Avengers Vault’s Implications for King Thanos E-Ticket or Avatar Experience?
Disney California Adventure’s Marvel land is getting a new gift shop. Construction walls are now up on the side of Avengers Headquarters, which is the future home of the King Thanos Multiverse attraction. However, this construction is not for a new ride, according to Disneyland Resort. (Updated August 14, 2023.)
From my perspective, there are a few plausible explanations for this. Applying Occam’s Razor, the most likely reason why Disneyland Resort is building this gift shop in Avengers Campus is to increase Marvel merchandise sales. The land is small, and the existing retail spaces in Avengers Campus are as well.
That’s precisely why Disneyland Resort opened Super Store featuring Avengers Campus in nearby Hollywood Land in the first place. This was a logical move back when Avengers Campus debuted a couple of years ago, as Stage 17 had already been converted to retail space. The prior year, it served as an “extension” of the Downtown Disney District and was transformed into the Disneyland Resort Backlot Premiere Shop when the state of California was not allowing theme parks to operate.
Prior to that, Stage 17 was used as a flex space for special events. For those who are Walt Disney World-centric, think of it as DCA’s version of World ShowPlace at EPCOT. Stage 17 often hosted private events, but has also served as a space for character meet & greets and more.
It’s also been a space for attractions, such as “Who Wants to be a Millionaire – Play It!” More recently, Stage 17 was the home base of “Frozen Fun” in 2015, when it became the venue for Olaf’s Snow Fest, which featured real snow, sledding, and other winter activities. We experienced Olaf’s Snow Fest multiple times, but honestly, it feels kinda like a fever dream (or whatever the cold version is of a fever dream). It’s almost hard to believe that actually happened. But I digress.
August 14, 2023 Update: After radio silence on this project since March, Disney finally offered an update on the new gift shop in Avengers Campus. Beginning in mid-September 2023, Disneyland Resort guests will be able to find Marvel souvenirs at a new retail location opening in Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure.
Avengers Vault will feature Infinity Saga Relics arriving at the Disneyland Resort for the first time. Apparel and other fan-favorite merchandise also available at other locations around the Disneyland Resort, including at The Collector’s Warehouse, WEB Suppliers, and Supply Pod.
Along with this announcement, Disney has confirmed that the Super Store at Stage 17 in Hollywood Land at Disney California Adventure Park will close on September 14, 2023. So at the very least, this new gift shop is being added to consolidate Marvel merchandise in one location. But is it also being done to free up Stage 17 for future (re)development?!
For those who are unfamiliar with it, Stage 17 is tucked away in the Backlot area of Hollywood Land, right next to Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue. Unless you’re going back there for that ride, live music, or beer, you’re probably not heading to that corner of Hollywood Land. And even if you are, there’s a very good chance you won’t see Super Store featuring Avengers Campus. Or realize it’s a big merchandise shop even if you do see it.
To that point, the last time I had ventured inside Stage 17 (prior to taking photos specifically for this article) was about 2 years ago when Avengers Campus first opened. It’s probably the spot at Disneyland Resort I visit the least, edging out the Disney Junior Dance Party and Alien Pizza Planet–two venues I make every effort to avoid, but both of which I have done (regrettably) more recently.
It’s not just me. When I heading into Stage 17 for the sake of capturing these photos, it was a delightful reprieve from the spring break crowds that had descended upon every other corner of Disneyland Resort. It was also a stark contrast to the congestion and chaos of Avengers Campus mere minutes later.
So it should be pretty obvious that relocating this retail to Avengers Campus proper will boost foot traffic and, by extension, merchandise sales. I don’t think that’s even up for debate. Disneyland Resort will sell more super hero stuff as a result of replacing Stage 17 with a proper shop in Avengers Campus. Even if it’s a fraction of the size, that’ll be true.
The second possibility–and neither of the next two scenarios are mutually exclusive with the first or even one another; “all of the above” is very much on the table as a viable explanation–is that they’re building a gift shop in the Avengers HQ building now because there are no concrete plans in the near-term to build the King Thanos attraction itself.
There’s an important piece of context that’s worth discussing here, and it’s how the news of this Avengers Campus gift shop broke. This wasn’t discovered via permits or by a random vlogger running into a wall while recording themselves in DCA. It was given to select media and revealed before DCA even opened for the day, prior to the walls being “discovered.”
There’s a reason for that. Disneyland Resort did not want fans to find it on their own, reach the erroneous conclusion that its for the E-Ticket attraction, and publish 1,955 YouTube videos titled “YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHAT MARVELOUS RIDE IS BEING BUILT AT DCA: KING THANOS CONSTRUCTION CONFIRMED” before Disney had the chance to issue a clarification.
