One day after Bob Iger faced questions about Disney‘s competitive position vs. Universal in the Orlando theme park game, there came more information today about a significant expansion of Walt Disney World.
Michael Hundgen, Walt Disney World site portfolio executive, said the company’s Orlando resort is undergoing “probably the largest expansion ever at Magic Kingdom,” according to a piece by CNN.
Dubbed “Beyond Big Thunder,” the project is so named because it will expand the park into a swampy, wooded area behind the current Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at one corner of the property. See photo below.
Hundgen said the expansion would be on par, size-wise, with the 14-acre Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.
Asked for specifics on expansion plans at the company’s resorts yesterday, Iger refused to be pinned down.
“You know, we have a lot of projects in development,” he said. “Many of them are known to us. But we disclose these at a cadence and when we really feel we’re ready, and we have something more tangible to show people.”
The odd thing about Iger’s reticence is that Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Josh D’Amaro has been offering potential examples for at least two years.
The biggest round of applause at the 2022 D23 Expo fan event came for a potential Coco-themed land, which could also include elements from Encanto. He even shared concept art of what he called Beyond Big Thunder Mountain at Walt Disney World: Encanto, which would incorporate the films into the railroad ride. See below.
At last year’s D23 event Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Officer at Walt Disney Imagineering, also called he future expansion plans for Magic Kingdom in Florida the largest ever for the park and confirmed the scale would be along the lines of Galaxy’s Edge.
So why is Iger being so vague? The question is a familiar one to Disney. It may be D’Amaro has a big unveiling planned this this year’s D23 event, which takes place August 8-11. There may be another reason, as well.
At last month’s six-hour Anaheim City Planning Commission meeting on the company’s request for zoning “flexibility” in relation to the city’s 1994 “Resort Specific Plan” for the area in and around Disneyland, a string of residents wondered to the commission and Disneyland honcho Ken Potrock why they are being asked to allow a $1.9 billion revamp of the park with scant details on what specific attractions and experiences are being added. (The company’s plan for the park has been dubbed DisneylandForward.)
“With DisneylandForward and more flexibility within our existing properties, new lands and adventures like those underway at Tokyo DisneySea and Shanghai Disneyland could inspire new experiences here,” reads the copy on DisneylandForward.com.
Examples given on the site include Frozen land and the Tangled and Peter Pan attractions for the original park and Zootopia, Tron and Toy Story elements for Disney’s California Adventure. These are just examples, however. Disney brass, including Potrock in his responses to Anaheim residents, have not committed to any of them.
Echoing the Anaheim request for “flexibility,” Iger said it would be “silly” to lock in all of that $60 billion to specific projects now, because they want to be able to build out around IP the market tells them it wants more of.
It’s worth pointing out that Disney is talking about building out one new land here. Add that the the coming addition of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at WDW and you have two new lands. Universal’s in-the-works Epic Universe, is a whole new park due to debut in 2025. It will have five so-called “worlds,” including a new Wizarding World of Harry Potter and a new Super Nintendo World, both of which are prime drivers at Universal Studios Hollywood. Brian Roberts, CEO of NBCUniversal parent Comcast in January called Epic Universe the company’s most ambitious park yet.
Iger did offer that 70% of the pledged $60 billion investment will be put into new attractions and 30% will be for technology and maintenance to make these expansions happen.
Deadline has reached out to WDW for comment and this story will be updated when one is received.