Disneyland D23 2026 News: New Tomorrowland, Avengers Campus Expansion and Coco Ride Details

There was a lot of Disneyland D23 2026 news that dropped over the weekend. From new details about projects already in the works, to returning entertainment and even a whole land refresh, Disneyland was probably second only to Walt Disney World in terms of number of updates and announcements made. I’ve combed through all the news from the past weekend so that I could break it down for all of you and give my own commentary on all of it.

This article is going to get into the details of everything announced for the Disneyland Resort. It’ll go over all the new concept art, the details, and the surprise announcements that I’m sure made every Disneyland fan so happy last weekend.

Let’s get into it!

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Avengers Campus Expansion Details and Timeline

Some new concept art was unveiled at D23 regarding the two new Avengers Campus rides that are coming to Disney California Adventure. For Stark Flight Lab, a look at the ride vehicle was shown during the parks panel, along with a reveal that Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Mackie, and Brie Larson will be reprising their roles as Iron Man, Captain America, and Captain Marvel for the ride.

Over at Avengers Infinity Defense, concept art of the pre-show was shown, with Disney revealing that Ms. Marvel, played by Iman Vellani, will be the host of the pre-show. Some of the cast were also revealed at the panel, including Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Chris Hemsworth, and Robert Downey Jr. reprising their roles as Hawkeye, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. A video of them filming scenes for the ride was also released, along with a look at the massive physical sets that will be in the ride as well.

The Avengers Infinity Defense preview made me so much more excited for the ride, specifically for how they’re going to blend physical and real sets for this fight with King Thanos. The sets looked ginormous, and I can’t wait to see how they blend the screens and physical sets. I hope we also get a couple of animatronics thrown in there as well. Plus, getting plenty of the A-List talent to be in it is amazing.

The Stark Flight Lab reveal, on the other hand, left much to be desired. I wanted a look into the story of the ride, as well as maybe some footage of the ride in motion (even if just an animatic). I understand that this isn’t the e-ticket of the land and is more of a secondary ride, but it still would’ve been nice to know what mission we’re going to be on, as well as how the ride is going to incorporate all these amazing actors that they got to be part of it.

Coco Boat Ride New Concept Art and Details

Two new pieces of concept art of the Coco ride were shown at D23, one featuring the queue, which will take place inside a museum dedicated to Miguel’s great great Grandfather Hector, complete with a statue of him. The other shows another scene of the ride that makes it look like the ride vehicle can go down one of two paths. It was also revealed that the ride will take place a year after the events of Coco and will include elements from Coco and the upcoming Coco 2.

They also revealed some of the context behind the events of the ride. In the ride we will see Miguel thinking about his journey, which will then transition into us traveling by boat to the land of the dead as seen in Miguel’s memory. Disney also said that D23 guests can stop by the Imagineering booth on the show floor, write their favorite Disneyland memory on a card, and Imagineers will collect all the memories and place them underneath a special tree in the ride so that they become a part of the attraction.

I found the news about the Coco ride to be pretty substantial. A lot was revealed about the story of the ride and how it connects to the movies while also being its own separate entity. I love that the entrance of the ride is a museum dedicated to Hector and I can’t wait to see what imagineers display in the queue. The new boat ride concept art also looks fantastic and definitely got me more excited for the ride.

I’m a little confused about the story of the ride itself. If the ride is supposed to be a retrospective on Miguel’s memory, how do we enter this memory? Is there some magic that transports us back to the past? If they just wanted to tell the story of Coco, why is there a need to set the ride one year later? I just have a lot of unanswered questions about the ride that I hope are cleared up in the months leading up to its opening.

I do think, however, that having people’s Disneyland memories hidden in a part of the ride is a great idea. It gives the ride a lot more heart and meaning, as well as giving fans a role in bringing the attraction to life. I can’t wait to see what this tree is going to look like and I can’t wait to see how they incorporate the memories into it.

