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Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Walt Disney World
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(3/28/2025) Opening Date For Two New Shows Confirmed
(3/9/2025) New Monsters Inc Coaster Details plus Launch Date For New Millennium Falcon Mission Confirmed
(2/27/2025) Hollywood Studios Set To Repaint The Giant Guitar
(2/14/2025) Walt Disney World's Version of Galaxy's Edge Has Strangely Fallen Behind the Times
(1/26/2025) Hollywood Studios Sets Closing Dates For Departing Attractions
(12/4/2024) Disney Villains and Little Mermaid Show Updates
Ride Rehabs - These dates are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as refurbishments are subject to change.
Nothing is known to be planned at this time…
 General Park News - (2/14/2025) Cinemablend has posted an interesting argument regarding the status of the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge lands and how they currently differ at Disneyland vs Walt Disney World. While there are minor differences to each of the two versions of Galaxy’s Edge, for the most part they represent the same general version of the planet Batuu… with one very strange difference.
As you may recall, when both versions of Galaxy’s Edge opened, for better or worse, the land was designed to fit right into the timeline of the third and final trilogy of Star Wars films (Episodes 7, 8 and 9) which focus primarily upon the key characters of Rey, Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron and Finn as the New Republic struggles against the First Order.
A key complaint at the time was that while the land was supposed to appear to modern adults who had grown up with the original Star Wars trilogy, those worlds and characters that they knew so well had mostly been left in the past, with only the occasional appearance of Chewbacca or R2-D2 as a tie-in to the the previous adventures.
As Cinemablend was quick to point out, while the Walt Disney World version of Galalxy’s Edge has stayed the course and remained mostly true to this original version, the Disneyland version has instead chosen to essentially… “break the timeline” and introduce live action characters from past Star Wars eras to walk the streets of Batuu. This would include appearances by The Mandalorian and Grogu, Boba Fett, Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano and starting in March, when the annual Season of the Force event takes place, Disney has teased that we will see Luke Skywalker appear in Galaxy’s Edge at last. (See teaser below)
As wacky as breaking the timeline would seem to be, the gimmick is working which then begs the question… why has Walt Disney World’s version of Galaxy’s Edge been left out of all the fun? Cinemablend suspects it may have started off as an issue related to the Galactic Starcruiser resort, where the storyline of that experience was also designed to tie directly into the same final trilogy timeline as Galaxy’s Edge, but as the Starcruiser was ejected out past the outer rim over a year ago, never to be seen again, this excuse no longer holds water.
I would like to point out one other aspect that Cinemablend did not… over the years Disney has continued to add updates to the Star Tours attraction, which itself is a time-twisting merger of adventures, worlds and characters from all three trilogies of films as well as the more popular Disney+ spin-off shows. The latest additions to Star Tours in 2024 added characters and locations from Andor, Ahsoka and The Mandalorian. Add in the fact that the attraction’s crazy randomizer blends all these sequences together so that it is nearly impossible to ever get the same experience twice, and you’ve already got the ultimate Star Wars attraction experience in a blender… and I don’t think I’ve really ever heard anyone complain about the logic of that. You are just along for the wild, and enjoy every second of it, so why shouldn’t Galaxy’s Edge be the same? After all, Star Wars was always about an adventure in a crazy galaxy “far far away” where you never quite knew what to expect.
Summer 2025 - The Little Mermaid - A Musical Adventure - (3/28/2025) Walt Disney World has confirmed that the Disney Villains; Unfairly Ever After and The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure shows will open to guests on May 27, 2025.
(12/4/2024) On the subject of new shows, WDW has also reconfirmed that the new “The Little Mermaid - A Musical Adventure” show is expected to open in Summer 2025. This update to the former Voyage of the Little Mermaid show will once again feature live performers along with a huge cast of puppets, all new sets and special effects, as they perform many of your favorite songs from the film, as well as a couple of new ones not performed in the previous show: “Daughters of Triton” and “Kiss the Girl”.
(10/15/2024) AllEars reports that the new “The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure” show coming to Hollywood Studios as a replacement for the closed Voyage of the Little Mermaid show has been pushed back to Summer 2025. When the project was first announced, it was listed as being ready to open in Fall 2024, but obviously that has not happened yet, so the delay makes sense.
