Robert Downey Jr. Crashes Disney Experiences Panel with Avengers Campus Updates

Robert Downey Jr. Crashes Disney Experiences Panel with Avengers Campus Updates

By Disney Destinations March 8^th, 2025

 

Make way, because a genius, billionaire philanthropist is setting up shop in Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure Park.

 

Announced at last year’s D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, two new thrilling attractions will be joining the growing campus at Disneyland Resort. Today, during The Future of World-Building at Disney panel at SXSW, President of Marvel Studio, Kevin Feige, and President and Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Imagineering Bruce Vaughn let the crowd in on more of the storytelling and extensive new technology that will bring these attractions to life.

 

With the one attraction, Avengers infinity Defense, you’ll assemble with the Avengers and battle King Thanos across multiple worlds. Join alongside the likes of Black Panther, Ant-Man, Hulk, and so many other favorites to save the universe – again.

 

But you can’t just wake up one day and know the ins and outs of battling like an Avenger, you know? You’ve got to train. The second attraction going into Avengers Campus Start Flight Lab, will put you inside Tony Stark’s workshop to check out some of the new tech he’s working on and allow your to test it out yourself. And who better to show off his tech than Tony Stark himself?

 

With thunderous applause, Robert Downey Jr. made a surprise appearance at SXSW, calling the Imagineers working on these new experiences, “the living embodiment of the Stark Enterprises mission statement.”

 

“The curiosity, the passion, the inventiveness, the occasional flair for the dramatic, most of all a drive to put something good out into the world to make life better, at the minimum more fun by the mile.” Downey told the crowd. “It’s the privilege a lifetime to be invited to participate.”

 

Downey was also pretty excited just to be invited into the Imagineering world, joking about the stealth of WDI headquarters. “You wanna talk about a closed set? It’s the Area 51 of fun!”

In Stark Flight Lab, guests will sit in “gyro-kinetic pods: and roll along a track before stopping in front of a giant robot ar. This robot arm will hoist you into the air where you’ll make several high-speed maneuvers inspired by Iron Man and some other Avengers (“That I will select based on merit and whomever picks up my FaceTime calls on the first ring,” Downey joked.)

 

“Transferring from a track to a robot arm and then back again – nothing like this has ever been done before in a theme park, and we’re so excited about it,” Bruce explained. “Usually, we hide all the tech behind the scenes so you can focus on the story. Here, the tech IS the story, so we’re putting it front and center.”

 

One piece of tech that has become important to Tony Stark’s lore is his beloved little robotic friend, DUM-E. when Downey first visited Imagineering, he commented how much the robot arm for Stark Flight Lab looked like DUM-E, and that quickly worked its way into the attraction.

 

Using dancers and motion capture, the team made a “virtual mirror” to incorporate some of these movements into early ride mockups. The Imagineers want to make sure the robots in Stark Flight Lab feel as lifelike as possible, just like DUM-E.

 

And this is only just the beginning of what guests will soon see in Avengers campus. “Even after we finish with the Flight Lab, I want to stay with you all for the long haul,” Doney told Feige and Vaughn amid screams from the crowd, “This isn’t a one-time deal. You need more me.”

Go Off-Roading with New Vehicles for Cars Ride

 Go Off-Roading with New Vehicles for Cars Ride

By Disney Destinations March 8^th, 2025

 

Life is an off-road rally race, and Lightning McQueen, Mater, and the rest of the Cars from Pixar Animation Studios’ Cars are going to ride it all night long.

 

First announced at last year’s D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, and brand-new Cars themed area is speeding in to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Here, the Cars crew leaves Radiator Springs behind and heads off into the frontier to put their wheels to the test.

 

Now at The Future of World-Building at Disney panel at SXSW, Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Doctor, and Imagineer Michael Hundgen teased that guests will need to strap in because they’re in the process of creating a new type of ride vehicle for this experience.

 

“Our primary goal is creating an emotional experience for our guests,” Hundgen told the crowd. “For this Cars attraction we need to invent a new type of ride vehicle. No one builds these in a factory because it has to do so much more than just carrying you from one place to another. We have to create a car that conveys a feeling when you ride it.”

 

The team took a trip out to the Arizona desert to jump in a real off-road vehicle to see what it felt like driving over the rocky terrain. These are all things Lightning McQueen and Mater haven’t experienced before like racing over rocky terrain, ascending to mountain peaks, and dodging around geysers – how do you take these real-world elements and put a Cars spin on it?

 

From there, the Imagineers worked with a motocross company to build a real dirt track to race around on and took that data back to begin working on creating how the ride vehicles will eventually move and race.

 

“We’re using a customized production vehicle,” Hundgen continued. “It has sensors all over it, and we’re taking it for test drives on our dirt track to gather data on how the vehicle responds to different terrain. This is where we turn that feeling we want into real-world engineering,” Michael explained.

