Joe Rohde confirms he is working with Walt Disney Imagineering

Mar 25, 2024 in "Walt Disney Imagineering"

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Posted: Monday March 25, 2024 11:45am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Famed Imagineer Joe Rohde has confirmed recent speculation that he is once again working with Walt Disney Imagineering.

While his exact employment status remains unclear, Joe posted a short video of himself entering the famous Walt Disney Imagineering building on Flower Street, with the caption "Do a bit of work at the old farm."

Shortly after Joe's post, Walt Disney Imagineering posted to say that Joe is leading a series of master class work sessions for current Imagineers. It remains unknown if he may be involved with any projects at least on a consultancy basis, if not full-time employment. The most likely assignments would be the AVATAR attraction coming to Disneyland Resort in California, and the major overhaul of DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Joe's return to Imagineering follows news last week that he will be honored as a Disney Legend at the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event on Sunday, August 11.

Joe Rohde Disney Legend

Most recognized as the creator of Disney's Animal Kingdom, Joe retired from the company in 2020 after a 40-year career and created some of Imagineering's finest work—most recently as the lead on Pandora—The World of AVATAR.

James Cameron, Joe Rohde, Tom Staggs, Meg Crofton tour Animal Kingdom

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MrPromey14 days ago

Oh, it is. It's just that you've made everyone here well aware of how triggered you are by the "asphalt" of Dinorama and the exterior of Mission Breakout to which I've seen nobody actually disagree and yet you keep going with it. At this point it's becoming difficult to tell if it's trolling or something more serious. :oops:

Epcot81Fan14 days ago

Ha! I'm sorry, I thought this was a thread about Joe Rohde! My bad!

MrPromey14 days ago

With soaring home prices and cost-of-living at an all time high, it's so nice you've given Joe a place to live rent-free!

HauntedPirate14 days ago

What was that again? One is deserving, one I don't know, and the other three are so far from deserving of praise it's not even funny.

Epcot81Fan14 days ago

PREMiERdrum14 days ago

If you don't already, give Rohde a follow on Instagram and study his posts. His understanding of the confluence between physical design, human experience, and thematic nuance is staggering, and his ability to educate others in a simple but meaningful way is incredible. A fun aside. In 2019, we used a song from Rivers of Light in our primary show for the marching band I work with. I reached out to Joe on a whim to discuss some of the visual concepts we were working on, and he replied thoughtfully and helpfully a few times throughout the process. An unreal experience to gain a personalized peek into his design mind!

mickEblu14 days ago

Great news. Now he’s up there with Anthony Anderson and all the other Disney Legends. They need to come up with a new honor for legends that’s worked on the parks. Only a window on Main Street means anything now.

yensid196714 days ago

I would rather have the concrete and the FoN back than what they built! As far as the Festival building...they could have torn down the one section where Moana is and renovated the other side where the Festival Building is now! And why are they calling it a Festival building when there is no spaces for a Festival...just a stage, test kitchens and a Meet 'n Greet!!?? I guess they are saying that the test kitchens make it a festival building?

yensid196714 days ago

And am I still mad for them tearing out the Fountain of Nations and NOT REPLACING IT! But I guess Moana is suppose to be the replacement!? HA! Far from it!

THEMEPARKPIONEER14 days ago

Y You’re right all the ground around it was terribly landscaped and I wasn’t even a fan of the flower beds that they had around it, what they have now and this would be fantastic. It wasn’t even the shows it was the waterfall itself, the sound and even the air that was produced by that flowing water is the only thing that saved that area and a cascading water feature like this would make that nature setting there going for now all the better. That would really make this better is if they had the guardrails right on the ends of the bottom pool closing in the flower beds around it. Sitting in greenery and feeling the output of that waterfall would be incredible.