How Disney’s Avengers Campus Theme Park Does, and Doesn’t, Fit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Beginning June 4, guests at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, Calif., will step into the Avengers Campus, a new six-acre attraction that brings the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to life. You can watch Spider-Man leap 60 feet in the air, train with Wakanda's Dora Milaje, or summon Doctor Strange. You can go to one of two shawarma stands and wolf down a wrap like Thor at the end of "The Avengers" or Pimm's Test Kitchen for an outdoor chicken sandwich on a weird little bun.
For Disney, opening the Avengers campus is a bit like finally putting the theme park stone inside the Infinity Gauntlet that's Marvel Entertainment. To further illustrate this metaphor, while the mighty movie, streaming, merchandising, licensing and video game stones have been making profits for Disney for more than a decade, now only the 60-year-old comic book publisher has a full earning potential. brought to bear.
At least that is the hope. The Avengers Campus is making its official debut just weeks after the larger Disneyland resort was allowed to open, following a 13-month shutdown due to the pandemic. Standing inside the MCU and rubbing elbows with your favorite superhero is exactly what the park needs to entice guests to return. In 2019, however, the even larger "Star Wars"-themed Galaxy's Edge land debuted at Disneyland and Disney World to a lesser-celestial presence, suggesting that crazy audience enthusiasm for the global feature film franchise was complete. The kind may not translate into a theme park experience. .
There's also an intriguing, more tangible question on the Avengers campus: How can this fixed-in-time theme park function inside an ever-changing MCU? Put another way: As you pass a life-size quinjet parked on the roof of the Avengers building, you're likely to catch Black Widow, Steve Rogers' Captain America or Iron Man posing for selfies with fans — but In the present-day MCU, all three of those characters have died.
This dilemma was also evident in Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige commenting on this week's grand opening for the Avengers campus.
“For our movies, for our shows, we build these elaborate sets – but they are temporary, and they only exist on screen,” Feige said. "But here at a Disney theme park, our sets may be permanent."
In practically the same breath, Feige shifted gears completely. "One of the most exciting things for me is that the Avengers campus will never be complete," he said. "It's a living, breathing space that will grow and evolve as our cinematic universe grows and develops — with new props and new characters right here at Avengers HQ."
Those brand new props and characters will, of course, stand under the shadow of the ride "Guardians of the Galaxy" that opened in 2017 and revolves around a character, Tanelier Tivan, who appears in 2018's "Avengers." it happens. Infinity War." Tom Holland's Peter Parker appears in the Spidey-focused "Web Slingers" ride, which uses state-of-the-art infrared cameras to allow guests to physically throw webs at the 3D interactive game. But Sony Pictures still own the film rights to the character, so all Spidey costumes and logos are unique to just the Avengers campus. And while Black Panther and Dora Milaje will both be present in the park, Wakanda will not; instead, the "Ancient Sanctuary" area Exposed production design from 2016's "Doctor Strange."
The enduring appeal of Disney's theme parks has been that it evokes a comforting sense of timelessness, of stepping into a land that seems to be an everlasting state of constant wonder. Galaxy's Edge can take full advantage of that sensibility, because, for one, "Star Wars" is set "a long, long time ago", and for another, the world is apparently set in a specific period of time. Is - "The Last Jedi Among" and "The Rise of Skywalker."
However, the MCU is largely meant to be in the state it is now, and part of its wild success is due to how much the movies have evolved and evolved. "Thor: Ragnarok" is fundamentally different from "Thor: The Dark World". Steve Rogers is gone, and a black man, Sam Wilson, is now Captain America. (In fact, the actors playing the Rogers and Wilson versions of Cap will appear on the Avengers campus.) This year alone, the upcoming Disney Plus series and dramatic features like "Loki," "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." “Ms. Marvel” and “Eternal” promise to feature new and wonderfully inventive locations in the MCU — neither of which will be able to be recreated within painstakingly detailed brick-and-mortar facilities on the Avengers campus. . At least 17 more Marvel Studios titles are in the works after 2021.
Perhaps one day, Disney's Imagineers will be able to embody abilities similar to the Scarlet Witch, changing the very fabric of reality at will.