Disneyland scraps long-awaited Marvel ride for new concept at Disney California Adventure

Avengers Campus in Disney California Adventure is getting a major new attraction, Josh D’Amaro, chair of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, announced at D23 on Sunday.

“This has always been our vision for Avengers Campus,” D’Amaro said. “To give our guests more of what they love and then some. We want more stories. We want more heroes. We want more villains, and we want more of the land.”

The expansion will include a new ride and a new superhero to meet. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that the Marvel cinematic multiverse will inform the new ride. The Avengers Multiverse ride will replace the Wakanda-themed Quinjet attraction that was supposed to be the land’s original e-ticket ride. 

“The fun thing about Marvel is the characters, all the characters all of the time, and with the multiverse at Avengers Campus, you’re going to be able to do that,” Feige said. “In this new attraction, you’re going to be able to battle alongside all the Avengers against all the foes from anywhere, from every ‘when’ that you can possibly imagine. And you’re going to meet a new villain named King Thanos. This is a new version of Thanos for the very first time coming into the MCU via this attraction.”

“This is a Thanos that won,” Feige added. “The Avengers are not too happy about that. And you have to help them.” 

Like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which opened with Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and later opened Rise of the Resistance, Avengers Campus was always designed to be a two-part rollout. When it first opened in June 2021, the land debuted Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, a virtual reality ride where riders shoot virtual “webs” out of their hands to defeat Spider-Bots with Spider-Man himself.

The large, empty building across from Pym Test Kitchen was supposed to house the e-ticket ride in Avengers Campus, called Avengers Quinjet Experience (its bigger, more exciting Rise of the Resistance-type ride). But in March, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the ride was in “a holding pattern” and there were no new developments on when it would actually happen, blaming the financial woes of the pandemic shutdown for the delay.

Details of that ride emerged at Disneyland Paris in its Hotel New York — the Art of Marvel, the world’s first Marvel-inspired hotel. Inside the hotel are 250 pieces of original Marvel art, including one piece of Quinjet ride concept art that was quickly removed. 

In the leaked art, a “walk-through pre-show area shows Avengers aircraft on a docking bay with cargo crates sitting below an overhead winch system — suggesting an active superhero hangar,” Brady MacDonald wrote for the Orange County Register. “An interior view of the attraction shows two rows of jetpack seats aligned in front of a glowing tactical display. Overhead, a massive glass ceiling-like screen provides views of the ship’s command deck and the outside world. A battle scene shows riders in jetpack seats flying toward a domed city engulfed in flames as smoke streams from a crashing jet in the distance.”

That ride wasn’t to be. As of now, the exterior of the building is used for character appearances and a stunt show. 

The concept art for the new Avengers Multiverse ride includes a severe-looking King Thanos surrounded by Avengers like Thor and Spider-Man, but also the Mighty Thor, Moon Knight, both Captain Americas and both Hulks. D’Amaro also announced a new character in the land. Hulk will be appearing in Avengers Campus as of next week. 

Because of Universal Orlando’s preexisting rights deal with Marvel, Disney can’t open Avengers Campus at Walt Disney World — but it did recently open Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot in May.