Disney Reveals Villains Land, First-Ever ‘Coco’ Ride, and New Avengers Attractions

Disney Parks around the world are always expanding and reinventing. As Walt Disney put it, Disneyland will never be completed. It will keep growing as long as there is imagination left in the world. Decades later, that philosophy continues, and at this year’s D23, Disney Experiences offered a glimpse at what’s next, including new attractions, updated effects, returning nighttime spectaculars, and more.

Emceed by Neil Patrick Harris, the Horizons: D23 Disney Experiences Showcase provided updates from across its parks around the world, ranging from entirely new lands and attractions to changes coming to some of its most recognizable rides. There were also new details about projects already in development, returning entertainment, and some long-awaited fixes. Here is a closer look at what Disney has planned.

As Disneyland looks beyond its 70th anniversary toward its 75th and eventual centennial, Disney is preparing to reimagine Tomorrowland as the starting point for what it calls Disneyland’s “next great chapter.” Rather than simply refreshing the land, Disney appears to be using the project to rethink what Tomorrowland represents. The emphasis is on a hopeful, idea-driven vision of the future that honors the land’s history while giving Disneyland room to evolve for another generation. While details about Tomorrowland remain limited, Disney had much more to reveal about attractions already taking shape elsewhere at the resort.

Disneyland is also bringing back one of its fan-favorite nighttime spectaculars. Remember… Dreams Come True will return in February with a refreshed presentation that includes updated projections throughout the park. In addition to Main Street, U.S.A. and it’s a small world, guests will also be able to experience projections along the Rivers of America, giving visitors more places to take in the nighttime spectacular.

Moving onto Disney California Adventure, the park’s Avengers Campus is getting a major upgrade with the addition of two new attractions set to open in 2028. The expansion will open the area beyond the Quinjet and create a new pathway connecting Avengers Campus to Cars Land, transforming what is currently a dead end into a much larger Avengers compound.

One of Avengers Campus’ forthcoming attractions is Avengers: Infinity Defense. Here, guests are put directly into the action as new recruits tasked with joining the Avengers on a mission across multiple worlds. Before heading out, Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) will brief recruits on their objective and prepare them for the mission ahead. Recruits will also be joined by several familiar MCU faces, including Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.

Their mission will take them to iconic Marvel locations including Asgard, Wakanda, and New York City as they attempt to reassemble the Avengers and battle King Thanos, who is wreaking havoc across the multiverse.

The second attraction, Stark’s Test Flight, puts guests through a different kind of Avengers training. Riders board two-person “gyro-kinetic pods” that travel along a track before being picked up by massive robotic arms, which lift and maneuver the pods through the air. The technology is designed to give riders the sensation of flying like heroes such as Iron Man, Captain America, and Captain Marvel.

Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Mackie, and Brie Larson will reprise their roles as Iron Man, Captain America, and Captain Marvel, respectively, serving as instructors throughout the flight-training experience.

Disney California Adventure will also become home to the first Coco attraction anywhere in the world. Designed as a family dark ride with no height requirement, the boat-based attraction will lean into the film’s themes of memory, music, culture, and the bonds that connect generations.

Set roughly a year after the film, guests follow Miguel as he reflects on his journey to the Land of the Dead. They enter through a museum dedicated to Héctor Rivera’s music, which gives the attraction a tangible connection to Miguel’s family history before the ride begins. From there, guests board boats and travel through Miguel’s memories of the Land of the Dead, allowing Imagineering to recreate the color, music, characters, and layered environments of the film.

Disney specifically cited the impact of “Remember Me” and Mama Coco as the kind of feeling they want the attraction to capture. That idea of remembrance is even being extended to Disney fans themselves. During D23, guests were invited to write down a favorite Disney memory that will eventually be incorporated into the roots of a special tree within the attraction, turning the film’s themes of memory and family legacy into a physical part of the ride.

Over at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, the villains stole the spotlight as Disney revealed new details about the ambitious Villains Land coming to Magic Kingdom. Described as one of the most ambitious projects Imagineering has ever created, the area will be comparable in scale to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Rather than simply bringing several villains together in one place, Villains Land will have its own mythology centered around a corrupted wishing well deep within a bewitched forest.

According to the story, someone made a wish so evil that it corrupted the well and infused the surrounding forest with poisonous magic, drawing villains like Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Cruella de Vil, and Dr. Facilier to the area. Each villain will harness that cursed magic to create their own lair, allowing their personalities to shape everything from the architecture and landscape to the food and shops found throughout the land.

Of course, a land dedicated to Disney’s most notorious villains wouldn’t be complete without attractions designed to be just as wicked. One of the land’s two major attractions will be a coaster that sends guests twisting and turning through a winding briar patch surrounding Maleficent’s mountaintop fortress. Disney teased that the attraction will feature elements Imagineers have never attempted before on a Disney coaster, though exactly what those surprises entail remains under wraps.

The second attraction will take guests beneath the Evil Queen’s palace and into its catacombs, where the Magic Mirror summons them to see the world from his unique perspective on the other side of the glass. Once inside the mirror realm, guests will be surrounded by large physical sets and special effects that bring a curated collection of gruesome Disney villains to life, all conjured by the Mirror in ways only he can.

