Everything We Know About Disneyland's New Theme Park Land, Avengers Campus

It's been a pretty big year for new themed lands in Disney Parks. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge first opened its doors in Anaheim at Disneyland, followed by its Orlando location at Disney's Hollywood Studios, allowing park guests to experience a brand new interactive Star Wars story on an original planet named Batuu. But more than that, Galaxy's Edge set a brand new standard for Disney's imagineering work with revolutionary new theming elements that include interactive stories and "reputations" for park guests that can be tracked via a mobile app. It's the first of its kind of Disney Parks--but it likely won't be the last. Progress on yet another new land centered around Marvel Studios heroes, is set to debut in Disney's California Adventure next year.

We got our first up-close and personal look at the new land--officially titled Avengers Campus California--at this year's D23 Expo, which featured a massive display of Avengers Campus details. We've rounded up everything we learned from the displays in preparation for Sunday's massive Parks and Experiences panel, which will be sure to provide us with even more information on the land's progress.

D23 saw the announcement of the official name for the new land--nicknamed "Marvel Land" by fans after its announcement two years ago. Officially, the new land will be called Avengers Campus, and it will fit into a bigger network of various Avengers-related bases and projects networked all around the globe.

Sorry, Disney World fans, but Avengers Campus is slated to open in two locations--Disneyland's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California--alongside the popular Guardians Of The Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride--and Disneyland Paris in, well, Paris, France. The two parks will be differentiated by their long-form names: Avengers Campus California and Avengers Campus Paris.

Orlando may not be getting an entire Campus to call its own, but it will be getting a "Xandarian Outpost," to house the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy indoor rollercoaster.

No official date is set yet, but the California Campus is on the schedule for a 2020 opening.

As confirmed during the Parks and Experiences presentation at D23, the 2020 opening will be for the official "Phase 1" of the land, with Phase 2 arriving at an undisclosed point sometime in the future.

There may be some dispute about Spider-Man rights going on between Disney and Sony, but that apparently hasn't yet affected one of Avengers Campus California's main attractions: the W.E.B. or the "Worldwide Engineering Brigade," which came with an in-character explanation from Peter Parker himself on display at D23 Expo.

Revealed at D23, W.E.B will be an interactive ride experience featuring "web-slinging vehicles" that allow riders to join Peter Parker as he tries to web-up some malfunctioning Spider-Bots.

Like Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, which focuses on the new planet Batuu, Avengers Campus will involve an original story set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe--or, well, sort of set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unlike Batuu which is functionally "time-locked" in a narrative sense to exist at a fixed point in the Star Wars timeline, Avengers Campus is set at some point or in some version of the MCU where Tony Stark is still alive and threats like Thanos apparently never happened.

At D23, Imagineer and Creative Executive Scott Drake spoke about some of the major plot points, emphasizing that the campuses around the world will relate to one another and that they were started by the Avengers themselves to start recruiting the "next generation of heroes--you."

And Ant-Man & The Wasp themed eatery will be coming to Avengers Campus California, called the Pym Test Kitchen, were scientists are hard at work using Pym tech to "grow and shrink food." The eatery will also include a microbrewery competent (get it?) and the first-ever Ant-Man and The Wasp face character meet-and-greet experience.

Also announced at D23 were plans for the land's future. Details remain unsurprisingly sparse, but "phase 2" of Avengers Campus California will include a new e-ticket attraction that will take park guests on a Quinjet ride to Wakanda, where they will be put in the middle of a battle with all the Avengers.

The ride will incorporate a completely new "innovative ride system," making it seem similar to the upcoming Rise Of The Resistance ride at Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.

No name or official opening date for the new ride were announced.

Perhaps one of the most confusing things about the little details that have trickled in about Avengers Campus is just how prominent SHIELD is featured on just about everything. Either this is a prime indicator that the story of the land will be set in some sort of alternate reality or timeline where movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier didn't happen and SHIELD was never a corrupt puppet organization to bolster global HYDRA control, or we're, uh, just supposed to forget about all of that.

Weirder still, we spotted a direct nod to Alexander Pierce--you know, the sadistic HYDRA leader--on some of the proper SHIELD files on display at the Expo. It definitely seems a little odd.

Part of Avengers Campus California will be devoted to the study of the mystic arts with Dr. Strange, where park guests will be invited to "explore the ruins of a mysterious California Sanctum."

Whether this experience will be a ride or attraction of some kind, or just a character meet-and-greet, remains unclear.