ORLANDO – Major adjustments are coming to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, and enthusiasts are excited about the news.
Details of the new projects were revealed this weekend at Disney’s biannual D23 convention, where they announced a series of long-term theme park and cruise projects that will be developed in the coming years.
The biggest expansion ever made in Magic Kingdom will evolve in the existing direction of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and will come with villain-themed terrain as well as Pixar’s “Cars”-themed terrain.
Concept art shown Saturday for the villain-themed domain shows a sinister setting, in which Disney promises two main attractions. The “Cars” announcement, punctuated Saturday night by a live rendition of Shaboozey’s “Life is a Highway,” detailed a terrain that won’t be a reproduction of Cars Land in California, but an “off-road” adventure, with a unique chill. A circle of relatives walks and walks. The Cars domain will open in 2025.
Magic Kingdom will also host a new “Disney Starlight” nighttime parade in the summer of 2025.
Also within Walt Disney World Resort, Disney’s Hollywood Studios park will feature a new “Monstropolis” land, founded on the basis of “Monsters Inc. ” franchise. Billy Crystal, who played the character Mike Wazowski, took the stage Saturday night to announce the development, which will feature the first suspended roller coaster to appear at any Disney park, where guests will be able to zoom through the box. strong factory of Monsters Inc.
In Florida and California, Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run, set in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, will see a new story starring The Mandalorian and Grogu.
At Disney’s Animal Kingdom park, the already announced opening of the Tropical America zone is now projected in 2027. It will come with the first attraction based on the movie “Encanto” and will be located inside the magical “Casita” where the Madrigal is located. The circle of relatives in the film lives on. Visitors will be able to see the day the character Antonio receives his magical gift, following him as he opens the door to reveal a lush landscape full of animals with which he can communicate.
The same park domain will feature an “Indiana Jones” attraction in the former Dinosaur amusement building, but will not mirror the existing “Indiana Jones” attractions at Disneyland in California or DisneySea in Tokyo. Instead, other people will delight in an adventure in which Indiana Jones discovers a Mayan temple.
Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan, who appeared as a child in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” was on hand to introduce the new attraction.
“It looks great,” he said of the attraction. “But will there be snakes?”
Disney will build a central “city” in the tropical Americas, called Pueblo Esperanza, with lush foliage, Spanish-style architecture and a carousel with carved characters.
Animal Kingdom will also see a previously announced “Zootopia” display at its theater under the Tree of Life, starting in late 2025 or early 2026.
At Epcot, the renovated control track will open in 2025. The park will also get a new Spaceship Earth lounge overlooking Dreamer’s Point, home to a statue of Walt Disney.
When asked if the Florida hotel would have a fifth theme park in the coming years to compete with the opening of Universal’s Epic Universe park in 2025, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts president Josh D’Amaro told CNN, “We’re thinking about the next one. Right now, we have a lot to celebrate and say about what we’re going to share with our D23 fans, I think it’s going to be very provocative for them, that’s all they’ll be thinking about.