Not every villain was thrilled with the attractions, however. In one of the panel’s biggest surprises, Glenn Close reprised her role as Cruella de Vil, appearing alongside Harris and Tig Notaro, who played her thugs. Angry that Maleficent was getting a coaster of her own, Cruella dismissed the Mistress of All Evil as an “overstuffed purple handbag” before pitching an attraction more suited to her tastes, where the cars would naturally be filled with different dogs. While the idea was played for laughs rather than presented as an actual attraction, the bit offered a glimpse at the humor and rivalries Disney plans to weave into the characters that will appear throughout Villains Land.

Villains Land isn’t the only major expansion coming to Magic Kingdom. Disney also shared new details about its Cars-inspired area, which will extend Frontierland into a wilderness setting inspired by America’s national parks. Piston Peak National Park extends the story of Frontierland with a setting inspired by the landscapes and spirit of America’s national parks. Rather than recreating the Route 66 aesthetic of Radiator Springs, Imagineers are taking Lightning McQueen and company off-road, surrounding them with mudflats, rivers, trails, geysers, and towering mountain scenery.

The area will feature two new Cars attractions, beginning with Miss Fritter’s Dare Devils. Inspired by the demolition derby school bus from Cars 3, the attraction will be hosted by a massive, bus-sized animatronic Miss Fritter as she puts guests through what Disney calls her “wildest demolition derby” yet.

The larger of the two experiences, Cars Ridge Run Rally, will send guests on an off-road race through Piston Peak to determine who is the wildest racer in the wilderness. Riders will climb toward a snow-covered summit before racing back down over a series of camelback humps and into a field of geysers that appear to chase them toward the course’s biggest eruption, appropriately named Old Tank Full.

Making our way to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the park’s newest attraction in development is Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Gate Serpent. Set in 1959, before the events of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the attraction will send guests alongside Indy as he explores an ancient Maya temple said to contain a passageway into the underworld. Of course, what begins as another search for a legendary artifact quickly goes wrong when the mythology turns out to be very real.

Disney teased that the adventure eventually becomes a full-on escape through the underworld, where guests will encounter giant scorpions, fire, and other creatures before coming face-to-face with the Gate Serpent itself. The attraction also gives Disney a chance to better connect Indiana Jones to Animal Kingdom’s focus on animals both real and mythical, while drawing from Maya culture and its relationship with the natural world.

And this version of Indy will look especially familiar. Disney is using Harrison Ford’s actual likeness for the attraction’s Indiana Jones Audio-Animatronic, with Imagineers showing off a digital model based on the actor’s face. It marks another step toward making this new adventure feel less like a variation on an existing Indiana Jones ride and more like a story built specifically for Animal Kingdom.

Also coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom is Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto, a new family attraction that invites guests inside Casita on the day Antonio receives his gift of communicating with animals. Casita will be just as much a character in the attraction as the Madrigal family, even assembling ride vehicles out of furniture like sofas, chairs, and even a piano before sending guests through the magical house.

One of the attraction’s biggest scenes will take guests upstairs into Antonio’s room, which transforms into a massive rainforest filled with more than 50 animals. Disney says its Imagineers worked with animal scientists to make sure the animals represented are accurate to Colombia, further connecting the Encanto story to the themes of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The original Madrigal voice cast will also return for the attraction, which will have no height requirement so the entire family can experience Antonio’s celebration together.

Over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the park is getting a little more monstrous with Monstropolis, the first land dedicated entirely to Monsters, Inc. The new area will bring the monster-filled city to life with plenty of movement, humor, and familiar locations, including Harryhausen’s Restaurant, the Monsters University Alumni Club, and a new “Welcome to Monstropolis” theater show hosted by Mike and Sulley. The show will feature a new song by Randy Newman, marking the first time he has written a song specifically for a Disney theme park. Of course, the biggest attraction will be the long-awaited Door Coaster inside the Monsters, Inc. Door Factory, where guests will be lifted 40 feet into the air in just four seconds before being launched into the door vault. Disney says guests could be welcomed into Monstropolis as early as next year.

For nearly two decades, one of Disney’s largest Audio Animatronics has remained frozen in place. The Yeti inside Expedition Everest was originally designed to lunge at passing guests, but after the figure stopped operating as intended, strobe lighting was used to simulate its movement. Fans eventually gave the stationary beast an affectionate nickname, the Disco Yeti.

At D23, Disney not only acknowledged the nickname but confirmed that the Disco Yeti era is finally coming to an end. “We’re bringing the Yeti back to life inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom,” Disney Experiences Chairman Thomas Mazloum announced.

Disney also gave the Disco Yeti an appropriately theatrical farewell as Gloria Gaynor, the Queen of Disco herself, took the stage to perform “I Will Survive,” giving the longtime park joke one final celebration before the Yeti eventually moves again.

Finally, over at EPCOT, Spaceship Earth is getting a major story refresh after going nearly 20 years without a significant update. The park’s iconic attraction currently focuses on the history of human communication, but Imagineering is broadening that idea to explore human connection instead. The attraction will still take guests on a journey through time and remain classically EPCOT, but every scene will receive new touches that bring the story into the present day and beyond. Rather than focusing only on how people communicate, the new version will explore how those connections have shaped progress throughout history.

Taken together, these projects show how Disney continues to balance what guests already love about the parks with what comes next. Some attractions are being completely reimagined, others are finally getting long awaited updates, and entirely new lands are giving familiar characters and stories a permanent home in the parks.