Tropical Americas Research: Maya Carvers, Copan Stone, and Encanto's Colombia Shape Animal Kingdom's 2027 Land

By entgrove · April 30, 2026 · Updated September 29, 2026

Walt Disney Imagineering detailed the field research behind Tropical Americas, the land opening at Disney's Animal Kingdom in 2027. Imagineers met Maya carvers at the Copan site in Honduras, whose quarried stone will be crafted into the land itself, and retraced the Colombian towns that inspired Encanto to shape Pueblo Esperanza, the town at the heart of the new land.

The stone that built the ancient Maya city of Copan will help build Tropical Americas. In a look inside the creative process behind Animal Kingdom's next land, Walt Disney Imagineering detailed the research trips shaping the 2027 opening: meeting Maya carvers in Honduras, traveling through the Colombian towns that inspired Encanto, and turning it all into Pueblo Esperanza, the lived-in town at the heart of the new land. The update comes from the project's executive creative director, a 36-year Disney cast member who has spent much of that career working on Animal Kingdom.

A land born from decades of Imagineering dreams

For nearly three decades, Disney's Animal Kingdom has layered nature and storytelling across the savannas of Africa, the Himalayan peaks of Asia, and the floating mountains of Pandora. Tropical Americas adds a rainforest region covering one of the most culturally rich parts of the world, a place where nature does not just surround communities, it shapes them, and where ancient cultures remain part of everyday life.

The idea is older than the announcement. Early park expansion concepts imagined guests journeying into an ancient Maya temple surrounded by lush rainforest. "We thought for a really long time about building a Tropical Americas-inspired land at Animal Kingdom," said Disney Legend and former Imagineer Joe Rohde, the park's original creative lead. "Specifically, one that features the Maya because of how intertwined with nature they were. It's just a natural fit for the park." Those early visions merged with the worlds of Walt Disney Animation Studios' Encanto and Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones to form the land now under construction.

What guests will find in Pueblo Esperanza

When Tropical Americas opens in 2027, guests will arrive in Pueblo Esperanza, a town with its own layered history, vivid culture, and surrounding rainforest teeming with life. Much like strolling through the Port of Harambe in Africa or wandering the Kingdom of Anandapur in Asia, Pueblo Esperanza is designed to feel like a genuine, lived-in community.

The land's Encanto attraction, the first at any Disney park, will invite guests to celebrate Antonio's new gift, the ability to talk to animals, a theme that ties directly into Animal Kingdom's mission of connecting guests with the natural world. Along the way, visitors discover that everyone belongs to the "familia" of all living things.

Carving Copan's stone into the park

From the earliest stages of development, Imagineers committed to grounding the land in field research, the same approach used when Animal Kingdom was first built. A small team traveled to Honduras to visit the Copan archaeological site, one of the best-preserved cities of the ancient Maya civilization, and to meet Maya artists whose life's work is carving and recreating the intricate details found throughout it. The group traveled through mountain valleys to the quarries that have supplied the region for centuries, seeing the striking red and green native stones firsthand.

The material connection is direct: the same stone that built Copan will be brought to Tropical Americas, where carvers using time-honored techniques will work it into the land.

Retracing Encanto's Colombia

A separate research trip brought Imagineers to Colombia, where the team immersed itself in the places and cultures that inspired the Academy Award-winning film. The group met with many of the same people and visited many of the same places Encanto's filmmakers explored during production. Those firsthand experiences informed the colors and materials of town plazas, the hues of haciendas in changing light, and the ways buildings in the region respond to climate and terrain, all details that will shape how Pueblo Esperanza looks and feels rather than a surface-level recreation.

Why this matters for Animal Kingdom fans

Animal Kingdom's strongest lands have always earned their believability from this kind of fieldwork, and Tropical Americas is following the same playbook that made Harambe and Anandapur feel lived-in: research trips, regional materials, and local artisans rather than set dressing. With a 2027 opening, an Indiana Jones expedition, and Encanto's Casita on the way, the park is heading into its biggest expansion since Pandora opened in 2017. More details on the land's attractions and experiences are expected as construction progresses.