3. Avengers E-Ticket

When Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opened in 2019, reviews for Disney's twin, billion-dollar lands were shockingly mixed. Sure, that's partly because the lands are (controversially) cemented in Disney's come-and-gone sequel trilogy timeline  and thus bars the series' classic heroes and villains from appearing, and partly because the land is almost hiliariously "paywalled," with its most in-demand experiences – including its Lightning Lanes – costing big bucks. (We detailed Galaxy's Edge's big, showy  souvenirs here, and its more affordable little secret take-homes here.)

But the biggest complaint leveled against the land was that it was missing its star attraction! The equivalent of opening Cars Land with just Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, or Diagon Alley with only the Hogwarts Express, or Pandora having only Na'vi River Journey, the land just felt totally incomplete with only the mediocre Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run as its only ride. Obviously the opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance added great esteem to the land and made it feel more "complete." But clearly, Disney didn't learn a long-term lesson.

Disney California Adventure's Avengers Campus has followed the "new" model of launching lands at Disney Parks – basically, just opening things as they're finished across multi-year phases. It began with the opening of Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! in 2017, which – like its predecessor, the Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – was grouped into the park's 1940s-stylized Hollywood Land. Imagineers promised that eventually, a Marvel super hero themed land would take shape around the tower, but details of that weren't even made clear until the 2019 D23 Expo. 

Avengers Campus isn't quite like Galaxy's Edge or Cars Land or Pandora. It's built on a much smaller scale, a smaller piece of real estate, and a smaller budget. We've already celebrated the land's timeline fluidity – much, much different than Galaxy's Edge's strict adherance to canon – while also tempering expectations with what to expect (and what not to) when you plan a visit to Avengers Campus.

One of the things not to expect is... well... an anchoring ride. Sure, the land absorbed the existing Mission: BREAKOUT!, and debuted with the all-ages, no-height-requirement Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure... but if you come to Avengers Campus looking for an all-out, action-packed, Avengers ride, don't hold your breath.

When details of the land were announced in 2019, Imagineers went so far as to show two versions of the same piece of concept art: a "before" and "after," the latter of which (above) adds a massive, gleaming, white showbuilding with the Avengers "A." The idea at the time was that the glass-and-steel Avengers Headquarters with a parked Quinjet built into the land was meant to be more than a photo op and stage; that eventually, it would serve as the entrance to something huge.

Said to be a multi-stage, "U-Ticket" style experience like Rise of the Resistance, the lengendary Avengers ride would've loaded guests into a Quinjet to race to Wakanda. There, the ride would reportedly have transformed...

... ejecting guests from the plane in solo "Jet-Pack" seats affixed to KUKA Robo Arms (like Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey), piloting through a battle featuring heroes from throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Even from the land's announcement, the Avengers attraction was essentially booted to a promised – but not-begun – "Phase II" expansion of the land. With the parks' extended closure due to COVID-19, Disney announced that they'd reduced their capital expansion projects by $900 million – essentially, cancelling and re-examining any project that wasn't actively under vertical construction. Sure, Disney is now reporting record profits as crowds return en masse to parks whose bottom lines are bolstered by slashed perks and new upcharges... but it doesn't matter. Reportedly, under new CEO Bob Chapek, the Avengers attraction is 100% cancelled. A smaller, less ambitious attraction is reportedly in the works to fill the expansion pad.

4. Mary Poppins attraction

The legendary Dick Van Dyke was on hand at the 2019 D23 Expo to perform "Step in Time," crescendo'ing with the announcement of a Mary Poppins attraction en route to the U.K. pavilion at EPCOT. Concept art shows a lovely recreation of the film's idyllic Cherry Tree Lane and the flats there... but as to what took place inside number 17? Well... 

As with most modern Disney projects, the impetus here doesn't seem to have been to celebrate the classic, Academy Award-winning 1964 film Mary Poppins, but to cross-promote the 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns in anticipation of expanding the Mary Poppins #franchise. Of course, the intention wouldn't have mattered much to fans so long as Mary Poppins got a really, really good attraction.

Turns out, though, that that might not have been the plan anyway. Though legendary Disney Imagineers have crafted concepts for Poppins dark rides that would see guests prance through animated worlds on carousel horses, the attraction planned for EPCOT was reportedly not quite so grand. At least according to insiders, then-Chairman of Parks & Resorts Bob Chapek was intentionally vague about what exactly was coming to EPCOT because it hadn't quite been decided yet.

Though the beautiful "Cherry Tree Lane" expansion of the park's U.K. pavilion would doubtlessly have been a lovely little streetscape, what actually resided behind the facade was rumored to be no more than a Mary Poppins meet-and-greet, or perhaps a stylized carousel. Anyway, none of it matters much since allusions to Mary Poppins were cut out of the EPCOT Experience preview center in 2021, pretty much confirming that whatever Disney had planned, it's as good as gone.

While it's possible that something bigger could've morphed out of the project, it seems unlikely that it would've been granted a substantial budget to begin with since the film's debut had come and gone already. Instead, it was probably just a quick-fix solution to add more characters and family capacity to World Showcase.

But if it had been a full Mary Poppins dark ride, is this the project you'd resurrect?

What's next?

In our time-capsuled look at what's set to debut in 2022 and beyond at Disney Parks, we came to an uncomfortable conclusion: when it comes to post-2022 projects, there seems to be next to nothing on the docket. Sure, COVID-19 took its toll on the tourism industry, and Disney was probably right to pause so many projects without a clear view of what was to come. In other words "triage mode" was probably the right choice in summer 2020, and cancelling everything that hadn't started construction made sense.

But now, packed parks and record profits surely show that Disney Parks were able to bounce back from lengthy closures and lost revenue! So why are so many projects still stalled? We're sure Disney's current leadership has something to do with it. And sure, this year's D23 will doubtlessly come with new announcements – some grand, some miniscule; some beloved, some cringey – but when it comes to moving foward, maybe at least some of these projects from the past are still worth pursuing? 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!