News Villains Land Announced for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

[Captain Neo]

i can tell you right now the villains land will be the most popular of the new lands and probably more popular than some of the existing ones including Star Wars land. They need room for expansion and I recommend they rip out some of the “new fantasyland‘ crap from the early 2010s including the rainforest cafe caliber beast castle and the lame little mermaid ride and build on that land which is where this project was originally supposed to start anyway

 

[Johnny D]

I wish they had a physical model of this like they do with most of the other lands/attractions they announced.

 

[Joel]

Anybody parsing the "two major attractions" line to mean there might actually be a third lesser ride instead of just a reassurance that one of the two won't be a spinner or something is really hoping against hope. At least in the domestic parks, new lands get two new rides and that's it.

 

[Captain Neo]

I’m really curious if Universal’s Dark Universe land was the motivation to green light this project because they literally had this concept on ice for almost thirty years now

 

[Mike S]

I’m really curious if Universal’s Dark Universe land was the motivation to green light this project because they literally had this concept on ice for almost thirty years now

More than likely. I have my own hunch that Mario Kart and Donkey Kong also led to Cars and the Door Coaster but that’s just me.

 

[capsshield]

I think 2 to 4 years down the road we will have more than 2 attractions in or coming to this land plus Moana and maybe a Woodys Roundup.
I hope one day we get a Nightmare Before Christmas section here

 

[easyrowrdw]

I’ve always seen the lands as being related to larger genres of fiction, with Tomorrowland for sci-fi, Fantasyland for fantasy and romance, Adventureland for adventure, and Liberty Square + Frontierland for historical fiction and westerns. If done properly, a villain land could lean into unrepresented mystery, thriller, horror, or dark/gothic fantasy themes.

Ah, interesting. I’d never thought of that before.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I’m really curious if Universal’s Dark Universe land was the motivation to green light this project because they literally had this concept on ice for almost thirty years now

The aesthetic they chose to go with for the land with it being classic Halloween style spooky, as well as the assumed two major rides being a coaster and a dark ride just like at Dark Universe, would sure seem to suggest Disney specifically wants it to compete with it and wants a piece of the horror/dark fantasy pie themselves.

 

[Tha Realest]

Just give us a C-ticket, 2 min dark ride experience a la Snow White or Mr Toad where you’re fleeing from the Headless Horseman.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Where are people hearing there's a dark ride? I see the coaster in the art obviously, but the claims of "2 major attractions" doesn't necessarily mean both are rides. Or that the second one is a dark ride specifically.

 

[BrianLo]

I’m really curious if Universal’s Dark Universe land was the motivation to green light this project because they literally had this concept on ice for almost thirty years now

I honestly think the response to D23 2022 was a large portion of the reason. It was a bit of a large consumer test. Josh looked visibly taken aback with the hoopla that idea caused.

Internally a - hey - our now constant Halloween after hours park might benefit from a Halloween land might have also helped.

 

[mhaftman7]

Am I the only one that noticed the second ride under the water fall at the front of the concept art?

 

[BrianLo]

Where are people hearing there's a dark ride? I see the coaster in the art obviously, but the claims of "2 major attractions" doesn't necessarily mean both are rides. Or that the second one is a dark ride specifically.

We don’t “know”, but deductive reasoning dictates there’s another thing in a box going on there. Galaxies Edge appears to be the framework on this one.

They’ve used weird wording before like their constant refrain of an Avatar “experience” for Disneyland resort. They still just referred on their PowerPoint last week to Frozen going to Disneyland Paris and Avatar to Disneyland.

Plus Josh isn’t dumb. He knows what people take away from his wording choices. I think there would have been more of a major show and major attraction if he didn’t mean rides.

 

[DisneyRoxMySox]

Disney reps have told media that all park announcements are planned to be finished and opened within the next five years.

This tells me we know everything that we need to about WDW’s 60th.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Am I the only one that noticed the second ride under the water fall at the front of the concept art?

The coaster? I don't think anyone thought that was a second ride, it just looks like an extension of the same thorny coaster far in the distance (Maleficent themed?).

 

[Captain Neo]

Am I the only one that noticed the second ride under the water fall at the front of the concept art?

if your talking about that green hole in the center front that’s the same roller coaster as the top left

 

[Starship824]

I really hope that it is oriented in a way to have a “different” fireworks show using the regular fireworks but having music and projections appropriate for a villains area.

Great point. Especially since they're doing it at Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland now. Funnily enough, I actually had the exact same idea I just didn't post about yet.

 

[Captain Neo]

The aesthetic they chose to go with for the land with it being classic Halloween style spooky, as well as the assumed two major rides being a coaster and a dark ride just like at Dark Universe, would sure seem to suggest Disney specifically wants it to compete with it and wants a piece of the horror/dark fantasy pie themselves.

Yea I was gonna say horror and dark fantasy are huge right now and have been gaining for the past ten years in gaming the most popular games outside of Mario and call of duty are stuff like Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Lies of P and horror is going through a renaissance at the box office including artsy horror fantasy stuff like The Green Knight. Disney needs to start tapping into this stat.

if I was Iger I wouuld give his the biggest budget and get the manpower to expedite construction now

 

[rtmachine]

The perspective of that art work being the view from what most people might think from Frontier land to the left of HM, but it might actually be from the entrance from the yet to be seen entrance somewhere in Fantasyland

 

[Fantasmicguy2]

I was surprised and thrilled when this artwork popped up last night.

The trajectory, as it was explained to me, was that these projects were a bit volatile because of the ballooning cost of building the as-envisioned BBTM project. When the leading proposal was the Mesa Village of Coco transitioning immediately past BTMRR which then brought you to a dark woodline as the path continued into a Dark Kingdom concept, the cost projections to achieve suitability were skyrocketing. A direction explored here was a treatment of Villains that created a bizzaro village where they'd set up camp. This is when I started warning about expectations. Showing the OG concept art last night and promising 2 major attractions, the right proposal for the property was chosen.

I'm concerned that the Cars projects got the nod because they could fit on the remains of TSI/ROA, allowing them to do a less-expensive and smaller single-phase BBTM with Villains. Reading the tea leaves from last night, this seems to fit.

Or, if Cars and Villains are both going in the "big loop" BBTM original vision, the ballooning costs of that project could have been enough to kill the was-ready-to-go-months-ago Moana project.

As much as love Moana and would want her in Magic Kingdom. I Don't mind her sitting out because she got a whole mini land in Epcot