Disney getting ahead of that story suggests that the opposite is true: ride construction is not commencing any time soon. If it were slated to start in 2023, there’d be no reason to not let the hype train roll on. Fans would get excited now, and that sentiment would only build as the gift shop opened and proper construction began on the attraction itself. The retail location at the exit could open early as a ‘preview center’ of sorts; a way to build excitement for the upcoming attraction and sell merchandise in the process.
Regardless, many fans are getting excited for exactly this reason. Their logic is that if the exit gift shop is being built, that means the attraction is next up. Obviously, that’s not the conclusion I’m drawing. I don’t think building and opening the shop now makes the ride any more likely. (Remember, this was officially announced last fall. All else being equal, the ride should be “100% likely” as a result.)
If anything, I think building this gift shop makes the ride less likely. That’s in part because you can’t go over 100% in likelihood, and in part because I can’t logistically square how opening a gift shop before the attraction itself makes sense. It requires an assumption that Disney will operate a gift shop inside a building that is otherwise an active construction site, instead of walling off the entire thing, as would normally be the case.
The third possibility as to why Disneyland Resort is relocating its super hero stuff to a store in Avengers Campus is the space it frees up. Remember that non-sequitur about Olaf’s Snow Fest and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire – Play It!” in Stage 17? You probably didn’t think anything of it since it fit with my normal rambling, but it was actually purposeful.
Point being, Stage 17 is colossal. It’s a huge venue with even more space backstage in a quiet corner of Disney California Adventure. It’s a prime expansion pad at Disneyland Resort, and could also be quickly converted into something else. Equally as important, it’s in an underutilized area, meaning that it could be converted into something else that expands park capacity at DCA.
Enter Avatar. During an earnings call earlier this year, CEO Bob Iger revealed that an Avatar Experience Is Coming to Disneyland. He has since made multiple media appearances and mentioned this, while declining to provide additional details about the substance and nature of this.
At this point, what that “experience” will entail or where it’ll be located is anyone’s guess. Maybe it’ll be a new Meta Quest VR game in Downtown Disney’s former ESPN Zone. It could be as unambitious as an overlay of the Boudin Bakery Tour, walkaround mech suit dude in Pixar Pier, or build-a-banshee shop. Something as bold as an entire Pandora land added as part of a whole new gate is also possible–maybe this is DisneylandForward finally coming to fruition?
Or it could be something more middle of the road, an adaptation of an existing offering, such as an interactive and immersive environmental exploration, like Avatar: The Experience in Singapore. Disney has been exploring experiential exhibits, and looking for the right vehicle for its own way of entering that niche. An adaptation of that would be perfect and certainly fit the bill as an “Avatar experience” (experience is right there in the name!).
There are a bunch of ways to put these pieces together, and how you align them depends upon your level of craziness. The most straightforward interpretation of everything, in totality, is that Disneyland is clearing out Stage 17 for an Avatar experience walkthrough similar to the one in Singapore, and building the gift shop in Avengers Campus with the aim to open it before the attraction. That puts all of the puzzle pieces together in a way where they fit neatly together.
I’m a bit more chaotic and conspiratorial than that. Bob Iger and Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro have held a number of interviews recently, during which both have discussed plans for the future, bullishness on parks, and desire for capacity-expanding additions. We discussed all of this in great length in Bob Iger Wants Big Expansions at Walt Disney World & Disneyland.
I’ve listened to or read all of those, and not once has the King Thanos Marvel Multiverse attraction been mentioned. By contrast, Avatar has come up repeatedly. I don’t think this is merely coincidental, and it certainly would not come as a surprise if the plans (or lack thereof) for phase 2 of Avengers Campus have changed now that Bob Iger is back.
If you recall, Bob Chapek personally teased the King Thanos attraction during his D23 opening remarks, before D’Amaro made the announcement a couple days later. It’s entirely possible this was a Chapek pet project that has been killed by Iger, just like the metaverse and Prime plans.
Personally, I think there’s a reason why no one at Disney has said a word about the King Thanos ride in 2023, whereas this Avatar experience was not even mentioned at the D23 Expo, and now has been teased repeatedly this year.
My more far-fetched prediction is that the Avengers Campus gift shop is being built in part because that King Thanos attraction was cancelled and in part because Disneyland wants to clear out Stage 17. That space will be home to an Avatar offering, but my low-confidence twist here is that it’s not the Avatar experience that Iger has teased.
