Disney Parks Boss Josh D'Amaro talks more about Disney's plans for Indiana Jones at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Nov 20, 2023 in "Disney's Animal Kingdom"

Gallery / 6 Photos
Tropical Americas Encanto land concept art at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Posted: Monday November 20, 2023 3:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In a new interview with EW, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro discusses Disney's early plans to bring Indiana Jones to Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

D'Amaro first revealed early plans for Indiana Jones to come to Disney's Animal Kingdom during a D23 fan event this past September.

The new land themed to the tropical Americas would replace the entire Dino-Land U.S.A. area, with Indiana Jones replacing the existing Dinosaur ride, and Encanto replacing Dino-Rama.

Dinosaur is replaced in this concept art with Indiana Jones

Fans were surprised by D'Amaro revealing blue-sky concepts still in the early planning stages and not green-lit. D'Amaro told EW, "We've got so many stories to tell, we have so many things we want to make even better in the theme parks. My plan is to continue to share that with the guests. I know people are like, 'My gosh, I can't believe he's saying this. Is he serious, is he not?' The answer is, we are absolutely serious."

Imagineering Boss Bruce Vaughn said at Destination D23, "Imagine a land filled with authentic experiences from this part of the world. With all of the placemaking and storytelling you'd expect. Look, it's a beautiful region to explore and has been the inspiration for so many magical stories over the years. We're looking forward to bringing all of that to life."

Tropical Americas Encanto land concept art at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Vaughn continued, "Imagineering has been talking about stories from this part of the world; Encanto with Indiana Jones just rose to the top. They give us so much to play with. We have a long way to go now and a lot more to discover. But our team here in Florida is all over it."

New experiences inspired by “Encanto” – the Academy Award winning Walt Disney Animation Studios film – and the fan-favorite adventurer Indiana Jones are being considered for the reimagined land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

D'Amaro's latest comments to EW today suggest that Indiana Jones remains at the forefront of Disney's plans in Florida, and the parks chairman is talking up Disney's ambitions.

"We know what this business is capable of, we know what our fans expect of us, and we're going all in. You're going to see more and more of that. As we make our way through some of these ideas, some of them will become real, and we'll say that's specifically what we're going to do, but I want our guests to be on the journey with us."

D'Amaro also addressed how Indiana Jones may fit into Disney's Animal Kingdom thematically. Much like when Avatar was announced for the park, fans are skeptical about its suitability for a part centered around nature and conservation.

"Animal Kingdom is about exploration and adventure," he says. "I was fortunate enough to have run that theme park, so I know how special it is, and I think there are a lot of stories that we can stay true to Animal Kingdom and express new properties in there, and that's what you see us starting to do."

You can read the full interview at EW.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

celluloid1 hour ago

Good thing it has so much else plus part of three day plus tickets for so many.

Rich Brownn1 hour ago

But it has the Ministry of Magic!

Jedi142 hours ago

I feel like the next big update for Tropical Americas will be at Destination D23.

SamusAranX2 hours ago

Every park is becoming just IP world at this point. Hence the homogenization statements. Somehow though, even after adding Tropical Americas, AK will still remain a park that preserves it original theme(s) and have all of its attractions still unique, attractions that can’t be found at other Disney parks.

Drew the Disney Dude2 hours ago

I hope Disney has some big reveals saved as I expect Universal to push Epic Universe starting next month through when it officially opens. I could be wrong, but that's my gut feeling.

DarkMetroid5673 hours ago

Epic should aim for IoA before EPCOT. Epic not having Hogsmeade alone takes it off a lot of radars.

cjkeating4 hours ago

My memory tells me it was repainted around the time the Rivers of Light amphitheatre was constructed and the colour change was linked it becoming more visible across the water from Asia.

