The announcements at D23 2026 were significant on their own terms — Villains Land, Piston Peak, Tropical Americas, Monstropolis, and more represent the most ambitious Walt Disney World expansion slate that has ever been part of a single event. But perhaps equally significant was the tone behind them.
This was the first D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event with Josh D'Amaro as CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and the first with Thomas Mazloum leading Disney Experiences. And something felt different.
Two Announcements That Stood Out
Among the dozens of reveals during Saturday night's Horizons: A Carousel of Progress showcase, two in particular hit in a way that went beyond the usual parks announcement playbook.
The first was the news that the Yeti Audio-Animatronics figure inside Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom will finally come back to life. The broken Yeti — long a source of frustration for parks fans who remember what the attraction was intended to be — has become something of a symbol of deferred maintenance over the years. The depth of fan feeling about it is not hard to measure: a dedicated thread on the WDWMAGIC forums titled "Expedition Everest effects status watch," started on April 18, 2007 — just over a year after the attraction opened — has accumulated more than 1 million views and 5,000 replies across nearly two decades of discussion. That a single forum thread about a broken animatronic has sustained that level of engagement for 18 years is about as clear a signal as you can get of how much this mattered to the parks community.
Fixing the Yeti is, in practical terms, a relatively contained project compared to building a new land. But its inclusion in the marquee D23 showcase sent a clear message: Disney was paying attention to what the fan community actually cared about, not just what looked impressive in a sizzle reel.
The second was the return of Dreamfinder to EPCOT. The announcement of a new Figment and Dreamfinder experience brought one of the most emotional responses of the evening, and Mazloum's words on stage were unusually direct for a Disney executive addressing a fan audience.
"Yes, yes, we are taking a new journey into imagination at EPCOT with Figment, with Figment and Dreamfinder. I'm so happy to tell you this. We know. We know how important this is to you. We heard you, and this is one more way we are putting you, all of you, all of you in the center of everything we do."
That's not standard corporate language. It was an explicit acknowledgment that fan sentiment had shaped the decision — and delivered with what appeared to be genuine emotion from a man who has been in the role for only a matter of months.
The D'Amaro Factor
Something else was noticeable throughout the weekend. Josh D'Amaro — now CEO of The Walt Disney Company rather than head of Disney Experiences — was regularly spotted on the D23 show floor mixing with fans. Not in a staged meet and greet capacity, but simply walking the event as someone who wanted to be there.
That instinct is consistent with everything D'Amaro demonstrated during his time leading the parks. He was known for being visible and accessible, whether that meant pouring drinks at a Cast Member event or sitting in ride queues to understand the guest experience firsthand. His elevation to CEO hasn't appeared to change that. It's a noticable contrast to the more distant, corporate presentation style of previous Disney leadership at fan events.
The Iger Era in Context
To understand what may be shifting, it helps to look at where the parks stood not long ago under Bob Iger — who is, of course, now himself a 2026 Disney Legend.
For much of Iger's tenure, the parks were seen primarily as a reliable financial engine rather than a creative priority. The streaming push, the major studio acquisitions, and the Marvel and Star Wars integration dominated the agenda. When the parks did receive attention, it was often framed in financial terms — return on invested capital, per-capita spending, capacity utilization.
That changed in Iger's final years. Following his return as CEO in November 2022 after the dismissal of Bob Chapek, Iger moved quickly to recalibrate. He walked Disneyland within weeks of returning. He toured all four Walt Disney World parks with D'Amaro early in 2023. He announced a $17 billion Walt Disney World investment at the April 2023 shareholder meeting, and by September 2023 had committed Disney to nearly doubling capital expenditure across the parks to roughly $60 billion over approximately ten years.
By his own account, Iger came to see the parks as Disney's most compelling growth story. The return on invested capital at domestic parks had nearly doubled over his tenure, and by the time he handed the CEO role to D'Amaro in March 2026, parks demand was outpacing supply. Disney CFO Hugh Johnston told analysts in May 2026 that Walt Disney World was effectively operating at near-full capacity, and that meaningful growth now required physical expansion.
