One of the more complicated announcements of the D23 Expo 2019 was all the news about the new Marvel-themed lands and attractions coming to the theme parks. In this update, I want to try and sort through a lot of the announcements and figure out exactly what this means for which parks.
We’ll focus mostly on the Avengers Campus at Disneyland’s Disney California Adventure before talking about the other Avengers Campus lands opening abroad and the rest of the Marvel presence in the parks worldwide.
Update: It appears the expected opening date for Avengers Campus will be delayed. Disney previously set an Avengers campus Disneyland (Disney California Adventure) official opening date of July 18, 2020 for the new land in Disney California Adventure. It’s unclear what kind of delay to expect, as the parks endure a lengthy temporary closure due to coronavirus.
Summary of “Avengers Campus” Updates
Disney California Adventure — Avengers Campus Opening Date scheduled July 18, 2020 with Spider-Man ride
Walt Disney Studios Park (Paris) — Iron Man Coaster replacing Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (which closes Sep. 2019)
Walt Disney Studios Park (Paris) — Land opening “later” than California with Spider-Man ride
Disney California Adventure — Phase 2 (no date confirmed) coming with new Avengers Quinjet E-Ticket
Hong Kong Disneyland — By 2023, getting new land with attraction presumed to be Avengers Quinjet E-Ticket
What is “Avengers Campus”?
Similar to what they did with Pandora, Toy Story Land, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney is bringing new lands and rides based on the Marvel comics, movies, and TV shows to their theme parks. If you’re not familiar with the Marvel universe, you might want to subscribe to Disney Plus and check out all its Marvel content.
Disney California Adventure Avengers Campus
We’ll start with the location most of you are interest in—the Avengers Campus at Disney’s Resort’s Disney California Adventure theme park.
Disneyland Avengers Campus Basics
Disney California Adventure already has one major Marvel attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy—Mission: BREAKOUT!, along with several character greetings near that ride. But it’s getting a major addition with the construction of the Avengers Campus.
The campus will occupy the former Bugs Land site, between Mission: BREAKOUT! and Cars Land. WDWNT has a good overhead map of the area. Expect to see the Avengers, Doctor Strange, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and other Marvel heroes have a strong presence in the new land.
Disneyland Avengers Campus Opening Date
The Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure is currently scheduled to open on July 18, 2020. However, with the parks temporarily closed, we don’t know if this date will need to be pushed back. The land will open in two phases, with Phase 2 expected a few years from now.
That Awesome Spider-Man Animatronic
As seen in The Imagineering Story and a One Day At Disney Short, a new acrobatic animatronic is in development. It’s expected this animatronic is the Spider-Man we’ve seen in previews of the land and that we’ll get to see it doing some awesome acrobatics above the land.
Rides at the Avengers Campus
Guardians of the Galaxy—Mission: BREAKOUT! is already open at Disney California Adventure and is expected to technically be a part of the Avengers Campus.
Phase 1 of the Avengers Campus will open with the highlight being one new ride—WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure, with WEB being shorthand for “Worldwide Engineering Brigade.” The new Spider-Man ride looks to be a screen-shooter ride in the style of Toy Story Mania:
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The ride will feature you and Spider-Man trying to sling webs and round up out of control Spider Bots.
Expected…eventually (but I’ll guess 2022 or 2023)…Phase 2 of Avengers Campus will open, headlined by a new unnamed Avengers attraction. Virtually nothing is known about this attraction, but the story is said to place you in a Quinjet in the middle of an epic battle. We’re excited to see what Walt Disney Imagineering comes up with for this one.
In general, the Spider-Man attraction looks to be somewhat of a disappointment simply because it is the same technology as another ride in the park—Toy Story Mania. However, if the new Quinjet ride coming later is an actual E-Ticket, then it’s hard to complain about this addition.
Characters at Avengers Campus
We can expect a few super hero character greetings at the Avengers Campus. There are already regular greetings with Captain Marvel, Captain America, Black Panther, and Spider-Man, a the park. The Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, Loki, and Black Widow also have a regular presence.
It’s unknown exactly which characters will have greetings, which will have new stage shows, or which will be involved in the land in another way. But given how much the park is already committed to these characters, we’re excited to see how they do in their own land.
Pym Test Kitchen (Quick Service Restaurant) And Snack Carts
Avengers Campus will have a new quick service restaurant—Pym Test Kitchen. Pym Technologies is the company from Ant-Man, in case you forgot, and the restaurant will apparently focus on super-sized and super-small foods.
Shawarma Palace will be a food stand based on the Shawarma Palace restaurant from the end of the first Avengers film. Terran Treats will be a small food stand themed to Mission: BREAKOUT!
Stores at Avengers Campus
No Disney land would be complete without merchandise. So far we know there will be a “WEB Suppliers” store attached to the Spider-Man ride and a “Campus Supply Pod” featuring Avengers merchandise. Mission: BREAKOUT! will also retain its Guardians of the Galaxy themed store.
