Disney’s most famous comedian is finally heading to Hollywood! Mike Wazowski and friends will be arriving in Hollywood Studios as that park gets a new Monsters, Inc. land in 2027! In this post, we break down everything we’re expecting from this land, including the hanging door coaster, a look at where this land fits into the park, and what we know and expect about the timeline for opening. Let’s get screaming laughing!
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It’s a busy time for construction at Disney World! We’ve got some related posts you might want to read:
Monstropolis Coming to Hollywood Studios (you are here)
While those are mostly unrelated, they do interact a bit when it comes to predicting the timeline of all this.
Monsters Inc. Land Name and Backstory
Let’s start with some backstory…
What will Monsters Inc. Land Be Called?
The name of the new land at Hollywood Studios will be Monstropolis. Monstropolis is the main setting for the Monsters, Inc. franchise.
Hollywood Studios Monstropolis Backstory
Humans are being invited into Monstropolis to celebrate H.U.M.A.N (Humans Understand Monsters Are Nice) Day. Cooked up by the “Department of Human Relations,” H.U.M.A.N. Day is “Part celebration and part cultural exchange, humans are invited to explore Monstropolis, interact with its citizens, and experience the city firsthand as monsters and humans come together through laughter instead of fear. “
What Rides Will Monstropolis Have?
Monstropolis will have one ride, the “hanging door”-themed coaster. Disney describes it as a “thrilling roller coaster ride through the Monsters, Inc. door vault.” It will be Disney’s first ever suspended coaster and its first vertical lift coaster. The coaster has not yet been named.
This is an idea that’s been in the works for a long time, and the only thing we’ll miss more than Muppet Courtyard is the unending churn of rumors related to this project finally coming to fruition. It’s real, it’s coming.
What Else Will Monstropolis Have?
Besides its one ride, Monstropolis will have the essentials to tell the charming Monsters+Humans story that the land is built around:
The MuppetVision 3D theater has been kept largely intact, but will now by “The Glob” Theater. At the cost of $22 million, Disney is reworking this into a Monsters Inc. show. The show will be called “Welcome to Monstropolis.”
A table service restaurant, Harryhausen’s Restaurant, will replace Mama Melrose’s. The restaurant will have sushi and more, and has been said to have a “menu unlike anything else we offer at Walt Disney World.”
PizzeRizzo will be replaced by Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza, a quick service restaurant.
Monstropolis will have a quick service restaurant that replaces PizzeRizzo, but details haven’t been announced.
Humans will be able to pick up some souvenirs to remember their time at the Scareporium
Where is Monstropolis Being Built?
Monstropolis is coming to Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. Specifically, the bulk of it will replace the old Muppet Courtyard area, former home to MuppetVision 3D, in the back of the park. Let’s dive into what’s really happening here…
What Does The Transformation Entail?
Concept art can be a bit deceiving, but it looks like you can sort of break this transformation into three components.
First, there’s the re-theme of the existing area. The concept art below is a good look at the plans. Some details have changed since this art was released, but the overall picture remains the same.
You can see that many facades and structures from the old Muppet Courtyard will remain. The theater that was used for MuppetVision 3D (closed June 7, 2025) will be converted to “The Glob” Theater (note: this art used the name “Monstro”).
Concept Art Copyright Disney/Pixar - Fair Use Claimed
Second, there’s the demolition of Stage 1 Company Store. I was a big fan of this store for the longest time, and I was sad to see it fall into disuse. I was lucky to be able to get inside as part of Jollywood Nights (they used it for merchandise for the event) last year. But this building is clearly missing from the concept art and, indeed, has been demolished.
Third, there’s the construction of the new coaster. This will be an entirely new structure, built mostly on land taken from the Cast Member parking lot.
While the coaster is certainly going to be the highlight of the land, this expansion is overall somewhere between a genuine “new land” and a re-theme of an existing area. That said, as much as a few of us diehards love Muppet Courtyard, I think it’s safe to say that we’re going to have a more cohesive land feel once all is said and done—having a flagship ride to anchor around does a lot for a space.
When Will Monstropolis Open?
The biggest reveal about this project from D23 was that parts of Monstropolis will open in 2027. Specifically, it sounds like everything other than the new coaster will open in 2027.
While this was a bit of a surprise, it makes a lot of sense in the larger context of what’s going on at Walt Disney World.
Let’s start with Monstropolis itself. In a previous version of this post, I wrote that the coaster was the “main constraint” on the opening timeline, and I remarked that late 2027 was the earliest that could be done. This turned out to be correct-ish, as Disney basically split the difference in deciding to open the land without the coaster. So, why did they do this?
The answer, I suspect, is over in Animal Kingdom. While plenty was said about Tropical Americas, there was no update to the timeline for that land’s opening. Since that land has been set to open in 2027, it’s pretty conspicuous that nothing more was given.
Rumors and armchair analysis have suggested for some time now that Tropical Americas will not be completely done by mid-2027, and maybe not in 2027 at all. Rather, the expectation of most informed outsiders has been that the land would open in parts, with only some parts opening in 2027. The lack of a timeline at D23 would seemingly confirm we won’t get a complete Tropical Americas opening by mid-2027.
With that in mind, debuting the non-coaster parts of Monstropolis in 2027 makes sense. Disney has to draw crowds in while the major parts of Tropical Americas and Monstropolis are still to come.
As for when in 2027 the land will open, I confess to not having a good sense of this. The easiest answer is probably to look at Disney’s favorite promo the last few years—Cool KIDS’ SUMMER. Partial opens of both Tropical Americas and Monstropolis would be in keeping with Disney’s using big-but-not-huge launches to bump up summer crowds.
When will the Monstropolis Coaster Open?
If you look at some recent construction timeframes, it usually takes between 1 and 2, sometimes 3 years to build a new coaster (including some indoor coasters). If we assume this will be an ambitious project, we can estimate it to take about 2 years, which would mean a late 2027 opening at the earliest.
But you can tell from the above discourse that the timelines for Monstropolis and Tropical Americas are pretty intertwined at this point. I think the timing of these projects is less about “when can this be built by” and more about “when can each new item be opened to maximize hotel revenue”.
To that end, I’m just expect late 2027 through 2028 to be a grab bag of launches from these two lands. Hopefully these timelines clarify a bit, but the movement of some of Monstropolis into 2027, along with no updates on the Tropical Americas opening has left things a bit murky as it stands.
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