On August 31st, 2025, The Walt Disney Company announced Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom will receive a new color scheme. Not just any new paint job, but rather what Imagineering is calling “the most classic castle ever!”
The 50th Castle’s Long Reign
Six years ago, Mickey Views first broke the news that Cinderella Castle would receive a radical new paint scheme in time for the 50th Anniversary of Walt Disney World: the Rose Gold Castle! Following work disruptions and several different paint iterations, the 50th anniversary paint job was completed in 2021. However, unlike most anniversary-specific decorations featured at the Disney Parks, the Rose Gold Castle did not revert to its regular identity once the anniversary concluded.
Details on the Reimagined Cinderella Castle Scheme
At long last, Rose Gold, begone! Disney has finally announced an update to Cinderella Castle’s color scheme. During a castle-focused panel at Destination D23 in August, we got the initial announcement and concept art.
In the Disney Parks Blog post accompanying the August panel, Disney gave us the initial details on this reimagined look for Cinderella Castle.
The updated paint will feature grays, creams, blues, and touches of gold aiming to enhance the castle’s architecture. While the project team is still putting the finishing touches on the paint design process, we wanted to share the incredible amount of research and care that goes into this project. –WDI Executive Producer Wyatt Winter
The concept art accompanying the announcement suggests this paint scheme is largely a reversion to the pre-Rose Gold castle look, featuring light grays and perhaps a bit more gold than the regular castle previously had on the turrets.
However, in a new episode of Walt Disney Imagineering’s YouTube show the following week, we got greater detail on this forthcoming reimagining of Cinderella Castle.
Relevant Transcript:
Colleen Meyers – Executive Color Design & Paint at Walt Disney Imagineering: “When you step into our park, you see the castle. And we want that to be just a great moment. We’re always so excited to work on a new scheme for the castle. We’ve updated the color every time we’ve repainted it. We look at all the old photos, the films, light hitting the castle. We pull all that together, trying to evoke an emotion.”
Ali Rubenstein – Senior Vice President of Global Creative & Show Design at Walt Disney Imagineering: “When this was first open, it was much more subdued in tone.”
Meyers: “Yes, the castle started out quite a cool gray. As the years went by, we started putting warmer tones on the castle to get that last ray of sunlight. We’re trying to enhance the forced perspective so the castle is actually getting smaller as it goes up. The shingles even are forced perspective. So the shingles get smaller as we go up. We enhance that illusion with lighter colors as the castle gets higher. And all of that is to create the illusion of this beautiful, elegant, tall castle because we can only go so tall with our icon. In the color choice, we want to make sure that every guest has the opportunity to get a really beautiful picture on it. Even if there’s a cloudy sky, the castle still looks magical. And also, we light the castle at night. So our color scheme has to be projection-friendly and lighting friendly.”
Rubenstein: “The Cinderella Castle will be receiving an update coming up, right?”
Meyers: “Right now, we have the color scheme from the 50th. So, the Rose Gold and all the gold. It was a really big birthday celebration for us. As we look at our next version of the castle, we’re trying to go back to evoke the classic castle. So, the castle on opening day of Walt Disney World and we’re going to put together our most classic castle ever.”
Based on Mayers’ commentary, fans have a very classic castle to look forward to at Walt Disney World soon!
When Will the Repainted Castle Be Complete?
A repainting timeline has yet to be announced officially announced Disney. However, we will soon have some major clues. Mickey Views advises guests interested in catching the repainted castle on their trip to stay tuned for news on the draining of the moat around Cinderella Castle. This precursor to the repainting work will provide guests a good estimate on when the project will be complete.
Prior to work beginning on repainting the castle, which should only take a few weeks, there will be a week or two of work installing temporary dams nearby and draining the moat itself. Draining the moat provides a space for painters to operate from in order to reimagine the castle.
Brayden’s Thoughts
I am very excited to see Cinderella Castle returning to its original paint scheme. While anniversary-specific paint schemes are a great limited-edition treat, the Rose Gold castle far overstayed the anniversary itself. This was likely due to budgetary reasons.
Many guests reacted positively to the Rose Gold Castle as they feel its very saturated colors contributes to a photogenic look. In my opinion, Cinderella Castle should normally be comprised of gray tones lightening each level up. Similarly, the blue turrets should match the original look Mayers spoke highly of in the latest episode of “We Call it Imagineering.”
The ‘John Hench-approved’ color scheme is genius. The lighter, more “boring” colors as the castle rises make it feel much further away. From Town Square, looking down Main Street, U.S.A., the ‘classic castle’ appears much larger and further away than it is. This illusion works because the light grays and pastel colors render as atmospheric haze between you and the various elements on the castle. Essentially, the less dramatic, less saturated colors make it look as though you’re peering at a mountainous structure far in the distance. This effect even works up close due to Disney using darker grays on the bottom level closest to you, and much lighter ones extending above you. It even makes the castle appear larger on cloudy days as it blends into the sky. The gold spire at the top still shines through for photos regardless of weather. This paint scheme is time-tested, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Mayers’ team makes this version of Florida’s Cinderella Castle “the most classic castle ever!”