JackCH4 hours ago

I think the confusion is that you were responding to a post primarily complaining that this attraction was another in a line of the homogenization of the parks (taking away the "uniqueness" of Indy at DL), and then cited historically MK being that way as your evidence (copying attractions). So, to me, that seemed contradictory given that everything announced will be unique to the parks, both at MK (your example/evidence) and at AK (the location of the ride we are talking about). I also think the confusion is that, to me, homogenization (which is what your original post seemed to be talking about), is different from the parks becoming "generic brand loyalty centers." I can see your argument for the latter based on the move to IP across all the parks, but the former feels like it doesn't work with all of these projects. I hear "homogenization" and think "rides/lands/concepts are just being copy-pasted." This way of forming the argument I can understand. Just not that people who like an attraction should pay to go see it. They may not be able to.

DavidDL4 hours ago

Sure, honestly I probably should have done that to begin with. But I hate to feel like I'm "pressuring" anyone into a read, or something like that. https://parklore.com/main/lost-legend/dinosaur/ The article is 5 pages long and shares all kinds of unused Dinoland USA/DINOSAUR concept art, too.

WaltWiz19014 hours ago

Even after the Cars mini-land is finished, Frontierland's two other headliners are not and will not be unique; they're already on both coasts. To be fair, I forgot to say "historically" when mentioning past attempts to give the Magic Kingdom its own unique headliner, so that might've been a cause for your confusion This Indy will not be a clone. Encanto will not be a clone. The whole land of Tropical Americas will not be a clone. Heck, Monsters Inc will not be a clone. Seems like you missed that I was talking about MK specifically, not WDW in general So the complaint really isn't about homogenizing. It was in response to what David said about the parks losing what made them special in favor of becoming "generic brand loyalty centers" (which I wholeheartedly agree with), so unless I'm missing something here, it kinda is Ah, yes, because it is so easy for people to just "book a trip" to expensive places for expensive vacations. Most people do not have the means to go outside of their nearest Disney park... and so I don't have a problem with some people saying, "That ride looks cool, the only way I can experience it is if they build it here, so that would be cool." I can understand that perspective, don't get me wrong... ...but at the same time, I, again, believe it's important that each park maintains its own distinct identity, and having a few attractions exclusive to that park plays a part in that. Many of the people outside of these forums who only visit whatever resort's nearest to them just don't care either way, let alone know that there's more than one place to call "Disney"

Disgruntled Walt4 hours ago

Can you provide the link to the article?

WorldExplorer5 hours ago

Getting rid of Rama and removing dinosaurs as a whole are completely seperate things. They had ideas for what to do with dinosaurs and cut them for budget reasons, but it was meant to be temporary. The plan was to get rid of C+H and build something with the dinosaur theme but better later. There is nothing at all stopping them from doing exactly that now and making good use of dinosaurs, the thing that has been a proven money maker for many, many decades. Turning their backs on dinosaurs altogether because something that was meant to be temporary and just filler (but instead they kept it up for two decades) didn't draw tons of praise makes no sense. If anything, I think knocking out Rama only when they make it clear everything is going just makes them look worse from that standpoint; that's implying pretty hard that the entire land was the problem, not just Rama.

DavidDL5 hours ago

This bit reminds me of a Park Lore article about the history of Countdown to Extinction/DINOSAUR. The final paragraph, is the part I am referring to. If nothing else after the attraction is gone, there is some comfort in knowing Disney's version of the Carnotaurus was influential enough to leave an impact. One that will likely persist long after DINOSAUR is gone. If you're a fan of the attraction, I'd give the 5 page article a read, it's a lot of fun. I liked learning about how they needed to "stretch the truth" a bit when it came to depicting a Carnotaurus because the real thing is smaller and more agile with hilariously short arms but both the required mechanics behind bringing it to life and the need for it to read as imposing necessitated an increase in creature size.

The Leader of the Club5 hours ago

I'd argue that keeping Dino-Rama for two decades is more embarrassing honestly. It's practically Disney throwing their hands up and saying that they don't know what to do with dinosaurs. So let's get some off the shelf rides and cheap carnival games. That'll surely be enough to satisfy kids that like dinos but are too small/scared to ride Dinosaur. It's the same principle as the current Figment ride. They know they could do better, they just don't care. Finally getting rid of Dino-Rama, even if it means pivoting away from Dinosaurs is definitely a step in the right direction.