Honestly though, I wouldn’t mind seeing the show concept from the Studios scrapped entirely, and the project maybe moved to a new location somewhere at the Magic Kingdom, somewhere in proximity of the Little Mermaid ride. This would allow for this whole section of the Studios to be cleared out and re-imagined as something else entirely, or allow for the Monsters Inc. coaster to maybe fit in here as an expansion of Pixar Place.
(12/23/2023) According to the Disney Parks Blog the former “Voyage of the Little Mermaid” show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will return in the fall of 2024 in a new form called “The Little Mermaid - A Musical Adventure”. The original show closed during the 2020 resort-wide Pandemic closure and failed to reopen along with the rest of the park.
When the new version of the show opens it will feature “new set pieces, cutting-edge effects, and a bold new design that captures Ariel’s imagination and emotions through her unique view of the world around her.” Construction is already under-way inside the theater and the new show will feature popular songs like “Part of You World”, “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, “Kiss the Girl” and more.
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2025 - Disney Villains - (3/28/2025) Walt Disney World has confirmed that the Disney Villains; Unfairly Ever After and The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure shows will open to guests on May 27, 2025.
(12/4/2024) Walt Disney World has posted a fun little teaser video about the Disney Villains show coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Check it out below.
(12/2/2024) Disney has confirmed the name for the new Villains themed show coming to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park in 2025 will be “Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After”. The new show will arrive in the Sunset Showcase theater, previously home to the Lightning McQueen Racing Academy, located just past the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. Look for it to open by Summer 2025.
(9/6/2024) Walt Disney World has confirmed that a new Disney Villains themed show will be coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Summer 2025. Look for the new show to arrive in the Sunset Showcase theater venue, where the new show will feature appearances by “dozens of the most infamous evildoers” Disney has to offer.
Currently the Sunset Showcase theater is home to Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, which will have its last performance on October 7th.
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2026 - Smugglers Run - Mando & Grogu - (3/9/2025) Disney has confirmed that a new adventure mission aboard Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run featuring Mando and Grogu in the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge lands at Disneyland and Disney Hollywood Studios will be available starting on May 22, 2026, the same day that The Mandalorian and Grogu fim will hit the silver screen in theaters.
While we don’t know exactly what the experience will be line, it will play into the storyline told in the new movie apparently. Based on the concept artwork released, we see the Falcon flying towards the Cloud City at Bespin once again, a shot of a sand crawler, which means a stop by Tattooine, and what appears to be an image of the wreckage of the second Death Star floating in orbit over Endor.
According to the post, the events you’ll experience in the new Smuggler’s Run mission won’t be a re-telling of the events of the new film, but instead will be “more like participating in something that’s happening just off-camera from what you see in the film.” I do admit, I like that idea, as it is what really makes the events of Universal’s “Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts” a really fun attraction. It places the riders on your own adventure within the Gringotts bank, at the same time that key events from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is taking place elsewhere within Gringotts, allowing your paths to cross at some key scenes along the way.
(8/11/2024) Ever since I saw Millennium Falcon: Smuggler Run I’ve felt that the video-game style experience really needed to expand and add other ‘missions’ you could experience. At last, Disney agrees, and in 2026, just in time for the launch of The Mandalorian and Grogu movie hitting theatrers, a new new story/attraction featuring Mando and Grogu will also drop into the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
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???? - Monsters Inc. Door Coaster / Pixar Place Expansion - (3/9/2025) Disney has released an interesting technical animation video clip showcasing what the loading station of the new Monsters Inc. inverted roller coaster will be like. In the very brief animation you can see that the trains appear to arrive on the Screen Floor on two side-by-side tracks, but the seats themselves are turned 90º to the side to allow for riders to load in a continuously row on either side of the station. Once loaded, what at first appears to be a single long row of seats will rise vertically up to the roof, not unlike one of the famous Doors from the Scream Floor, and as the train rolls out of site, seats will rotate into the forward facing position in pairs to take on the look of a more standard inverted coaster train.
If you look carefully in the background of the image, you can also see that there is another pair of stations on the other side of the building, which will also rise up separately onto their own tracks along the roof of that side of the building as well, sending the trains into the Door Vault.
(1/26/2025) Disney Hollywood Studios has now confirmed some of the closing dates for select attractions and restaurants leaving the park this year. The closing will begin in the MuppetVision area, with the Mama Melrose Restaurant being the first location to close on May 10, MuppetVision 3D a PizzaRizzo will close the following month on June 7th. This will effectively shut down the park’s entire Muppet themed area and presence in the park for the time being.
