Villains Land in Magic Kingdom at Disney World: What We Know So Far About Rides, Restaurants & More.

Walt Disney World is finally building Villains Land at Magic Kingdom! This shares May 2026 construction photos, ride rumors, concept art, and everything that’s been officially announced–plus comprehensive commentary about whether we think these are potentially good or bad additions.

Villains Land was revealed during the 2024 D23 Expo. Former Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro, who is now CEO, offered a sneak peek at concept art for the future in addition and teased what was to come in a few years. Following up on a blue sky daydreaming session two years earlier, the all-new Villains Land located ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ ended the event and received the most enthusiastic response.

Villains Land was just one of several blockbuster announcements, during which D’Amaro revealed several ‘shovel to soil’ projects that will come online in the next 5 years. He and head Imagineer Bruce Vaughn followed through on their promise to deliver concrete details and not just tease more ‘Blue Sky’ possibilities.

Disney shared that Villains Land is a place where poison apples are aplenty and magic potions can ruin your whole day; where once upon a dream is actually once upon a nightmare. For all those things hiding in the shadows, it’s time to join them as we lift the veil on a forthcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom Park in Walt Disney World Resort.

This new land will be home to the Disney Villains we know and loathe from fan-favorite Walt Disney Animation Studios classic films. As Josh D’Amaro shared, it’s a place where “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.

Villains Land at Magic Kingdom will be home to two major attractions, dining, and shopping on an incredibly twisted grand scale.

These are the key details about Villains Land, and really the only substantive info that has been announced as of May 2026. Thankfully, permits and public filings, plus aerial construction photos all corroborate the ambition level of Villains Land.

“Be prepared, you poor unfortunate souls,” Josh teased. “It’s going to be a fearless new vision for what a Disney experience can be.”

Before you get dismissive about Villains Land being a distant dream nightmare, it’s worth pointing out that Josh emphasized in his opening remarks to the Parks Panel: “Everything we’re going to share with you is in active development. Plans are drawn. Dirt is moving. I just want to be clear about this: We are doing everything you’re going to hear tonight. This isn’t Blue Sky—we’re going to do all of this.”

If you zoom in on the concept art, you can actually see a tremendous amount of detail. There are thorn-covered roller coaster tracks, a dark village, Maleficent the Dragon, and much more. It has obvious Sleeping Beauty vibes, but it also reminds me a lot of Epic Mickey!

May 2026 Villains Land Updates

Fast-forward nearly two years, and work is well underway on the Villains Land project site (above and below are May 17, 2026 aerial photos & video courtesy of bioreconstruct). Site prep remains ongoing, so it basically looks like one giant expanse of dirt right now.

This project and the Piston Peak Cars Land are replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island, which closed last summer and have been demolished since. For reference, Piston Peak is closer to Frontierland, whereas Villains Land is to the north of Big Thunder. If you drew a line between Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion, that would more or less be the location of a large walkway that’ll separate the two areas of the park.

Construction crews are currently erecting a retaining wall, prior to further infilling and grading of the Piston Peak side, before doing work on infrastructure and utilities, and then forming foundations. All of that will happen before the project actually goes vertical in the meaningful sense of the word.

Piston Peak going vertical before 2027 starts will be a win. And once that happens, it’ll move quickly. Villains Land is probably several months behind that just based on the trajectories of the respective project sites thus far, and the likelihood that Piston Peak will open at least one full year before Villains Land.

Honestly, I’d be surprised and impressed if we see steel rising above the construction walls by Christmas 2026. I’d love to be wrong and have this work kick into a higher gear, but these projects are always slow-going…until they’re not. The vertical stage is what goes fast. This happens time and time again, and yet, fans constantly question why things are going so slow…and then why projects have ‘sped up.’

Here’s a video of current construction progress on the Piston Peak Cars Land and Villains Land:

Aerial video of Piston Peak and Villains Land construction (May 15). pic.twitter.com/G6yMHTk87w

— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) May 17, 2026

In other news, James Woods confirmed on social media that he just recorded new dialogue for Hades: “Absolutely every time Hades appears in any iteration, I do his voice. I was in the studio just a few weeks ago in fact. I love this character, and the creative team at Disney never fail to do top notch work.”