Touring Expectations for Avengers Campus
Disney California Adventure park is currently an easy park to experience in a single day, and I don’t expect these rides to change that. Most days, you only need two FASTPASS slots to have an easy day. Upping that to three or maybe four doesn’t make it much of a challenge.
When Spider-Man opens, I would still expect Radiator Springs Racers to remain the highlight of the park. As with Mission: BREAKOUT!, we’re likely to see Spider-Man get a pop in attention when it opens, but this doesn’t seem a concept likely to tackle the GOAT. The Quinjet E-Ticket could be a different story, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Walt Disney Studios Park Avengers Campus
Walt Disney Studios Park, the “other” park at Disneyland Paris, is also getting an Avengers Campus. This is where we need to mention that the Avengers presence across all the parks (but particularly Disney California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios Park, and Hong Kong Disneyland) is supposed to form a single story.
This already happens a little bit, with references to Tony Stark’s presence in Hong Kong being a part of Walt Disney Studios Park shows. Expect more stuff like that.
Expected…later than the California campus…but I’ll guess 2021…the Avengers Campus (Paris) will open with the same Spider-Man attraction as California. Based on my reading of the announcement, it sounds like Walt Disney Studios Park will not be getting the Phase 2 attraction coming to California.
They will, however, be getting an Iron Man coaster, replacing Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. With a September 2019 close date for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the new Iron Man coaster open in 2020, but this is speculative at this point.
Finally, it’s worth quickly mentioning here that Disneyland Paris’s Hotel New York will reopen as Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel in summer 2020.
I’m hesitant to comment on how these changes impact Walt Disney Studios Park. The park is getting a lot of changes, including a new Frozen-themed area. As it’s a half-day park right now (the only one left in the Disney portfolio), we’ll still need a significant number of openings before we really re-evaluate the park.
The Avengers at Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong was interestingly left largely out of this year’s D23 despite their heavy and expanding Avengers presence. While they were mentioned briefly as a part of the panel, they aren’t mentioned in any of the official blog’s Avengers updates, and no new dates were given.
Already in Hong Kong Disneyland, you’ll find Iron Man Experience, a ride that is basically Star Tours but with Iron Man instead of Star Wars. The Stark Expo is an exhibition hall housing different Avengers / Iron Man exhibits.
And earlier this year, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle! opened, replacing Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. The new ride uses the same underlying system (dark ride / laser shooting) as the former ride.
Sometime between now and 2023, Hong Kong Disneyland is expected to get a full Marvel-themed area. It’s unclear whether this will also just be called “Avengers Campus,” but it sure looks the same. It is not expected that this land will have the Spider-Man attraction, but…
It is expected that Hong Kong Disneyland will get the same new unnamed Avengers attraction coming as part of Phase 2 in California. This is expected by 2023.
As with Walt Disney Studios Park, Hong Kong Disneyland is getting several updates, including a Frozen-themed area. Hong Kong Disneyland isn’t quite a half-day park, but it’s a soft full-day park, often operating on ten or fewer hours.
A Simplifying Global Landscape
Replicating attractions has been a focal point of Disney’s international presence since Tokyo Disneyland opened, but it still bums me to see how rarely we get unique attractions anymore.
Unique attractions are in the minority these days, with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (Epcot) being one of the few unique E-Tickets in development. TRON, Ratatouille, Rise of the Resistance, the new Spider-Man ride, the Quinjet E-Ticket, and the new Frozen attractions all will be found in multiple locations.
“But most of us don’t visit multiple resorts.” This is true. But maybe more of us would visit multiple resorts if they offered unique experiences. Many guests make repeat visits to Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort without even making it to the other coast.
That’s definitely not a money or time issue, except for locals—it’s a decision that the other parks don’t appeal enough to you.
Other Minor Marvel Presence in the Parks
I just want to briefly talk about the parks that carry more limited Marvel presence and aren’t a huge part of this Avengers universe that is being built.
Walt Disney World has limited Marvel presence. Due to licensing issues involving Universal Orlando Resort, Disney cannot have most Marvel figures in their Florida parks.
The big exception currently is the Guardians of the Galaxy, who are getting their coaster in Epcot—Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The licensing issues likely limit this being substantially connected into any larger Avengers story.
Shanghai Disneyland has a very limited Marvel presence. A single building houses Marvel Universe. Think of this as Star Wars Launch Bay, but Marvel. While it’s likely this will get some tie-in to the ongoing projects, no new construction has been announced or speculated.
Tokyo Disney Resort is expected to get a Big Hero 6 ride. Otherwise, to my admittedly limited knowledge, the resort has no significant Marvel presence.
Finally, while their resorts will be getting the aforementioned Avengers Campus additions, the two specific parks Disneyland and Disneyland Paris do not have a significant Marvel presence.
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