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

[Ichabod Crane]

Yeah sorry but saying the villains of Disney’s animated film catalog don’t belong at the castle park that has significant ties to and is often viewed as the park for Walt Disney animation is actually an insane take.

 

[Marionnette]

I honestly disagree - I think it adds the most value to MK by adding something it doesn’t currently have. Adult only trips are becoming more common, and these guests are more likely to skip MK or spend less time there.

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)

But as the most visited park of the four, wouldn't it make more sense to improve the draw of the other 3 as opposed to increasing the draw to the MK?

 

[nickys]

I never thought I’d experience a D23 where I had no notes?!?! This is all just so exciting, and a perfect response to all the overseas expansions that had me seething with jealousy.

All the overseas expansions?

What Paris got was confirmation that LK is replacing Star Wars.

Oh, and an opening date for Frozen that’s ridiculous given how far along they seem to be.

That’s it. Nothing more. Adventure Way is getting “finishing touches” right now. Arendelle has been visible for over a year.

 

[Kev1982]

How is the entry into Villains Land going to work? So many questions lol

Also not a possibility This new cars ride is a bit on par with autopia/speedway so they can get rid of that after this opens?

 

[DisneyLee74]

Hopefully that is true, but he also gave next to no specifics about it. Didn't he also say that the Coco ride would break ground in 2026? When they start talking about projects in those kind of timelines, history tells you to be wary.

They may have already started this expansion. There have been cranes visible behind BTM for the past few weeks. Disney recently rerouted the Magnolia golf course near The Polynesian to expand the roadway behind MK and the buzz was for better access to the expansion pads.

 

[CaptinEO]

I never thought I’d experience a D23 where I had no notes?!?! This is all just so exciting, and a perfect response to all the overseas expansions that had me seething with jealousy.

Disneyland got nothing but a Walt robot and their Tommorowland has 3 attractions in an abandoned state.

 

[solidyne]

Disneyland got nothing but a Walt robot and their Tommorowland has 3 attractions in an abandoned state.

Good! Time for me to start visiting that park instead of WDW!

 

[Rhinocerous]

The mine car rollercoaster fits nicely into the “dark mirror of Fantasyland” concept. Heigh ho.

 

[Mark Dunne]

This is great news, to be honest jm not that interested in the D23 movie and D+ headlines, but these are truly magical attractions, I’m a happy man at 53, well done ! We have something to look forward to, in fact many things, the only downer is TTBAB looks like it’s disappearing , there’s nothing better than when a child’s being a brat outside with the poor ole parents , bringing them in hear, then watching those spiders get unleashed , priceless !! Sorry just having a bit of fun . All in all good news

 

[Ghost93]

But as the most visited park of the four, wouldn't it make more sense to improve the draw of the other 3 as opposed to increasing the draw to the MK?

It's about adding capacity to the already overcrowded MK.

 

[mf1972]

This will be fun. I just hope they don’t remove too much to make it happen.

On a different note, I’d like a villains themed hotel at some point.

i’ve been hoping for a star wars value resort for awhile. it would definitely fill up.

 

[doctornick]

Even though the Black Cauldron wasn't a great movie, aesthetically, the Horned King and cauldron born fit in very well with a spooky villains land. I don't think they will get their own ride, but they could cameo in an attraction featuring several villains. And as I pointed out earlier, the Horned King was featured a couple of times in the announcement video Disney published for the villain land last night.

The obscurity of the character wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. For the average park guest, the Horned King may be viewed as a Parks original character.

They used Horned King in one of the Villainous game expansions which I always thought was a deep cut for that.

 

[Ghost93]

They used Horned King in one of the Villainous game expansions which I always thought was a deep cut for that.

I feel the hatred the Disney company has historically had for the Black Cauldron has greatly diminished which is why we may be seeing some more small references to it here and there. Next year will be the film's 40th anniversary. While the movie may have one endangered Disney animation forever, it's definitely water under the bridge at this point. Almost everyone involved with he movie's troubled production and the drama behind Katenzenburg hacking up the movie is no longer with the company.

 

[doctornick]

All the overseas expansions?

What Paris got was confirmation that LK is replacing Star Wars.

Oh, and an opening date for Frozen that’s ridiculous given how far along they seem to be.

That’s it. Nothing more. Adventure Way is getting “finishing touches” right now. Arendelle has been visible for over a year.

Didn’t they announce Marvel additions to both of the China parks?

 

[erasure fan1]

But as the most visited park of the four, wouldn't it make more sense to improve the draw of the other 3 as opposed to increasing the draw to the MK?

We're at a point that we need both. MK will always be the largest draw of all the parks so you need more there. At the same time the studios and AK are just egregiously under capacity. Personally I think villains land was a very smart addition. But I would have dumped cars from MK and instead added another major ride in Epcot or preferably a second new ride in AK. Indy isn't new capacity.

 

[nickys]

Didn’t they announce Marvel additions to both of the China parks?

Oh, maybe?

Just checked Steve’s main article. Yes you are correct. I take it back!

 

[DisneyHead123]

The whole point is to give the older kids and teens dragged to the Magic Kingdom something to do.

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.

 

[CentralFLlife]

They may have already started this expansion. There have been cranes visible behind BTM for the past few weeks. Disney recently rerouted the Magnolia golf course near The Polynesian to expand the roadway behind MK and the buzz was for better access to the expansion pads.

The roads were re routed & expanded b/c a significant amount of people now live immediately north of WDW and it serves as a main entrance onto property.

 

[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