DHS New Villains Show Coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Summer 2025

[MisterPenguin]

what? 3...in total?

The Cars show it replaced only had one physical car. So... this is three times better!!

 

[DisneyHead123]

Saw pretty much the entire show on TikTok after a cast preview. Here's the Cruella section of the show (the user also posted the rest of the show in chunks on their account).



There's indeed a total of 3 live performers in the show (Cruella, Hook, and Mal); several villains are also portrayed by real actors but as pre-filmed content.

I guess I was expecting a different kind of show based on the marketing; they highlighted the original song to the point that I thought this would be a musical, but it turns out that's the only original music in the show. Each villain comes out, vamps a bit while their theme song plays, and then leaves. The end of the show is a cheer off for the audience to pick their favorite, and then it just ends. No fault of the actors though, they do a hell of a job selling scraps.

So odd. I hope the new Mermaid show is better.

Huh. Not what I was expecting either, I was assuming it would be a short musical. This looks more like a super elaborate group character meet and greet.

 

[Ayla]

Saw pretty much the entire show on TikTok after a cast preview. Here's the Cruella section of the show (the user also posted the rest of the show in chunks on their account).



There's indeed a total of 3 live performers in the show (Cruella, Hook, and Mal); several villains are also portrayed by real actors but as pre-filmed content.

I guess I was expecting a different kind of show based on the marketing; they highlighted the original song to the point that I thought this would be a musical, but it turns out that's the only original music in the show. Each villain comes out, vamps a bit while their theme song plays, and then leaves. The end of the show is a cheer off for the audience to pick their favorite, and then it just ends. No fault of the actors though, they do a hell of a job selling scraps.

So odd. I hope the new Mermaid show is better.

What the hell was that? That entire show is beneath WDW. Massive disappointment.

It looks like the performers are lip synching, too.

 

[eddie104]

Saw pretty much the entire show on TikTok after a cast preview. Here's the Cruella section of the show (the user also posted the rest of the show in chunks on their account).



There's indeed a total of 3 live performers in the show (Cruella, Hook, and Mal); several villains are also portrayed by real actors but as pre-filmed content.

I guess I was expecting a different kind of show based on the marketing; they highlighted the original song to the point that I thought this would be a musical, but it turns out that's the only original music in the show. Each villain comes out, vamps a bit while their theme song plays, and then leaves. The end of the show is a cheer off for the audience to pick their favorite, and then it just ends. No fault of the actors though, they do a hell of a job selling scraps.

So odd. I hope the new Mermaid show is better.

I mean there wasn’t too much go on with the premise of the Villains.

It seems more like a promotion to get people excited to see them in the parks in a bigger capacity.

A musical ????

Maybe my expectations weren’t too high but I thought the screens would be doing most of the heavy lifting.

 

[JD80]

This is likely a temporary show with a 3-4 year run so it doesn't surprise me that it's light on the number of performers.

Though WDW has a track record for turning temporary into permanent.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Huh. Not what I was expecting either, I was assuming it would be a short musical. This looks more like a super elaborate group character meet and greet.

Enchanted Tales with Villains

 

[Purduevian]

I could be wrong... but I think Hook is Sage Starkey formally Sammie from Star Cruiser and currently on All Ears.
He mentioned in a recent video he was involved with this show is some way.

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EDIT: Yeah I know most people on here don't like Influencers, but I actually like the all ears team, after watching the hook on tick tok I'm more convinced it's him

EDIT 2: Yup it's him "I was asked to be a part of the development team and a principal actor for Disney’s BADDEST show!"

 

[Comped]

It actually looks pretty cool IMO -- but that song is still BRUTALLY corny.

From a company that used to hire well known composers to create entirely new songs for their shows... That song is off Broadway flop level of lyrics. Reminded me quite a bit of Trial Before Pilate from JCS actually, both lyrically and tone... But not in a good way. That's the kind of song you want close to the end of a show, not as a top number, from a musical theatre development perspective. The lyrics, well, they need massive amounts of work to sound like something not AI generated. Especially for Disney it's a huge miss.

At least it’s visually impressive. Projection mapping is still very in on Broadway so it’s no surprise to see so much here.

Maybe it will come across as campy and work? While some villains can be silly in a sarcastic way, I’m struggling to see it with Maleficent.

Visually impressive is one thing DLE remembers how to do. Having seen the show from the leak, I'm not sure it works well. Or at all. It's camp, but without substance or interest.

It is certainly video heavy - but it is well staged. Will be interesting to see the total performer count. From the video it looks like it needs more, but we will see.

