Disney puts names on four Walt Disney World expansions and a 2027 date on Monstropolis

By entgrove · August 18, 2026

D23 turned into the biggest Walt Disney World information dump in two years: Villains Land is the confirmed name at Magic Kingdom, Piston Peak National Park revealed two attractions, Monstropolis opens in part in 2027 without its door coaster, and Tropical Americas named both of its rides. EPCOT is getting Dreamfinder back and a reimagined Spaceship Earth, and the Expedition Everest yeti is finally being repaired.

Disney spent its D23 stage time in Anaheim naming things. Four Walt Disney World projects that fans have been tracking on rumor and construction photos came away with official titles, ride names, story details and, in one case, an opening year. Here is what changed for the Florida parks.

Villains Land is the name, and it gets two rides

The villains expansion at Magic Kingdom is officially Villains Land. Disney compared its size and scale to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios, which is the clearest measure fans have had of how much park this project actually takes up. Two attractions anchor it: a Maleficent coaster and a dark ride hosted by the Magic Mirror.

The story running underneath both of them starts with a wishing well. Disney describes a well corrupted by a wish so evil that it broke the stone open and spread poisoned magic through the surrounding forest. The villains came for what was left of that power and used it to conjure their own lairs, which is how the land explains its own architecture: fortresses and palaces shaped by whoever owns them, each one packed with shops and food.

Piston Peak National Park adds Miss Fritter and a rally racer

The Cars-themed land going into the Frontierland side of Magic Kingdom got its first real attraction detail. Disney unveiled a scale model of Piston Peak National Park and confirmed two rides.

• Miss Fritter's Daredevil Spin-Along, built around a larger-than-life animatronic of the school bus known as the Diva of Demolition in Cars 3.
• Cars Ridge Run Rally, a racing attraction that runs guests through national park scenery and up Piston Peak itself in search of what Disney called the wildest racer in the wheelderness.

The vehicle is the part worth watching. Disney said it was designed not to simulate an off-road car but to be one, responding to every bump, drop and rock in real time. The land will also include a visitor lodge, a Ranger HQ and trails.

Monstropolis opens in 2027, but not the door coaster

Parts of Monstropolis at Disney's Hollywood Studios will open to guests in 2027. The door coaster, the piece most fans have been waiting on, does not appear to be part of that first opening. Disney did show new animation of how the coaster starts, lifting riders close to 40 feet in the air out of the queue in a matter of seconds.

What opens instead is the city itself, framed around a new celebration called H.U.M.A.N. Day, short for Humans Understanding Monsters Are Nice. The Glob Theater hosts a show called Welcome to Monstropolis with Mike and Sulley as hosts, and the land adds two restaurants, Archie's Scare Pig Pizza and Harryhausen's, plus the Monsters University Alumni Club and a shop called the Scareporium.

Tropical Americas names both of its attractions

The Encanto ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom is Antonio's Fiesta de Encanto. It is built around Antonio's gift day, the moment he learns he can talk to animals, and it moves through the Madrigal family casita including rooms that were never in the film. The ride vehicles are assembled out of furniture from the house.

The other headliner is Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, which takes the space left by Dinosaur after it closed earlier this year. Disney's description puts guests alongside Dr. Jones at a temple beside a cenote, a water-filled underground cave, that local legend says opens onto the Maya Underworld and is guarded by a serpentine creature called the Tsukan. Riders get pulled through a portal into the Underworld and have to get back out past bats, oversized scorpions, fire and snakes.

The Expedition Everest yeti is being repaired

Disney Experiences Chairman Thomas Mazloum put it directly: "We're bringing the Yeti back to life inside Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom!" The 25-foot figure was built to lunge at passing trains and has instead sat still under a strobe light for years, a mode guests nicknamed Disco Yeti. Disney did not attach a date to the work.

EPCOT gets Dreamfinder back and a rebuilt Spaceship Earth

Journey Into Imagination with Figment is being revamped, and Dreamfinder is returning with it. He was part of the original 1983 version of the attraction and was written out in 1998, and fans have been asking for him back for most of the time since.

Spaceship Earth is also being reimagined, its first significant change in roughly 20 years. Disney said the new version carries the story into the internet age and past it, and shifts the focus: where the current ride is largely about communication, the next one leans on human connection.

Carousel of Progress reopens in spring 2027 with new voices

Jamie Lee Curtis and Bryan Cranston will voice the new versions of Sarah and John in Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. Disney also showed a new poster styled after the original from the attraction's Disneyland debut. The Magic Kingdom show closed over the summer for the work and is expected to reopen with new scenes in spring 2027.

The only firm dates on the board are 2027

Guests looking for something to plan around have exactly two dates: parts of Monstropolis in 2027, and Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress reopening in spring 2027. Villains Land, Piston Peak, Tropical Americas, the Spaceship Earth rebuild, the Dreamfinder return and the yeti repair all arrived without a year attached. Anyone booking a Walt Disney World trip in the next 18 months should plan around the parks as they stand today, with Dinosaur already gone and Carousel of Progress closed.