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

[DisneyHead123]

This brings them to MK, while also not taking anything away from kids who can still have the same experience as before and skip this section. I just hope the layout of the lands has the kid friendly Cars rides close enough so that people with young kids who don’t want to go can find a balance (since Big Thunder and Tiana’s IMO are rather on their own and can be tricky for families with kids below the height requirement)

It depends on how well they hide the land and how scared this generation of kids is (honestly most of the villains are from 20+ year old IP so possibly they wouldn’t know who they are.)

Little kids are weird. If they’re scared of a toy or book, sometimes you literally have to hide it and tell them you threw it away because they don’t even want it in their house. It’s not enough to put it on a different shelf and say “Oh just don’t play with that.”

 

[tl77]

This is my (not necessarily super well thought out) prediction. Keeps more of the Rivers of America than what you had, including the connection with the canal to the Seven Seas Lagoon. They could still run the riverboat too.

Brown is Cars. The smaller section could fit a flat ride and a shop or restaurant or two, and the larger section is about the same size as radiator springs racers, the bigger ride could go there.

Purple is Villains, and is about the same size as Galaxy's Edge. Red is the rerouted train. They could probably do something similar to Disneyland and have a trestle with rockwork along the northern portion of the river to hide Villains land from Thunder Mountain and the riverboat

View attachment 808138

As much as I'd like them to keep the River boat running, it's way cheaper and easier to permanently dock it, and I think cutting off that backstage canal is part of the objective here, because that canal lets snakes and alligators into The Rivers of America. Those warning signs all around Frontierland, Liberty Square and Tom Sawyer Island seems like a problem to me.

The concept art shows Big Thunder in the background of the new Cars ride, so to me it seems like Big Thunder becomes like the entrance to the new Carsland, and now The Haunted Mansion will be like the entrance way to the Villains land. Thematically that kinda makes sense, that's why I divided it up the way I did, I'll color in mine so it's clearer. To me is seems like they're adding these 2 new lands to Magic Kingdom and leaving Frontierland and Liberty Square "mostly" intact, and The Villain area is much bigger than the last concept art with Coco and Encanto

 

[Jrb1979]

This was an amazing surprise! Can’t wait to experience this new land.

Also: the Negative Neds in this thread won’t say anything good about Villains land until 25 years from now when Disney is announcing the closure and replacement of its main attractions.

I'm exited for it if the coaster they add is a B&M invert with multiple inversions

 

[tl77]

They could also move Floridian Way and expand further.

They "could" do that, but the cars thing seems like a quick fix to me... and I think if they get rid of that canal they can expand the new Tiana area and stick that Fire Mountain ride out in front of the park between Jungle Cruise and Pirates... at least I hope that's where this is heading maybe 10 years out

 

[Notes from Neverland]

Great to see Villains is still in the plans. But, this project will be under *a lot* of pressure. Fans have wanted this for years. And, it'll be impossible to not compare it to what's up the road in Epic Universe. Disney has to nail this land.

 

[solidyne]

Great to see Villains is still in the plans. But, this project will be under *a lot* of pressure. Fans have wanted this for years. And, it'll be impossible to not compare it to what's up the road in Epic Universe. Disney has to nail this land.

Disney "has to nail" SWGE....
Disney "has to nail" Tron...
Disney "has to nail" Tiana's...

Does Disney ever really nail it anymore?

I'll give them the Skyliner.

 

[celluloid]

Disney "has to nail" SWGE....
Disney "has to nail" Tron...
Disney "has to nail" Tiana's...

Does Disney ever really nail it anymore?

I'll give them the Skyliner.

They are all in coffins.

 

[Ghost93]

They could also move Floridian Way and expand further.

It probably wouldn't be that expensive to move Floridian Way.

 

[TalkingHead]

This is easily the most desperate idea WDI has ever greenlit. It’s got Fantasyland expansion Pt 2 written all over it.

