Let's get right to the heart of things here: the GotG attraction that was planned for ToT and then pushed aside by Georgie K over capacity issues at a theme park that, frankly, should have been shuttered while undergoing a rebuild that is truly unprecedented in scale and scope (but will still leave the park with a smaller footprint than it had a decade ago) and turned into another chance to rip more flesh from the corpse of EPCOT has changed direction yet again.
And chances are you aren't going to like this anymore than I like telling you. BUT ... that direction has led right back to ...
WDI has been actively going over show elements from the DCA GotG: Mission Make Chappie Look Good To The Weatherman that can be used in ... you have to know where this is going, right? ... WDW's ToT.
That's right. What I first reported that stirred up a hornet's nest/bitchfest everywhere from TDA to Disney Twitter, from TDO to Michael Colglazier's head is, indeed, the current choice for bringing Marvel's lovable rapscallions (do you know how much I have wanted to use this word in a post?!?) to WDW is the original one.
It is happening. Not today, not tomorrow and not in 2017 either. But soon, say sometime in 2018 after the truly pathetic Toy Story Land adds a few nicely themed carnie rides to Disney's Third Gate MAGICal Theme Park (my new name for the park until the unveiling), the Tower will close (probably in similar fashion to DCA) and Marvel will, indeed, be in WDW (whether DIS will be able to use its own Marvel name is something that lawyers will hammer out as they currently can't, but may toss something UNI's way to get the allowance).
As for the EPCOT plans, something will go into the Energy pavilion that should debut right in time for WDW's 50th if they can stay on time and on budget and who are we kidding? It will open at some point! A few ideas are being tossed around (yes, even the ridiculous Tron concept has some basis in fact), none that I am aware of that employ the concept of energy and/or AA dinos.
The Guardians were definitely headed there. They really were. But when the price tag of the project went over, by a considerable margin,the cost of Radiator Springs Racers (the most expensive theme park attraction ever built) the whole thing went back to the drawing board and during that period, WDI just kept working on a WDW Tower redo. BTW, as near as I can tell, much of the meat of this attraction was going to be similar to the mega-E-Ticket Captain America coaster hybrid planned for DCA.
As for the bad PR, I've been told "If we don't change directions again, they are confident they can mute most of the negative attention by showcasing all of the new stuff, particularly Pandora to show the New Disney can knock socks off. They also think all the positive talk that is bound to come out after DCA's version opens might help as well. Builds up anticipation. Much like having Star Wars debut years before Florida and then opening the exact same things in, as you would say, the swamps."
Is this subject to change? I have no idea. You can never trust Disney. They always lie. Please recall their responses when people called, emailed and wrote Disney about any plans for a Guardians Tower to start with.
But what does this mean for Disney's Third Gate MAGICal Theme Park and its future? And that Mickey Mouse project? And DCA? And even SDL?
Stay tuned. More to follow.
