Disney Shares Details about Future Attractions at SXSW Conference
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(eap) As part of the South by Southwest® (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas, Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman held a session on “The Future of World-Building at Disney”, during which details about future Disney attractions have been announced. D’Amaro and Bergman dedicated the opening of the session to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this July. “Disneyland is an incredibly special place. It’s our original park. It’s the only one Walt physically walked through during his life,” D’Amaro said. “When he began working on this new venture in the early ’50s, there really wasn’t anything quite like it at that point. So, to turn this dream into reality, he went to the people he trusted most. He went to his storytellers.”
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The next part of the World-Building session focused on the Star Wars brand. D’Amaro and Bergman brought Imagineers Leslie Evans and Asa Kalama as well as the director of “The Mandalorian and Grogu”, Jon Favreau, on stage along with a couple of BDX droids. In contrast to old animatronics, the BDX droids are supposed to be able to learn using reinforcement learning. “They learn, they experiment, they teach each other, and they figure out how to navigate different types of terrain,” said Kalama. The BDX droids, which were first seen at Disneyland, are scheduled to visit Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris later this year. In addition, the Star Wars attraction “Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run” at Disneyland and Walt Disney World is to receive an update that will transport guests to the world of the Mandalorian on Memorial Day weekend 2026 – exactly the same weekend that the new film “The Mandalorian and Grogu” will be released in cinemas.
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Furthermore, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, Pete Docter, and Imagineer Michael Hundgen shared details about two new Pixar attractions coming to Walt Disney World. Firstly, the coaster in the new “Monsters, Inc.” themed area was highlighted: “We have never done anything like this before,” Hundgen said of the new attraction. “It’s Disney’s first suspended coaster, it’s our first vertical lift. We’re designing this experience to be as memorable and as fun as the film itself.” Secondly, it was spoken about the new Cars attraction “Off-Road Rally Race”: “When we’re designing our attractions, our primary goal is to create an emotional experience for our guests, just like the filmmakers do on the screen. For this Cars attraction, we need to invent a new type of ride vehicle to create that feeling,” Hundgen said.
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Finally, “Iron Man” actor Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Feige, Producer and President of Marvel Studios, and Bruce Vaughn, President and Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Imagineering, shared details about the “Avengers Campus” expansion at Disney California Adventure. This includes two new attractions: “Avengers Infinity Defense,” where guests must rally the Avengers to battle “King Thanos” across multiple worlds, and the “Stark Flight Lab” ride, which takes visitors into Tony Stark’s workshop filled with state-of-the-art technology. This includes robotic arms that grab two-person gondolas, lift them off the track and have them perform several high-speed manoeuvres inspired by Iron Man and several other Avengers. After the flight, the robotic arm places the gondola back on the track and the passengers zip away again.
The above attractions and others were first announced as part of the Disney fan event “Destination D23” in August last year (see EAP news from 12 Aug 2024). ■
