2022 is here, and it’s bringing with it a few major milestone projects… and a whole lot of unknown. After all, Disney’s still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and what it means long-term for theme parks. More to the point, it’s pretty much scrambled Disney’s once-airtight schedule of construction projects underway or promised for Disney Parks.
So just as we took a look at 10 coasters set to debut in 2022, let’s turn our attention to Disney World where qutie a few spillover projects are finally readying for completion while several more get kicked further down the road.
Late last year, we took a look at What Opened (and What Didn’t) at Disney & Universal Parks in 2021. Consider 2022 the sequel – a year of playing catch-up and of opening a host of projects meant for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, but delayed, downsized, or paused. Today, we’ll take a look at 5 substantial projects Disney’s promised for the year… and another 4 that could be coming… But may not appear until 2023, 2024, or later… We’ll leave this article locked as a “time capsule,” so if you revisit it throughout 2022 or in the future, you’ll be able to tell us what came to be and what didn’t!
Coming in 2022…
1. Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser
Opening: March 1, 2022
For most of 2021, the talk of the town has been Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser – a whole new model of immersive entertainment that’s probably the riskiest, boldest, and most revolutionary project Disney’s undertaken in decades. Bookable only as a two-day “cruise” through the galaxy with only the briefest glimpse of the outside world (a morning planetary excursion to Batuu), Galactic Starcruiser roused the excitement of Star Wars fans across the world… only to pop their bubbles with the pricetag: $5,000 per couple for a two-night journey.
To make matters worse, just about every “sneak peek” Disney has offered of the Galactic Starcruiser has earned scathing reviews from Star Wars fans. Though defenders suggest that a wave of trip cancellations and staggering availability during the Starcruiser’s first summer is totally normal, some aren’t so sure… There’s a whole lot riding on Bob Chapek’s high-roller pet project succeeding, so time will tell… Until then, check out our in-depth dissection of the good, bad, and ugly of the Starcruiser, and lock in your answer: do you think it’ll be a blockbuster or a bust?
2. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
Opening: Summer 2022
While we don’t yet have a specific opening date for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT, but for most Disney fans, just hearing “Summer” is a relief. For at least the last few years, fans have debated whether Guardians or Magic Kingdom’s TRON would open first, or if Disney would somehow have them both debut on October 1, 2021 for the resort’s 50th Anniversary. Ultimately, neither made it in time for the “Most Magical Celebration on Earth,” but confirmation that Guardians is opening is a very good thing.
Like nearly every Marvel project to come out of Imagineering, Cosmic Rewind isn’t without controversy. Replacing the Lost Legend: Universe of Energy, it’s the first of Future World’s once-encyclopedic pavilions to basically throw up its hands and decide not to focus on an area of industry, technology, or science at all. From what we know, it’ll be an “Other-World Showcase” pavilion, set up as a tech expo from the planet Xandar. Guests will visit a “Galaxarium” before stepping aboard a spinning, family “story coaster” launching them back in time to the Big Bang (probably to see when the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Stones were created).
Cosmic Rewind is sure to be a rock ‘n’ rolling good time with all the music, humor, and fourth-wall-breaking you expect of Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot. Whether or not EPCOT is the best place for it is a dead horse not worth beating.
3 and 4. MagicBand+ and “Hey Disney”
In the 2010s, Disney spent upwards of a billion dollars (we’re talking “build-a-whole-new-theme-park” money) on a tech rollout initiative called MyMagic+. The project was meant to imbue the entire Walt Disney World Resort with a centralized, interconnected infrastructure – a daunting task given the property’s dissimilar parks, hotels, and ticketing & reservation systems cobbled together over the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s.
For guests, MyMagic+ was embodied by the MagicBand – simple, RFID-equipped silicone wristbands that centralized a guest’s admission media, room key, FastPass+ reservations, PhotoPass, and other identifiers in a low-cost wearable sent free to any Disney Resort Hotel guest. By the 2020s, MagicBands had done their job by bridging the gap to widespread smartphone use. On January 1, 2021, Disney officially stopped sending MagicBands free to guests (but MagicBands can still be purchased, and they still work just the same as always).