While there are obviously multiple possibilities for Hades to appear in new media, from Fortnite to animated shorts and much more, what leads us to believe that this relates to Villains Land is that Woods also retweeted a post about Villains Land, which indicated that Walt Disney Imagineering has locked-in its plans for Villains Land, and is expected to reveal new details at the 2026 D23 Expo. He did so with an animated Hades giving a fiery thumbs up. Woods is not one to frequently post about Disney, so it’s probably safe to surmise these two social media posts in quick succession are related.

Disney needing to record new dialogue for Hades, as opposed to reusing what they already have, strongly suggests the character is a significant component of Villains Land. We would note that a recent rumor stated that a Hades dinner show would be part of the land, so this would seemingly add credence to that.

Speaking of which, the biggest “development” about the expansion came in Spring 2026 via the Magic Kingdom Bigger & Bolder Villains Land Rumor: Emperor’s New Groove Coaster, Maleficent Mega E-Ticket, Hades Dinner Show & New Third Ride! 

That lengthy post covered full details of the alleged changes the land, plus our assessment of whether each change passed the smell test. It also covered some of our expectations about what’s actually coming to Villains Land.

Shortly thereafter, a New Walt Disney World Permit Revealed Changes to Villains Land Show Buildings, But Not Scrapping of Previous Plans. That shows a slight tweaking of the show buildings, but it’s our strong belief that’s more a nature of the respective permits and not due to substance changes to the land.

With all of this, it’s as if we’re slowing piecing together a mystery. And as with any good one, there are bound to be a few surprise plot twists, turns, and misdirection along the way. In other words, don’t view anything you see or read as the gospel. We’re bound to get some (potentially a lot) of this wrong along the way as more is slowly revealed.

Our sincere hope is that Imagineering showcases a scale model at the 2026 D23 Expo in August, revealing the rides, restaurants & retail, putting the rumors to rest. This seems likely, given we’ve already seen models of all other major expansion announced at the last Expo.

Speaking of D23, at last year’s Destination D23 at Walt Disney World, the off-year event between D23 Expos, Imagineers revealed more about the architecture of Villains Land.

Imagineers on the Villains Land project team took a research trip to Europe to investigate architecture, namely the Art Nouveau style. After seeing similarities with the magical, fluid, and organic appearance of both the animated villains and the architecture, the team behind coined the term “Conjured Architecture.”

While our commentary about this so-called “Conjured Architecture” focused mostly on other potential architectural inspirations beyond Art Nouveau, I’m just pleased to see Imagineering doing research trips for Villains Land and drawing inspiration from an ambitious style. No matter what the end result, this is positive news.

Some fans disagree, questioning the necessity of research trips and suggesting they’re a waste of money. First, this is a drop of water in the ocean of the Villains Land budget. Second, the open-ended land is likely to have parallels to Avengers Campus, and I would humbly suggest that project would have benefited tremendously from a research trip somewhere other than an office park in La Cañada.

Prior to that, Disney revealed Villains Land will feature inspiration from 13 of the studio’s classic villains in a twisted storyline uniting the animated baddies in one place:

• Queen of Hearts
• Jafar
• Evil Queen
• Lady Tremaine
• Yzma
• Captain Hook
• Cruella de Vil
• Maleficent
• Gaston
• Mother Gothel
• Ursula
• Hades
• Chernabog
• Dragon Maleficent

Disney also pulled back the curtain on the conceit for Villains Land, which involves a magic power that conjures all of the Disney Villains to converge in one place. “In our story, a mysterious spell has been cast, summoning villains from every realm,” D’Amaro said. “In this land, heroes don’t come to save the day — and there may not be a happily ever after!”

It’s unclear whether this is the backstory for Villains Land, but honestly? I hope so. Imagineering sometimes has a tendency to over-explain things (see Tiana’s Bayou Adventure) or create cumbersome and rigid rules (see Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge) with backstory that’s tedious or restricting–sometimes both.

Personally, I’m perfectly fine with this being the totality of the backstory. There’s a magic power that summons villains via a spell that has been cast and its origins are a mystery. Don’t overthink it. This also opens the door for what I personally want to see, which is a dark ride that combines multiple villains from multiple movies. The Monsters Unchained headliner attraction at Epic Universe is a good template. Having the marquee attractions limited to only one intellectual property can be good, but not in a land revolving around villains. That would mean too many “snubs.”