Interested in seeing your opinion now that the whole show has essentially leaked...

One performer at a time feels needlessly Covid era to me. Better hope the three actors you get are superb.

It feel cheap. They can afford more. The actors we saw in the leak are pretty good (not much of them to really be able to tell), but are given precious little to work with. I've seen meet and greets with more meat in that regard!

I am sure the performers will be top notch, they always are. I was hoping though there would be a supporting live cast in addition to the villains.

This is, though I could be wrong, the lowest amount of live performers in a theatre-based stage show ever at WDW. And, as far as I've checked, anywhere on property. A live supporting cast probably got cut (or never included) due to cost reasons. If this was a castle show, they'd do it, but this was clearly meant to be a stripped down and relatively cheap show to fill a space that had a show barely anyone was actually visiting (or knew was there). I expected something of quality, but after I heard how long it was, I had my doubts. Then they were undercut in the worst way imaginable!

Saw pretty much the entire show on TikTok after a cast preview. Here's the Cruella section of the show (the user also posted the rest of the show in chunks on their account).



There's indeed a total of 3 live performers in the show (Cruella, Hook, and Mal); several villains are also portrayed by real actors but as pre-filmed content.

I guess I was expecting a different kind of show based on the marketing; they highlighted the original song to the point that I thought this would be a musical, but it turns out that's the only original music in the show. Each villain comes out, vamps a bit while their theme song plays, and then leaves. The end of the show is a cheer off for the audience to pick their favorite, and then it just ends. No fault of the actors though, they do a hell of a job selling scraps.

So odd. I hope the new Mermaid show is better.

Somehow this defied even my low expectations. DLE can still make great material when they so choose (usually in Tokyo, occasionally the international parks or cruise ships), but how did they fall so short here? It's not only bad, it's kind of concerning. Scraps of content is an understatement - there's barely any to speak of. It feels like it's a mix between a meet and greet and a show that was thrown together (at considerable cost) at the last minute because they had a hole in their schedule of bigger projects... I really have no words to say, as someone who's dedicated countless hours to studing the evolution of live entertainement in the parks, how much of a step backwards this is. Even a kids of the kingdom style (or castle show as most people call them) show would have been better than this!

What the hell was that? That entire show is beneath WDW. Massive disappointment.

It looks like the performers are lip synching, too.

I said exactly that when I watched the show! I've seen better projects come out of university classes. It feels like a project I'd have seen at one of my classes at Rosen, and I'm not sure how to feel about that. The bones of the idea work, no question about that. It just seems that we're going backwards. They could have written multiple origional sings for this show, and it would have cost them relatively little. They already are paying for everything else, so just an extra bit of time with the orchestra and a composer/lyracist isn't a terrible ask.

I can't tell if they're lip synching, but I believe that this show was cast with live singing intended?

I mean there wasn’t too much go on with the premise of the Villains.

It seems more like a promotion to get people excited to see them in the parks in a bigger capacity.

There's ways to make this concept work for an hour, maybe 2, with the right writing team and creatives. If it's a promotion for a land that has yet to break ground, perhaps Disney should have made it more clear instead of the marketing campaign we got, which implied a more substantive show.

 

[Agent H]

Legitimate question for everyone. How many performers are appropriate for a theater this small?

 

[Comped]

Legitimate question for everyone. How many performers are appropriate for a theater this small?

Depends on the design of the show in question. Looks like this theatre can sit a few hundred, and you seemingly have a full sized stage and backstage areas, so you could have as many as the show required. For me personally I wouldn't have written a charrette without thinking of using at least a castle show's worth of cast, so a dozen or two.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

This is likely a temporary show with a 3-4 year run so it doesn't surprise me that it's light on the number of performers.

I feel like 3-4 years might be a tad bit generous, but as you pointed out…

WDW has a track record for turning temporary into permanent.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Legitimate question for everyone. How many performers are appropriate for a theater this small?

I don't think it needs hundreds but even the Frozen Sing-along has more than this
... And to never have more than one performing at a time?

Would have liked all three of them out for chunky of it, and perhaps a few assistants/lackeys ..
So like 6 or 7 total would be nice

 

[Jedi14]

I don't think it needs hundreds but even the Frozen Sing-along has more than this
... And to never have more than one performing at a time?

Would have liked all three of them out for chunky of it, and perhaps a few assistants/lackeys ..
So like 6 or 7 total would be nice

Frozen only has two more than this show. All three villains are on stage during the finale.

 

[Purduevian]

Anyone else find it odd that Hades, Jafar, and Evil Queen all appear as live action at the same time all the other villains have their original artwork?

