If you’re like us, you probably haven’t forgotten the 2022 D23 Expo – the shockingly disappointing post-pandemic event wherein Disney infamously failed to announce any new, unknown projects for its theme parks. Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro instead spent the Expo dancing around the many downgrades and cancellations that had been made in the wake of the pandemic and bizarrely presented “possible” projects that Imagineering was “considering,” but with no dates or promises.
As you know by now, the 2024 D23 Expo served as a badly-needed about-face. Explicitly stating that nothing he’d present was merely “Blue Sky,” D’Amaro unveiled a substantial slate of upcoming projects where “Dirt is moving. I just want to be clear about this: We are doing everything you’re going to hear tonight.”
Sure, we heard about astoundingly-scaled projects like a Disney Villains-themed land at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom; a finalized Tropical Americas land for Disney’s Animal Kingdom; and the ongoing transformation of Walt Disney Studios in Paris. But the golden child this time around was Disney California Adventure, set to receive a Coco-themed boat ride, a custom-designed, coastal version of Pandora: The World of Avatar, and a long-gestating Avengers E-Ticket meant to serve as a capstone for the park’s should-be headliner, Avengers Campus.
But even among an astounding slate of soon-to-launch projects, it’s one of the smallest that might turn out to be the most talked-about (and most viral) installations at Disney Parks in years…