Speaking of other inspiration, Walt Disney World has also debuted the new Villains Unfairly Ever After at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This new stage show features iconic Disney villains such as Cruella de Vil, Captain Hook, and Maleficent, and (as the name suggests), is staged in the Magic Mirror’s mysterious realm, bringing guests closer to these notorious characters through immersive live production numbers.

I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Walt Disney World wants to do more market research on the most popular villains with guests before making firm commitments for which characters will (and won’t) be represented in the Villains Land. Some are likely a given, but there are “borderline” villains that could make the cut or miss it based on guest reactions and surveying from this show.

The Villains Magic Mirror show also gives Walt Disney World to do a relatively low-stakes test to see how intense, dark or scary they can get with a villains offering outside of a hard ticket event. As we’ve mentioned before, Alien Encounter is an infamous example of an attraction that was too dark for Magic Kingdom and was prematurely shuttered despite being reasonably well-received by its target audience. Disney understandably does not want a repeat of that with Villains Land.

Our Commentary

Villains Land was–without a doubt–the announcement that got the biggest and most enthusiastic response out of the Honda Center audience. Despite it being Walt Disney World news and this being a Disneyland home crowd, fans absolutely erupted. Far and away the most loudest and most energetic reaction of the entire evening. Just as it was two years ago when Villains Land was teased during the Blue Sky session.

It’s my understanding that Disney was uncertain how Villains Land would be received, and wanted to gauge the response. Both with the in-person and at-home audiences. Obviously, it was and is overwhelming positive…among fans. This has been clear for a couple of years now.

Despite that, it also was my understanding–until tonight–that there were still internal apprehensions about moving forward with Villains Land. That it would be “too dark” or “not sufficiently mainstream” for Magic Kingdom. (Yes, the same park that just gave us a TRON ride. Ironic.)

This may seem absurd, but the thinking was that even though fans feel one way, they aren’t necessarily representative of the general public. There’s also the fact that Magic Kingdom has a reputation as being the park for families with kids of all ages.

Extreme as this might sound, Disney actually has cause for concern–Alien Encounter is an infamous example of an attraction that was too dark for Magic Kingdom and was prematurely shuttered despite being reasonably well-received by its target audience. It would’ve been perfectly fine for the park now known as Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

More recently, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is another niche project that may have given certain leaders cold feet about creating something that lacks widespread appeal. That is a terrible example for reasons that are probably obvious to anyone reading this.

To be clear, this is not my perspective at all. I was and am fully on board with Villains Land in Magic Kingdom. To the contrary, I’ve actually been concerned by Disney seemingly shying away from villains and conflict in certain attractions, and am both excited and relieved that Villains Land won out.

In my view, Villains Land fits the mold for a perfect Magic Kingdom themed land. Even though it’s become a franchise or brand, at its heart, this is a more open concept like the existing lands, rather than a single intellectual property, movie or character. As much as I enjoy Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, I still think it feels odd and disconnected from the rest of Disneyland. So I’m glad to see Villains Land as opposed to Encanto or Coco lands.

It’s inevitable that fans will compare this to Dark Universe at Universal’s Epic Universe, perhaps claiming that’s the reason why Walt Disney World is creating a Villains Land–as their “answer” to that. It isn’t, but the comparison is perfectly fine. A good thing, actually. Dark Universe looks incredible–like the early #1 area of Epic Universe.

That plus the fan excitement for Dark Universe plus the fan enthusiasm for Villains Land means the Imagineers are going to bring their a-game. More importantly, it means that instead of proceeding with apprehension, Walt Disney World will go all-in on Villains Land, giving it the budget and space needed to create something truly…well, magical feels like the wrong word.

Beyond that, it’s not really a huge surprise that expansion is happening in Magic Kingdom. Josh D’Amaro first got up on stage to talk about ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ at the last D23 Expo, when he was joined by Imagineer Chris Beatty and Jennifer Lee, the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios.

They didn’t provide any substantive details or even an official announcement, instead being careful to use language crouching the presentation, indicating that this is an “early concept exploration” and one of the “potential expansion opportunities” (but also more concrete than a blue sky brainstorming session).

Since then, both CEO Bob Iger and D’Amaro have done interviews or presentations and repeatedly doubled-down on their intentions to expand Walt Disney World. Both have indicated that Imagineers are already at work on improving the guest experience at Walt Disney World and adding capacity in several ways.

