Concept Artwork of Changes to Disney World’s Most Iconic Roller Coaster That’s Closed For a Year

Disney World has just shared some new details about current projects, including new concept artwork of changes coming to a fan-favorite roller coaster. This ride has been closed for several months now as it's partway through an extensive year-long refurbishment.

Keep reading for more details about changes coming to this iconic ride and the new concept art Disney just revealed!

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Changes to Iconic Disney Coaster

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Magic Kingdom closed earlier this year on January 6, 2025, and Disney previously shared that it will reopen in 2026 with a “new bit of magic.” Several months into the closure, we now have some more details on what they're working on.

In addition to a “mountain-top to cavern-deep refurbishment” to keep the attraction in good shape, there will also be some changes coming to the lift hill scene. In the moment when the trains go underground into caverns of phosphorescent pools, the rainbow caverns will transform to red caverns with a loud crack of thunder.

You can see this shift in the concept artwork below.

And to the right of the concept artwork, this ominous lighting shift reveals some bats hanging in the cavern.

The Disney World version of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad doesn't have the big climactic explosion scene like its Disneyland counterpart, so this new change is a good way to make this version of the ride a little more exciting overall. Disney also teased that there will be “more new magic” when the ride returns, but they will reveal more news soon. We currently don't have an exact reopening date for the attraction, other than the confirmation that it will return in 2026.

The Disney World version of the ride has a fun backstory, with a villain based on the likeness of Imagineer Tony Baxter, the creator of the original Big Thunder Mountain ride. In Season 2, Episode 2 of Behind the Attraction on Disney+, Tony Baxter shared a funny comment about this. “I have certainly seen the rendering they have done. And I felt the facial expression on that painting was pretty severe.” He went on to say later in the episode, “There was a series of comics on Big Thunder, in which I appeared to be the villain. I was looking at it in line at a restaurant one night, with horror. And the person that was with me snapped a photo. And when he sent to me, they both looked identical. And he said, ‘So what was it you were saying about not looking like the way the character is drawn?'”

On that funny note, here is the backstory of the ride, according to Disney.

“The story of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad dates back to Olden Times, or rather, Golden Times, during the early days of America’s first major gold rush. When Barnabas T. Bullion struck gold in the Big Thunder region, he saw a future full of riches and hustled to start the Big Thunder Mountain Company.

However, them shiny dreams rarely come without a cost, and Bullion quickly found himself in a battle with the forces of nature and in a whole heap of trouble. One day, strange and unexplainable things started happening. Machines failed. Cave-ins shut mines down.

No matter how deep the miners dug into the heart of the mountain, the forces of Big Thunder fought back. And when the attraction reopens next year, the unsuspectin’ passengers who board the runaway trains will learn just how wild the wilderness can get.”

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