Four new rides are being built at the Magic Kingdom, including two large E-Tickets for Villains Land. With a coaster based on Maleficent and an indoor ride starring all of the villains, this massive project is expanding the park beyond the berm to add even more capacity. Despite the new details revealed at D23, there’s still more to confirm, including ride systems and an opening year.

Let’s check in on recent construction and the latest rumors for Villains Land at Walt Disney World. See the video version of this story below for additional visuals.

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In front of Villains Land

Villains Land will be constructed at the back-left of Magic Kingdom, hidden behind a new Cars-themed area that’s being built now.

Thanks to recent aerial photography by Bioreconstruct we can see the latest progress on the Piston Peak construction area, including the arrival of a large tower crane as work on the two new Cars rides for Frontierland ramps up.

New concept art, a scale model, and the official names of these two new rides were revealed at the D23 fan event in Anaheim just a few weeks ago.

Cars Ridge Run Rally will be a large-scale outdoor off-road style ride, surrounded by new mountains, geysers, snowy paths, and water features.

It will feature tracked vehicles that appear similar to Test Track or Radiator Springs Racers, but with new dimensions of motion, that will utilize a ride system Disney says is unlike anything they’ve done before.

A more family-friendly flat ride named Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along will also be built, featuring environmental effects and a large animatronic bus character.

The newly revealed scale model for the area offers insight beyond the Cars additions, including changes to the Haunted Mansion queue. New exterior extended queue will be added to the left of the existing queue, where the Rivers of America’s waterway once stood. This will help prevent the line from snaking out into the Liberty Square pathways.

Further back, beyond the Haunted Mansion, new restrooms will be constructed. These new bathrooms will serve both the Cars addition, as well as Villains Land.

The model that was on display at the D23 event also showed new pathways that will be added to the park, on both sides of the Cars area, which will lead directly to Villains Land.

Official Name & Story Revealed

“Villains Land” was announced as the official name during the D23 event, and the official logo was revealed. This name helps to keep it in line with other lands around the Magic Kingdom.

A trademark application for the logo was filed with the US government shortly after the presentation.

The story for the land will have us come upon a broken, twisted wishing well near the entrance, set within the “Dark Forest.”

Someone had made an evil wish here, which “corrupted the stone and broke open the structure, spreading the Well’s poisoned magic throughout the forest.”

This concept gives the land an excuse to have all of the villains together in one place, as they have come here to try and claim the last of the well’s powers for themselves.

Multiple villain characters will be spotlighted throughout the land, with areas of their own. This will include what Disney calls “mighty fortresses and gleaming palaces” that will act as “lairs” for Cruella de Vil, Dr. Facilier, and the Evil Queen, among “so many more.”

Despite Glenn Close coming close to saying otherwise on stage, there will only be two rides for Villains Land.

One of these new major attractions will be a thrill coaster themed to Maleficent. The other will be an indoor dark ride featuring a story surrounding the Evil Queen’s Magic Mirror.

Maleficent Roller Coaster

The first ride is what Disney calls a “high thrill” coaster experience themed to Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.

Despite rumors earlier this year that plans had changed to include a Kronk and Yzma themed family coaster, Disney has confirmed that the initial plan to have a thrill coaster taking us through enchanted briar and around Meleficent’s mountaintop fortress, just like the initial concept art, is still the plan.

Disney recently performed balloon tests to see how the tallest part of this attraction, featuring the mountaintop fortress, may be visible from different vantage points around the park.

This roller coaster is being touted as including elements Disney has never attempted before. Fans in the community have theorized this could mean a drop track section could be included on the ride.

Theories like that have also led many in the community to speculate that this attraction could be manufactured by Intamin, the company behind rides like Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal Orlando. Although, it’s usually Vekoma that Disney works with for new coasters.

In fact, the new Spider-Man coaster coming to Shanghai Disneyland just started pull-through testing, and the trains look very similar to the model for the Maleficent coaster. The Spider-Man ride was manufactured by Vekoma

A work-in-progress model shows us some of the track sections for the ride.

Despite earlier rumors, it does not appear that this ride will include any inversions, something that all of the coasters in Magic Kingdom do not contain.

The model shows track heading to what is likely a maintenance bay at the very back of the land. This means that the small structure, seen in permit images near the railroad tracks, will not be for a new train station.

There will likely be a backstage gate at the back of the area, located between both of the attractions, so this smaller structure will not be guest accessible.

