Travel Beat Special: 2024 D23 Expo News for Disney International Parks

We’ve spent the weekend recapping the news from Saturday night’s D23 Expo Parks Panel, and it’s time for the last installment! Read on to hear what’s in store for Disney’s international parks. As with the rest of the announcements, Josh D’Amaro highlighted that these are all projects in active development and not “blue sky” tentative placeholders.

• Lion King Land for Disneyland Paris
• Shanghai Disneyland Gets Spider-Man Attraction
• Hong Kong Disneyland Also Gets Spider-Man Attraction

Lion King Land for Disneyland Paris

Disney Adventure World (formerly Walt Disney Studios Park) has recently seen the opening of Avengers Campus and Worlds of Pixar, with World of Frozen also coming up. And soon, another “world” will join the lineup, this one themed to the Lion King.

The all-new area of the park will offer dining, shopping, and M&G opportunities. And of course, an attraction. Guests will be able to take a flume ride down to the caverns beneath Pride Rock to follow Simba’s story as he grows from cub to king.

No timeline was given during the presentation. But given that World of Frozen is still under construction, we’d expect that this project will begin visibly moving forward before that one wraps up in 2026.

Shanghai Disneyland Gets Spider-Man Attraction

The official description: “Webs at the ready, an all-new Spider-Man thrill attraction is coming to Shanghai Disneyland! Peter Parker has gotten himself — and us — in a bit of a tight spot. We’re going to follow HIM – at very high speeds – to get us out of trouble.”

There’s not a lot of detail there. It’s going to be a coaster. The storyline will involve Something Going Wrong. OK, I’m poking fun at the generic nature of the announcement (aside from “it has Spider-Man”), but it’s all in good fun. There’s no timeline announced on this, but again the emphasis was that these projects are all in active development. We expect to hear more specifics in the near future.

Hong Kong Disneyland Also Gets Spider-Man Attraction

Hong Kong is also getting a Spider-Man-themed attraction and the details were just as thin as the announcement for Shanghai. However, a few things are clear. First, it’s not going to be a clone of the Shanghai ride, it’s a different attraction. The backstory (Tony Stark is showing his friend and Stark Industry intern Peter Parker some new inventions when Something Goes Wrong) is different. Second, it looks like Doc Ock is involved somehow.

That’s all we got, including no details on the timeline. But like Shanghai and all the rest of this news, these projects should see more concrete announcements in the relatively near future because they are already in active development. When we hear, you’ll hear.

Are you excited about the transformation of Disney Adventure World? Who do you think the villain(s) will be in the Shanghai Disneyland Spider-Man attraction? Let us know in the comments!