In another surprise reveal on the D23 Expo stage, Josh D’Amaro welcomed out a unique new meet and greet character who is set to debut in Disney’s California Adventure next week. The Incredible Hulk’s onstage appearance was met with massive cheers from the crowd, as Disney debuted their first Project EXO character.
As Disney continue to push for constant innovation, Project EXO was created to bring these non-human-sized characters to life in the parks in the most authentic and realistic way possible. Project EXO has seen Disney explore the future use of robotic exoskeletons within their parks, which are then worn like a costume and puppeteered to appear as the real character, which is how Hulk was brought to life on stage – you can view this below.
Hulk will start appearing in Avengers Campus at Disneyland next week! #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/UmW0e8Eew8
— Craig Williams (@Teleclashter) September 11, 2022
This incredible new development in the potential future nature of meet and greets certainly opens the door to a whole host of new faces that could now begin to make their way to the Disney parks. Alongside Hulk in Avengers Campus, Thanos is another big character that would certainly make for some terrifying guest interactions if he were also to be created this way. Outside of Marvel, this technology could be implemented with characters such as Wreck It Ralph or Monsters Inc’s Sulley to create a more noticeable difference in size between guests and the character.
D23 Expo confirmed that Hulk’s appearance in Avengers Campus would be a temporary adventure for now, as Disney are likely hoping to use this as the first real test drive to see how this new launch ultimately plays out within a busy park environment.
This new announcement offers an exciting glimpse at the magic that is constantly in development behind the scenes at Disney and I, for one, am incredibly intrigued to discover just who or what they decide to bring to life next.
What do you think of this new meet and greet? Which characters would you like to see brought to life through Project EXO?