 

[CoasterCowboy67]

I think this looks 100% awesome. I’d always wished Villains was used for the Dark Kingdom 5th gate, but that won’t happen. This is the next best thing IMO

I do think MK is already so packed with attractions and would’ve left out Cars for that reason, mainly. Maybe the strategy is to make it a 2-day park but that is a very tough sell and ask conceptually. The thing about adding capacity is that they equivalently increase the attendance cap. More space just equals more people allowed in and then you get the same length of lines, but now impossible to see even a majority of the attractions there if you don’t have an annual pass and just have your one day to maximize

Overall, I like Villains at MK and thematically makes so much sense. I would’ve thrown the budget for 2 Cars attractions to 2 more rides at DHS and DAK who aren’t full day parks

As much as I love Moana, worried that adding it to MK feels crazy. Thematically makes sense, just not logic sense to me. I’d rather see them find space for an area themed to Oceania in AK to keep the geography themed lands, or maybe something about aquatic animals. Moana 2 seems to be highlighting a whale, so animals may feature in it more

 

[disney fan 13]

I think this looks 100% awesome. I’d always wished Villains was used for the Dark Kingdom 5th gate, but that won’t happen. This is the next best thing IMO

I do think MK is already so packed with attractions and would’ve left out Cars for that reason, mainly. Maybe the strategy is to make it a 2-day park but that is a very tough sell and ask conceptually. The thing about adding capacity is that they equivalently increase the attendance cap. More space just equals more people allowed in and then you get the same length of lines, but now impossible to see even a majority of the attractions there if you don’t have an annual pass and just have your one day to maximize

Overall, I like Villains at MK and thematically makes so much sense. I would’ve thrown the budget for 2 Cars attractions to 2 more rides at DHS and DAK who aren’t full day parks

As much as I love Moana, worried that adding it to MK feels crazy. Thematically makes sense, just not logic sense to me. I’d rather see them find space for an area themed to Oceania in AK to keep the geography themed lands, or maybe something about aquatic animals. Moana 2 seems to be highlighting a whale, so animals may feature in it more

MK is absolutely not packed with attractions when you compare it to DL which is a smaller footprint.

 

[wdwmagic]

This is easily the most desperate idea WDI has ever greenlit. It’s got Fantasyland expansion Pt 2 written all over it.

I think it is one of the most obvious ideas that WDI took far too long to do. (well, maybe its a tie with Star Wars land )

Villains are hugely popular with guests, and it gives designers a huge amount of scope to work with. Should be good.

 

[The Chatbox Ghost]

You know, if the Cars area of Frontierland is themed to the Pacific Northwest, then I can think of a villain that would fit perfect as a transition between the PNW and an evil land…

 

[Spash007]

It depends on how well they hide the land and how scared this generation of kids is (honestly most of the villains are from 20+ year old IP so possibly they wouldn’t know who they are.)

Little kids are weird. If they’re scared of a toy or book, sometimes you literally have to hide it and tell them you threw it away because they don’t even want it in their house. It’s not enough to put it on a different shelf and say “Oh just don’t play with that.”

Agreed - I’m really hoping that they do have good sight lines figured out

 

[CoasterCowboy67]

MK is absolutely not packed with attractions when you compare it to DL which is a smaller footprint.

It’s got way, way more than the other 3 at WDW. I wouldn’t compare it to DL

 

[trainplane3]

I think it is one of the most obvious ideas that WDI took far too long to do. (well, maybe its a tie with Star Wars land )

Villains are hugely popular with guests, and it gives designers a huge amount of scope to work with. Should be good.

The other big thing is just how Disney villains are truly timeless. Worse case, you can swap out a villain with another but they have extremely good staying power.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I am shocked to see Bob approve an entire land not specifically linked to an IP he approved or purchased. I think it’s a huge win for us. I hope vertical construction begins before the next CEO arrives and cancels it.

 

[davis_unoxx]

I'm really interested to see how far they will go with this coaster. Will Epic push them to make this MK coaster their most intense yet? Or will they play safe with it being located in MK.

Looked like it will have inversions? Disneyland Park in Paris has two looping coasters in their Magic Kingdom Park.

 

[JKick95]

I’m not convinced that’s the way to go. Universal is creating a park exclusively for littles, after all.

In my dream universe Disney would do the opposite and create a gate really geared towards older kids. Maybe put some Fortnite stuff there as well if they have the right. I don’t know that having one older kids area in MK is going to increase interest for otherwise uninterested teens.

Universal is also not very kid friendly compared to Disney.

 

[The Chatbox Ghost]

I am shocked to see Bob approve an entire land not specifically linked to an IP he approved or purchased. I think it’s a huge win for us. I hope vertical construction begins before the next CEO arrives and cancels it.

Interesting to note that Tropical Americas is technically also a land not tied to a specific IP- so if Encanto or Indiana Jones ever become irrelevant, it can be swapped easily. Very cool to see some non-IP-specific lands this year, plus some emphasis on Pirates/Mansion/Country Bears- would be interesting to see them expand some parks original stuff.