Disney reveals updates for some upcoming park experiences at SXSW 2025
Disney hosted another panel at SXSW (South by Southwest) over the weekend and revealed a number of new things that were coming to their parks around the world.
The panel was officially called The Future of World-Building at Disney, which is about marrying technology to tell stories and using stories to inspire technology, which in turn creates new rides, shows, and even lands at Disney parks and beyond.
“The stories we tell are powered by seamlessly integrating cutting-edge technology into everything we do. It’s a blend of art and science we take directly from our founder, Walt Disney – our original visionary and innovator.”
Here is everything that was shown off.
BDX Droids are going to Disney
The BDX droids are small robots that were created by Disney, part of it was for testing purposes, but the end result was a droid who would enter Disney parks and interact with guests. During the panel, it was confirmed that later this year, the droids will show up at Walt Disney World in Florida, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland.
If you want to see what they look like in the parks, here is a test that took place in October 2023 at Disneyland, inside of their Galaxy’s Edge land.
The Mandalorian and Grogu take flight in May 2026
We have known for a while that there was a new movie coming starring the Mandalorian and Grogu, it is even called The Mandalorian & Grogu and it was coming out on May 21st 2026. We also knew that the pair would take flight on Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run at both Disneyland Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios and now we know when, as they will arrive the same weekend the movie releases, the American release date. For those not following along, that means Mando and Grogu will soar above new locations on May 22nd.
The only officially released piece of information for the movie is this piece of art, but the footage shown at D23 2024, is floating about the place. We did get a trio of art pieces that show off locations that guests might visit on this new adventure, which features Tattooine, Bespin and the ruins of the second Death Star.
We also got confirmation that the above BDX droids were also going to be in the movie. The below stills are taken from the set of the movie and show the droids in action.
Monsters Inc is elevating rollercoaster fun
We also got a brief look at the load station, in animatic form, for the new Monsters Inc rollercoaster. As you can see from the video below, the station is where guests will sit in their seat and then, just like the doors in the movie, they will be raised up towards the roof, before they are taken into the door vault, just like Sully, Mike and Boo are towards the end of the movie.
The land will be construction soon, as it is replacing the Muppets Courtyard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, with the Muppets closing up shop in just a few days.
Cars is racing into the Magic Kingdom
The other Pixar attraction that we got a little new info on was the Cars ride, that is coming to the Magic Kingdom. The land is taking over the Rivers of America, but as its inspiration is the American Great Outdoors, it will still feel right at home in Frontierland. What we learnt at the panel was that the team are ready to begin building their first ride vehicle, as they have done tests with a motorcross company, to simulate their track layout, or a version of it. That then lead to a new suspension system being created and fitted to a car, to test that out and with all those tests, the first real prototype can be built.
Disney were keen to point out that while the average car could do 10,000km to 20,000km a year in travel, a Disney car can do upwards of 95,000km a year, depending on the attraction. So that means each vehicle needs to be tested and built right. We got a look at a mock up of the vehicle design, of course not a final design, but it does look fairly cool. We also learnt that Pixar are creating all new characters that guests will get to spend time with on the ride, though their details were just left to the image below. Construction on the land is expected to begin in 2026, but if the usual Disney ride timeline holds, it won’t be open until 2030 at the earliest. You can learn more about the new land here.
Marvel takes flight with Tony Stark
At the D23 Expo in August 2024, we learn that Robert Downey Jr was reprising his role as Tony Stark for Stark Flight Lab, but now we have our first details about what that is. Not only will RDJ be adding his voice to the ride, but he is helping shape the ride itself. The were no details on how exactly he was doing that, but they did show off some photos of the actor at Walt Disney Imagineering.
“The curiosity, the passion, the inventiveness, the occasional flair for the dramatic, most of all a drive to put something good out into the world to make life better, at the minimum more fun by a mile. It’s the privilege of a lifetime to be invited to participate.”
Stark Flight Lab will see guests be strapped into what they call a Gyrokinetic Pod, those pods are then moved on a track towards giant robot arms. They are then bolted to the arm and taken for a flight… thus the name Stark Flight Lab.
In the video below you can see some test footage and even how the Imagineers used actual dancers, to learn the best motions to have guests undertake. The ride is part of a new expansion for the Avengers Campus land at Disney California Adventure, which is currently home to the Spider-Man attraction ‘WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure‘. The land also has various Marvel characters walk about the place, they have often had characters appear after a Disney+ show or movie release, with Sam Wilson as Captain America recently joining the land and during a Halloween event, Zombie Captain America was shuffling about.
In terms of other major works, there is a lot. Disneyland Paris is setting a massive expansion of what is currently Walt Disney Studios Park, but will become Disney Adventure World in 2026 when the Frozen land opens, they are also getting a Lion King themed land in the future.
Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World is also getting a Villains themed land behind where the Cars mini-land is going and will feature multiple rides, with one of them a rollercoaster, all themed to Disney villains. Over at Disneyland Resort in California, in addition to the Avengers Campus expansion, Avatar is going into the park and Coco is getting a boat ride.
For the parks closer to us, Tokyo Disney Resort just opened Fantasy Springs, and they are building an all-new Space Mountain, they even tore down the old one last year. Shanghai Disney opened their Zootopia land at the end of 2023 and are now moving onto their next ride, a Spider-Man themed rollercoaster, just a some concept art for this one, see that below. Finally, Hong Kong Disneyland announced a new ride last year as well, but we have more details on that and their other plans here.
Everything that was shown during the panel is still very much in development, with only the Mandalorian take over of Smuggler’s Run given a date. Does anything here interest you?
