebration will include were revealed — those will be announced in the coming months — we did get our first look at the 70th anniversary logo. 

Later in the presentation, D’Amaro officially announced a long-rumored new show coming to the Main Street Opera House.  “Walt Disney: A Magical Life” will debut in the Opera House and feature the world’s first-ever Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics figure.  

D’Amaro noted that in the new show, Walt will appear in his office and talk about his life, career, and his hopes for our “great, big beautiful tomorrow.” 

D’Amaro pointed out that Walt Disney’s great-nephew, Roy P. Disney, was in the audience and has been to Walt Disney Imagineering to see the Walt Disney animatronic and has given the show the family’s blessing.  Interesting, that Josh would see Roy’s family’s approval instead of Walt’s. Two separate families. 

It was interesting to hear, as Walt Disney himself and his daughter Diane Disney Miller were long-opposed to Disney creating an animatronic of Walt.  Diane passed away in 2013 and since then Disney has produced multiple new statues of Walt Disney, a hologram for a museum exhibit, and now an Audio Animatronics figure.  D’Amaro promised reverence for Walt and said the only thing holding Imagineers back from doing this for so long was innovation — and now innovation has finally caught up.  We certainly hope it has and the show is respectful and well-done.  For fans of “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” that show will go on hiatus during the initial run of the new Walt Disney show.  Afterwards, a version of the Lincoln show will return and the two shows will play in rotation with each other in the same theater. We can imagine a future version of the show that incorporates Lincoln, especially since his animatronic was one of Walt’s greatest achievements. 

A new version of “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” will play in rotation with the new Walt Disney show after its initial run in 2025.  

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens Nov. 15 in Bayou Country

For fans awaiting the debut of Disneyland’s version of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure — good news!  The official opening date was announced as November 15.  The rest of Critter Country will open alongside the new attraction as well, but with a new name!  Critter Country will officially be rechristened “Bayou Country.” 

Fly the Millennium Falcon with the Mandalorian and Grogu!

In Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Lucasfilm is currently hard at work with Imagineering to bring a new mission to the Millennium Falcon attraction.  Riders will no longer be smuggling coaxium for Hondo Ohnaka — instead, guests will pilot the Falcon on a mission alongside the Mandalorian and Grogu!  This update to the interactive simulator attraction will also come to Walt Disney World. 

All-new world of “Avatar” comes to Disney California Adventure

Disney’s worst-kept secret has been which park the upcoming Avatar-themed experience will be added to.  Following Bob Iger’s surprise announcement in 2023 that Avatar would be coming to Disneyland, early rumors pointed to Avatar possibly arriving in the form of an interactive experience in Downtown Disney.  Iger later clarified it would be a full land in one of the parks.  An Imagineeer later let slip that it would be coming to Disney California Adventure at an IAAPA event.  Disney quickly walked back the news it would come to California Adventure but the cat was out of the bag.  And on Saturday night, D’Amaro officially confirmed that the new Avatar-themed land would indeed be built in Disney California Adventure.  

Of course, D’Amaro stopped short of saying where, exactly, the new land would go — but our expectation is that it’ll take over the land currently occupied by Hollywood Land.  That dead corner of the park has long been in search of new life and Pandora has plenty of it.   Below, three new concept renderings showcase different scenes in the land’s marquee boat ride.  It all looks pretty impressive and we suspect this attraction will utilize Shanghai Disneyland‘s innovative Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride system. 

California Adventure’s new Avatar land and attraction will be based on the second and third (…and beyond!) Avatar films. 

Shanghai Disneyland’s version of Pirates of the Caribbean utilizes massive screens and an innovative trackless boat ride system to create a larger-than-life experience.  We suspect the scene depicted below will utilize the same technologies.

On Sunday, Disney opened two “reveal rooms” in the Imagineering: Behind the Dreams pavilion on the D23 showfloor.   Among the newly-unveiled displays was a mockup of a Imagineering workstation with iterations of the rock work that’s being planned for the new Avatar-themed experience coming to Disney California Adventure. 

 

 

 

 

Set sail to the Land of the Dead on first major “Coco” attraction

In a surprise twist, D’Amaro announced a brand new “Coco”-themed boat ride attraction coming to Disney California Adventure.  Breaking ground in 2026, the new attraction will transport riders to the Land of the Dead for what appears to be a special Dia de los Muertos celebration.   There was no information on where in the park this will be built or what it might replace. 

