Walt Disney World is rumored to soon start construction on Villains Land, the Magic Kingdom expansion ‘beyond Big Thunder’ that will replace a portion of the Rivers of America. This details the development about the project, sheds new light on what the ‘dark kingdom’ land will entail, along with what still stands in the way of this rumor becoming reality.
Let’s start with that last point, as there’s still one major hurdle for Walt Disney Imagineering to clear before work can begin on Villains Land or Cars Land in Magic Kingdom. As you might recall from last weekend’s post, Indiana Jones & Encanto Expansion at Animal Kingdom Clears Final Florida Permit Hurdle, the biggest impediment to these projects beginning in earnest–and the only permits that aren’t basically rubber stamped–are those from the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).
The SFWMD permit encompassing this project is the “407 Basin Stormwater Modifications” project–also known as replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island for Cars and Villains lands in Magic Kingdom. Walt Disney World filed its latest response to the SFWMD’s request for additional information on that project back in late December, and is still awaiting final word from SFWMD.
At the time, fans were surprised that Imagineering was still proceeding full steam ahead on that, as there were “rumors” of the project being abandoned. For our part, we had never heard those. If you need further reinforcing that Disney plans to proceed with the Rivers of America replacement, this mid-February 2025 update should also function as that.
There’s been back and forth between Disney and the SFWMD on the Rivers of America replacement project, which is unsurprising given the scale and scope of the work. There was a bit of this with Tropical Americas, and that’s mostly a reimagining that Disney felt was grandfathered in to existing applications. The 407 Basin Stormwater modifications proposal is much more ambitious and, impactful to stormwater displacement (SFWMD’s primary concern).
The short of the back-and-forth is that Disney filed its first permit with SFWMD back in August, and the district responded with a Request for Additional Information (RAI) that sought changes, clarifications and other answers or modifications to the plan. After getting an extension on the RAI deadline, Walt Disney World provided an extensive packet of information on December 19, 2024, which included a 23-page letter along with countless more pages of maps, plans, appendices, and updates to previously-filed documents.
If you’re really curious about all of this, head to the SFWMD ePermitting page and enter “407 Basin Stormwater Modifications” as the project name in the search. From there, check out the RAI Information drop-down. There’s a bunch of stuff there, including the aforementioned 23-page letter, as well as the original proposal. The bottom line, though, is that this is where things currently stand–the Rivers of America replacement project is in permit purgatory, with Disney in a holding pattern until the district issues approval or hits the ball back in Disney’s court with yet another RAI.
It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising if there’s more back and forth on the Magic Kingdom expansion project between Florida and Disney. In reading all of the SFWMD correspondence on various projects over the years, the greater scale and scope of the 407 Basin Stormwater Modifications is immediately obvious, as is SFWMD’s greater scrutiny of the MK proposal. Since we’ve been covering Walt Disney World, this is the biggest project we’ve seen. Definitely from a stormwater displacement perspective, but probably period.
This isn’t to say we think the Rivers of America replacement permit will be denied (we don’t!), but we also wouldn’t be surprised if the next step isn’t a final approval. That might not come until later this spring. The best case scenario, if the application process follows similar timelines to Tropical Americas, it would be approved in late February or early March 2025.
Unlike with Dino-Rama, which closed prior to this permit being issued, nothing can happen on the Cars and Villains projects until there’s approval from SFWMD. The project is in development limbo until then. Based on today’s new development, it would seem that Walt Disney Imagineering is anticipating approval before early March 2025. There’s a good chance they know something we know, as we’d assume there’s an open line of communication between Disney and SFWMD beyond what the official file reflects.
Orlando real estate expert Ken Pozek uncovered a projected on a construction bidding site titled “Disney Magic Kingdom Expansion – Villains Land.” Work will start on this project March 1, 2025 according to the page.
If Pozek’s name sounds vaguely familiar to longtime Walt Disney World fans, that’s probably because he’s the one who first uncovered plans to build an In-Park Hotel at EPCOT’s Entrance. A few years ago, he shared the surprise find of a listing for “EPCOT Future World Hotel” in the planning schematics stage of design with a $50 to $75 million project valuation.
The overview showed Walt Disney Parks & Resorts listed as owner, with Imagineering and Gensler as architects. This was first published in 2018, then republished in 2021, with another rumor resurfacing in 2023. As is probably obvious, there’s no hotel at the front entrance to EPCOT (yet?), which is precisely why we’re filing this Villains Land project under rumor, even if it appears to be stronger than that (maybe rumor/leak is more accurate?).
Obviously beyond the scope of this post, but I’m fairly confident we’ll see in-park hotels at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom within the next 15 years. Or at least one of the two. Walt Disney World isn’t done building resorts, and there’s prime real estate in both locations–or will be, once ‘beyond Big Thunder’ progresses further.
Back to the topic at hand, Pozek revealed details about the Villains Land bidding on YouTube:
This is based on construction bid information Mr. Pozek discovered on Dodge Data & Analytics, an industry site that tracks the construction industry and allows bidding on projects by contractors. It does not have a public-facing portal, so we have no way of verifying the veracity of what he’s presenting.
