The new Marvel superhero land coming this week to Disney California Adventure promises to wow visitors with Doctor Strange conjuring up magic spells, Black Panther training new recruits, Black Widow battling villains and Spider-Man swinging across the sky.
Avengers Campus debuts Friday, June 4 at the Anaheim theme park after a nearly yearlong delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The superhero themed land was initially scheduled to open in July 2020.
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Pent-up demand to see the new Marvel land at the Disneyland resort is high. Online advance reservations for single-park Disney California Adventure tickets are sold out on June 4 and for two weeks after the debut of Avengers Campus. Parkhopper reservations are available for June 5-7, but sold out for the following two weeks.
The first phase of the new land will open with a Spider-Man interactive dark ride, Doctor Strange magic show, Ant-Man and the Wasp restaurant and Marvel character meet-and-greets and rooftop stunt shows. A second phase will open at an unannounced date with an Avengers E-ticket attraction. The existing Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout! indoor drop tower ride will serve as the anchor for the new Avengers Campus.
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The backstory for the new Marvel land envisions the Avengers Campus as a training ground for a new generation of superheroes, a laboratory for innovative hero technology and a forum for inspiring ideas about how to safeguard Earth. The C.A.M.P.U.S. in the new land’s name is actually an acronym for Centralized Assembly Mobilized to Prepare, Unite and Safeguard.
Avengers Campus isn’t locked into any particular timeline in the Marvel comics or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “The Snap” in “Avengers: Infinity War” never happened. All your favorite Marvel characters are free to come and go from Avengers Campus as they please.
Marvel’s multiverse and alternate timelines mean Avengers Campus never has to worry about a superhero or villain getting killed off in a movie or comic. Avengers Campus lives in its own version of the multiverse while still remaining aware of the history it shares with the events of Marvel films and comics.
DCA’s new Marvel land will take inspiration from Disneyland’s Tomorrowland — with both lands sharing themes of innovation, invention and discovery.
Disneyland deployed an unusual approach to assembling the team charged with opening Avengers Campus — asking new employees to develop a secret identity and super powers for their alter egos while working in the themed land.
Global initiative
The Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure will be part of a larger worldwide Marvel presence at Disney theme parks around the globe.
Hong Kong Disneyland was the first Marvel land to become operational with the Iron Man Experience and Ant-Man and the Wasp Nano Battle attractions at the Stark Expo themed land. The global Marvel backstory being told at Disney’s theme parks begins with Hydra’s attack at Hong Kong Disneyland.
An identical Spider-Man attraction to the one at DCA will be built at Walt Disney Studios Park theme park. The France park will convert the existing Rock ‘n Roller Coaster to an Iron Man theme.
The Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster is under construction at the Xandarian Outpost area planned for Epcot in Florida.
Shanghai Disneyland’s Marvel presence will be limited to character meet-and-greet opportunities.
Spider-Man ride
The new Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure attraction coming to Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure will let riders sling virtual webs at escaped Spider-Bots that have run amok.
Spider-Man actor Tom Holland appears in a pre-show introduction and demonstrates the game play for the interactive dark ride — explaining how to nab the pesky Spider-Bots.
The spider-like assembly droids find materials, deconstruct them and build new gear from the parts. The multi-tool legs on the S.P.D.R. Bots include a plasma cutter, circular saw, screwdriver and welder. S.P.D.R. stands for Scan, Procure, Deconstruct and Replicate.
Visitors will enter the Spider-Man attraction through a WEB Open House where new enhancements to Spider-Man’s suit are on display. The Worldwide Engineering Brigade — or WEB — serves as the framing mechanism for the Spider-Man attraction’s backstory. WEB employs amateur inventors who create hero tech for aspiring superhero recruits. WEB partners with Stark Industries, Pym Technologies and the Wakanda Design Group, according to the attraction’s backstory.
The Web Slingers attraction will use gesture-recognition technology to track the body and eye movements of riders as they sling virtual webs from their wrists by punching and karate chopping the air at digital targets in the attraction.
Want to snag the high score on Web Slingers? The park will sell $65 web shooters and repulsor cannons that will unlock superhero powers and improve scores on the Web Slingers ride.
Over the past year, Marvel has been using the new “W.E.B. of Spider-Man” comic series to offer hints about the Web Slingers ride.
When the ride opens, Web Slingers will employ a virtual queue to help manage anticipated high demand.
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Spidey nearly had another home in Avengers Campus. Walt Disney Imagineering considered Spider-Man and Doctor Strange themes for DCA’s Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror ride before settling on a Guardians of the Galaxy backstory.
Web Slingers won’t be the world’s first Spidey ride. The new DCA ride will inevitably draw comparisons to the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park — widely considered to be one of the best rides in the world.
Doctor Strange Mystic Arts show
Doctor Strange will host an outdoor show that is expected to use special effects and projections. The Doctor Strange Mystic Arts show will take place in a sacred Sanctum Sanctorum built by ancient sorcerers.
The ruined remains of the crumbling Sanctum are normally hidden from mortals, but Doctor Strange has undone a spell to reveal the Sanctum, according to the show’s backstory. Doctor Strange teaches the audience how to harness energy from other dimensions, bend the laws of time and space and unravel the mysteries of the multiverse.
The sorcerer supreme will perform illusions and sorcery during the magic show. Imagineering officials said Doctor Strange could use a mystical portal to transport Marvel heroes and villains to Avengers Campus.
Spider-Man stuntronic show
A Spider-Man stuntronic robot will somersault and fly 65 feet in the air above the new Web Slingers attraction building in Avengers Campus.
