For over a decade, rumors have swirled over an eventual replacement to DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. The clever ‘dinosaurs-meet-americana’ theme of DinoLand has appealed to boys, girls, and families at large for over two decades. With the closure and subsequent demolition of the land’s Primeval Whirl attraction in the Fall of 2021, it became inevitable something new was coming to DinoLand.
So, what will replace it? At the 2022 D23 Expo Parks Panel, Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro, lacking green-lit projects to announce, floated “ideas” of a bizarre mashing of both Moana AND Zootopia where DinoLand currently sits. If the purpose of this exercise was to gauge fan reactions, the results were highly mixed.
Since 2020, Disney’s interest in investing in capital-intensive projects at Walt Disney World has been non-existent. Contradicting this, Disney CEO Bob Iger has continuously reiterated his interest in investing in the Parks once again. Maybe Iger is finally putting money where his mouth is.
According to sources of Mickey Views, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Global Creative Strategy Executive Zach Riddley are in town this week at Walt Disney World, a visit that will include a review of the latest Imagineering plan to replace DinoLand U.S.A. This visit, if Walt Disney World Operations gets on board, could result in the green-lighting of the project and a subsequent announcement at or around the D23 Destination D event taking place September 9th and 10th, 2023.
Information previously provided to Mickey Views suggests that Walt Disney World’s President, VP’s, and other operations personnel have been in disagreement over which intellectual property should be inserted into DinoLand. This is why nothing has been green lit for the land previously and why there have been so many iterations of the concept from Imagineering.
Past rumored ideas Imagineering proposed to Walt Disney World executives include a Zootopia area, a Moana area, a live action Jungle Book boat ride based on Shanghai Pirates, and an Indiana Jones-themed land.
Details on the latest iteration of the DinoLand plan under review by Disney executives are unknown at this time.
The prospect of Walt Disney World fans finally getting a new land announcement for the first time since the 2020 lockdowns is an exciting one, but given this is just the latest of many attempts to get the Dinoland project green-lit, we shouldn’t get our hopes up until Disney drops an official press release.
Please be sure to watch our brand new video where I discuss the latest developments on the DinoLand project.
