Disney California Adventure is in the middle of significant changes. One of the many new rides planned for this Disneyland Resort theme park is an expansion of Avengers Campus. Guests visiting Disney California Adventure can already notice visible progress on the Avengers Campus expansion from inside the park.
Behind construction walls and unseen by guests, though, Disney just completed a milestone in the journey to this ambitious project’s grand opening. They also hinted at the opening date for the new rides. At Mickey Visit, we cover the latest Disney news, like the the launch of a new menu at Disneyland Resort’s fanciest restaurant and an update on the ongoing refurbishment of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
READ MORE – Disney California Adventure is Getting 4 Big New Rides. They May Replace These Existing Attractions.
New Avengers Campus Rides Milestone
The expansion of Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure will add two new rides to the land’s existing lineup. These new attractions will open in addition to Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! and WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure rather than replacing either of those rides.
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One of the new rides, Avengers Infinity Defense, will be an action-packed “E-Ticket” attraction starring a team of Marvel heroes taking on a foe from the multiverse known as King Thanos. Just a few of the characters shown in the concept art include Iron Man, Hulk, Black Panther, and Ant-Man. The other new ride, Stark Flight Lab, involves guests test-piloting a new robotic arm in the works from Stark Industries.
Avengers Infinity Defense and Stark Flight Lab both share the same construction site at Disney California Adventure.
Now, we’ve reached an exciting new milestone for the addition of the two new rides.
Behind the scenes, this week Disney invited cast members to take part in a tradition for under-construction Disney theme park attractions. Cast members got to sign their name on a steel beam that will be used in the new attractions’ infrastructure.
This beam will never be seen by guests, but that’s part of the point. Disney cast members do so much to create the park experience for guests, much of it unseen. In signing a construction beam, the participating cast members will forever be part of the history of Avengers Campus for decades to come.
Here’s another shot at all the cast member signatures on the beam.
Disneyland cast member @philanderc85 posted on Instagram about signing the Avengers Campus beam.
The milestone isn’t just sentimental, though. In ushering in this cast member tradition, Disney inadvertently hinted at the opening date for the new attractions.
This Milestone May Hint at Opening Date for New Avengers Rides
Construction is vertical on the Avengers Campus expansion, visible to guests inside Disney California Adventure. The building that will house Avengers Infinity Defense and Stark Flight Lab is almost closed in and its roof almost finished.
From the exterior, the structure seems almost complete, as seen in the photo above, captured in January 2026. Even as this progress is ongoing, though, Disney still hasn’t shared an opening date for the new attractions, or even an opening year.
Disney has, however, shared the opening year for another under-construction attraction across the country: an Encanto ride coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. As luck would have it, Florida cast members just participated in the steel beam-signing tradition for the Encanto ride just a few weeks ago.
This would imply the Encanto ride and the Avengers Campus rides are in similar stages of construction. The general state of the Encanto building also seems to be similar to that of the Avengers Campus structure when looking at aerial construction photos. If that’s the case, and with the Encanto ride is opening in 2027, perhaps we can expect Avengers Infinity Defense and Stark Flight Lab to open in 2027 too.
In any case, the Avengers Campus expansion is much farther along than any of the other projects in the works for Disney California Adventure. Looking into the future, the park will also open a Coco indoor boat ride and a land based on Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash. As Disney prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Disney California Adventure this weekend, the park is certainly not content resting on its laurels.
Stay tuned for more updates on the latest Disney news here on Mickey Visit.
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