What is D23?
Since 2009 the Walt Disney Company has been doing the popular D23 event. (Outside of 2021) every D23 has happened every 2 years at the Anaheim convention center. This year things changed with 2 major shows inside the Anaheim Stadium, the Honda Center, The expo floor was more immersive with each “Pavilion” having an experience inside of them, The Parks Pavilion was all about the behind the scenes of new Disney parks experiences, the Lucasfilm Pavilion was all about there immersive way of filming with the StageCraft system and the Marvel pavilion was all about entering the TVA. But we are just going to talk about the 2 big shows, The Disney Entertainment Showcase and the Disney Experience Showcase starting with the Entertainment Showcase.
Disney Entertainment Showcase:
Disney Live action/Animation: The show kicked off with another trailer of Moana 2 the upcoming 2024 sequel to Moana and the film will be released on November 27th 2024. However Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson will not only star as Maui in Moana 2 but also in a new live action movie based on the brand of Monster Jam, No release date for this movie but filming is starting. Disney Animation will have an original secret project releasing in 2026, in the meantime 2 sequels are already in production with Zootopia 2 with our first look and clip, slated for release in November of 2025 and Frozen 3 slated for release in 2027. Also worth noting Jenifer Lee (director of Frozen 2 & 3) is teasing a Frozen 4 for an unknown release date. A sequel to Freaky Friday with Freakier Friday has also been slated for 2025, along with Tron Ares with the announcement of the music being handled by Nine Inch Nails instead of Daft Punk and both will be releasing in Theaters instead of Disney+. The show had 3 live action remakes/prequels with the Snow White remake slated for 2025, Lilo and Stitch remake for 2025 which will come to theaters first instead of Disney+ and Mufasa: the Lion King slated for a December 20th 2024 release. Finally Disney Broadway announced a new production based off the 20th Century Studios The Greatest Showman, premiering at an unknown date on Broadway.
Pixar Animation Studios: Pixar has announced a new release date for upcoming 2025 film Elio releasing in June 2025. A new original film has also been announced for Pixar with Hoppers slated for release in March of 2026 and will be 1 of 2 Pixar movies releasing that year. 2 new TV shows have also been announced coming to Disney+, with the Spinoff Inside Out series Dream Productions coming this December and the original series Win or Lose arriving in February of 2025 both will be exclusive to Disney+. 2 massive sequels are releasing with Toy Story 5 slated for a June 2026 release and the upcoming Incredibles 3 which is now in production and will be released at an undisclosed date and production is already well underway.
Lucasfilm (Star Wars) and 20th Century Studios (Avatar): This December in 2024 will have the release of the Disney+ series Skelton Crew which will be hopefully better than the disastrous Acolyte series. Andor has also revealed that a 2nd season is officially happening for the hit Disney+ series Andor releasing sometime in 2025 and could be its last season. The first Star Wars movie since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker in over 7 years with the 2026 release of The Mandorelan & Grogu being the sequel movie to the hit Mandorelan series. A new Avatar movie has been announced for a December 2025 release with Avatar Fire and Ash which will follow the 3rd of at least a rumored film series of at least 2 more movies and possibly 2 more in the future.
Marvel Studios: One of the panels on the showfloor was the reveal of many Marvel animated series coming to Disney+ including the upcoming classic comics inspired, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman, “What if” and comics Inspired Marvels Zombies, the final season of “What If?” and Eyes of Wakanda. At the entertainment showcase 3 more series were shown including the now released Agatha All Along, an update for both Ironheart and Daredevil: Born Again, both slated for a 2025 release on Disney+. A new update on Fantastic 4: First Steps releasing in July of 2025 with the reveal of how the suits will look and how filming is starting as we speak, Another update was given to Captain America: A Brave New World releasing in February of 2025 with the reveal of the ThunderBolt Ross’s Red Hulk, No updates were given to the announcement from Comic Con but there was a short snippet of a the Thunderbolts during a preview montage.
