How Could An Avatar Ride Come To Disneyland?

Disneyland Resort

Avatar is set up to be one of Disney's next big franchises, relaunching with the release of the first sequel to the original film, Avatar The Way of Water later this year. If it is a success on or near the level of the first film, it seems likely that Disneyland will receive something based on Avatar.

So what could this be? Let us speculate on various ways that Avatar could come to the Disneyland Resort in a permanent way.

Disneyland Forward

Disneyland Forward is an in the works attempt to enable massive expansions to both of the theme parks at the Disneyland Resort by replacing surface parking lots near the hotels and Downtown Disney. Disney released some concept art for what could be included in these expansion plans, and one of the major things included was an exact clone of Pandora World of Avatar from Disney's Animal Kingdom Walt Disney World. This showcases this is a posibility.

However, this concept art was never supposed to showcase anything that was actually going to be built. But it does represent the possibility of Pandora World of Avatar being built somewhere on this land, assuming regulation changes actually end up happening.

Tomorrowland Redo

Rumors are increasing that Tomorrowland in Disneyland is set to receive a massive redo in the near future, and adding an Avatar-themed ride could be a great way to add something new to the land. This could be done by either adding an existing ride, or an entirely new one as a part of the redo.

Specifically, the backstory of Flight of Passage could work within Tomorrowland with some slight alterations. Theoretically, you do not need to actually be on Pandora to link with an Avatar given the explanation of the technology given in the ride.

Ride Retheme

Given spacial limitations at the Disneyland Resort, a ride retheme may just be the best way to bring Avatar to the Disneyland Resort, as there may just not be enough room to build something new on the scale of Disney's already existing Pandora World of Avatar rides.

Disney has done this before in the Disneyland Resort, significantly with Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout and Incredicoaster.

So what rides could be good candidates to retheme into an Avatar-themed ride?

Star Tours seems like an immediate option. The ride vehicles and screen format immediately lend themself to the franchise, and could easily become Avatar spaceships exploring Pandora instead of Starspeeders exploring the Star Wars galaxy. With Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, Star Tours is somewhat redundant and could be replaced without much fanfare.

For a more practical ride, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters could work as well, given Toy Story already has a mini-land in Pixar Pier, however, this ride could also realistically have a future as a Lightyear ride as well.

Avatar is likely to become a major franchise that Disney will want to be represented in both of their American resorts.

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