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Disney Abruptly Cancels ‘Avatar’ Announcement, Backtracks on Project

Disney is backtracking on its proposed Avatar experience.

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Earlier today, The Walt Disney Company announced that the proposed Avatar experience that was announced for the Disneyland Resort would be located in Disney California Adventure. This mysterious Avatar experience was announced during The Walt Disney Company’s Q1 earnings call, among other exciting projects. During the call, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that Disney was planning on bringing a new “Avatar experience” to the Disneyland Resort.
This, of course, follows the massively popular Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which opened back in 2017, becoming one of Disney’s most impressive and successful theme park expansions to date. Despite already featuring some of the best theming out of all the parks in Walt Disney World, Disney’s Animal Kingdom raised the bar once again when Pandora – The World of Avatar opened, ushering in a new wave of immersive theme park storytelling.
However, Disney has seemingly backtracked on this announcement, canceling and/or denying it entirely.
Update: A Disneyland official reached out earlier today to say there was no announcement made on behalf of Disneyland Resort regarding the location of the Avatar experience. It’s unclear exactly what was said during the panel – or if someone misspoke or someone misheard. https://t.co/u30FDrbduM
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) November 13, 2023
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Mere hours after the announcement, reporter Scott Gustin confirmed via a Disneyland official that the Avatar announcement didn’t actually happen and a location had not been confirmed. We have to admit this is a truly bewildering turn of events, and we are at a loss for words as to how and why this could have happened.
No word has been given regarding what this Avatar experience entails, though we highly doubt it will be as immersive or as expansive as Pandora – The World of Avatar at Walt Disney World. This land features two exhilarating attractions, a quick service location, and a shopping area. There are countless details and points of interest within this land, giving guests a lot to explore during their day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
This is why the idea of a new Avatar experience being placed in Disney California Adventure was so surprising, given the very small amount of room to expand the theme park. However, Disney backing out of this announcement may mean that this proposed Avatar experience may actually be a lot more fleshed out than we first thought. We’re incredibly excited for the future of Avatar within the Disney theme parks, especially when considering how great of a job Walt Disney Imagineers did at the Walt Disney World Resort.
This post originally appeared on Inside the Magic.