A newly filed permit with the county shows that Disney could be turning a corner in the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind project at EPCOT. The permit, filed by Walt Disney Imagineering, asks for the demolition of one of the construction trailers temporarily installed back with the project began. As you can see at the top left of the historical aerial photos below from bioreconstruct, Disney set up a small project camp behind the attraction to facilitate with administrative purposes, among other things.
Here’s a wider look at the construction site, with existing Energy Pavilion building in the middle of the photo, and newly constructed “gravity building” in the upper right of the photo. The gravity building is where the vast majority of the roller coaster layout is contained, with pre-show areas and load/unload contained in the diamond-shaped Energy Pavilion.
The Cosmic Rewind project has been quite the undertaking, with the first rumors of a Guardians of the Galaxy-themed project surfacing in mid-2016.
Here’s a look back at the area from before construction started, showing just how much work has been done to the northeast section of EPCOT.
With most of the focus seemingly turning to the Energy Pavilion and related facade and interior work, it’s possible that the demolition of this construction trailer signals that a significant portion of the project is now completed.
We know that Disney has yet to film any actor segments for the ride and although quite a bit of existing verbiage on the Disney Parks Blog says that the attraction will be ready in time for the start of the 50th Anniversary celebrations in October 2021, it’s unlikely that the attraction will open this year. Instead, Disney overlooked both TRON Lightcycle Run and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in a list of things they were looking forward to in 2021.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!