Returning Entertainment

The biggest announcements were for DCA, but Disneyland had its fair share of announcements as well. Disney announced that, beginning February 2027, the Remember…Dreams Come True nighttime spectacular will return to Disneyland. At the same time, the original World of Color will also be making a return to Disney California Adventure. And then in the summer of 2027, the highly popular Magic Happens parade will return to Disneyland.

I am over the moon about these announcements. Especially the Remember…Dreams Come True announcement. This is the one nighttime spectacular that I haven’t seen that I really want to see (well this and Happily Ever After). Of course I absolutely love the original World of Color so I’m glad that’s coming back as well. Magic Happens is also such a fun parade and I’m just glad that Disneyland finally has a daytime parade returning after the 70th celebration didn’t include one. Overall, these were surprises that I was very happy about.

New Tomorrowland

Finally, one of the biggest announcements of the night was that Tomorrowland at Disneyland will be getting a much needed refresh. We didn’t get any details on what exactly the refresh will entail, such as when the land will close for the refresh, what rides will be replaced or kept, or what the new experiences and attractions are going to be. What we do know is that Disney confirmed that, after the Avengers Campus expansion and the Coco ride, this will be the next Disneyland project in the pipeline, bumping down the Avatar destination at DCA.

I am absolutely stoked about this! I was floored when Thomas Mazloum announced this on the livestream. Disneyland in Tomorrowland needs a refresh badly, as it no longer looks or feels like a vision of the future. I expect lots of Disney fans will be speculating for years to come as to what rides will be kept and what rides will be going away. But for once, it feels like Disney is listening to their fans and giving them what they want.

This was one of my wildcard predictions that actually came true. However, there were a bunch of other things I predicted that ended up not happening. I will be discussing them in the next section and dissecting why I think they were left off the table.

My Other Predictions (That Didn’t Come True)

I first predicted that Disneyland would get a new daytime parade. I was partially right about this, I just shouldn’t have included the word “new” in the prediction. Magic Happens is coming back, and while I would’ve loved a new daytime parade, having Magic Happens come back is just as good. I knew Disneyland was going to bring back some form of daytime parade as the lack of one was the biggest criticism of the 70th Celebration.

I also predicted that the Main Street Electrical Parade would return for its 55th anniversary next year. I think this didn’t happen because Paint the Night just returned to Disneyland, so Disneyland management might think that it’s too soon to get another night parade at Disneyland. As a huge fan of this parade, I’m a little disappointed, but World of Color and Remember…Dreams Come True more than makes up for this.

Finally for Disneyland, I predicted that Fantasmic would get a refresh or a new show will go in the Rivers of America. I still think this is coming and is only a matter of time before Disney announces that it’s going ahead. I don’t know why it wasn’t included in D23. My only guess is that they’re still deciding what to do and didn’t want to commit to a direction yet. But with the state Fantasmic is in, it’ll only be a matter of time before this gets announced for Disneyland.

Finally, the biggest headscratcher of the night was that we got nothing new about the Avatar destination coming to DCA. Every other project that was announced at the last D23 got an update except for this one. And not only that, it was pushed to the back of the line for construction at the Disneyland Resort.

This to me makes it seem like Disney is second-guessing the project now. They saw how Avatar Fire and Ash underperformed and decided rather than cancelling it outright to just let it fade into obscurity. Of course I could be totally wrong and they’re just waiting for the Eastern Gateway to be constructed before they work on this, but the lack of details is very suspicious to me. I hope they think of another idea for this land, as I don’t think Avatar fits in Disney California Adventure.

Disneyland D23 2026 News Conclusion

There’s lots of reasons to be excited about the future of the Disneyland Resort. I can’t wait to see how the resort evolves in the coming years. It’s an exciting time to be a Disneyland fan, with multiple groundbreaking projects currently in development. If you have any questions about any of them, feel free to contact me on my socials.

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