Disney has revealed exciting plans for Disneyland at the D23 Expo, including a Coco ride, an Avatar-themed land and other plans as part of their billion-dollar expansion.
During the Disney Experience Showcase at D23 on Saturday, August 10, Josh D’Amaro, President, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, unveiled several new rides and attractions coming to Disneyland in Anaheim as part of the Disneyland Forward expansion project.
Highlights included plans for an Avatar-themed land at Disney California Adventure. Additionally, D’Amaro announced that Disneyland would have its first ride based on Coco. In another update, D’Amaro revealed information about a new show coming to Disneyland’s Main Street Opera House. For the first time, an animatronic figure of Walt Disney himself would be featured in this attraction.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, inspired by The Princess and the Frog, is also set to open at Disneyland on November 15.
According to People, the $1.9 billion expansion project, which was approved on May 7 with unanimous support from the Anaheim City Council, will add rides, attractions, land housing entertainment shopping and more over the next decade without expanding the overall square footage.
D’Amaro has already hinted at potential themes that could be brought to Disneyland over the next decade including Frozen, Tangled, Coco, Black Panther, Peter Pan, Zootopia, Tron, Toy Story and more. Now, the West Coast is getting James Cameron’s world of Avatar.
According to The Wrap, Imagineer Ali Rubinstein spoke about the new land for Avatar, explaining that it will represent a new region of Pandora. Unlike its Floridian counterpart, which is set in a rainforest amid floating mountains and represents the first film, this new destination takes inspiration from Avatar 2 and future films like Avatar: Fire and Ashes.
Rubinstein promised an all-new attraction that will give guests everything they love about Avatar, but in a way they’ve never seen before. “It will be on a scale and level worthy of these epic stories. An innovative new attraction will bring all the action, all the adventure of ‘Avatar’ in a new and exciting way. Along the way we’ll discover dense jungles that lead to the vast open ocean of Pandora. But while this world can be beautiful, it can also be dangerous if we lose our way,” he said.
“This will be a dynamic, intense, emotional experience on a grand scale,” he said. He promised that this epic-scale, thrilling, emotional experience will keep guests captivated from start to finish.
Also read: D23 Expo 2024: All the announcements from Walt Disney Studios and Pixar, Mufasa: The Lion King, Incredibles 3 and more
