Every Disney fan knows that one should keep posted when the yearly D23 event is coming up. These events, the biennial D23 Expo and the alternating biennial Destination D23, are generally a place where the Disney Company announces their big news on upcoming rides in all their resorts over the world. The 2021 edition of Destination D23 in Orlando, hosted 19-21 November, did not disappoint. Details and opening days were announced for two long-awaited dark rides, while construction updates were given on other ongoing projects.
The big news of the year was announced for the EPCOT park in Walt Disney World Resort. The park has announced it’s new Guradians of the Galaxy-ride already in 2017 at D23 Expo, with construction starting in August of that year. After years of speculation, for example about the innovative ride system delivered by Vekoma, the park announced the official name of the ride in 2019: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. An opening date however was never announced, until last weekend it was announced that the ride opens in summer 2022.
Accompanying the announcement of the opening date, the official poster for the new ride was published, along with two impressions of the ride’s queue line. The queue is meant to introduce riders to the culture and planet of Xandar, home of the intergalactic police task force Nova Corps. As a special surprise, it was also announced that the ride will feature actress Glenn Close in her role as Nova Prime, the leader of the Nova Corps.
The other dark ride-related announcement at Destination D23 concerned the Walt Disney Studios park in the Paris resort. The park is currently working on the development of Avengers Campus, located on the site of the former Backlot area. The area includes the former Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, which is to be rethemed as Iron Man Adventure, and the brand new dark ride WEB Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure. The dark ride is similar to the ride by the same name that opened in Disneyland California Adventure last summer. The whole Avengers Campus area, including the dark ride, is set to open in summer 2022.
In WEB Slingers, guests are invited into the workshop of WEB (Worldwide Engineering Brigade). Here they meet Peter Parker / Spider-Man, who tells riders about the new Spider-Bots that were invented at WEB. Unfortunately, the bots are out of control and riders are asked to help catching them. Riders board special WEB Slinger vehicles and are allowed to throw webs, just like Spider-Man does. A special interactive system registers body movement and enables riders to throw webs by extending their arms and flicking their wrist. The ride features actor Tom Holland as Spider-Man.