In that sense, the D23 2026 announcement slate is the direct output of the financial and strategic groundwork Iger laid. The $60 billion commitment created the runway for everything unveiled on Saturday night.
But Strategy Is Not the Same as Sentiment
What Iger built was a financial and strategic case for parks investment. What appears to be emerging under D'Amaro and Mazloum is something slightly different — an attentiveness to what fans actually want, not just what the spreadsheet supports.
The Yeti fix isn't a $60 billion initiative. It's a repair that the parks community has been asking for since the animatronic broke shortly after Expedition Everest opened in 2006. Getting it done sends a signal that someone at the top of the organization is listening to the specific, sometimes unglamorous things that matter to the people who love these parks most.
The Dreamfinder return is a similar case — and the history behind it makes the D23 announcement all the more striking.
The Long Road Back for Figment and Dreamfinder
Figment and Dreamfinder's return to EPCOT is not just a creative decision. It is the end of a nearly 30-year story — and for much of that time, the question of what would become of the Imagination Pavilion was one of the most persistent recurring themes at Disney's Annual Shareholder Meetings.
Dreamfinder was removed from Journey Into Imagination in 1998, with a revised attraction widely criticized by fans. The Figment question became such a fixture at shareholder meetings that Iger himself acknowledged the pattern at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, opening his answer with characteristic self-awareness: "This is my 24th shareholder call, my 18th as CEO. And I think the question about Figment has been asked about 15 times. I call him good old Figment."
For most of those years, the response was a diplomatic deflection. But at the 2025 shareholder meeting, Iger gave his most substantive answer on record: "I'll tell you why — I've been asked this so many times that I am going to ask our creative teams to consider making some form of series or short-form videos of Figment. Because obviously, he's more popular than just a walk-around character in our parks and resorts."
It was the first time Iger moved from deflection to action. He stopped short of announcing a specific project, but commissioned the creative teams to explore Figment content beyond EPCOT — a meaningful shift after years of "good old Figment" answers.
By the 2026 Annual Shareholder Meeting, the baton had passed to D'Amaro. A shareholder asked whether Disney would consider a Figment film or more Figment content in the parks. D'Amaro embraced the tradition: "I love the fact that there is so much adoration for Figment. He's clearly a fan favorite and continues to spark creativity and imagination across generations." He noted Disney was "exploring" possibilities but made no announcement. Asked separately whether new Pixar shorts would come to Journey Into Imagination, D'Amaro was direct: "Right now, we don't have any plans to bring new shorts to Journey Into Imagination."
Five months later, the dam broke. On August 14 — two days before the D23 announcement — WDWMAGIC reported that sources had confirmed plans for an Imagination Pavilion redevelopment had been approved. On August 16, Mazloum made it official on stage at the Honda Center.
Whether Iger's 2025 creative directive fed directly into the D23 2026 announcement is not confirmed. But the timing — a refurbishment confirmed just under a year after Iger commissioned the creative teams to explore Figment — is hard to ignore. And the contrast in how the news was delivered could not have been sharper. After roughly 15 shareholder meeting deflections and one "good old Figment" acknowledgment, the new leadership stood on stage at D23 and said simply: "We heard you."
A Different Kind of Leadership
It is still early. D'Amaro has been CEO for only a few months, and Mazloum is newer still in his role. One D23 showcase does not define an era, and the parks business remains a complex, capital-intensive operation where decisions are made years in advance.
But the signals from this year's event point toward leadership that is at least more openly oriented toward fan sentiment than what came before. D'Amaro on the show floor shaking hands with guests. Mazloum on stage telling the Dreamfinder audience "we heard you." A Yeti that's finally getting fixed. And a purple dragon who spent 15 shareholder meetings being called "good old Figment" finally getting his moment.
Whether that translates consistently into how Disney runs its parks day to day — pricing, maintenance, capacity, guest experience — remains to be seen. But for fans who have spent years feeling like their voices weren't reaching anyone in a position to act on them, D23 2026 offered something that felt like a change in direction.
WDWMAGIC Intelligence
Answers from our archive, with sources
Newsletter
Get Walt Disney World news delivered to your inbox.