As Walt Disney World continues the process of demolishing Tom Sawyer Island and filling in the Rivers of America, a new update from Disney says that construction of a Villains-themed land at Magic Kingdom is “on the horizon”. Here’s the latest!
Villains Land Construction Timeline (So Far)
Construction of Villains Land at Magic Kingdom has not yet begun. This is, perhaps, obvious to readers of this site who know that Disney hasn’t begun demolishing Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America just yet. In this article, we wanted to provide a look at Disney’s latest statement, how it compares to previous statements, and the timeline of work so far.
Villains Land Construction Is “On The Horizon”
The latest update comes from a single sentence on the Disney Parks Blog. While Walt Disney Imagineers pulled back the curtain a bit on the research trips they’ve taken for Villains Land, the Parks Blog confirmed that construction hasn’t begun yet.
The most anticipated news of the panel came out of Walt Disney World, where the new show “Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After” recently premiered and construction for the previously revealed villains-themed land is on the horizon.
Of course, “construction” here likely means something along the line of “new infrastructure for Villains Land”. In the past, we here at BlogMickey.com have used “construction” a little bit more loosely, generally meaning that “construction vehicles or efforts have begun in support of the new offering”. Our description is far more general than Disney’s, but both serve to provide markers in the Villains Land construction timeline.
Speaking of the timeline, let’s recap the story so far.
SEPTEMBER 2022 | Villains Land is first teased at the 2022 D23 Expo. It’s here that Blue Sky concepts were first presented for the “Beyond Big Thunder Mountain” project. While the project has morphed to drop previously explored themes such as Coco and Encanto, Villains Land was born here.
AUGUST 2024 | Villains Land was confirmed to be moving forward at the 2024 D23 Expo. This is where Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro shared a first look at concept art for the new land, confirming that the project is moving forward from the Blue Sky concept presented two years earlier.
NOVEMBER 2024 | D’Amaro took the stage at the D23 event in Brazil, saying that Walt Disney World would break ground on the new Villains Land “very, very soon”.
AUGUST 2024 to FEBRUARY 2025 | Disney and a Florida permitting agency went back and forth on a water management permit for the northwest corner of Magic Kingdom. This permit needed to receive a green light from the state before Disney could begin work to support Villains Land construction. Disney received the green light in February 2025.
APRIL 2025 | Backstage land clearing begins. Disney is building a few different construction laydown yards to support work on the Villains Land project and the Piston Peak National Park Cars-themed expansion of Frontierland.
JUNE 2025 | Walt Disney World announces a closing date for Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America.
JULY 2025 | Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America are closed permanently.
AUGUST 2025 | Walt Disney World begins draining the Rivers of America.
That brings us to today. As we previously noted, Disney provided an update today saying that construction of a Villains-themed land is “on the horizon” at Walt Disney World. If we had to guess, we won’t see a proper groundbreaking for Villains Land until 2026 at the earliest. It’s possible that Villains Land “construction, as defined by Disney, doesn’t begin until 2027 or later, with an opening timeframe of 2030 or (likely) beyond.
In an August 2024 article, I put the over/under on Villains Land on Summer 2030. I’m tempted to shift that a year and put the new over/under on Villains Land as Summer 2031.
For everything we know about the upcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, check out our dedicated Villains Land page below!
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!
Love Disney’s idea of “very, very soon.”. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The most important thing to Walt Disney was the story, and that seems to be the exact opposite of what the Disney management is doing now. Plucking all of the Disney villains out of each story and putting them all in one land is really generating an entirely new story with some old characters. It’s really not going to be a Disney thing when they’re done with it, which means it’s really not going to be that great. If you want to see how this kind of thing comes out, just look at Tiana’s bayou adventure. That right now has absolutely nothing to do with the princess and the frog except for a few characters, who aren’t even dressed as they were in the movie. In other words, they’re just calling him the same characters and they came up with a generic ride with no story that, as a result, is extremely boring. I honestly think that the Disney company needs to start all over again from the top down by removing all of the old people and bringing in ones who are actually competent to follow Walt’s dream.
As Disney drags their feet on new projects and doing refurbishments on different attractions, yeah they need to do maintainence on rides, but too many at once, Universal has jumped ahead of the theme park race, with epic universe being open, people have an even bigger choice now on how they spend their money on vacations, go to Disney where there are 5 or 6 attractions down for a refurb or go to universal and ride attractions that are not being refurbed, I haven’t really checked the price for epic, but I can tell you Disney is out pricing the middle-class with price hikes and not bringing perks back that they took away, investors be damned, Walt wanted his parks to be affordable so families can enjoy them, and as for Bob Iger, hit the road and retire and bring in someone who has the thinking of Walt and Roy Disney, not someone who just wants a large paycheck and one more thing, take care of the cast members, they work tirelessly to make the Disney experience enjoyable
I totally agree with you