The multiverse has unfolded before us, and out has arisen AVENGERS CAMPUS – Imagineering’s newest entry in the ongoing “IP Wars” and the latest of Disney and Universal’s “Living Lands.” A training compound built to assemble and mobilize the next generation of heroes (that’s us), this superhero Silicon Valley wedged between California Adventure’s Cars Land and Hollywood Land is… well… surprisingly low-key. Some fans have been quick to note a relative lack of ambition in the land’s scale and attractions, especially compared to Imagineering’s recent Galaxy’s Edge…
… But make no mistake: Avengers Campus is a revolution if only in the way it rewrites the rules of “immersive” theme park attractions from here on out. For all the lore that underscores the Marvel Cinematic Universe it’s based on, Avengers Campus doesn’t care much about canon. It’s a storytelling playground; a sandbox in which Imagineers can at last have fun with the comic book heroes they acquired over a decade ago. Will the land’s lean into Marvel’s multiverse model see new timeline branches open up in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge…? Should the Mandalorian and Grogu join Rey and Kylo Ren… even though they exist decades apart? Is Avengers Campus’ “alternate reality” setting a smart idea? Let’s explore…
Be warned that, by necessity, light “spoilers” for the films and television shows of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – including Disney+’s LOKI Original Series – will follow!
Avengers Campus
For those returning from the Blip, here’s the background you may have missed. Disney purchased Marvel in 2009 for $4 billion – an absolutely gargantuan (and very surprising) acquisition for then-CEO Bob Iger’s Walt Disney Company, which had just come off the $7 billion buyout of Pixar. The landmark purchase equipped Disney with the young Marvel Cinematic Universe back when it was still one-off films featuring the cast-off heroes who hadn’t been popular enough for Marvel to license to movie studios in the ‘90s.
Nesting the relatively new Marvel Studios beneath the Walt Disney Studios banner, even Iger probably wouldn’t have imagined what a success the Marvel Cinematic Universe would become. Averaging just under a billion per film, the first 24 movies of the “MCU” catapulted Marvel into a pop culture juggernaut – currently, the eighth highest-grossing media franchise of all time.
Despite being one of the defining properties of a generation, though, Disney was very slow in incorporating its portfolio of heroes into its theme parks. That’s partly because of an infamous deal that ‘90s-Marvel struck with Universal, giving Disney’s biggest competitor the exclusive rights to many of its most popular heroes everywhere East of the Mississippi, period.
A slow and cautious drip of heroes mostly took the form of meet-and-greets and one-off rides in Hong Kong and California with promises that more would come… eventually. It wasn’t until 2018 – 9 years after Disney’s purchase of Marvel – that the company even acknowledged that “Avengers and other Super Heroes” would populate new themed areas in Paris, Anaheim, and Hong Kong one day.
Finally, Disney’s toe-in-the-water rollout officially came to an end with Avengers Campus, a cannonball of an expansion serving as the eighth land and capstone of the second wave of reimaginings at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim. Though the land is small – less than half the size of the neighboring Cars Land – it has a lot of ground to cover to incorporate the best of Marvel’s high-earning heroes.
The land is wrapped in a world-building frame story of a repurposed Stark Motors manufacturing facility that’s become a sleek and stylish San Jose-style campus. The remains of redbrick factories have been overtaken by contemporary glass and steel, serving as laboratories for scientists and tech geniuses experimenting with new tech for would-be heroes. If the whole thing feels a little haphazardly assembled, that’s probably because it was. (Reportedly, a failed plan to expand Disney California Adventure northward saw Imagineers scuttle their existing Marvel plans and rearrange in the tiny property that had been “a bug’s land.”)
Essentially made of a single, central plaza, the land manages to contain the W.E.B. research lab (offering an Open House tour of its W.E.B. Slinger technology), a Pym Labs test kitchen, an “Ancient Sanctum” left quarantined since Stark’s day, the shining Avengers Headquarters, and the intrusive (and for the record, still out-of-place) fortress of The Collector, which has evidently cosmically appeared within the facility.
The land officially opened on June 4, 2021 (11 months after scheduled thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 14-month closure of Disneyland’s theme parks)… and some guests were surprised not by what – but who – they found there…
The Timeline Test
There’s probably never been a land quite as “alive” as Avengers Campus, with no less than a dozen heroes assembling on-site on any given day. Even with traditional meet-and-greets still suspended, quasi-shows and spontaneous appearances see Black Widow, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Thor, Loki, Black Panther, Iron Man, Star Lord, Captain America, Gamora, and Groot make regular appearances…
… Which is enough to cause Avengers aficionados to do a double take. Because if you’re caught up on your MCU films, you know that half of those heroes… well… shouldn’t be there. In case you managed to miss the highest-grossing film of all time, Avengers: Endgame served as a nexus event for the MCU, forever reshaping the series’ canon. By the film’s conclusion, a handful of beloved heroes were gone; others passed their mantles onto a new generation; those that remained were forever changed by Thanos’ “snap” that instantaneously “dusted” half of humanity and the Infinity War fought to bring them back.