Ernesto de la Cruz performed “Remember Me” before ushering in the announcement of the new Coco attraction. 

Avengers Campus takes flight in two all-new attractions in big expansion

Nearing the end of the presentation, D’Amaro he was joined on stage by Deadpool, who tried to convince Josh to remake Disneyland in his image.  Deadpool offered up some sketches of attraction ideas as part of his pitch.

You gotta admit, some of Deadpool’s ideas could be fun!  

Still, D’Amaro politely declined Deadpool’s offer and went on to announce a slew of Marvel-themed attractions around the world.  The Marvel announcements were capped off with new details on the original Avengers Campus here in Anaheim. 

The attraction, officially named Avengers: Infinity Defense, will take guests on a thrilling multiversal mission to defeat King Thanos.  The adventure will visit different MCU locations including Asgard, Wakanda, and New York City.  Riders will fly alongside heroes from throughout the MCU, such as Iron Man, Ant-Man, Black Panther, and The Hulk.

A look at what appears to be the ride vehicle, named the Infinity Transport, undergoing repairs in the attraction queue.  

The Infinity Transport in action:

Riders battle evil alongside Ant-Man and Iron Man in this concept rendering

Riders will come face-to-face with King Thanos in an epic battle.

Theme park fans will notice that the Infinity Transport ride vehicle and ride system look suspiciously familiar to the long-running “The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man” attraction at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Florida.  The attraction will combine large-scale screens and physical sets to create an immersive and dynamic thrill ride experience.  Disney also recently opened up its own version of this kind of attraction in Tokyo DisneySea, themed to Peter Pan.  

But that’s not all!  A surprise fourth attraction for Avengers Campus was announced as well.  The all-new Stark Flight Lab will let recruits test out new flight tech being developed by Tony Stark.  D’Amaro said riders will come face-to-face with different MCU heroes on every ride.  

Recruits will ride in Gyrokinetic P.O.D.s in Stark’s Flight Lab.

D’Amaro showed a photo of Disney CEO testing out the new Gyrokinetic P.O.D. with Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr.  It was announced that RDJ will be reprising his role as Iron Man in both of the new Avengers Campus attractions! 

Disney teams up with Epic Games

In addition to the theme park news, Disney announced its ongoing partnership with Epic Games.  The Disney Experiences showcase was streamed in the popular Fortnite game and Disney said over one million people were streaming the presentation live.

D’Amaro announced Disney would continue its partnership with Epic Games in creating a new gaming experience where where all of your favorite Disney characters and experiences could coexist in one place in a connected universe.  This new digital experience is still in the works and a few years away but in the meantime all four of Disney’s major studios — Disney Animation, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Star Wars — will soon be adding new characters to Fortnite. 

Disney Animation’s villains coming soon to Fortnite:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pixar’s The Incredibles joining Fortnite

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lucasfilm will add new Star Wars characters including Mando and Grogu to Fortnite next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And Marvel will unveil the “Absolute DOOM”-themed season starting August 16.  

But the Big Announcement Was….

The biggest news this year was perhaps the lack of announcements for key elements of the Resort.  Not a word was mentioned about the massive DisneylandForward project that Disney promised would transform the Anaheim property.  Disney got the City of Anaheim to approve the massive re-zoning project with promises of major Resort-wide investment — so where is it?   And on the smaller side of things, NOTHING for Disneyland Resort’s two giant empty theaters, no new parades, no replacement for the missing dragon in Fantasmic! (although, Deadpool repeatedly made jokes about the dragon).  

And of course, the perennial elephant in the room, Tomorrowland, was once again totally ignored.  While we aren’t terribly surprised, it’s still frustrating to say the least.  That land has been languishing for decades now and for all of Disney’s talk of “turbo-charging the parks,” to walk away from yet another D23 with no Tomorrowland fix in the works borders on absurdity.  We’re frankly tired of waiting and would have been happy just to hear “We know you are waiting on a new Tomorrowland, we’re working on it and hope to share news soon.”  Truth be told,  compared to the ambitious lineup of projects for Walt Disney World, it feels like Walt’s original park got snubbed. 

For all the news for Walt Disney World and the international Disney parks, check out our articles here:

UPDATED! New Attractions for Walt Disney World & Shocking Surprises!

UPDATED! We Know What’s Beyond the North Mountain at Disneyland Paris!