The rumour mill has been spinning for the past few days and Disneyland Paris fans are rejoicing with excitement. These rumours have all arrived following Bob Iger and Josh D’Amaro’s trip to the resort. The write up is co-produced with Jordan, who helped map out the crux of this rumor piece, so be sure to check out his other wonderful articles.
A History of Disneyland Paris’ Construction
In 2018, the Walt Disney Company announced a €2 billion expansion for the Walt Disney Studios park at the Disneyland Paris resort. It would include the retheming of the Backlot into Avengers Campus, Arendelle: The World of Frozen, a Star Wars land, new gardens and a lake.
The World of Frozen has been under construction since Avengers Campus opened last year, but a mystery surrounding the Star Wars land has been growing and growing. We learnt through planning permission that the Star Wars land would have consisted of a shop, restaurant and the first international version of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
As construction on the expansion progressed, some news regarding France’s Galaxy’s Edge began to surface. Disneyland Paris president Natacha Rafalski half-confirmed that the third expansion had been returned to the drawing plans.
Now, thanks to a DLP scooper, Ally, who has a great track record has stated that the third land will no longer be themed to Star Wars. She also revealed a whole slew of information regarding Disneyland Paris’ ongoing expansion project. Let’s break all the current rumours down.
The Lion King Land
The third land in Walt Disney Studios Park’s ongoing expansion is now rumoured to be themed to The Lion King and will feature an E-Ticket water ride. If true, then this will be the first Lion King-themed land in the world and a fantastic addition to the Disneyland Paris resort which is in need of an exclusive attraction.
There is something so unique about the possibility of Disneyland Paris gaining a Lion King themed Splash Mountain and I think the attraction would be a great addition to the park.
No information regarding which version of The Lion King the land will be based on, but it’s pretty safe to assume that it will be the more recent CGI remake.
Pandora: The World of Avatar
There are allegedly early plans for Avatar: The World of Pandora to be built in the near future following The Lion King land. This has been a popular online rumour over the past few years and if built it will likely be home to Flight of Passage and not Na’vi River Journey – a similar plan was rumoured for Shanghai Disneyland some time ago. With a new “Avatar Experience” headed to Disneyland in California, there could be some similarities with the two projects moving forward, perhaps.
Avatar: The Way of Water was an instant smash hit grossing over $2 billion and quickly became the third highest-grossing movie of all time. France accounts for the second-highest overseas earnings for The Way of Water with a $136.9M gross, so building Pandora at Walt Disney Studios makes perfect sense.
There are suggestions that Pandora would fit on the right handside of the park, inbetween the new Arendelle area and the existing Worlds of Pixar land.
Star Wars & Space Mountain
Over in Disneyland Paris’ Discoveryland, the world’s best version of Space Mountain has been home to Hyperspace Mountain since 2017, a temporary Star Wars overlay added to celebrate the resort’s 25th Anniversary.
Hyperspace Mountain might just hold the record for the longest “temporary” overlay in any Disney Parks, and that is surely worth celebrating, especially after 6 years of it.
Needless to say, fans have grown tired of it and want their original Space Mountain returned. Well, that day might be coming soon because according to Ally, plans for the return of Space Mountain have been drawn (and it will feature Disneyland Paris’ first tie-in to the S.E.A organisation).
Star Wars wouldn’t completely vanish from the land because there are said to be preliminary plans for a new Star Wars attraction for the expansion plot behind Space Mountain, near(ish) Star Tours. Rumours suggest that Disneyland Paris has ordered a track from Vekoma, who were responsible for Magic Kingdom’s Tron Lightcycle Run.
Ally seems to hint that the Star Wars attraction will be incredibly similar to its Magic Kingdom counterpart, minus the obvious Tron overlay. Perhaps we could be seeing an Endor speeder or a trip with the infamous biker gang from Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett. Hopefully it isn’t the latter…
We are expecting news regarding Disneyland Paris’ future on April 12th. We will keep you updated on whether these rumours are proven to be true. Once again a huge thanks to TheDisinsider’s own Jordan who contributed massively to this article
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