I honestly think it depends on who is leading the JII refurb on whether Disney would have Baxter back. For example, I overheard him telling another Imagineering CM that he was behind the scenes involved with helping on the Splash Mountain refurb (whether that was on the technical, creative, etc. side, I don't know). But point being, Tony hasn't hung up his Disney ID card for good and would certainly be up to it and Disney has clearly worked with him recently.
He was brought on and then promptly left after learning what the refurb entailed.
It’s probably all of the hosted people.
I am curious why you think this D23 is going to be a good one? The last big one had lots of announcements that were all later cancelled...
I can say as someone who has been to a few big D23 panels, it’s the atmosphere of the room. I was there in 2022 for the movies showcase and the crowd was electric. We cheered for every clip they showed, every star they brought out, every logo on screen. Only after the panel did I realize that I wasn’t actually looking forward to any of those movies. But being in a room filled with hardcore Disney fans and feeling like you’re getting EXCLUSIVE access does a lot.
Sadly, I think there's a lot they could do with that. Gameplay stations aside, they could host dance parties, sell mix & match apparel, have a hot beverage stand called The Teabag. They could host major e-sports tournaments there. Never mind the family of other brands that are now tied into Fortnite.WoL turning into the Fortnite pavilion wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card
A lot of the announcements from 2019 did come about or were cancelled due to the pandemic causing budget slashes. I remember some insiders on here saying that Disney had budgeted some spare money for if they did go overbudget, but can;t remember who said it
If they’re going to spend the money and spend the time, they need to bring Baxter back in for a rebuild of 1.0.
I remember you said to keep an eye out for the Rogen project, I’m hoping that if we don’t receive any news for JII this year, we at least receive a more solid confirmation of the movie project going forwards. I could settle for that alongside a proper replacement to WoL or SSE refurb announced, & then JII V4 is announced a couple years from now. Regardless, still tempering my expectations for any news surrounding Figment this expo
Can we forget the Pandemic years as Chapek was in charge and he didn’t care one little about the parks?
Well, I hope they don’t touch it then. They can’t just keep putting lipstick on this pig.
Wow… they’re really this outta touch. Yikes
The TT3 budget is provided in large part by someone else, and the SSE budget is probably massively bloated due to all the things that desperately need to be addressed with the ride system. I know people want a truly stunning Imagination, and that would obviously be great, but I also think people continue to overestimate the popularity of Figment. I feel Disney knows his pull is limited and is probably looking to be slightly conservative for that reason. Honestly, people will perhaps hate me for saying this, but I wouldn't mind something more in the style of Runaway Railway, created almost exclusively with projections, mostly because I find almost none of the animatronics or sets in the current iteration to be interesting in the slightest.
Ding ding ding.
A tale of two posts...