The autonomous audio-animatronic stunt robot developed by Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development can soar through the air, strike aerial poses and calculate trajectories to hit a prescribed target using on-board hardware. The stuntronic robots use accelerometers, gyroscopes and laser range finders to rotate in midair and perform aerial tricks after being slung from a wire.
After the aerial acrobatics show, Spider-Man will swing down off the building to ground level for meet-and-greet opportunities with visitors.
Avengers rooftop stunt show
Marvel superheroes and supervillains will battle in a rooftop stunt show next to a Quinjet docked on top of the Avengers Headquarters building.
Black Widow, Black Panther and Captain America will fight Taskmaster, the primary villain of the new Marvel themed land and the mysterious masked antagonist in Marvel’s upcoming “Black Widow” movie. Taskmaster will use his innate ability to mimic the fighting style of his foes to battle the Avengers, according to the backstory for the stunt show.
Stunt performers will use swords, shields and martial arts weapons during the staged fight while leaping from the rooftop ramparts of the Avengers HQ building. Disney has auditioned stunt performers for the roles of Captain America, Black Widow, Black Panther and Taskmaster.
Dora Milaje training sessions
Young warriors anxious to join the Dora Milaje will be able to train with Black Panther and Wakanda’s elite royal guards in Avengers Campus.
Dora Milaje leader General Okoye will lead the training encounter that will include lessons in Wakanda wisdom. The daily training sessions will take place in the courtyard at the center of campus marked by a giant Avengers symbol.
The Dora Milaje training sessions are expected to be similar to the Jedi Training Academy demonstrations once held in Tomorrowland at Disneyland.
Character photo ops
The new Marvel land has been conceived as a living environment where stunt shows, training sessions and special effects-enhanced encounters appear to happen spontaneously.
Avengers Campus will be teeming with Marvel character meet-and-greet photo opportunities — with more than a dozen superheros and supervillains making appearances.
Four Marvel heroes (Iron Man, Ant-Man, The Wasp and General Okoye) and a villain (Taskmaster) that don’t regularly appear in Disney California Adventure will now call Avengers Campus home.
Marvel characters that currently appear in DCA’s Hollywood Land will move into Avengers Campus. Returning characters making the move will include Black Widow, Black Panther, Thor, Loki, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Star-Lord, Gamora and Groot.
Iron Man will meet visitors in his new Mark 80 armor on the first floor of Avengers Headquarters. Ant-Man and the Wasp will frequent the area around Pym Test Kitchen. Star-Lord, Gamora and Groot will continue to hang out near the Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout attraction. Thor and Loki will be found near Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, where kids can try to lift Thor’s hammer at a photo op location.
New Marvel movies and Disney+ series could bring dozens more characters to Avengers Campus.
Walt Disney Imagineering has teased a Groot walking audio-animatronic that could someday make appearances in Avengers Campus.
Restaurants and food stands
The menu in the Marvel themed land will feature a green soda linked to the Incredible Hulk, shawarma wraps inspired by an Avengers movie and food shrunken to the size of Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Pym Test Kitchen, themed to Ant-Man and the Wasp, will serve food that has been shrunk or expanded in size. The foods will be resized using Pym Particles, the same technology used to shrink Ant-Man and the Wasp, according to the backstory for the restaurant. Red Pym Particles shrink items while blue ones expand them.
The interior design of Pym Test Kitchen will emphasize the shrinking and expanding abilities of Ant-Man and the Wasp. Pretzels traveling along an overhead conveyor belt will be super-sized or miniaturized after passing through a quantum tunnel. A giant six-pack mounted to the ceiling will feed a soda dispenser. Massive ketchup and mustard bottles will supply condiment dispensers. Restaurant menus will be displayed on 6-foot-tall mobile phones.
Among the most talked about items on the Pym Test Kitchen menu: A giant $100 Quantum-sized Pym-ini Sandwich.
Pym Test Kitchen will serve Pingo Doce, the “soda with a kick” referenced in Incredible Hulk comics and Marvel movies. The drink has a hint of lime, vanilla and “gamma radiation,” according to the soda’s backstory.
Next door at Pym Tasting Lab, beer cocktails will be served in beaker glasses using a reverse draft system that fills the glass from the bottom. The superhero cocktail bar will also have eight draft beers on tap, including a cold-fermented lager, blood orange hefeweizen, hazy IPA and amber ale.
Avengers Campus will also be home to a pair of Marvel-themed food carts: Shawarma Palace and Terran Treats.
Shawarma Palace, which references a restaurant where the Avengers hung out after the Battle of New York, will serve a chicken shawarma wrap and an Impossible plant-based falafel wrap. Both wraps come with creamy lemon tahini dipping sauce and pickled vegetables.
Terran Treats, which refers to a Marvel term for humans, will serve Sweet Spiral Ration churros and Cosmic Cream Orb cream puffs with whipped raspberry cheesecake mousse. The food cart will be run by collector Taneleer Tivan near the Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout attraction.
A $28 Iron Man Infinity Gauntlet soda holder and other Marvel souvenir collectibles will be sold in Avengers Campus.
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Web Suppliers, the land’s main shop — will be located across from the Web Slingers attraction. The store will sell remote-controlled Spider-Bot toys designed to look like the arachnoid robots that run amok in the new Spider-Man ride.
Avengers E-Ticket Ride
A new first-of-its-kind Avengers E-ticket ride will be added to the Avengers Campus as part of a second phase of the new Marvel themed land.
Riders will climb aboard a Quinjet, fly to Wakanda and join a team of Marvel superheroes in a battle against giant winged insects with razor-sharp teeth. Concept art suggests riders will sit in seats that double as a jet pack and weapons system.
Disney has not announced a name or opening date for the new Avengers E-ticket attraction.