RUMOR: Details on Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Expansion “Beyond Big Thunder Mountain”

Theme Parks

Some details about Disney World’s planned expansion of The Magic Kingdom may have just leaked. Mickey Views has heard from its “trusted sources” that the project, which is being called Beyond Big Thunder Mountain, is going to remove Frontier Land from the park and replace it with three other “lands.” One of these is “a desert-themed land” that was once going to include attractions based on the films Coco and Encanto, but those are now being moved to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where they will replace Dinoland USA and become part of a “Tropical Americas” land. In their place, Mickey Views believes that Radio Springs Racers, based on the Pixar film Cars, will go in Desert Land, a reproduction of the one currently in Disneyland in California. This would only be the “desert-themed portion” of Radio Springs Racers, in keeping with the land’s theme.  Additionally, an attraction based on Woody, the lead character of Toy Story, “is being considered” for Desert Land.

Another part of Beyond Big Thunder Mountain is going to be Villains Land, based on Disney’s best bad guys (or, at least, the ones Disney considers the best). One piece of Villains Land was going to be a restaurant based on the Haunted Mansion ride, but Mickey Views now hears that this has been canceled. There aren’t many details about Villains Land, except that it will contain “one E-ticket attraction and one D-ticket attraction,” meaning one headliner and one upper-mid-level attraction. Another area is The Bayou, which is based on The Princess and the Frog and its Disney+ sequel series, which includes Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the replacement for Splash Mountain (which is now racist because reasons). Mickey Views says that the Shootin’ Arcade will be closed next, and a new Country Bears Musical Jamboree will “open to the general public this August.” The Pecos Bill restaurant will be “rethemed” to bring it closer to the bayou motif, although it appears this was supposed to have happened already. It’s also possible Disney will remove the Rivers of America waterway to create more parkland for new attractions. You can watch Mickey Views’ video on what is set to be Disney’s largest expansion ever below:

There are a lot of bold claims in there, and Brayden says these rumors are not definitely going to happen, but That Park Place considers Mickey Views credible and says Brayden has “a strong history of accuracy.” That Park Place also points out (well, cheekily suggests) that the slapdash nature of the Beyond Big Thunder Mountain expansion calls into question Bob Iger’s insistence that these plans have been in the works “for a decade.” Disney really does seem to be scrambling here, and given the competition from Universal’s Epic Universe, it’s easy to see why.