The land Disney Parks fans have dreamed of for years has officially been announced! A villains land is coming to Magic Kingdom! This was announced at the 2024 D23 Expo. In this post, we’ll share the brief news and add our commentary in the next few days. Let’s get to the news…

Once upon a nightmare… A place where poison apples are aplenty and magic potions can ruin your whole day. For all those things hiding in the shadows, it’s time to join them in a forthcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom Park in Walt Disney World Resort.

As Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced during Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, this new land will be home to the Disney Villains we know and loathe from our favorite Walt Disney Animation Studios classic films — “Which means happily ever after may feel like just a distant dream.”

The evil ambition of all these Villains means that the possibilities are endless for the stories that can be told — and visitors to the dark and thorny land should be prepared for whatever chaos might come their way. 

The new land will encompass all your dreams- er, nightmares. The space will be home to two major attractions, dining, and shopping on an incredibly twisted grand scale. “Be prepared, you poor unfortunate souls,” Josh teased. “It’s going to be a fearless new vision for what a Disney experience can be.”

Preparation is already underway at Magic Kingdom for this new land. Maybe think twice before you indulge in that next shiny red apple…

Commentary

The Parks portion of the D23 Expo saved this bombshell for last. Like a great band that holds their best song for the encore, this announcement brought the house down. Villains Land at Magic Kingdom drew the biggest cheer of the night, and for good reason.

For as long as I’ve written about, and been interested in, Disney Parks, a Villains Land has been talked about. A Bald Mountain roller coaster, featuring a mix of Disney villains, has to be one of the most rumored attractions in the history of Disney Parks fandom. Fans have looked at events like Villains Night as hopeful signs that one day a Villains Land would be added to a park. Now, we’ve got one!

There are several reasons why it makes more sense than ever before. The first is obvious, with Magic Kingdom being on the verge of a large expansion there was no better place to put Villains Land. That park needs a shot in the arm, both in terms of energy and character. This addition should provide that in droves.

Disney’s promise (at least that’s what we’re taking it as) to invest billions into the domestic parks made this move obvious. The current regime believes in tying things to IP and Villains Land is a happy marriage of that and pleasing park fans. This land should be an encompassing theme that’s still broad enough to feel like a classic castle park land.

Having the expansion connect to Fantasyland in some way would make the most sense and add some fun cohesion! I know this is a “Beyond Big Thunder” expansion in all likelihood but there’s space to have it connect to the classic Fantasyland. That should make crowd flow much better at Magic Kingdom, a park that desperately needs it. While I love Rivers of America, I’m in favor of shortening it if that means that the park will no longer have dead ends.

The concept art is promising but we won’t take much from that yet. I’m more encouraged that D’Amaro already said that the land will include two attractions, dining and more. Can you imagine how popular a villains restaurant would be? I’d think that is a no-brainer. There’s so many possibilities inside of this land and I’m very optimistic in a whatever way they take this project.

Personally, I’m hoping that one of the two attractions is a dark ride. Being an attraction about villains, it should be dark! Forgive the bad joke. I think Magic Kingdom’s biggest hole in the attraction roster is the lack of innovative dark rides. Adding one here would go a long way to solving that issue.

While this project will be a long ways down the road, it’s hard not to be extremely excited about the addition. This should greatly improve Walt Disney World’s castle park and be unlike any land we’ve seen!

Are you excited for Villains Land at Magic Kingdom? Let us know, along with any thoughts you might have, in the comments below! If you are planning a trip to Disney World, then check out our planning guide. Looking for discount Walt Disney World tickets? Check out this site! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. You can do all of that on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!