Disney Experiences Showcase:
Walt Disney World Orlando (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom,)
In 2025 Magic Kingdom will debut a new Nighttime Parade with Disney’s Starlight, A new 3-D show coming to Animal Kingdom replacing “It’s tough to be a bug” with “Zootopia better Zoogether”, A new overhaul is coming to Chevrolet’s Test Track at Epcot all debuting in 2025. Also in 2025 Construction will also begin on 2 major areas coming in the near future with the upcoming Frontierland mini-land based off Pixar’s Cars replacing both the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer’s Island featuring 2 attractions with one of them being a family ride while the other will be a more thrilling ride with an unknown ride system. At Hollywood Studios a new Monsters Inc land based off the town of Monstropolis and will be featuring Disney’s First Suspended Coaster where you will be riding through the door scene from the movie. Both have unknown opening dates but will begin work next year in 2025. Late 2024 will see the extinction of Dino-Land USA at Animal Kingdom to a new area inspired by the Tropical America’s featuring a Carousel, a new Encanto Dark ride and the big attraction and a new E-Ticket Indiana Jones attraction, all will open in 2027. Finally for an unknown date both construction and opening date will be the new Villians Land, No details were given except for the area to be coming to the Magic Kingdom and it will be Magic Kingdoms single biggest investment.
Disneyland Anaheim (Disneyland,California Adventure)
This November a clone of Tiana’s Bayou adventure is making its way to Disneyland this year in 2024. In 2025 Disneyland will be celebrating its 70th anniversary with new events and a confirmed attraction with the brand new Walt Disney: A Magic Life Debuting next year with the first ever Walt DisneyAnimatronic. In 2025 work will begin on an expansion to the Avengers Campus at California Adventure with 2 new attractions, a flat ride called Stark Flight Lab which will be similar to Epcot’s former Sum Of Thrills, a new E-Ticket dark ride possibly similar to Tokyo Disney Sea, Peter Pan’s Neverland Adventure a motion simulator dark ride that combine physical sets with screens, guest will face King Thanos with Avengers: Infinity Defense both rides will double the size of the area and has an unknown opening date. In 2026 California Adventure will start construction on a boat ride based off Pixar’s 2017’s feature Coco debuting at an undisclosed location/date with the attraction going back to Disney’s classic attractions with rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. Finally, also coming to California Adventure will be a brand new Avatar land based off the 2nd and 3rd movie, with a ride similar to Shanghai’s Pirates of the Caribbean, no date or location were given.
Disney Cruise Ships/Epic Games Collaboration
A new Collaboration between Epic Games and Disney is officially well underway with new skins based on Star Wars, Disney’s Villains and the Incredibles coming to the hit game Fortnite, along with new experiences with the Unreal Engine across Epic’s Various games and maps in Fortnite. Also Disney Cruises will be debuting 3 more Cruise Ships between 2024 and 2025, with the Disney Treasure, Destiny and Adventure which will mark as their largest cruise ever and have 9 cruises by the end of 2025. But by the end of 2031 the fleet will expand with 4 more cruise ships making a total of 13 cruises with one of them being owned by Tokyo Disney’s Oriental Land Company, Expect the 1st of these Cruises to debut in 2027.
International Parks (Disneyland Paris/Adventure World, Shanghai Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland)
In 2026 Formerly named Walt Disney Studios Park will be now rebranded to Disney’s Adventure World which will coexist with the World of Frozen and a new nighttime spectacular, in the future Adventure world will also be home to a new area based off the 1994 animated feature The Lion King, being a Log Flume style ride similar to the recently opened Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Both Shanghai and Hong Kong are receiving 2 Spiderman themed original rides opening at unknown dates. Shanghai’s ride will be a coaster similar to Epcot’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind while Hong Kong’s new attraction will be similar to the popular Tower of Terror rides found at many Disney Parks.
