You might have thought Disney parks were done with Avatar after the opening of Pandora: The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, but it looks like Disney won’t be limiting this billion-dollar franchise to just Florida anymore.
Though reactions to the initial announcement of Pandora: The World of Avatar were mixed back in 2011 when the land finally opened in 2017, it was an instant hit for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, with fans of the sci-fi franchise flocking to the park and waiting hours to experience both the blockbuster Avatar: Flight of Passage attraction as well as the slower Na’Vi River Journey in this exciting new land.
And though excitement for the land has cooled slightly in recent years with newer attractions at Walt Disney World like Star Wars: rise of the Resistance, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and Tron Lightcycle / Run now commanding attention, the Avatar franchise remains a solid presence at Walt Disney World, with thousands of guests flocking to Pandora: The World of Avatar daily.
While this land may have seemed like a one-and-done project for Disney Parks, with the most recent Avatar: The Way of Water film recently earning over two billion dollars at the box office, this franchise has catapulted back into the public consciousness in a big way, proving that people will still show up for the Na’Vi, something Disney most definitely can’t ignore as it continues to add new experiences to its parks.
Disney CEO Bob Iger confirms that more Avatar is on the way for Disney theme parks, but not for Walt Disney World
As you might guess, with the Avatar franchise setting box office records left and right, Disney wants more of this blockbuster series in its theme parks. In fact, recently, Disney CEO Bob Iger recently confirmed at an event that more Avatar is indeed on the way for Disney parks. However, instead of expanding Pandora: The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Iger said that Disney will instead be creating a whole new “experience” for fans of Avatar at the Disneyland Resort in the near future.
Of course, like so many of Disney’s announcements, details were scarce about what exactly this new “experience” will be or when it might open, but Iger said Disney will be “sharing more details on that very soon.” And while nothing is official yet, based on some recent developments, we have a few guesses about what this new attraction will entail.
This new Avatar addition at Disneyland is not an attraction, or a land, it’s an “experience”
When the announcement was made about the new Avatar addition coming to Disneyland, Bob Iger was very careful with his words, referring to it only as an “experience” and not an attraction or land. And when you take into account Disneyland’s lack of space, it makes sense that whatever is coming could be smaller in scale than what Disney currently has at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. So what could the folks at Disney be cooking up?
The most likely spot for this new “experience” is a semi-abandoned building in Tomorrowland
Currently, there is some vacant space available at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland where the current Star Wars Launch Bay sits. This attraction has been made redundant since the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge several years ago, with whole sections of it sectioned off and vacant.
If Disney is looking for a quick way to get Avatar on the west coast, one easy way for them to do it would be to take all of the Star Wars items out of this building and then replace them with Avatar items to create a new walk-through experience where guests could see movie memorabilia, meet characters, learn about upcoming movies, and more. Disney could even bring over some of the specialty food and drink items for Pandora – The World of Avatar in this space, giving guests a little taste of Pandora while they experience the walk-through attraction.
Though a walk-through attraction might not sound like the most exciting Disneyland attraction ever, it could also be developed and deployed quickly, which would help Disney get this billion-dollar franchise into its west coast park as soon as possible, helping them to capitalize on the intense popularity the franchise is enjoying right now.
The new Avatar films will likely be the focus of this new “experience”
Iger specifically called out the success of 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water during his announcement of this new experience, which could be a hint about what this new attraction will be based on. This move would make sense considering the original Avatar film was released almost 15 years ago, and more people are likely familiar with the sequel than the first film in 2023, and Disney could use whatever this experience turns out to be, not only to help people connect to existing Avatar films but also to help get them excited for the four additional films that are planned to be released as part of the continuing Avatar film series.
Of course, this is all speculation, and Disney could announce something completely different in regard to whatever this new Avatar experience may be. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long to find out more, as updates on this project specifically should be coming very soon, especially if Disney is trying to have something ready in time for the release of the third Avatar movie, which is set to be released in December 2024.
Disneyland is the only park getting an Avatar experience…for now
Currently, there are no plans for anything Avatar-themed to come to any of Disney’s theme parks outside the US. However, considering Avatar has been quite the international hit, especially in France, that may change in the coming months as well as Disney looks to further promote its latest multi-billion dollar franchise around the world. But for now, we’ll simply have to wait for Disney to firmly announce whatever this new “experience” is at Disneyland before we get excited about Avatar going anywhere else.
