CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY AT CHESSINGTON | COULD CBEEBIES OR BLUEY BE COMING IN 2026?

At the end of 2024 Chessington World of Adventures submitted plans to redevelop the area of the park that formally housed the Children’s Zoo and Scorpion Express (nee Runaway Minetrain). ‘Project Play’ plans show three small children’s rides, plus a roller coaster aimed at a very young audience. This is an addition aimed at the youngest members of the family and Merlin might have a big brand in mind to lure them in.

Planning Application Submitted for Project Play

Work has already begun on bringing this to life for 2026, ahead of the expected Minecraft area in 2027. Whilst nothing has been officially confirmed about Project Play, could Merlin Entertainment be planning a huge IP double-header for Chessington? We look at the clues so far and try to decipher what toddlers could be desperate to ride next year.

EXTENSION OF A SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP?

Since opening in 2014, CBeebies Land at Alton Towers Resort has been a smash hit success. Off the back of its popularity, the area has seen plenty of regular updates, and even its own branded hotel in 2017. The original land receives another significant attraction next year when a new roller coaster is set to open.

To date Merlin have generally avoided sharing/repeating themes between their theme parks in the same country, although it’s not completely unheard of. Towers and Chessington both boast a Sealife attraction, with the former also getting a Dungeons attraction despite those already appearing in both London and Blackpool. Albeit those two are IP that Merlin owns.

Disney and Universal are not shy of spreading their successful lands between different parks, even using them to promote each other. Universal leveraging the alure of Harry Potter to ensure people visit all three of their Orlando theme parks by having an area in each one for example. Merlin could be tempted to recreate something similar here, especially as CBeebies is a versatile property?

The joy of this IP is that it doesn’t rely heavily on the popularity of one character or show, the BBC channel has a massive toybox of potential characters to base rides and shows on. These can be updated reasonably easily as trends change or new characters emerge. The risk of the investment is lessened. Plus, it’s completely possible, although not necessarily the plan, to have two CBeebies areas with completely different characters represented. The benefit being you must visit both to tick off all your toddlers’ favourites.

Planning Document Showing Project Play

THE PEPPA PIG EFFECT

The addition of Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park forever changed their fortunes. Merlin Entertainment have been trying to replicate it ever since, even buying the rights to Peppa’s theme park IP outside the UK and opening very similar versions in their other parks. The show was (and still is to an extent) a phenomenon that Paultons bought into at exactly the right time. The heir to Peppa’s throne? Bluey.

Thanks to Merlin’s existing relationship with the BBC it has already unlocked some Bluey action at Alton Towers in the form of some character appearances and hotel suites. The licensing here is a bit more complicated though, as the BBC don’t own the show entirely, and that’s where Disney come in. Seeing the huge mania for Bluey take off, Disney announced in December 2024 that they had struck a massive deal to produce a Bluey feature film, and alongside that secured rights for Bluey to appear in their theme parks. How will they do that, we are not sure yet, but reliable sources tell us that thanks to the existing deal with Merlin, Disney can’t block Bluey theme park attractions in the UK. There are strong rumours they will take advantage of that with a Bluey coaster at Alton Towers in 2026, which looks an awful lot like the one heading to Chessington too.

This ride aims to get kids on their first ever coaster

The space and attractions in the new land at Chessington look like a pretty good match for the original Peppa Pig World, audience wise. Could Project Play be a case of Chessington trying to replicate the huge success with a similar land featuring the world’s favourite cartoon dog (sorry Pluto/Gnasher/Brian etc)? It would be a huge draw, and if they do have the contractual rights to do so, they’d be silly not to implement them here. Bluey is not going anywhere for a while, with the first film due out in 2027. It could be a gamechanger for the World of Adventures.

MAYBE THIS IS SOMETHING ORIGINAL

Despite the globe travelling theme, Chessington World of Adventures has never been a place to shy away from an IP. From Action Man, Gruffalo and Beanoland in the past, to Jumanji and (all but confirmed) Minecraft this decade, they have deployed IP where required to give the park a boost. However, they have also pulled off their own creations too on individual attractions (RIP Professor Burp) to complete lands such as Wild Asia.

Intellectual Property can be expensive, and with massive brands taking over the other areas of the park maybe 2026 is a chance to hold back. Regardless, it makes sense to build up ride capacity and prepare for the park for additional crowds that will be expected for Minecraft’s grand opening in 2027.

WHEN WILL WE FIND OUT?

Expect to start getting some clues by late-summer 2025, as construction ramps up, and inevitably some of the theming gives us an idea of what the complete vision is here. Until then, it’s fun to speculate.