The debut of the “MagicMobile” service in 2021 added another option, with guests’ smartphone wallet or even smart watches serving many of the MagicBand’s functions. That’s what made it even more surprising that in September 2021, Disney announced MagicBand+ (above). The “upgraded” bands will keep all the same functionality, but add a few more. Embedded LEDs will react at in-park touchpoints (including the “Golden 50” statues) and “Glow With the Show.” The MagicBand+ will also add interactivity to Galaxy’s Edge.
At the same time, Disney announced a wider partnership with Amazon that will see Disney Magical Companions (basically, reskinned Amazon Echo Shows, above) dispatched to all 36,000 hotel rooms on Disney property. The customized, in-room personal assistants will come preloaded with a custom operating system and a unique, Disney-curated personality. Waking the device with a verbal “Hey Disney” will allow guests to ask questions about park hours, hear from characters, learn bus schedules, play Disney music, and even order extra towels or pillows. (Privacy concerns with a camera-enabled in-room Amazon device, we’re told, will be met with many privacy controls.)
Frankly, Disney’s not exactly at the top of the game when it comes to technology. We kind of doubt that an Amazon device will be able to tell you how many minutes it’ll be before the next bus from Port Orleans to Magic Kingdom given that the best guess Disney itself can give is “about every 20 minutes” with no real-time tracking. Similarly, will Disney replace all 36,000 devices every five years or so as they’ll doubtlessly need? We’ll find out soon, as Disney Magical Companions are set to roll out in 2022…
5. Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!
Opened in 2006, Finding Nemo – The Musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom was a true Disney World treasure. Bucking the trend of 20-minute screen-to-stage adaptations at theme parks, the show was a full 40-minute Broadway-style endeavor (matched only by California Adventure’s equally-ambitious Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular). The first Pixar film to be retroactively turned into a musical, Finding Nemo included songs written by husband-and-wife duo Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (then best known for writing songs for Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon; today, beloved among Disney fans for writing the songs in Frozen and WandaVision).
Like most entertainment at Walt Disney World, the wildly popular Finding Nemo: The Musical stayed dark after the parks re-opened during the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020. Even as stage show offerings returned to the parks in modified forms, Finding Nemo didn’t. In September 2021, sources reported that the show was closed permanently and would never return. In response, Disney announced that Animal Kingdom’s undersea musical would return, but in modified form.
Finding Nemo – The Big Blue… and Beyond! is set to launch in 2022. While little is known about the show (and how it’ll differ from its predecessor), it’s likely that Disney’s using the relaunch to downsize both the show’s runtime and its expensive cast. We’d expect the new show to be a little closer to 25 minutes than 45 (with the show ending just as elementary schoolers get restless) and, more than likely, to replace some performers with puppets or projections to keep the show’s costs down. To date, Animal Kingdom’s Theater in the Wild still displays faded posters for the show that hasn’t shown in 2 years, so let’s hope things are progressing out of guests’ view.
While that’s all we know for 2022, there are a few projects that could slip in… and far more than could slip out, to 2023, 2024, or even further… Read on…
Coming in 202…2? 3? 4?
1. Continued Transformation of EPCOT’s center
Unlike the similarly-scaled, five-year transformation of Disney California Adventure, EPCOT’s reimagining is more… open-ended. The ongoing (and at this rate, unending) rebuild of the area formerly known as Future World is still pressing ahead, with construction walls as far as the eye can see. Fans can’t help but pour over the plans to figure out how much of the “new” Epcot has survived the pandemic.
For example, an announced reimagining of the dark ride inside Spaceship Earth (shifting its focus from “communication” to “storytelling” and inserting homages to Disney animation) seems to be off the table for now. The “Dreamer’s Point” that would’ve served as its exit – and the park’s equivalent to Magic Kingdom’s “Partners” statue – is probably still coming, but currently part of the massive pile of dirt in “World Celebration’s” center so… maybe not 2022?
Speaking of “World Celebration,” the Celebration pavilion meant to anchor the new space (above) would’ve been the centerpiece of EPCOT’s eternal festival seasons, while also providing premium, park-like, elevated viewing space for Harmonious for dining packages or corporate sales. Now, the “festival pavilion” is being described as a “festival area,” likely insinuating that – at least for now – maybe a grassy, manicured lawn will have to do. (Too bad they just tore down half of Innoventions to make room for the building. Oops.)
