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I've never been on the Twilight Zone Hollywood Tower of Terror ride at Disney's California Adventure theme park. I probably won't ever either, given that I'm probably not going to visit sometime in the next few months, and will really have no desire to go on the ride after it's been decked with Marvel branding, as it reportedly will be throughout the next year.
The rumor originates from the blog Micechat, which focuses on covering happenings in and around the Disney galaxy. Apparently the tower will be closed sometime this fall, will be stripped of its Twilight Zone story both inside and out, and will reopen sometime in May of 2017 totally complete with a Guardians of the Galaxy theme. Theoretically this will coincide with the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. II movie.
Supposedly this is all a part of a plan to get more Marvel into Disney's California Adventure park. Though Disney acquired the highly lucrative Universe five years ago, the company has slacked on building physical attractions at its theme parks that capitalize on its ownership of the franchise. That's all changing, and as more money gets poured into producing marvelous superhero flicks, so too will the landscape of Disney's theme parks evolve.
Micechat writes:
This Tower of Terror proposal is part of a multi-year plan to get more Marvel into DCA, being pushed heavily by [Disney Parks and Resorts Chair] Bob Chapek. Since Chapek arrived a year ago as the new Parks Chairman, he’s been shocked to learn that after five years of owning Marvel there still isn’t a new Marvel ride in the California parks, and that the only thing TDA has done with Marvel is slap together some cheap meet n’ greets over the years. The plan now is to adjust the Marvel mega-coaster from its original spot in the Timon parking lot to fit into the northern end of Hollywood where Stage 17, Monsters Inc., and the unused Stage 12 buildings are. This would save Timon for future DCA expansion, and better use the under-utilized space on the opposite side of Hollywood Land.
We've known that Disney is looking to redo portions of its parks for a little while now. Last August, rumors started floating around that Disney was looking to convert a large swatch of Disneyland into a sanctioned Star Wars zone, which they started building last month. Marvel would respectfully take over California Adventure.
Todd Regan, Micechat's proprietor, explained to the L.A Times how it's basically already set in stone. "It's really a no-brainer that Star Wars will take over at Disneyland and Marvel will probably go into Disney California Adventure," he said to the Times.
Cool, I guess. Enjoy Marvelland.
