During the D23 <a href="https://comicvibe.com/star-wars-meets-fortnite-in-new-millennium-falcon-smugglers-run-experience/” title=”Star Wars meets Fortnite in new Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run experience”>Experiences Showcase, centered around Disney’s theme parks, it was announced Iman Vellani, Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Chris Hemsworth, and Robert Downey Jr. will reprise their MCU roles for the upcoming Disney California Adventure ride Avengers Infinity Defense. (In Downey’s case, he will play Iron Man, not Doctor Doom.) The ride, which will open in 2028, will see the Avengers battle King Thanos, an older variant of the Mad Titan who triumphed in his universe.
Blending “massive physical sets” with “huge media scenes,” Infinity Defense will begin with a pre-mission briefing from Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, who’ll task guests with resassembling the Avengers. Locations will include Asgard, Wakanda, and New York. New and previous concept art indicates many more characters will join the fray, although whether their actors will record anything for the ride was not confirmed at the time of writing.
It was also revealed Mackie and Brie Larson (along with the previously confirmed Downey) will return for the Stark Flight Lab attraction, also opening in the California Adventure park in 2028. The two-person flight sim will allow guests to experience “what it’s like to train like a flying Avenger.” Together, the new attractions will double the number of rides at Avengers Campus, which will soon be reconnected to Cars Land.
Over in Asia, Hong Kong Disneyland will receive an Avengers Tower ride (called Avengers Research Testing Labs) in the Stark Expo area of Tomorrowland. The ride, which’ll feature “120+ feet of storytelling tech,” will see Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Shuri/Black Panther, Thor (shown wearing his helmet in the concept art), and more band together when “evil forces” take an interest in the building’s R&D department. An adjacent Quinjet landing platform will also provide a new stage for meet-and-greets.
The wallcrawler himself will be the star of his own area at Shanghai Disney Resort, which has until now relegated its Marvel attractions to the Gardens of Imagination hub. The central rollercoaster will imagine Peter Parker and the new Shanghai division of the Worldwide Engineering Brigade (W.E.B.) deploying Spider-Bots to help build said ride. “The final piece of the track for the attraction has now been installed – [so] what could possibly go wrong with all these Spider-Bots around?” The area will also include over 20 murals by local artists, “celebrating all things science, Spidey, and the Avengers.”
On a non-Marvel note, it was shared the upcoming Animal Kingdom ride starring Indiana Jones is called Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, and that Harrison Ford will lend his likeness to the character’s animatronic for the first time. The ride will see Indy venture into a cenote said to be a passage to the Maya underworld, protected by the serpent Tsukán. (“Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes?”) It will be located in the new Tropical Americas area (where the Dinosaur ride used to be located), opening sometime in 2027.
For more news and imagery from the showcase, head to the official Disney Parks Blog. Unlike Friday’s Entertainment Showcase, you can also watch the presentation (hosted by Neil Patrick Harris) on Disney+. For more news from this year’s D23, follow The Beat‘s coverage here.
