Earlier this week, we were able to check out just a tease of some of the new attractions bound for Disney’s theme parks around the globe as part of the Walt Disney Imagineering pavilion at D23, the company’s every-other-year fan expo in Anaheim. But on Saturday, Disney packed in the Honda Center to tout its juiciest announcements—which for Disneyland specifically included an opening date for its Princess and the Frog-themed transformation of the former Splash Mountain, a handful of brand-new rides and an entire Avatar land.
The Avatar addition to the Disneyland Resort was first announced as part of a corporate earnings call in early 2023, but Saturday night’s arena-sized event offered a much splashier stage to share some of the first details of what parkgoers can actually expect to find there.
For starters, the land will specifically come to Disney California Adventure Park. The concept art doesn’t offer any clues as far as where in the park it’ll go, but it does show a rugged, watery area of the fictional planet of Pandora that’s apparently inspired by habitats from Avatar: The Way of Water, the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash and yet-to-be-titled future installments.
At its core, you’ll find “an innovative new attraction” that Walt Disney Imagineering executive Ali Rubinstein summed up onstage as an “excursion in search of majestic natural wonders,” as well as a “dynamic, intense emotional experience on a grand scale.” Concept images show what appears to be a boat venturing through a bioluminescent forest, an open ocean and a creepy swamp-like environment.
That’s not the only new attraction bound for California Adventure: Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro announced that the park will break ground on a new Coco-inspired ride in 2026. The musical attraction was pitched as something in the vein of the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, in which you’ll follow Miguel into the Land of the Dead and through “colorful, expansive scenes” with the “latest in audio-animatronic technology.”
In addition, the company finally provided an update on the Avengers ride first announced in 2019. Now titled Avengers Infinity Defense, it’ll seat riders in a ship that’ll jump through portals into multiple Marvel destinations (Asgard, Wakanda and New York City were specifically mentioned) to chase down King Thanos. Construction is set to begin next year.
It’s not the only new ride coming to the land: Stark Flight Lab tasks you with testing out different superhero tech—and each ride might result in a different hero pairing. A concept video for the attraction shows two-person pods being grabbed by a robotic arm and then flung and twisted in all sorts of different directions. And perhaps most notably, Robert Downey Jr. (who was pictured testing the ride tech with Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger) will reprise his role as Tony Stark. Taken together with the other new Marvel attraction, it’ll double the size of Avengers Campus according to executive Scott Trowbridge.
Over at Disneyland Park, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year, the Main Street Opera House will host a new show that features an animatronic of Walt Disney himself. Titled “Walt Disney – A Magical Life,” the show will drop you into Walt’s office as he reflects on his life and the then-future. The D23 presentation only showed off an illustration of the animatronic, but D’Amaro noted that it was a “huge responsibility” to get it right (he specifically mentioned that Walt’s great-nephew, Roy P. Disney, was “so moved” by a preview of it), and that they “had to wait for innovation to catch up with our dreams.” (For you fans of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln: Don’t worry, that six-decade-old show will still play on rotation.)
On the other side of the park, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run will see a new mission featuring the Mandalorian and Grogu. The revision to the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction will debut alongside the upcoming movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, in 2026.
And finally, in the very near future, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open on November 15, 2024—in the former Critter Country, soon-to-be Bayou Country—as Darren Criss and Skylar Astin announced as part of a surprisingly self-deprecating medley of parks-related opening dates.
You can check out some more photos from the D23 announcements below.