At least until the Muppets take over the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, but as of this moment Disney is not ready to give a closing date for when the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith will take their last ride to The Forum.
(11/22/2024) Walt Disney World made a fairly giant announcement this afternoon, tying together the loose threads between a previous announcement and a couple of rumors related to the future development of the Disney Hollywood Studios theme park.
First things first… the sad news, because a favorite long-time park attraction will be leaving soon. Yes, MuppetVision 4D will soon be closing for good. The exact date has not been decided, but the reason MuppetVision 4D is shutting down is that the entire Muppet plaza area will be transformed into the world of Monsters, Inc, with that Monster’s Inc Door Coaster attraction that was announced at D23 to be built at the back end of things. Meanwhile the Monsters land will include new Monsters shopping and dining areas, as well as turning the former MuppetVision theater venue into a new theater show.
As for for Muppets… Disney hasn’t given up on them… rather they are moving to the other side of the park where they will set up shop at the end of Sunset Blvd (See More Here)
(8/14/2024) An interesting looking model of the proposed Monsters Inc. Door Coaster was on display at D23, which you can see in the video below. Disney mentioned that they wanted guests to experience what it was like when those robot-arms would grab and lift the doors from the Scare Floor to the ceiling track and then zoom off to the storage area, and it looks like the station has been designed to do just that based on the look of the model.
The load area appears to divide into two load/unload bays, each of which will have a left and right track position, so I’m guessing whatever elevator style lift they are planning will send one track up when the other goes down. Once at the top, the tracks will all merge into one and then appears to head on over towards the larger door storage building where the majority of the ride will be enclosed, entering from the outside into the top of the storage bay through a hole in the upper right corner, not unlike how Tron Lightcycle/Run does.
Other than the vertical lift out of the station, the layout does not appear to feature any kind of traditional lift hill system, though there are some longer straight track sections that could potentially hold boosters to help the train maintain speed if necessary, as well as serve as a block/brake location in the event of an E-Stop.
(8/11/2024) A new ride concept that has been kicking around since 2001 was just confirmed at D23 last night. Anyone remember the rumored Monsters Inc. Door Coaster concept for Disney’s Hollywood Studios?
This time it isn’t just a new ride, but a whole Monsters Inc. themed mini-land where you can stroll the streets of Monsteropolis and go on a tour of the power plant and get to ride on a suspended coaster through the door vault as seen in the classic film finale.
According to the article, work will begin on the project sometime next year (2025), so I guess the next question is to wonder where exactly in the park this will go? Given the proximity to the Pixar Place and Toy Story Land, I do wonder if it’s time to wipe out the old Animation Courtyard building complex? Of course this could also mark the end of the line of the Muppets Courtyard area too if they wanted to build it on the other side of the park.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see. As for the ride itself, based on the concept artwork this appears to be a Vekoma style family inverted coaster, which fits in with the rumors for the past 20+ years. However, I can’t help but dream of what it could be like if Disney could instead take it to the next level by using Veakom’s new flying coaster system instead, which allows for a more comfortable loading experience. The first one just opened at a park in Germany (Phantasialand) in 2020.
 ???? - Revised Rock ‘n Roller Coaster -
(2/27/2025) While a closing date for Aerosmith to depart the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster has not been announced, Disney did file work permits to bring in a crew to sand and repaint the iconic giant guitar in front of the attraction entrance, which will likely be the first official bit of transformation ahead of the Muppets taking over the ride.
(11/22/2024) Walt Disney World made a fairly giant announcement this afternoon, tying together the loose threads between a previous announcement and a couple of rumors related to the future development of the Disney Hollywood Studios theme park.
MuppetVision 4D is closing, as Monsters Inc is moving in, but Disney hasn’t given up on the Muppets, rather they are moving to the other side of the park where they will set up shop at the end of Sunset Blvd and take over the musical arrangements for the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster attraction. As you may recall over the Summer of 2023 there was a sudden rumor online about how the Muppet’s Electric Mayhem band would could serve as a perfect replacement for Aerosmith when the time comes. Those sentiments were even confirmed by the creator of the Disney+ series about the Mayhem band at the time as being an idea he pitched to Disney management, though the cancelation of the series after one season seemed to put the end to those rumors.