Suffice it to say that Iron Man shouldn’t be walking around Avengers Campus acting like it’s any regular ole’ day unless Avengers Campus is set before Endgame on the MCU timeline. Of course, it can’t be… Because from Sam Wilson’s Captain America to the TVA’s Loki, Avengers Campus has also hosted post-Endgame characters… who curiously co-exist with, for example, Black Widow as she appears in her standalone film, set after Civil War.
So when on the MCU timeline is the Avengers Campus set? Easy. It’s not. In comic speak, it’s an “alternate universe;” a sort of narrative spur that officially is set in a reality that’s like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, except (according to Disney Live Entertainment director, Dan Fields):
There’s no snap. What I mean by that is we want there to be some conflict, but we don’t want anyone to feel that there’s an apocalyptic threat to the end of humanity. Our friends in the studio do a great job with that. So we want the conflict to be a little more accessible to the daily guests here.
In other words, Avengers Campus isn’t on the MCU timeline at all. Our visit to Avengers Campus occurs in a narrative spur; a branching timeline known as the Marvel Theme Park Universe (the “MTPU,” comprehensively explored on the Imagine Tomorrow podcast). As such, when we visit Avengers Campus as recruits, our role is to sling some webs, try oversized food, and buy Spider-Bots!
We’re here to test out tech demos; to witness the mystic arts; to spot Spider-Man flying high over the land; to join in a Dora Milaje training session; to have fun. Scuffles may break out between heroes and villains on rooftops occasionally, but “the end of the world” should be the last thing on our minds.
And that’s very good news, because it means that Avengers Campus can be a one-stop-shop for the Marvel characters we love… and (most importantly to Disney) a flexible space where up-and-coming heroes can always be on display… What does it mean, and how could it change the way Disney’s other immersive lands operate? Read on…
Galaxy’s Edge
Back on our timeline and a whole decade before Avengers Campus, 2010 served as a reboot to the themed entertainment industry. That June, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at Universal Orlando, inviting guests to step into the world of the generation-defining film series. Incarnate as the to-scale village of Hogsmeade, the Wizarding World created a whole new business model: one where guests would actually wait in line to get into shops and restaurants.
After the Wizarding World, both Disney and Universal changed M.O.s. The pursuit of universally-beloved IPs perfect for “immersive” Living Lands – and ideally, ones that lent themselves to “in-universe” dining and shopping – was on. New Fantasyland. Cars Land. Toy Story Land. Springfield. Diagon Alley. Pandora. Arendelle. One after another, Disney and Universal’s newest projects sought to be more immersive, more habitable, and more real.
Arguably, that pursuit peaked with the 2019 opening of STAR WARS: Galaxy’s Edge at both Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Reportedly costing $1 billion each, the installations were certainly “best-of” showcases of Disney’s talent – a magnum opus of modern Imagineering.
It goes without saying that despite its immense cost and scale, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has its drawbacks. From its lack of family attractions to its focus on retail; its famously cancelled entertainment and attraction concepts to the “paywall” that locks away many of its must-see experiences, there’s certainly plenty to debate about the land. But whether you agree or disagree with Disney’s design decisions around the land, there’s one element almost everyone can agree was a mistake: its inflexibility.
Certainly, Imagineers didn’t set out to design an “inflexible” land. They set out to design a highly detailed one, and inflexibility just happened to follow as a result. Reportedly, far less ambitious Star Wars lands were initially designed, but with Disney’s sequel trilogy then in production, executives at Lucasfilm and Disney agreed that the future of Star Wars was a better focus than the past. Hence arrived Batuu, an “original planet” in the Star Wars universe firmly set in the timeline of Disney’s sequel trilogy. (In fact, “in-universe,” Batuu relives a single, specific day in the Star Wars timeline every day, with the events of the E-Ticket Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance actually influencing the plot of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.)
On paper, that easily makes Galaxy’s Edge the most immersive of Disney and Universal’s immersive lands. It’s a land so fixated on remaining “canon” that its alien shopkeepers have no idea what you mean when you ask where a bathroom is (it’s called a “refresher”). Unfortunately, that also makes it a Star Wars land without many of the Star Wars characters who exist outside Disney’s relatively small bubble of stories. There’s a Millennium Falcon ride, but no Han Solo or Chewbacca. There’s an evil fascist government, but no Darth Vader. There are Lightsabers, but no Luke Skywalker.