Instead, the Avatar experience will be a separately-ticketed experience (a la Singapore) opening next year alongside the newly reimagined stretch of Downtown Disney. That will be a temporary addition to bolster the burgeoning shopping, dining, and entertainment district. The experience will offer a stopgap for the next ~5 years while an actual Avatar attraction is built in the space occupied by Stage 17 and other components of the Hollywood Land Backlot.
As to how that’ll fit thematically into the land or park, I have no clue. Thematic shoehorning of attractions and lands into second gates has not been a huge impediment for Disney in recent years. The Avatar franchise is a product of Hollywood (land), California (park)–that’s probably sufficient in the eyes of executives.
Ultimately, as should be clear from all of this speculation, there’s a wide range of outcomes for what’s happening in Disney California Adventure. It could start and stop with a new gift shop in Avengers Campus. That’s certainly the safe bet, and the only one that is officially confirmed or, for that matter, even rumored. (Now seems like a good time of reiterating that all of this is purely speculative and not inside info of any sort whatsoever.)
The most pessimistic prediction would be that it’s a gift shop and nothing else at all, not even the King Thanos attraction. The most optimistic prediction would probably be that it’s a gift shop and King Thanos attraction, plus Pandora – World of Avatar and (somehow) DisneylandForward. I’m skeptical of it being either extreme; DisneylandForward is not a real thing of substance, but there are other concrete expansion plans.
For me, it’s a matter of listening to what Iger and D’Amaro have said recently, plus what they have not mentioned, and letting my imagination run wild from there. That plus the Way of Water’s box office results plus the reality that leadership changes always have consequences for early-stage projects plus the likelihood that any pet projects of Chapek are especially vulnerable leads me to believe Avatar is a top priority for Disneyland Resort, and more Marvel is not. Phew. That was a lot of (over)analysis for a few walls and a gift shop!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts on the gift shop coming to Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure? Have any wild speculation and supposition of your own, or think this is just a #*$&@ gift shop and we’re reading WAAAAY too much into it?! Think this means the King Thanos Marvel Multiverse ride is moving forward or has been shelved? Are you a fan of the Marvel land as it presently exists, or do you agree that this E-Ticket is what’s needed to make the land feel complete and top-tier? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I think more than anything, Imagineering tends to play the long game. Consolidate and save large pads for that wonderful moment where the stars and funding align to make a big move. Thats why you see Wonders of Life, the AK Pandora expansion pad, Animation courtyard, and now Stage 17 sitting and waiting for someone to greenlight any of the 2 dozen proposals they have sitting around that seem cool but need a huge space and a bigger budget. That or they want their flex space back. *shrugs*
We were at Disneyland Resort back in October and stumbled upon Studio 17 while looking for churros. We asked a cast member what it was and they explained it was empty except for the retail space. On that trip, my wife was obsessed with the churros, we had several each day of our trip. I think she misses them from her childhood growing up in Orange County, CA. Normally on our trips to Disney World, it’s ice cream that we have a lot of and there are many ice cream carts. In Disneyland, there are many churro carts. The next trip we made to Disney world, we found churros and they were terrible. I think maybe since churros are not that popular in WDW, so they sit out all day and get stale. Not sure that this was an appropriate response to this topic, but saw the chance to mention something that we discussed quite a bit.
Hahahahaha!
As you know by now, this blog PRIDES ITSELF on injecting random tangents whenever there is the slightest opening. So job well done with that.
Also, you’re absolutely correct. Churros are better across the board at Disneyland Resort, but there are also some carts in high traffic areas that tend to be better than others. I don’t buy many churros, but to my recollection, the best ones are by Sleeping Beauty Castle, Fantasyland, Critter Country, Buena Vista Street, and Pixar Pier. Other locations move up depending upon the seasonal options at Christmas and Halloween.
I like this low key comparison of WDW vs. DL, Not only because sounds thoughtful and reasonable, but it also provides an explanation of why Three Bridges Grill and Nomad Lounge are outliers – the churros are made on demand at those table service locations.
Aaron – we actually did try the churros at Nomad lounge a few weeks ago and yes, they were very good! And I think you are correct that it was because they were prepared fresh. My wife was very pleased
I don’t think the Marvel E-ticket is dead, but I do think there’s a 50/50 chance it ends up being something other than the announced Thanos ride. While they haven’t specifically mentioned Marvel, “bullishness on the parks” + “space already earmarked for an attraction” makes it very hard for me to believe they will just scrap the whole thing (especially as that space is in a relatively new and very specifically themed land). Heck, maybe Iger decides it goes back to the Wakanda-set ride initially teased while he was in charge the first time!
