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Disney World’s Villains Land may be the fairest of them all.
A new report from the Wall Street Journal revealed what fans can expect from Disney World’s soon-to-be-opened addition to Magic Kingdom.
The project, which is currently under construction, was referred to as “by far the most ambitious period” in Disney Imagineering’s history by Bruce Vaughn, president of Imagineering.
“We’re going to ramp up and reignite Imagineering culturally, and we’ve got a tremendous amount of investment coming through,” he told WSJ.
Villains Land is expected to feature iconic Disney Villains from movies such as “Snow White,” “Peter Pan” and so on.
A 2024 social media post from Disney Parks showcased other fan-favorite villains parkgoers can anticipate, such as Yzma from “The Emperor’s New Groove,” Maleficent from “Sleeping Beauty,” Jafar from “Aladdin” and Gaston from “Beauty and the Beast.”
Since the upcoming land is not tied to one specific movie or property, the Journal noted that this flexibility “makes it the closest thing to an original land in Disney’s US parks in 25 years.”
Fans can anticipate that Villains Land — first announced in 2024 at Disney’s annual D23 conference — will have two major attractions alongside themed retail and dining options.
According to WSJ, there’s been a push for more original storytelling within the parks — including from Imagineers.
“At every all-hands meeting, I would be asked if we’d get to create new Imagineering original stories again,” former Walt Disney Imagineering president Barbara Bouza, who led the group from 2020 to 2024, shared.
The outlet noted that some Imagineers admitted that Villains Land is what they’re “most excited about.”
The structure of the land not being built around just one story is a huge deviation from the same approach that has been at the center of recent expansions.
For example, a new Monsters Inc. Land, also known as “Monstropolis,” is currently being built at Hollywood Studios, where the Muppet Courtyard used to be. The new land will have a roller coaster that “will put you right in the middle of the monster action,” Walt Disney Imagineering boasts.
As of now, there is no set opening date for Villains Land, though some reports estimate it will be in 2029 or 2030.