The bid page notes that the construction site for Villains Land will cover 14 acres, which is expected to be just the Villains Land–not the combined Cars and Villains Lands. For context, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is the exact same size and Magic Kingdom as a whole is 107 acres.
If Villains Land alone is 14 acres–and we sure hope it is–that probably means the dark ride show building (or something significant) ends up being built beyond the berm/outside the Walt Disney World Railroad tracks. As previously discussed, we expect extensive downtime for the train yet again due to this project.
The aforementioned SFWMD permit encompasses a much larger area, 300 acres in total. However, the vast majority of that is wholly unrelated to the construction itself, as it also covers where the displaced water from the Rivers of America will go. (Just underscoring how much bigger-picture of a permit that is.)
The construction bidding platform lists an estimated budget of $25 to $50 million. This would only cover initial site prep work, like clearing the land and infill. Construction of the rides, restaurants and retail will be much, much more. While Disney hasn’t released any numbers (and probably won’t anytime soon), I’d fully expect this land to cost around $2 billion.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge reportedly eclipsed $1 billion, and that was with defrayed development costs across the coasts and before inflation and labor costs made prices soar. Plus, nothing Imagineering does is cheap–they can barely ‘develop’ new signage for less than $25 million. Slight exaggeration, but the point is that this project scope very obviously doesn’t cover anything substantive.
Frankly, $50 million seems like it’s on the low end just for site prep, which will be extensive for the ‘beyond Big Thunder’ projects. I’m guessing there are more bids like this that we haven’t seen yet for the laydown yards, infill of Rivers of America, Cars Land prep, etc–and that those alone will put this project above $100 million before anything is even built.
Getting back to the meat of the Villains Land construction bid, the proposal lists the land as containing a roller coaster and an indoor ride.
This lines up with what Disney previously announced back at D23 Expo. During that presentation, Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro said that Villains Land will be home to two major attractions, dining, and shopping on an incredibly twisted grand scale.
According to Disney, 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 nightmares.
D’Amaro further declared that “preparation is already underway” at Magic Kingdom for Villains Land.
As we pointed out at the time, “preparation” is a vague and nebulous term. Technically, preparations are already underway for me to have a gigantic T-Rex fossil. By that, I mean I think about dinosaur fossils while in the shower, but since I am neither a paleontologist nor a billionaire, it would seem my preparations are fairly hollow and superficial.
In fairness, D’Amaro did say more recently that Imagineering would be breaking ground on Villains Land “very, very soon.” That was back at the D23 Brazil event in November. Frankly, it’s hard to know what to believe of Disney’s claims, as they’ve made a number of statements about earth moving, preparations being underway, etc. The surest sign is when we actually see shovels in the soil. Or in this case, shovels filling soil into the Rivers of America.
The bottom line is that Villains Land appears to be on the precipice of moving forward, with active construction starting soon.
March 1, 2025 is probably the target date. I wouldn’t sit on pins and needles waiting for a groundbreaking ceremony or photo on that specific date. It could happen then, a couple weeks later, or sometime in between. If permit approval happens next week, maybe Villains Land breaks ground late this month!
The point isn’t that specific date, it’s that Disney is getting the ball rolling on this, anticipating approval from SFWMD very soon, and commencing construction almost immediately thereafter. Meaning that this is not going to be one of those projects Disney drags its feet on for months or years–even if it does take a long time from groundbreaking to opening.
From a practical, guest-facing perspective, we’d still expect minimal impacts for at least the next several months. This work is going to necessarily start outside the existing boundaries of Magic Kingdom and work its way in.
Even once it gets to the point that the waterfront area of the Rivers of America in Frontierland could be impacted, it’s entirely possible that Disney will use coffer dams and other techniques to preserve the aesthetics. Hopefully, it won’t look like the above photo until sometime in 2026.
This is going to be a long and involved project, and probably entail another phased closure. What we’ve previously discussed in When Will Rivers of America & Tom Sawyer Island Close at Magic Kingdom? likely remains accurate.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. As discussed in our latest edition of Walt Disney World’s 5-Year Construction Plan, Villains Land is probably the last project to open of those that have been announced, and we’d estimate it’ll debut in 2030–one year after Cars Land.
Obviously, the aforementioned site prep work should be done long before then–hopefully by the first half of 2026 for the most part, tying at least in part to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishment project. It should be an exciting project to watch take shape (well, not over the next couple of years unless you’re a big fan of dirt-moving), and we’ll keep you posted about all of the Villains Land rumors and official news!
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Your Thoughts
Thoughts on the Walt Disney Imagineering potentially starting land clearing and site prep for Villains Land on March 1, 2025? Expect that this is just an estimate, or does Disney already know SFWMD is approving its 407 Basin project permit in the next couple weeks? Hoping that there’s still a chance of changing the plans if Florida doesn’t approve? Excited or underwhelmed by the plan to replace Rivers of America with Cars land? Or, are you in wait and see mode with this? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