The recently-unveiled Connections Café is likely open soon, complementing the nearby Creations Shop. But the biggest component of the reimagining of EPCOT’s core is Moana’s Journey of Water – a sort of outdoor waterplay walkthrough that could serve as a great prelude to The Seas… but for now, it, too, remains part of that central plot of soil, making late 2022 possible, but unlikely.
2. Wondrous China
Expected: Late 2022 (if at all)
Remember “Wondrous China”? Maybe not. After all, the all-new CircleVision 360 film set to replace the long-running “Reflections of China” was announced in 2019 as one of a suite of films meant to refresh EPCOT’s aging theaters (the others – Canada: Far & Wide in Canada, Awesome Planet in The Land, and Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along in France – all debuted as planned in 2020) and hasn’t been mentioned since.
It’s unclear what the hold-up is with “Wondrous China,” though it wouldn’t be surprising if a political scuffle between the Chinese government and The Walt Disney Company held up the film’s approval. In any case, recent rumors suggest that this travelogue film presented in a new seamless 360 format may be held back to 2022 as a small something for EPCOT’s 40th Anniversary celebration. Disney’s been quiet on the project since it was announced three years ago, so who knows?
3. PLAY! Pavilion
Expected: Late 2022 / Early 2023
It feels like a decade ago that Disney announced a permanent new pavilion headed to EPCOT, with the family-focused “Play!” pavilion taking over the long-underutilized remains of the Wonders of Life. Concept art revealed that the cavernous interior of the one-time Festival Center would become a bustling, glowing cityscape of mini-attractions that would not only entertain kids, but give Imagineering a testing grounds for new technologies and show effects. When it was announced in February 2019, it was even promised that the Play pavilion would be ready “just in time for Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary.”
Well, the 50th Anniversary has come and gone. Certainly, the Play pavilion’s development would have been interrupted by COVID-19, and perhaps even by the alleged $900 million in capital projects cut from Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products in its wake. But Disney has not scrubbed mention of the Play pavilion from its archives, and insiders suggest that beneath the golden dome, Play is more ready than not, just waiting for Disney to put on the finishing touches and flip the switch. Will Disney give Play the greenlight sometime in 2022? Maybe!
4. TRON Lightcycle Power Run
Expected: Likely early 2023
It’s believed that TRON Lightcycle Run was initially meant to debut on or before October 1, 2021 – the anchor of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, and a centering reason to return to Magic Kingdom. Even when COVID struck and a wave of delays and cancellations swept through parks projects, it was expected that TRON would get back on track quickly, at least being ready for Summer 2022.
But the official announcement that Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind would take the blockbuster summer slot seemed to indicate that somehow, TRON would become that most infamous of Disney frustrations: a five year construction project (made all the more inexplicable by the fact that it’s an exact duplicate of an already-existing ride!). We still don’t have an opening date for TRON Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom, but at this point, 2022 seems unlikely if only strategically. It seems much more likely that Disney will now pace itself to launch the ride in Spring 2023 as a crescendo the 50th Anniversary celebration as it winds down, milking Cosmic Rewind for all its got before marketing a second mega-project.
… Then What?
Looking for a Mary Poppins attraction, a Coco overlay of Gran Fiesta Tour, or a reimagining of Journey into Imagination at EPCOT? Hoping for that Avengers E-Ticket earmarked for California Adventure? Planning the next immersive land that’ll make its way to Walt Disney World or Disneyland? Unfortunately, you’re on the wrong timeline.
At least for now, the Magic 8 Ball says “check back later” regarding what’s next. With hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to the Parks, Experiences, and Products division, a tourism downturn set to last for years, rising inflation, and new CEO Bob Chapek at the helm, we don’t have our usual ten-year sketch-out of major projects. In fact, after TRON Lightcycle Run at Disney World and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disneyland (both lined up for 2023), we just don’t know what’s next for Disney Parks.
Granted, 2022’s D23 Expo could fill in a lot of blanks, announcing (or as the case may be, re-announcing) projects across the Parks division… but at least for now, it seems that just about everything Disney’s got on the table for the U.S. parks are projects we already know about, with a whole lot hidden over the horizon…