And frankly, it’s not so easy to have it both ways. Star Wars is almost religiously studied by fans; its timeline is immensely guarded; what’s “canon” in the Star Wars universe is practically sacred. But lukewarm reception to the end of Disney’s sequel trilogy might have left some designers wishing they’d based their land on the longstanding classic trilogy rather than the come-and-gone sequels… Executives probably wish so, too, after the breakout success of The Mandalorian on Disney+ (and its highly retail-friendly Grogu character), which is technically verboten in Galaxy’s Edge since it takes place decades before the land’s precise setting. Oops.
Variants
A multiverse can be a beautiful thing when it comes to a land at a theme park, and compared to Galaxy’s Edge, Avengers Campus is a living example of why. Officially severed from the timeline, events, pressures, and changing hero lineups of the MCU, the “MTPU” is quite literally an alternate reality that served as a win-win.
For guests, a visit to the Avengers Campus isn’t weighed down by the immense pressure of the MCU. For better or worse, it’s a land that highlights the joy, tech, and gee-whiz wonder of superheroes. That also lowers the entrypoint – Grandma can enjoy the land without knowing a thing about the MCU, much less worrying about the drama of the “Snap” or battling a cosmic villain! Meanwhile, fans can count on their favorite heroes being around even after their time in the films has ended.
For Disney, the ability to operate outside the MCU’s “canon” means Avengers Campus is a sandbox; an opportunity to at last just play with the Marvel heroes Disney spent $4 billion to acquire. There are no lead-footed “rules;” no contradictions to avoid; no cloud of Universal’s licensing to tip-toe around. Avengers Campus is a synergistic dream: a space where new costumes will make “BREAKING NEWS” on blogs; where characters can chat with guests about whatever happened in this week’s episode of their Disney+ series, in real time; where heroes and villains will battle on rooftops just as promotion for their film ramps up (currently, it’s Black Widow and the Taskmaster) giving Parks guests a new kind of “extended sneak peek”.
Consider Loki alone. Despite a heroic sacrifice in Avenger: Infinity War that would’ve ended his presence in a Galaxy’s-Edge-style Marvel land, he was present at the land’s June 4 opening in his iconic Asgardian gear complete with golden beetle horns.
A week later, he was suddenly sporting a tan jumpsuit with a “TVA” applique on the chest and the word “VARIANT” across the back. Flanked by armed guards from the Time Variance Authority, the land’s walkaround character had shifted in real time to reflect the action in that week’s episode of the Disney+ Original Series Loki.
A week after that, he’d upgraded to a suit and tie, with the dark brown “VARIANT” jacket he donned in episode two. The day episode five premiered, so did a new variant of Loki – ”President Loki” complete with political buttons. This is a land where guests can play with their favorite heroes, and where the heroes play back. That’s the power of a land set in the multiverse; it’s quite literally a constantly-evolving experience for guests, and a marketing coup for the studio.
Compare that to Galaxy’s Edge where – despite overwhelming demand for “The Child” merchandise – Disney didn’t. Er, couldn’t. Disney built a billion dollar Star Wars land… and couldn’t sell their hottest Star Wars property ever within its walls. (“The Child” merchandise eventually came to a cart parked just outside Galaxy’s Edge in Frontierland. Yikes.) And while that makes Galaxy’s Edge impressively determined to hold to a high standard, the inherent fun and energy of the Avengers Campus model might leave guests asking… for what?
The Lesson
Compared to Galaxy’s Edge, Pandora, or Cars Land, Avengers Campus looks a little like a cop-out. The tiny land wedged into discarded space at Disney California Adventure doesn’t look like the treatment you’d expect for one of the highest-earning franchises of all time – and one whose popularity is current and growing, at that. It’s easy for fans to wish Disney had given Marvel the same treatment as Star Wars, perhaps building a totally immersive, twelve-acre land recreating Asgard or Wakanda or New York City…
But we’d offer that there is a lesson to be learned from Avengers Campus. By leaning into the multiverse, Disney created a land that’s a designer’s sandbox; a totally fun space untethered to the “rules.” Perhaps the time-traveling Endgame and the reality-resetting WandaVision, Loki, and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all give Avengers Campus more leeway to break from “reality” than Galaxy’s Edge could be afforded…
This much is certain: in Galaxy’s Edge, Disney tried to build the world’s most immersive theme park land by absolutely obliterating any inconsistencies. Arguably, they succeeded… but was it worth it? Avengers Campus offers a new model: one where characters from across the universe – and indeed, across time – assemble. I guess some super fans might take issue with the contradictions it causes… but for most of us, seeing Iron Man and the Eternals together is just going to be fun, and isn’t that what it’s about?
What do you think… Would Marvel’s “multiverse” model of theme park lands become the new norm? Is adherence to an “in-universe” timeline something only fans care about? Would it ruin Galaxy’s Edge if you could see Darth Vader marching through the market, then escape from his grandson on Rise of the Resistance? Is it “one or the other” for a Star Wars land? Do you wish Avengers Campus was more firmly rooted before or after Endgame, or do you think the “sandbox” model works?