At last year’s Destination D23 event, Josh D’Amaro was joined on stage by Bruce Vaughn, who had recently returned to the helm at Walt Disney Imagineering. Vaughn first expressed surprise that D’Amaro would pull back the curtain on the creative process, as normally WDI doesn’t like to do that. Vaughn further indicated that he’s been blown away by the concepts being explored for Magic Kingdom.

The Beyond Big Thunder project scope and scale are supposedly on par with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or Pandora – World of Avatar. Last year, Vaughn also indicated that the project would likely exceed New Fantasyland over a decade ago.

During the 2024 D23 Expo, Josh D’Amaro indicated that Villains Land would be the biggest expansion in Magic Kingdom history. That means that, at minimum, this is larger than New Fantasyland–which is actually fairly sizable.

We’ve been bullish on Beyond Big Thunder since the 2022 D23 Expo, even as other fans expressed (completely understandable and valid) skepticism. That’s totally fair, especially in light of Disney’s not-so-stellar track record in building things that were announced at past D23 Expos.

However, we think this time is different. (Famous last words.) This is one of those rare occasions where the stars align and what’s good for investors is good for guests. Parks & Resorts has proven a financial powerhouse for the company–strong and stable even as other business units have faltered.

Expanding Magic Kingdom improves capacity, gives the park more drawing power, and is just plain fun for fans. (All lessons learned back in 2009, proving yet again that history repeats itself!)

One of the more valid criticisms of the ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ plan is that it arguably is an expansion of the one park at Walt Disney World that’s least in need of it. Magic Kingdom is already a solid full day park, with a wide variety of rides, shows, entertainment, and more. There’s a reason it’s the best park for Lightning Lane availability–because it has the deepest attraction roster.

By contrast, there’s clear room for improvement at Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT. While more is on the way for the first two parks on that list, EPCOT’s overhaul is now largely considered done. Regardless, all of those parks could have further expansions and still wouldn’t be on par with Magic Kingdom.

Realistically, that will always be the case. Magic Kingdom is the oldest park, so it has a headstart on the rest. More importantly, it’s the most iconic park. There’s nothing more “Disney” than a castle at the end of Main Street, and even as the international parks have deviated from the tried and true playbook, they all have that in common. There’s a reason for that.

No matter what Walt Disney World adds to the other three gates, Cinderella Castle will beckon guests from around the world. Because of that and its 50+ year legacy, it just makes sense to expand Magic Kingdom. The practical reality is that it’s the park that will always need more capacity, and that’s the easiest to “sell” from a marketing perspective.

Not only will Villains Land and the rest of the ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ project add that needed capacity, but it’ll improve crowd flow and further enhance the crown jewel of Walt Disney World. It’s easy to nitpick decisions from the fan perspective and wanting better balance among the existing gates. But at the same time, it makes a tremendous amount of sense to meet guests where they are, and build out the park that guests are most likely to visit.

(I have a hard time imagining that many fans will complain about this given that we’re getting a Villains Land out of this, but just felt it needed to be preemptively addressed for the old school EPCOT Center enthusiasts who feel spurned. Even as someone perpetually hoping for the next version of Journey into Imagination, I have zero complaints about this!)

Ultimately, I’m excited for the future of Magic Kingdom and how this new Villains Land located ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ comes to fruition. The concept art and the animating ideas show a tremendous amount of potential, and I’m really curious as to how the other adjacent lands–Frontierland and Liberty Square–also evolve to support this historic transformation. Speaking of other lands, I hope those aren’t forgotten in the process, as Tomorrowland could still use some help.

It shouldn’t be a problem to do both invest in new additions and enhance or maintain what’s already there. If all goes well, the decade to come at Walt Disney World could be bigger than the prior one. The current plan to invest $17 billion amounts to more than was spent on New Fantasyland, Pandora, Toy Story Land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the EPCOT overhaul, new resorts, and a significant amount of infrastructure. (As previously discussed, a lot of money was wasted on things that didn’t come to fruition or were short lived.) If even more money is invested without the misallocations of resources, it could be a blockbuster decade for Walt Disney World. We can’t wait.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

What is your reaction to Villains Land being officially announced for Walt Disney World? Happy about this concept? Pleased with park expansion in the existing footprint of the park and beyond the berm at Magic Kingdom? Are you more excited for this plan knowing that work is already in progress at Magic Kingdom, or still in ‘wait and see’ mode? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? 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!