BOB IGER UPDATES ON NEW DISNEY PARK ADDITIONS, INCLUDING LION KING IN PARIS

Included in Deadline’s coverage of the Disney shareholders annual meeting on Thursday 20th March are some key updates on new attractions heading to their theme parks around the world. After some lean years in terms of big investments, CEO Bob Iger is now using the term “turbo-charge” to describe their approach to updating their ride line-up.

WHAT NEW RIDES ARE COMING TO DISNEYLAND PARIS?

Whilst there is still no news on anything for the main Disneyland park in Paris, we got further confirmation from Iger that a Lion King boat ride will be coming to the Walt Disney Studios Park (soon to be renamed Disney Adventure World). The artwork suggests this will be very similar in ride layout, if not identical to, the Splash Mountain attractions in North America. The bad news? Don’t expect this to open until at least the end of the debut. Speaking of the addition Iger said “Once completed, the majestic Pride Rock will serve as the gateway to an adventure-filled water attraction that will follow Simba on his journey from cub to king. And we can’t wait for guests to experience this retelling of the classic animated film.”

Before then we get another boat ride addition in 2026 as part of the huge World of Frozen expansion. The construction pictures show that this is likely to be an impeccably themed and immersive land, and despite some delays we are now into the final phases of the build. This project is part of the wider expansion of the park that will add a huge additional section to the notoriously small footprint. Central to this will be a huge lake that visitors can walk round to visit the new Lion King and Frozen lands. It’s likely to significantly change the experience and vibe of the whole park, and it seems an appropriate time to introduce that new name next year.

WHAT ELSE DID IGER UPDATE ON?

At this stage it was some general updates on other already announced projects, which we will cover in full in other articles soon. The most exciting of these include:

• A Monsters Inc suspended coaster coming to Hollywood Studios (Florida)

• Encanto and Indiana Jones attractions in a new Tropical Americas section of Animal Kingdom (Florida)

• A Cars and Villains Land at Magic Kingdom (Florida). The former is quite controversial as it will necessitate the removal of the river and Tom Sawyer Island.

• Avatar, Avengers & Coco attractions coming to California Adventure (California)

Whilst many of these are exciting and much needed additions to the parks, we’re likely to go through a few years of growing pains as multiple attractions are removed to begin construction, meaning some reduced capacity in areas. Plus at the moment there’s very little in the way of confirmed timelines for these new rides and attractions. Rides impacted include the aforementioned area of Magic Kingdom, plus removal of the cult classic Muppet*Vision 3D at Hollywood Studios, plus downtime for the Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster as it transitions into the new home for the Muppet characters.

We’ll keep you updated as we hear more.