Approved at Last? Reported Imagination Pavilion Redevelopment Has EPCOT Fans Watching D23

By entgrove · August 15, 2026

Multiple sources indicate Disney has approved plans to redevelop EPCOT's Imagination pavilion, with a possible announcement at this weekend's D23 Fan Event in Anaheim. Nothing is confirmed, but with Figment's popularity at an all-time high and the ride unchanged since 2002, fans are watching the Horizons presentation on Disney+ closely.

Approved at Last? Reported Imagination Pavilion Redevelopment Has EPCOT Fans Watching D23

Figment fans may finally get their moment. Multiple sources indicate that Disney has approved plans to redevelop EPCOT's Imagination pavilion, with an announcement possibly coming this weekend at the D23 Fan Event in Anaheim. Nothing is official yet, and Disney has announced no changes to the pavilion, but the timing has fans watching the weekend's presentations closely.

A hallway with a bright blue ceiling leads to a doorway with turnstiles, and an exit sign hangs in the distance above some mobility scooters. Photo: Wacky Windjammer via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Key Details

What: Reported approval of redevelopment plans for the Imagination pavilion at EPCOT
Status: Rumor, not confirmed by Disney
Possible announcement: This weekend at the D23 Fan Event in Anaheim
Where to watch: The "Horizons: A Carousel of Progress" presentation, streaming live on Disney+ at 7pm PT / 10pm ET
Current attraction: Journey Into Imagination With Figment, largely unchanged since 2002

What sources are saying

According to multiple sources, plans to redevelop the pavilion have been approved internally. No details about the scope of the project have surfaced, so it is unclear whether that means a full reimagining of the ride, an overhaul of the theater and ImageWorks spaces, or something in between. Disney has not commented, and the story should be treated as a rumor until the company says otherwise.

Fans have been down this road before. Similar whispers have preceded past D23 events and produced nothing. What is different this time is the reported approval and a natural venue for the reveal: the Horizons presentation on Disney+ this weekend, where Disney is expected to talk about what is next for its parks. If there is Imagination news, that is the most likely place for it.

Soarin' Around the World at EPCOT, near the Imagination pavilion in the park's western corner — The Imagination pavilion sits beside The Land pavilion, home of Soarin' Around the World, in a corner of EPCOT that has seen far less investment than the rest of the park.

Four decades of a bumpy ride

The pavilion's history explains why fans react to every rumor. Journey Into Imagination opened in 1983 with Dreamfinder and Figment, presented by Kodak, and became one of original EPCOT's most loved attractions. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience joined as a 3-D film in 1994. Then came the 1999 rework into Journey Into Your Imagination, which cut Figment's role down sharply. Guests rejected it so decisively that Disney closed the ride again in 2001 and reopened it in 2002 as Journey Into Imagination With Figment, restoring the purple dragon as the star.

Shrunk the Audience. Photo: Mike Bean via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

That 2002 version is essentially what runs today. The ride has not changed meaningfully in more than two decades, and the Pixar shorts playing in the pavilion's theater have run unchanged for years. In a park that has rebuilt its entire front half, added Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and cycled through festival after festival, the Imagination pavilion has stood still. That gap is a big part of why the redevelopment rumor keeps coming back.

Figment has never been more popular

The strange part of the pavilion's stagnation is that its mascot is thriving. Figment is one of the most popular characters at EPCOT, drives strong merchandise sales for the park, and headlines the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts each year. When a Figment meet and greet opened in the ImageWorks area in 2023, guests waited up to five hours to see him on the first day.

Disney leadership has noticed. At shareholder meetings in 2025 and 2026, Bob Iger and Josh D'Amaro were both asked about Figment and said the character was being considered for new content, though neither confirmed a project. A character that popular attached to a ride that dated is exactly the kind of mismatch Imagineering announcements are made of.

The Buzz

The Imagination pavilion is one of the last corners of EPCOT untouched by the park's multiyear transformation, and fans have wanted a Figment-led redo for more than 20 years.
The reported plan approval lands days before a major D23 parks presentation, the exact setting where Disney historically drops attraction announcements.
Figment's merchandise sales and five-hour meet and greet lines give Disney a clear business case, which makes this rumor feel more credible than past ones.

Journey Into Imagination With Figment ride at EPCOT's Imagination pavilion — Journey Into Imagination With Figment has operated in essentially the same form since 2002.

What this means for guests

For now, nothing changes at the park. Journey Into Imagination With Figment is operating normally, and no closing date exists because no project has been announced. Guests who love the current ride, or who want to experience it as a piece of EPCOT history, have time, though a confirmed redevelopment would eventually mean a lengthy closure for the pavilion.

The next real signal comes this weekend. The Horizons presentation streams on Disney+ at 7pm PT, 10pm ET, and if Disney intends to make the pavilion's future official, that is the stage for it. Until then, this remains an unconfirmed report, one that a lot of Figment fans are hoping finally sticks.