Magic Mirror Dark Ride

The second ride will be set within the catacombs beneath the Evil Queen’s palace. Here we will load into a boat-shaped ride vehicle for a journey through the mirror realm, guided by Magic Mirror character from Snow White, (although it’s most likely not actually a boat ride).

This ride’s story device will allow the attraction to include all of the Disney Villains. This is a similar to the plot of the recently added Villains Unfairly Ever After show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which uses the Magic Mirror as a host to show off multiple villains who come to him with questions.

Fans believe this will not actually be a boat ride. Instead this attraction will possibly utilize the same tracked motion base system as Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure at Tokyo DisneySea, (although this one not expected to be in 3D).

Avengers Infinity Defense at DCA expected to use the same ride system as well, which fans compare to Universal’s “SCOOP” vehicle from The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and Transformers: The Ride 3D. Those rides feature the same number of rows with lap bars as well.

Like the upcoming Avengers ride, which will use Marvel’s “jump points” as a way to travel between different set pieces and incorporate multiple characters from the MCU, it seems as if the Villains Land ride will use the Mirror Realm concept to “follow him through the glass” and visit various villains in their unique settings, conjuring possible scenarios that “may come to pass.”

Disney stresses that this ride will combine special effects along with “incredible physical set pieces.” This may be an attempt to quell rumors that the ride could primarily be a screen-based experience, given the comparisons to other attractions that utilize a similar ride system.

Construction & Permits

Looking to the construction site for Villains Land, we see a vast open area, cleared and ready for major work to begin.

Staging for drainage materials for this area, as well as building materials for the future Cars attractions can be found here.

Work on the Cars area is further along, with retaining walls installed around the area.

This is where a water feature will be added to help separate the new rides from the existing Frontierland.

Some trees that were removed from former Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island areas have been transplanted behind the construction zone, and are likely being saved to be replanted around the Cars area once it is ready.

Many believe that this backstage area, found behind the ride buildings for Haunted Mansion and It’s a Small World, could someday be used for additional park expansion, as it is not currently part of the permitted plans for the adjoining Villains Land.

Approved permit images show all of the major structures for both the Cars rides and the Villains Land, including the ride buildings.

The future restrooms near the Haunted Mansion are also visible in the permit images, seen highlighted in the image below.

The two larger structures near the top of the permit image are related to the two rides, with the Maleficent coaster’s main structure on the left and the Magic Mirror dark ride building seen on the right.

Blurry images seen in the background of the trailer for Season 2 of The Imagineering Story can help us differentiate what may be dining, shopping, and/or queue areas in front of the dark ride from the actual ride building itself. This make it appear as though the actual ride building will have a slightly larger footprint than the nearby Haunted Mansion ride building.

Permits have described this overall expansion project, including both the Cars and Villains rides, as adding the capacity of 10,000 more guests to the Magic Kingdom each day once completed.

An earlier permit related to wastewater in the area, said that water main related work will be wrapped up by December 2029, but that may not be an indication of when the rest of construction will end.

When Will it Open?

An official opening date has not yet been revealed, for Villains Land or the Cars additions.

Initially, the first announcement for these expansions, which are the largest single investment in the park since New Fantasyland in 2012, were said to be completed by the end of the decade, which could put the Villains Land area opening by 2030.

Some believe it could open as late as 2031, but the two Cars rides are expected to open much sooner.

Currently, 2027 already has the city area and theater show of Monstropolis opening at Hollywood Studios as part of phase 1.

Tropical Americas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is still set to open next year as well, (for now). 2028 will likely see the door coaster added to the Monsters Inc land at Hollywood Studios.

So, we can expect Cars rides to be ready by 2029 at the latest, with Villains Land to open, hopefully, shortly after.

Also in Magic Kingdom, and announced to officially open Spring of next year, the updated Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland will feature entirely new scenes with a new story and a new cast.

A new piece of concept art for act 2 was recently released, featuring the Halloween holiday set within the 1980s.

Bryan Cranston and Jamie Lee Curtis will star in the reimagined attraction when it reopens next year.

That’s all for now, but be sure to see the video version of this story for additional visuals. See our latest update from Universal Orlando including new rumors for new rides coming to Epic Universe.

A big thank you to Bioreconstruct for the amazing aerial views. You can follow him on social media, and YouTube for more theme park photos and video.

Subscribe to the news feed or enter your email address below to never miss an update. Aerial Photos: Bioreconstruct | Permit Images: Florida Department of Environmental Protection | Official Images: Disney | Other Images as Captioned

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