News 'Beyond Big Thunder Mountain' Blue Sky concept revealed for Magic Kingdom

[Stupido]

If they are doing a villains land, I’d expect it to be very photogenic. With Not So Scary happening in MK, it makes sense to make a permanent spooky backdrop. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was in the pitch.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

If they are doing a villains land, I’d expect it to be very photogenic. With Not So Scary happening in MK, it makes sense to make a permanent spooky backdrop. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was in the pitch.

I agree. It can also lead to Villains "after-hours events" that only close off this land and have a spooky celebration year round.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

If they are doing a villains land, I’d expect it to be very photogenic. With Not So Scary happening in MK, it makes sense to make a permanent spooky backdrop. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was in the pitch.

There was a pitch way back when that evolved over time into New Fantasyland for an area where all the Villains had been "banished" to, and on Halloween Party nights they would band together in Gaston's Tavern to organize a coup and take over the Magic Kingdom - at the end of the night Mickey would have used his power to round them all back up and lock them in their area once again . . . or something like that. The only piece that remained from that concept and was actually built was a scaled-back version of Gaston's Tavern.

I'm sure that if they finally build a Villains land they would absolutely build in consideration for the Halloween Parties and Villains Nights. Clearly they finally recognize the financial potential of these characters.

If they were to lean into a concept like the above, it still would make creative sense to move the restrooms in Belle's Village and have Gaston's Tavern right ahead of an entrance to Villain's Land . . . but that would likely have to be a large land to then also link up to the Rivers of America, and who knows how big they're thinking of going here.

 

[gerarar]

View attachment 697624

Green are the interior park pads @marni1971 has indicated exist. The orange is a harder-to-get-to but slated-for-next (possibly) pad. The yellow is the obvious easy-to-get-to pads surrounding the MK. The red is pie-in-the-sky that would require a bunch of stuff to make happen, like rerouting canals (blue). And the red column is where the fireworks pad is.

Your map is kind-of out of date.

There's two additional firework launchers nearby the main one (Project Nugget and DE). So rerouting the canal (blue) as you suggested is still possible, but it have to diverge from that new launch site and eat up more space in that bigger red chunk.

Only aerial I could find that shows the new launch sites (#2 & #3), courtesy of @bioreconstruct. #5 is no longer used and retired (wasn't refurbished along with the rest of the other perimeter sites).

 

[Coaster Lover]

Surely that yellow path alongside The Haunted Mansion would have to have something to do built along it, right? That path would be almost twice the length of Main Street.

Haunted Mansion TSR..

 

[Door Coaster]

Haunted Mansion TSR..

Yeah, that's been rumored for a while. When I took over the Tracker, I put a "Probs not happening" on it specifically because it had been mentioned by an insider once, six years ago, and never again after that.

 

[Door Coaster]

Artistic Representation

 

[SpectreJordan]

I really can’t see them backing out of Encanto. Is Coco really that popular?

It was one of the most watched movies on Disney+ last year, 5 years after its release. It was also arguably Pixar's best movie of the 2010s, but the only other competition there is Toy Story 3.

The merch in the parks seems to sell well too. But I don't think it has much retail merch anymore.

I'd say that's big enough to get a ride & a Mexican themed area around it.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Artistic Representation
View attachment 697797

If they follow-through and complete this plan, these areas would be a tad bigger but yes. Coco can be under construction while they are re-routing the railroad and shortening the RoA to create space for the other two areas.

Maybe they’ll be ambitious and announce all three areas at once but my money is on villains being a “phase 2”. Track record on Phase 2s is poor but they are building the Avengers e-ticket so who knows.

 

[Door Coaster]

If they follow-through and complete this plan, these areas would be a tad bigger but yes. Coco can be under construction while they are re-routing the railroad and shortening the RoA to create space for the other two areas.

Maybe they’ll be ambitious and announce all three areas at once but my money is on villains being a “phase 2”. Track record on Phase 2s is poor but they are building the Avengers e-ticket so who knows.

Most interesting is they're keeping at least a large part of both of the major Frontierland expansion plots open. Also do you mean just the grey "attraction" plots should be bigger or the path as well?

 

[ToTBellHop]

Most interesting is they're keeping at least a large part of both of the major Frontierland expansion plots open. Also do you mean just the grey "attraction" plots should be bigger or the path as well?

The attraction areas would be larger, but you are correct in that there would still be room for expansion in another…40 years…

 

[SNS]

The attraction areas would be larger, but you are correct in that there would still be room for expansion in another…40 years…

As annoying as it is for us, from a business point of view they would always want to keep expansion areas around just in case there's a new hit IP one day or maybe somehow they will finally get the Marvel theme park rights back from Universal years/decades down the line.

 

[Door Coaster]

As annoying as it is for us, from a business point of view they would always want to keep expansion areas around just in case there's a new hit IP one day or maybe somehow they will finally get the Marvel theme park rights back from Universal years/decades down the line.

Fun fact - at one point Disney did attempt to port the Quinjet, Avengers and all, to EPCOT. It would have replaced WOL. They got too bullish when asking Uni if they could use the license and Uni responded by killing it stone cold dead. Ironically Uni's own Avengers E project (which would have replaced Doctor Room's Doom's Fearfall and backstage areas) stalled out and died at roughly the same period in time.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

If they follow-through and complete this plan, these areas would be a tad bigger but yes. Coco can be under construction while they are re-routing the railroad and shortening the RoA to create space for the other two areas.

Maybe they’ll be ambitious and announce all three areas at once but my money is on villains being a “phase 2”. Track record on Phase 2s is poor but they are building the Avengers e-ticket so who knows.

I don’t want half of the RoA filled up. That would shorten the Riverboat ride.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I don’t want half of the RoA filled up. That would shorten the Riverboat ride.

It’s the problematic part with Indians…

 

[Grumpy4196]

So if this ever happens the railroad will be closed another 5 years.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

It’s the problematic part with Indians…

No one cares about that part.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

I don’t want half of the RoA filled up. That would shorten the Riverboat ride.

I think sacrificing the length of the riverboat ride for more attractions and park capacity is well worth it. I also am biased as I’m not a huge fan of the riverboat

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I think sacrificing the length of the riverboat ride for more attractions and park capacity is well worth it. I also am biased as I’m not a huge fan of the riverboat

Disneyland didn’t shorten their Mark Twain Riverboat ride when they put in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.

 

[Door Coaster]

So if this ever happens the railroad will be closed another 5 years.

If it's like DL's, the railroad closure will only be a year.