Now, let's finish off with a look at three projects that were all announced together... and all failed to appear together. At the 2017 D23 Expo, EPCOT took center stage. After decades of piecemeal additions, subtractions, and substitutions to the park, Disney announced a multi-year, open-ended, master-planned reimagining meant to give EPCOT the same much-needed love Disney California Adventure had gotten a decade before.

The park would receive new rides (like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure), new restaurants (like Space 220 and Connections Cafe), and a refreshed, interconnected aesthetic. Sure, every change made to EPCOT is inherently divisive... but the ongoing redevelopment promised that the park would become "more Disney," "more timeless," "more relevant," and "more family-friendly."

Of course, with Bob Iger now deeming the expansion "complete" as of the opening of the Celebration Gardens, we can see which portions of the rebuild were cut... 

4. The Play Pavilion

One of the oddest features of EPCOT's Future World is that one of its nine anchoring pavilions... is empty. That's been the case since 2007 when the health-and-wellness focused Wonders of Life and its anchor attraction, the Lost Legend: BODY WARS, closed forever. Thankfully, the golden dome is tucked back from the path between Cosmic Rewind and Mission: SPACE, making it easy to hide. But as part of the initial wave of upgrades to the park, that was supposed to change.

There's something sort of compelling about the concept of a pavilion dedicated to "Play" – a topic that really is supported by as much science as space, engineering, oceans, agriculture, or communication. According to concept art, guests stepping into the cavernous pavilion space would've entered a Day-glo cityscape with a very modern, emoji-like stylization. In practice, Disney planned for this pavilion to secretly serve as something of a "Play Test" space for technologies under consideration at Imagineering, with ever-rotating interactives, games, and experiences piloting big ideas (and no doubt, applying hot IPs in flexible, "black box" style integration.) 

Rumors about whether or not the Play pavilion had survived COVID-induced downsizing of the park's reimagining were seemingly answered when its "Coming Soon" designation was removed from EPCOT's park maps in January 2023. That could be because the "next generation," "metaverse"-oriented divisions of the company planned to support the effort disappear when their champion – former CEO Bob Chapek – was given the pink slip. For now, EPCOT's empty pavilion appears poised to stay empty.

5. A Mary Poppins attraction

Then-Parks Chairman Bob Chapek was cautiously un-specific when he announced a Mary Poppins experience that would join EPCOT's U.K. pavilion – part of the ongoing IP infusion across World Showcase. Instead, concept art revealed only that an underutilized corner of the pavilion would become the iconic Cherry Tree Lane from the film. In true Chapek style, insiders suggested that technically, the expansion would key off of the 2018 film Mary Poppins Returns rather than Walt Disney's 1964 original – an inevitability in the modern Disney company where marketing and cross promotion trump timelessness.

Insiders also cautioned that fans who pictured riding carousel horses through a musical Mary Poppins dark ride ought to slim back their expectations; that really, the ride was only expected to be a family flat ride like a carousel or teacups, and that the Chapek regime was also considering that maybe by "attraction," they'd really just meant "meet and greet." 

Supposedly-leaked (but officially unconfirmed) concept art made its way onto the internet in 2023, seemingly suggesting that the Mary Poppins ride would've been an enclosed teacup-style spinner set in the illustrated park where the sequel film's "The Royal Daulton Music Hall" sequence takes place. In retrospect, it's an odd choice to have focused a ride on a sequence from the sequel given that its box office time would have come and gone by time the ride opened. The Royal Doulton Music HallThe Royal Doulton Music Hall

6. Celebration Pavilion

There's no denying that whether you like it or not, EPCOT is Walt Disney World's "celebration" park, with nearly every week of the park's year assigned to a seasonal festival. For a time, the shell of the old Wonders of Life pavilion served as a "Festival Center" – a space where Disney could offer add-on classes, climate-controlled tastings, and other sponsor-friendly exhibitions. 

But the "new" EPCOT would offer its own headquarters for all things Festival: an astounding, standing pavilion that would include both covered space on the ground, an enclosed space high above, and a rooftop garden space... perfect for upcharge viewing of the lagoon show. Rumors of its quiet cancellation were proven true when Disney announced that instead of the ornate and expensive new pavilion, they would... well... sort of rebuild the parenthesis-shaped building they just got done demolishing in the park's core. The new "Communicore Hall" will feature dual stage space and an "expo hall," but all earth-bound.