Amid the ongoing pandemic, one Disney attraction at Walt Disney World would close as a result of massive changes coming to the resort as it tries to adjust to the new reality. Primeval Whirl in Disney's Animal Kingdom closed and became the first-ever roller coaster in a Disney Park to close down permanently.
This ride has been slowly taken apart over months and its now time to start speculating on what comes next in this location. So that's what this article will attempt to do.
Please be aware that anything this article is speculating on is probably at least five years away on the short end as Disney is still recovering from the pandemic economically and will be for the next few years. But Disney plans things out far in advance and may already have a plan for this land even if it won't be executed for a few years.
Primeval Whirl is located in the Chester and Hester section of Dinoland USA, an area frequently called one of the worst lands in any Disney Park in the world. Any potential replacement would probably replace at least this half of Dinoland, if not the entire section. Some rumors state that the section of the land which includes the Dinosaur ride and Restaurantosaurus
There is a large amount of potential space to use here if Disney wants it. Keep in mind the Chester and Hester plot of land was originally planned for an elaborately themed outdoor roller coaster before it was budget cut from the opening day plans for Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Dinoland USA is located on a large plot of land and only uses a small portion of it. As you can see from the image above if you utilized all the Chester and Hester space you would have enough room for a pretty massive attraction. Add in the Finding Nemo The Musical theatre or the Dinosaur ride, or potentially even both and it is a huge area to work with.
Something also worth considering is there are some non-moveable elements in the land, like the Rivers of Light amphitheater and backstage infrastructure, that would not be able to be removed. While Rivers of Light itself has been discontinued, I would expect some other show to reuse the backstage infrastructure in the future. These would have to stay in place through any new build.
This project will almost certainly involve a new land in the park. Disney doesn't have any high profile properties involving dinosaurs right now, and they are almost certainly not going to be building a new original attraction in the location.
As for properties Disney could use, there are really two main guesses I have for what could be used in this spot, both films featuring animals, Jungle Book (live-action/ animated) or Zootopia.
Zootopia has long been rumored for Disney's Animal Kingdom. While a lot of this is due to a small but extremely dedicated portion of the Disney/ Zootopia fanbase who pushes this rumor beyond reasonable sources and publicly available information, there is at least some amount of truth to it.
Disney has developed a Zootopia land for Shanghai Disneyland, and they really love cloning attractions to multiple parks at the moment. Cloning an attraction is much cheaper than developing one from scratch as they can save on development costs on subsequent additions. This is especially important given the downsizing Imagineering went through amid the pandemic and the smaller budgets they are going to be dealing with in the next few years.
The ride from the Zootopia land would also be a good fit for Disney's Animal Kingdom. While not a lot is known about the ride, it is known that it will be an indoor dark ride, which is something Disney's Animal Kingdom desperately needs more of. Right now they have only two, Navi River Journey and Dinosaur.
If this happens, I would hope it does not replace Dinosaur as the park desperately needs more ride through attractions, especially dark rides, and there is more than enough room to add one without removing it. Dinoland without the Dinosaur/ Restaurantosaurus area is roughly the size of Shanghai's Zootopia section so this could work
Dinoland could be replaced by a variety of things and if it isn't replaced by a Zootopia land, the only other significant recent Disney property that could potentially work within the park would be the live-action Jungle Book. This film was one of the best of Disney's live-action remakes and there has been discussion of a sequel being made.
Now if a sequel were to happen it would make for a perfect moment to add a ride to the park based on the story, either the original animated film or the movie.
The movie could surely inspire some kind of dark ride, but this attraction might better fit in the neighboring Asia land as the film takes place in a fictional version of India. But they could always just extend the land into Dinoland if they wanted to.
Something is going to replace Primeval Whirl, and it will likely give the park something entirely new that we can speculate on for the next few years.
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