Rumors are growing that Rock N Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith is set to be replaced in the immediate future with a new attraction. These rumors state that the ride will close soon, potentially by the end of the year, to be rethemed into something new.
But is this actually happening? Here is everything we know at the moment.
Rock N Roller Coaster currently features music from the band Aerosmith just as it has since it opened. But it is believed that Disney's contract with the band to utilize their music has an end date. Rumors state that this end date may be at the end of the year, meaning if that is true Disney would be contractually obliged to remove the band from the park before the beginning of 2022.
Disney before the COVID19 pandemic began, made plans to replace the Disneyland Paris version of the same attraction, and it closed in September of 2019. It is currently under construction to be replaced by an Iron Man ride, although before this was announced evidence exists of earlier plans to replace the attraction with a Spiderman ride.
Neither of these attractions could be in the cards for the version in Disney's Hollywood Studios however. Disney is not allowed to use most Marvel characters in Walt Disney World due to a deal with Universal made before Disney purchased the company, and both Iron Man and Spiderman are characters that are not allowed. Any plans to replace the Walt Disney World attraction would have to be separate from these plans.
Complicating this story is information that came from a 2018 New York Times article about upcoming projects in the Disney Parks. The original version of this article discussed a variety of plans that ended up happening, including Star Wars Galaxy's Edge. But one plan discussed in the original article has since been removed in a correction, and that is a replacement for this version of Rock N Roller Coaster.
The correction for the article states that the earlier article's discussion of plans for a replacement of Rock N Roller Coaster was "misstated" but that seems odd given the specifics the plan gets into on various projects, and that it does not talk about Disneyland Paris in detail the way it does about Disney's Hollywood Studios. So is there a possibility that this was the plan, and it just was not supposed to be announced yet. Disney typically likes to make announcements themself in a grand fashion, so letting a major new ride be announced in a New York Times financial article would be out of character for the company.
Currently, construction is taking place outside the entrance of the attraction. While this could be maintenance work, it could also be the first sign of the ride closing. Tower of Terror in Disney California Adventure also had work done to it before closing, so this would not be a first for the Disney Parks.
But there is still a chance the ride may not be replaced. No plans have been announced yet, and all the evidence thus far could be explained in other ways. But with so many things happening to the attraction within a short period of time it may be worth paying attention to, especially with Destination D23 approaching in November.
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