Upcoming Announcement?

[mickEblu]

I’m 100% certain Zootopia is coming to DLR, just not replacing Avatar in the backlot. So all this steam is likely coming from a different direction than people think it is.

Why would they announce Zootopia coming to DLR as part of DL Forward NOW? Considering that would likely be at least 10 years away? You have WDW Magic who alluded to news of a big change possibly being announced for DLR soon. You have Marni who has now hinted at Zootopia going in the backlot. And you have me the Resident Shaman/ tea leaf reader who’s been saying this might be happening for weeks. What else do you need?

 

[Disney Irish]

Why would they announce Zootopia coming to DLR as part of DL Forward NOW? Considering that would likely be at least 10 years away?

I'm not saying its being announced now. How many times have we heard rumors years in advance of them being announced.

You have WDW Magic who alluded to news of a big change possibly being announced for DLR soon. You have Marni who has now hinted at Zootopia going in the backlot. And you have me the Resident Shaman/ tea leaf reader who’s been saying this might be happening for weeks. What else do you need?

That is the smoke I'm talking about coming from a different direction than people are thinking....

 

[Gusey]

The only 2 thing that seems to contradict it a bit for me are:
1) It's hinted to be a clone of Shanghai, and Disney today seems to be moving away from the clone model of their parks. The last 2 clones being Frozen at DAW (announced 2018) and Tiana's (announced 2020) which is at least a 6 years ago thought process. Any other "clones" have just been updates to Soarin and Millennium Falcon
2) This seems to have been a quick jump from Zootopia is Shanghai's most popular attraction (also still its newest) to they're building it instead of Avatar at DCA. The last time I saw a rumor jump so quick was the supposed Lion King ride going to Animal Kingdom (which went from DLP is going to get Lion King -> it'd be nice if it was at AK too -> it's definitely coming to AK -> it was never announced to come to AK).

I'm happy to be proven wrong, but it's just not adding up yet for me

 

[lentesta]

I agree nothing is for sure. But I think it’s a little more than speculation.

I'm guessing there'd have to be some sort of make-good with James Cameron if this happened.

The idea for Shanghai's second gate is a World Showcase-like collection of Disney IP representing different parts of the world. That's the "Project Atlas" thing I was asking about earlier. As an example, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure for France, Encanto for Tropical Americas, and so on. They could move this Pandora idea to Shanghai as the make-good. Fire and Ash did pretty well in China's domestic market, so the franchise still seems popular there. Cameron gets his licensing, Disney maintains a good working relationship.

 

[Moth]

Replacing what would've been an awesome E-ticket for Pandora for a clone of Shanghai Zootopia is one of the saddest, most pathetic thing I've seen in a theme park, only saved by the existence of USH.

 

[Gusey]

I'm guessing there'd have to be some sort of make-good with James Cameron if this happened.

The idea for Shanghai's second gate is a World Showcase-like collection of Disney IP representing different parts of the world. That's the "Project Atlas" thing I was asking about earlier. As an example, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure for France, Encanto for Tropical Americas, and so on. They could move this Pandora idea to Shanghai as the make-good. Fire and Ash did pretty well in China's domestic market, so the franchise still seems popular there. Cameron gets his licensing, Disney maintains a good working relationship.

But would Pandora fit into the IP World Showcase theme of the 2nd gate if the plan is to use IPs to represent the real world or would it have to go in the castle park as Pandora is an alien moon?

Also, if Pandora was going to Disney Adventure World (pure speculation based on one of the arms in Cascade of Lights infrastructure being labelled Navi) and is now rumored to be replaced by Moana before anythingn is officially confirmed, I feel like keeping the already announced Avatar Land at Disneyland Resort would keep James Cameron happy??

 

[BrianLo]

I continue to acknowledge the possibility for something, but note the lack of our insiders taking any ownership over it. Which is odd. As in the only one of our insiders who did not seem to be speculating alongside us was the comment from Steve.

If there is something here, I think we aren’t fully grasping a key context clue. Kind of like hearing about Cars for the Beyond Big Thunder project and we were all picturing a half baked Radiator Springs until it was announced.

The one thing I reject is Box office and the projects potential popularity. Frankly they are equivalent. Pandora is the highest rated land in WDW, Zootopia in Shanghai. Domestic box offices were similar on their most recent films. France had another very high share of Avatar, China Zootopia. None of this serves as a rational to shuffle the projects around in the way being speculated. The pressure should be for them to add both these properties across their entire portfolio.

The ONE very overt factor here is Josh D’Amaro. I never got the impression Avatar was his project and it was clearly Iger’s baby. So if something changed in the calculus from where it very much looked like they had three more Avatar projects behind the curtain (DCA, DAW, Shanghai), he could have been behind the curtain. It’s also possible all three were sister projects and the decision was made to only do one as per their current strategic direction. Though again “cloning” Zootopia would conflict.

 

[SplashJacket]

Zootopia in Avatar plot, Avatar in third gate?