Or so we thought… but you can’t keep the Muppets down and based on the concept art posted, Kermet and Mrs Piggy will be joining the Electric Mayhem on this wild new musical roller coaster adventure. And yes… Animal too. You can’t forget Animal…
As with MuppetVision 4D, no firm closure date has been set, and Disney has only confirmed that guests still have plenty of time to get to the parks to experience the two departing attractions, before it is too late.
(8/3/2024) Aerosmith released an interesting statement yesterday to social media, officially confirming that the band has now decided “to retire from the touring stage.” I’m sure there are a number of issues that led to this decision from the band members, but the note focuses on the injured vocal chords of lead singer, Steven Tyler, as it became medically clear that “a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible.”
While this definitely will not have an immediate effect upon the status of Disney’s Rock ‘n Roller Coaster attraction, I would say that it probably will be a large influence Disney’s eventual decision to change the theme of the ride at some point in the future.
(6/10/2023) Remember when I mentioned the growing online popularity of the idea of replacing Aerosmith with a “Muppets Mayhem” for the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster? According to a report at WDWMagic, in a since-deleted Tweet, Jeff Yorkes, co-creator of the Muppets Mayhem series on Disney+ confirmed that they did pitch this very concept to Disney management back when the show itself was pitched.
According to that article, the deleted tweet apparently said, “Not gonna lie-- this was absolutely part of our original pitch and is another piece of this dream. Fingers-crossed that it happens.”
While this doesn’t confirm that anything will happen to the actual attraction, the fact that the tweet was since deleted seems to clearly indicate that Mr. Yorkes was probably contacted and asked to delete the tweet ASAP, which you can take for what you will.
(5/29/2023) Disney fans were happy to see that the popular Rock ‘n Roller Coaster reopened this weekend after an extended maintenance closure shut the attraction down back in Februrary. While there was a lot of gossip about possibly removing the Aerosmith theming from the ride, especially given some issues that had come to light regarding Steven Tyler’s past, the attraction has reopened without any change to the ride’s theme or music. The extended closure was said to have been scheduled to replace and repair the roller coaster’s aging launch system which had been the cause of growing downtime issues with the ride over the past few years.
That said… and gossip aside, eventually we will see the Aerosmith theme dropped. The replacement opportunities are endless, as they could go with a more generic music theme featuring music from a number of different artists or even a total re-theme of the entire concept as was done when the Paris version was given a new storyline with Iron Man & Captain Marvel. Of course, one fun idea floating around the internet that many have taken a shine to would be to link the existing rock ‘n roll theme to the Muppets universe via the “The Muppets Mayhem” series on Disney+. (As Stephen Tyler says, “Wait a minute… I like that idea!)
(12/31/2022) Remember when I said that Disney would likely keep Aerosmith on board at Rock ‘n Roller Coaster until they got closer to the end of the contract term? Well, I also mentioned that if need be, Disney could always opt to end the deal early, especially if the right conditions arose.
Currently Rock ‘n Roller Coaster isn’t slated to close for rehab until Feb. 20 but regarding those special conditions, one appears to have just arisen. Over the past couple days it has been making headlines that Aerosmith front-man, Steven Tyler, has now been officially accused of sexual assault with a minor over a multi-year event that took place back in the 1970’s.
I’m not going to get into the details, as you can follow the link to Rolling Stone and read it for yourself, but this is coming to light due to a temporary piece of legislation in California that will end later today, that temporarily lifts the statute of limitations and allowing “survivors of childhood sexual abuse to come forward with their allegations.” The end result however could serve to activate a breach of contract / exit clause over the use of the Aerosmith brand, music and band members appearance within Disney’s Rock ‘n Roller Coaster attraction. If Disney opts to shut down the attraction early, or modify the experience in any way, such as the removal of the pre-show footage featuring Steven Tyler and the rest of Aerosmith, this could be an early indicator that bigger changes may be coming sooner than later.
Stay tuned!
(12/29/2022) According to the official website, Disney has confirmed that the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster attraction will close down for a lengthy refurbishment starting Feb. 20, 2023 and wont resume operations until sometime in Summer 2023.
