Wakanda joins Coco, Zootopia, and Encanto on Disney Parks' future blue sky expansion list, reveals Josh D'Amaro

Sep 19, 2023 in "Walt Disney Imagineering"

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Posted: Tuesday September 19, 2023 11:30am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Speaking to the New York Times today, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro widened the blue sky wish list even further to include Wakanda from Marvel's Black Panther.

"Imagine bringing Wakanda to life," D'Amaro said. "In terms of bringing the latest Disney-Marvel-Pixar intellectual property to the parks, we haven't come close to scratching the surface. And we have learned that incorporating Disney I.P. increases the return on investment significantly."

Josh D'Amaro at Destination D23

Disney has recently changed tact on how it discusses plans for new attractions and is now openly discussing blue sky projects before they are even green-lit. At one time, the first anyone would know of a new Disney attraction was when steel was spotted rising from the ground.

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

D'Amaro first revealed blue sky plans for Walt Disney World at D23 Expo in 2022, where he outlined plans for Moana and Zootopia attractions at Disney's Animal Kingdom, with Encanto and Coco moving into the Magic Kingdom. A year later, at Destination D23, he revealed updated plans, which have seen Moana canceled, Zootopia moved to a smaller project at Tree of Life theater, and Encanto and Indiana Jones taking over DinoLand U.S.A. None of these projects are green-lit, but whatever is built will come from Disney's movie intellectual properties.

Josh D'Amaro and Imagineering boss Bruce Vaughn

Walt Disney Imagineering has gone through a massive period of transformation in recent years, with the on-and-off move to Lake Noana in Florida, the departure of key Imagineers and leaders, and now the return of its former head, Bruce Vaughn.

Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale California

Disney today announced a $60 billion expenditure plan for Disney, Parks, Experiences, and Products over the next ten years, with at least $17 billion of that earmarked for Walt Disney World.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an email today, "The growth trajectory is very compelling if we do nothing beyond what we have already committed. By dramatically increasing our investment - building big, being ambitious, maintaining quality and high standards and using our most popular I.P. - it will be turbocharged."

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Animaniac93-98Nov 29, 2023

Zootopia at SDL is like Ratatouille or Runaway Railway, but better. I'm sure it would be popular at WDW if built, but with 3 other trackless dark rides already it would feel repetitive. Too bad we got Runaway Railway in DHS instead of this in Animation Courtyard while still keeping GMR.

LittleBufordNov 22, 2023

A battle with Maleficent in dragon form? Yes please!

Brer PantherNov 22, 2023

So by that logic, would it be okay to build a Sleeping Beauty ride in Animal Kingdom?

WondersOfLifeNov 22, 2023

Guys... The message of AK is actually thrill rides, animals or something, working parking trams, and volcano cake. How y'all haven't gotten that through your thick skulls is beyond me! ;-)

_calebNov 22, 2023

Blue sky announcements are free advertising, market testing of ideas, and goading of competitors. You might not like it, but most of Disney's audience don't follow these things as closely as those of us around here. What does it hurt?

SpectreJordanNov 22, 2023

Ideally an Encanto ride in DAK would be about us getting invited to the house but Antonio's animals get loose & we have to go through the house getting them out of the rooms. They could use some native Central/South American animals that aren't as commonly known throughout the rest of the world like coati. They could probably shoehorn the songs in that way too. But yeah they could just as easily Frozen it too.

ToTBellHopNov 22, 2023

Humans are animals. We need only get concerned when they announce a ride about singing trees.

LittleBufordNov 22, 2023

It was being framed that way back when it opened in 1998. See my post above.

Brer PantherNov 22, 2023

And what are the Indiana Jones movies, Encanto, and Coco about? HUMANS. Not animals. HUMANS. Hence, none of them should be receiving a land in Animal Kingdom. That's probably what they're going to do. The Encanto ride will probably just be Frozen Ever After again - focus on the songs, no actual plot.

IncomudroNov 21, 2023

Dinosaur the ride doesn't fit that mission, and I don't believe that's the entire premise of the park. Dinosaurs do fit the park however, and I find it to be a disgrace that they are going to remove them.

pdude81Nov 21, 2023

Our strength is in telling parkgoers this story about building new attractions in the future. They keep falling for it!

HauntedPirateNov 21, 2023

They'll spend $2 billion on two rides and gloat like there's no tomorrow about their creativity and limitless storytelling potential of their franchises but the park will still not have a net-new ride addition.

aladdin2007Nov 21, 2023

Everything now has to be an "adventure" park so they can throw in what they want, where they want, whenever they want, and not have to follow a creative theme or formula, sadly.

SpectreJordanNov 21, 2023

It's really a mixture of adventure, exploration, animals & conservation. The design of the park has an intrinsic sense of adventure through its use of African & Asian villages instead of just having animal habitats be the park. I feel like it's an evolution of Adventureland but with important messages. I do hope they at least try to fit whatever IPs they use for South America in with the animal aspect of the park. At least to the level that Everest does. If they actually use Indy & Encanto, then Indy could have a mythological beast/animal god in the ride & Encanto could show off some South American animals. It's not impossible but it's also very easy for them to ignore that & just have Indy after some random artifact or Encanto be about the songs. Hopefully they have some integrity & have animals be apart of the attractions. It'd be nice if they could slip in a third attraction that's an original idea, but I doubt it.