 

But all this talk about cars, what do they look like?

 

That’s where the Pixar team steps in. for some show and tell to get the crowd revved up, Doctor shared some early concept sketches with the audience, teasing that they’re creating “new race car personalities for this attraction. Each vehicle in the ride will have its own name and number, just like a real reace.”

 

 

Scary-Good New Monsters, Inc. Coaster Includes Vertical Lift

Scary-Good New Monsters, Inc. Coaster Includes Vertical Lift

By Disney Destinations March 8^th, 2026

 

When the team at Pixar Animation Studios start dreaming up new worlds and places to visit in the movies, there’s a little voice inside their head (an emotion, maybe) asking, “Is this something Imagineers could create, and we could walk into?” if the answer is no, they keep working.

 

But if the answer is yes… well it’s time to partner with the team at Walt Disney Imagineering to see if it’s possible to bring that space to life in one of the Disney Parks around the world.

 

Taking to the stage during The Future of World-Building at Disney panel at SXSW, Pixar Chief Creative Officer Peat Doctor and Imagineer Michael Hundgen walked the crowd through their latest upcoming immersive space to occupy Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Monstropolis.

 

First announced at last year’s D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, Imagineers are hard at work bringing the world of Pixar Animation Studios’ Monsters, Inc. to life – and that includes its monster inhabitants, Jame P. Sullivan, Mike Wazawski, and more. While getting to walk through the streets of Monstropolis is exciting enough, the land will include a signature attraction where guests embark on the thrilling rollercoaster ride through the Monsters, Inc. door vault.

 

“Imagineers have been itching to turn that moment into an attraction ever since we saw it for the first time,” Hundgen teased.

 

While many details about the attraction are still locked up in a laugh canister, the Imagineering team is ready to reveal the load area for the attraction. The upcoming door ride will feature the first-ever suspended coaster at a Disney Park, and the first-ever vertical lift. Get ready to scream – not out of fright, but fun.

 

Showing off a new animatic of the attraction, guests will board the vehicle before being hoisted into the air (just like in the movie!) to zoom into the door vault. It’s going to be, “an experience that’s as memorable and fun as the film,” Hundgen continued.

 

“I can tell you that everyone at Pixar is excited about how this is coming together,” Doctor told the crowd. “It really is like a dream come true for us.”

New Details for Mando and Grogu’s Millennium Falcon Mission Revealed

 New Details for Mando and Grogu’s Millennium Falcon Mission Revealed

By: Disney Destinations March 8^th, 2025 Announced at SXSW Event

A new adventure is coming your way, so prepare to jump to lightspeed. First announced at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, a new adventure featuring Mando, the titular Mandalorian from The Mandalorian, is coming to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at both Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort. And yes, Grogu’s coming along for the ride, too. This exciting update to Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run will debut on May 22, 2026.

 

During The Future of World-Building at Disney panel at SXSW, The Mandalorian creator and Disney Legend Jon Favreau was joined onstage by Imagineers Leslie Evans and Asa Kalma to talk about what’s coming soon to Batuu.

 

“One of the cool things about Disney is how we can tell our stories in so many different formats,” Favreau told the crowd. “We’re already taking Mando and Grogu from the TV screen to the movie screen, and at the same time, [The Mandalorian executive producer} Dave [Filoni} and I are working with Asa to bring the story to the Disney Parks, too.”

 

It’s something that can only be done at Disney, bringing avid Star Wars fans closer to the stories they know and love via the innovative magic at Disney Parks. This update is only a parsec or two away – both the movie and this update to the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run will debut on May 22, 2026.

 

“Opening an attraction and such a massive movie on the same day wouldn’t be possible without the relationship we have inside Disney.” Kalama added. “Jon and Dave have shared their story with us, and now we’ve all worked together to come up with a new mission for Smugglers Run that plays into this narrative.”

Working alongside The Mandalorian team, the Imagineers captured scenes for the attraction on the movie set, and you might see some familiar (and beloved) locations aboard the Falcon. Care for trip to Cloud City, anyone?

But that’s not the only thing making the jump from the parks to the movies, and vice versa. You might have seen the playful BDX droids puttering around Disneyland before, and soon they’ll make a trip around the world to visit Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. And that’s in addition to the little droids appearing in The Mandalorian, too.

 

Going from Imagineering to the parks, to their feature film debut, is a lot for the droids. With all this work, they’re sure to need a tune-up eventually and don’t worry, Imagineering already has the right creature for the job.

 

As previously seen in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the latest season of The Mandalorian, say hello to an Anzellan, who specializes in tuning up droids. Just maybe don’t make him too cranky.

 

May the Force be with you. See you onboard the Falcon, on May dd, 2026/