Again, nothing has been mentioned about replacing Aerosmith, or even the idea of updating the entire theme of the ride, but that hasn’t stopped the rabid fans from speculating what might be coming. Over the years, the idea of updating the theme or even just the music of the attraction every time it closes has become a regular event on the various Disney fan sites. As Screamscape has previously pointed out however, typically big theme park IP contracts come in renewable 10-year terms, if the original contract with Aerosmith was signed in 1998/1999 then they should be in the middle of their third term right now, which means Disney has most likely already paid to keep using Aerosmith footage and music through to at least 2028 or 2029.
There isn’t anything that says Disney can’t change it early, and it is always possible that the last renewal term may have been negotiated for a term shorter than 10-years, but typically those kinds of details are kept very hush-hush. For a similar reference however, Disney did have a separate deal with Aerosmith for the Paris version of Rock ‘n Roller Coaster which opened in 2002 and then shut down in late 2019 to transform it into the current Avengers Assemble: Flight Force attraction that opened in 2022. That said, I believe the original intent was to open the Avengers version in 2021, giving them about 18-20 months time from the closure to reopen it before COVID-19 caused it to be delayed for another year. So if Disney were planning on replacing Aerosmith, I can’t help but think they would ride out the current contract until at least 2027.
(9/8/21) Are the days of Aerosmith on Disney’s Rock ‘n Roller Coaster coming to a close? Perhaps, but only when Disney is ready to try something else. Another article posted elsewhere has been making some waves with a somewhat deceptive headline that seems to imply that the longevity of Aerosmith’s music on the coaster may be in Universal’s hands. The truth is in the article, but you have to read it very carefully, because when they say “Universal” they are not talking about Universal Orlando, Universal Studios, NBC/Universal or even parent company Comcast.
Instead they are talking about Universal Music Group, which a long time ago was part of the greater Universal empire when it was all owned by Vivendi, but has long since been spun off as a separate company with no ties at all to the current Universal Studios that is owned by Comcast. So don’t let the UMG’s logo fool you. As for the Aerosmith connection, the aging band signed a deal with UMG that will give them control of the band’s entire catalog starting in 2022.
Now, with that fact out of the way, don’t for a moment think that the Disney ride will have to remove the soundtrack next year. Long ago Disney signed their own contract with Aerosmith to use their name and music on the attraction. If this follows the typical theme park IP contract, the initial contract would have gone into effect either when the ride opened, or maybe the year before (so 1998-1999) and typically those kind of IP deals are signed in 10-year terms. Usually with terms for an automatic renewal built in for a second 10-year term, and then some verbiage in place to allow for further 10-year extensions to be added down the line at a higher price, unless one of the parties is very desperate to break the contract, or found to be in violation of the terms.
So in a worst case pay-out, Disney and Aerosmith have already begun their third term, which would have begun 2018/2019, and would see Disney able to keep using the theme, the band name, the existing soundtrack, and footage of the band in the preshow until at least 2028 or 2029 if need be. I have a feeling some modifications were made to the deal during the last renewal however, as it has been pointed out that Disney stopped selling merchandise with the Aerosmith name in the giftshop a few years ago, and the clone of the ride in Paris ceased operation in 2019 and is currently being renovated to have a Marvel / Iron Man theme for when it re-opens as part of that park’s Avengers Campus.
With the band having been started in the 1970’s and the various members either in the late 60’s to mid 70’s, it does seem like time is catching up with them all, and Disney could very well choose to transform the ride to either have a new musical focus on another band, or a variety of musical bands that could be played at random, or simply change the entire theme of the ride entirely into something new, as they are doing in Paris. But I wouldn’t count on seeing anything change until we get closer to the end of the current contract.
(4/24/19) Our friends at Attractions Magazine were lucky enough to take a little tour of Walt Disney Imagineering not long ago, and while they had to keep the cameras put away for much of the time, they did learn a few fun facts about new Disney projects in the works. One of which was a confirmation that they were working on some new theme ideas for Rock ‘n Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as the company’s license contract with Aerosmith is expiring in the near future.
We already know that the counterpart at the Walt Disney Studios Paris park is being given some kind of new Marvel theme, rumored to be tied to Iron Man or the Avengers, but that also won’t happen in Florida. Nothing was said about when the Aerosmith deal would end, but I believe these kinds of deals are often in 10 or 20 year increments, and since the ride opened in 1999, this year would be the 20 year mark. Of course Disney also always opt to pay for a small term extension if all parties agree so don’t count Aerosmith out just yet.
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