Personally I don't think the show looks great... needs some back up dancers.

 

[lightningtap347]

They aren’t putting muppet-vision 3D in there. LenTesta did imply a while ago that a NEW muppet show COULD go in there after villains is done, but who knows about that at this point. Show isn’t even open yet.

Muppetvision is gone gone.

Yes I don't need to be told that the leaving attraction is leaving; I'm aware. I'm just commenting how on if they had a long view of the area, they could've configured this area as a mini-land with the coaster retheme instead of further fragmenting the park with haphazard temporary nonsense.

 

[eddie104]

From a company that used to hire well known composers to create entirely new songs for their shows... That song is off Broadway flop level of lyrics. Reminded me quite a bit of Trial Before Pilate from JCS actually, both lyrically and tone... But not in a good way. That's the kind of song you want close to the end of a show, not as a top number, from a musical theatre development perspective. The lyrics, well, they need massive amounts of work to sound like something not AI generated. Especially for Disney it's a huge miss.

Visually impressive is one thing DLE remembers how to do. Having seen the show from the leak, I'm not sure it works well. Or at all. It's camp, but without substance or interest.

Interested in seeing your opinion now that the whole show has essentially leaked...

It feel cheap. They can afford more. The actors we saw in the leak are pretty good (not much of them to really be able to tell), but are given precious little to work with. I've seen meet and greets with more meat in that regard!

This is, though I could be wrong, the lowest amount of live performers in a theatre-based stage show ever at WDW. And, as far as I've checked, anywhere on property. A live supporting cast probably got cut (or never included) due to cost reasons. If this was a castle show, they'd do it, but this was clearly meant to be a stripped down and relatively cheap show to fill a space that had a show barely anyone was actually visiting (or knew was there). I expected something of quality, but after I heard how long it was, I had my doubts. Then they were undercut in the worst way imaginable!

Somehow this defied even my low expectations. DLE can still make great material when they so choose (usually in Tokyo, occasionally the international parks or cruise ships), but how did they fall so short here? It's not only bad, it's kind of concerning. Scraps of content is an understatement - there's barely any to speak of. It feels like it's a mix between a meet and greet and a show that was thrown together (at considerable cost) at the last minute because they had a hole in their schedule of bigger projects... I really have no words to say, as someone who's dedicated countless hours to studing the evolution of live entertainement in the parks, how much of a step backwards this is. Even a kids of the kingdom style (or castle show as most people call them) show would have been better than this!

I said exactly that when I watched the show! I've seen better projects come out of university classes. It feels like a project I'd have seen at one of my classes at Rosen, and I'm not sure how to feel about that. The bones of the idea work, no question about that. It just seems that we're going backwards. They could have written multiple origional sings for this show, and it would have cost them relatively little. They already are paying for everything else, so just an extra bit of time with the orchestra and a composer/lyracist isn't a terrible ask.

I can't tell if they're lip synching, but I believe that this show was cast with live singing intended?

There's ways to make this concept work for an hour, maybe 2, with the right writing team and creatives. If it's a promotion for a land that has yet to break ground, perhaps Disney should have made it more clear instead of the marketing campaign we got, which implied a more substantive show.

I think your expectations were way too high to begin with.

If looked at the marketing material the magic mirror was really promoted as the centerpiece of this show.

Nothing about this show was giving broadway musical level in any shape or form. It seems more like a test to see how receptive guests are to the Villains in some capacity or another.

Versus the Little Mermaid where they would go into extreme detail about the puppets, performers and etc.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Legitimate question for everyone. How many performers are appropriate for a theater this small?

8?

 

[rd805]

Legitimate question for everyone. How many performers are appropriate for a theater this small?

I typically put together cabarets in much smaller spaces that seat 80-150 patrons; We would casy anywhere from 6-14 people in a show, and always have a few group numbers with a much smaller stage. That stage is huge and can accommodate a bigger cast.

 

[DisneyHead123]

A musical ????

Maybe my expectations weren’t too high but I thought the screens would be doing most of the heavy lifting.

I wasn’t envisioning Les Mis, ha ha, but maybe Cruella singing an “I’m positively passionate about puppies!” song where she tries to pretend she just loves dogs but occasionally throws in something like “… when I make them into coats… I mean make them little coats, make them little coats!!” Throw in a few fun visuals (she sings “And don’t we all look divine in spots!” as the light briefly cover the audience in Dalmatian spots) and I think it would be a fun show.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Definitely needs backup dancers to actually sell the camp.

I see why it’s not on LL. I suspected as much.