If you want my actual prediction, I think a Marvel E-ticket opens in the Avengers headquarters in 2026 or 2027, featuring a concept that is different from both of the previously announced ideas. And Stage 17 does get turned into this Avatar experience they keep talking about, opening in 2024 to help build hype for the next sequel.
Probably should’ve clarified a little better. I don’t think the Marvel E-Ticket is dead dead. I think the King Thanos plans have been abandoned.
Over a long enough timeline, that will become an attraction and it will be Marvel. There simply are not enough alternative expansion pads at Disneyland Resort, and that’s a prime option. And one that can’t really be anything else unless they got really creative with an entrance from Cars Land. (That won’t happen.)
I’d be surprised if it opens in 2026 or 2027. Those dates would mean construction starts in the next fiscal year (after October 1, 2023) and I just don’t see that happening. I think Avatar is a higher priority; I’d also guess that something we don’t yet know about in Disneyland is also higher priority.
One of the top Florida versus California comparisons that Tom will likely never bother with, along with the non-alcoholic Mint Juleps of New Orleans Square vs. Casey’s Corner and the Grand Canyon Diorama vs. the Grand Canyon Concourse.
I try to refrain from volunteering my opinion on the Mint Juleps in NOS because my opinion of them isn’t particularly positive. Other people love them, though, so it’s clearly a “me problem.” (Never had the one at Casey’s Corner.)
The other comparison made me chuckle. Hard to pick a winner in the battle of dinosaurs and five-legged goats!
Hey, there isn’t a new show based on “Carl’s Date!”
As Stage 17 shows, it’s easy to turn an empty warehouse/building into a gift shop if the “theme” is “empty warehouse/building,” and vice versa. With $700 Billion cut from fiscal 2023 expenditures, Disney isn’t going to break ground on any major attractions like Spider-Man and Marvel: Into the Marvel Multiverse but Mostly Spider-Verse. Avengers Headquarters is too good a location to be closed if there’s no short term construction, so that’s *at least* six months of superior sales of Spider-Man (and others) to be had with little set up costs. (It’s unlikely construction of DCA’s next big attraction is going to start on October 1st.)
I am a big fan of the “announce two Avatar attractions” plan, and am only slightly annoyed that Avatar: The Experience is considered one of three Avatar experiences (e.g. physical attractions or collections of attractions) along with Pandora: The World of Avatar and Avatar: The Exhibition. DCA could use both the attraction count and the expected increase in attendance to bring them somewhat closer to DL.
I’m not yet convinced that the Marvel films are showing anything but “Ant-Man fatigue,” especially considering the relative box offices of the prior two AM movies. Wakanda Forever came out just this past winter and did well. Luckily, the Disney+ problem of needing to slow down TV show production should fix the problem of too many TV shows.
I suspect slowing down Disney+ production will alleviate some of the concerns of Marvel fatigue. There’s also the very real possibility that I’m projecting some of my personal feelings and assuming they apply more broadly. Among other things, the multiverse stuff just has not worked for me.
I think an Avengers attraction will eventually be built in the HQ building. The land definitely needs it and feels incomplete without it, like GE when it just had Smuggler’s Run.
But I don’t think it’ll end up being Metaverse-themed. The Metaverse concept already feels played out, both in movies and TV as well as in reality with FB etc. I’m sure Iger and team are understandably reticent to invest in an E-Ticket centered on a storytelling concept that already feels overexposed and over saturated with audiences, years before such an attraction could realistically debut.
I think you are conflating “Metaverse” with “Multiverse”, which are similar words but mean very different things. 🙂
You are correct, sir. I really should refrain from posting comments at 2am…
I’ll bite the bait you hid so skillfully: Looking forward to your post all about Disney Junior Dance Party!!!
I too was intrigued of Tom’s experience at Disney Junior Dance Party – pictures please sir or it didn’t happen!
Depending on how fast they can finish the gift shop, maybe they’re trying to rush it to coincide with a bump in merchandise demand related to this summer’s “Rogers: The Musical”? As for Stage 17, I’ll vote for Avatar. I’m an old-school Marvel fan and enjoy Avengers campus but from an investment standpoint it feels like the Avatar franchise has a lot more momentum (and future successful projects) than something involving Thanos/new Marvel. Either way, it would be nice to get something new going on in that area.
“…it feels like the Avatar franchise has a lot more momentum (and future successful projects) than something involving Thanos/new Marvel.”
Who would’ve guessed back in 2019 that this would actually be a good take?! Honestly, not me, and I was bullish on the Avatar sequels even then!
Never bet against James Cameron, but also, never bet against Kevin Feige. I have MCU fatigue, but I wouldn’t count out Marvel just yet.