Black Panther fans are speculating that Wakanda is coming to Disneyland after the theme park shared a map of its prospective expansion plans, which included a Panther-like structure.
Disneyland Forward — a public-planning initiative between Disneyland and the City of Anaheim — released concept art/maps of its expansion plans for Disneyland, containing a variety of potential worlds, including Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan. One eagle-eyed fan, Twitter user Frederick Chambers, pointed out the possible Wakanda entrance.
“SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! THAT’S WAKANDA!” Chambers tweeted.
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His post also featured screenshots of the Disneyland expansion plans alongside images of the massive panther coming out the side of a mountain in Wakanda, as seen in 2018’s Black Panther. “The discrepancies between the concept art and the layout are due to the ever-changing nature of this project,” Chambers explained. “Nothing is approved by the city yet and the design is by no means finalized.” He added, “The layout, however, provides a good idea of what IPs and attractions could fit in this space.”
Disneyland has yet to reveal an exact timeline for making big changes and updates to the park due to current building restrictions in California.
“We want to bring more Disney investment to Anaheim. However, this simply isn’t possible under current inflexible planning restrictions unless we remove and replace treasured rides and attractions in our Parks today,” the initiative outlined on its website. “Without updates, new Disney experiences and placemaking, created from our beloved stories, will likely never find their way to the Disneyland Resort as they have to other parks throughout the world.”
The new DisneylandForward plans were released in the wake of Disney revealing its current plans involve making updates to both the Splash Mountain and Jungle Cruise attractions. Specifically, Splash Mountain is being rebranded to remove references to the controversial 1946 film Song of the South. The ride will be retooled to be based on 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, which features Disney’s first African American princess and is set in New Orleans.
Disneyland is also redesigning elements of its Jungle Cruise attraction to remove a variety of racist depictions seen throughout the ride.
Source: Twitter, DisneyForward
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