Monstropolis is coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, welcoming theme park guests into a new land based on Pixar’s Monsters, Inc., with Disney’s first suspended roller coaster and other attractions. I visited the construction site and heard from Disney directly about new details for this highly anticipated area during a media event for the new summer additions.
Disney World’s future Monsters, Inc. land will take place after the events of the classic 2001 movie and continue the story of Mike and Sulley in an interesting way. I’m excited to share what I saw during my hardhat tour of Monstropolis construction, including the role guests will play within the story. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including a theme park trend that guests may be taking too far and a Disney World hotel discount for 2027.
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Monsters, Inc. Land Will Take Place After Movie
Monstropolis is the name of the Monsters, Inc. expansion currently under construction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Mickey Visit was among media invitees who got to go where no guests are allowed: behind the construction walls to take a hardhat tour of what will one day be Monstropolis and hear directly from Walt Disney Imagineers about what’s coming.
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Modern Disney theme park attractions often cast guests as active participants in the story, rather than just observers of the action. For example, in older rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, riders simply watch the narrative unfold, but on newer attractions like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, characters address the presence of the riders, who play a role in what happens.
In the case of the Monstropolis theme park land, guests are visiting the titular city after the events of Monsters, Inc. Disney shared this when first announcing the project in 2024, but during our hardhat tour, Imagineers provided a deeper dive into this placemaking.
You may remember how, at the end of the movie, monsters learn that human laughter is a more powerful energy source than human screams. This philosophy will continue in the theme park land as Monstropolis’s citizens continue to educate themselves about humans and invite us to return the favor.
We, the guests, are visiting Monstropolis on H.U.M.A.N. Day, a cultural exchange holiday that stands for Humans Understand Monsters Are Nice. The day has been set up by the Department of Human Relations. Disney shared new logos to support the backstory, pictured above. Monstropolis being “The City Frightful” may be a nod to Orlando being “The City Beautiful.”
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As part of the guests’ visit, of course they have to visit the Monsters, Inc. factory, home of the land’s marquee attraction, a new roller coaster. Here, I’ll share a bit of context on what Disney previously announced about this exciting upcoming ride before diving back into the new info from the hardhat tour.
The factory coaster will be Disney’s first suspended roller coaster, meaning riders sit underneath the track. The coaster’s load station will feature a cool technological moment, pictured above in a rendering, in which riders will get into their seats hanging from a portion of the track that’s dislodged from the ride path. The piece of track will then rise and position into place all at once, joining the rest of the track above it as the ride begins.
From there, riders will zip through the door vault, just like Mike and Sulley did at the climax of the film. It’s unclear if the ride continues the land’s setting of taking place after the movie, or if the ride exists within the actual movie scene, earlier than the rest of the land.
Hint for Opening Timeframe of Monsters, Inc. Land
During my visit to the Monstropolis construction site, it was clear that the future roller coaster still has a long way to go, but that much progress had been made since just a year ago, when this plot of land was still being used for cast member parking.
The most exciting visible progress are the first beams in place, seen above in an aerial photo captured last week. These beams will eventually support the roller coaster track.
Imagineers shared that a milestone will take place soon when Disney World cast members will be invited to sign a piece of construction bar that will be used to build the coaster. This is a tradition for new Disney rides as a way for cast members to be part of the attractions’ history.
This also hints at the potential opening date timeline for when Monstropolis and the Monsters, Inc. coaster, as Disney has yet to announce when the new land will debut.
Disney held the cast member signing for the upcoming Encanto ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in January 2026. While an exact opening date for Encanto has not been announced, Disney has confirmed the ride will open in 2027. Therefore, if the Monstropolis cast member signing is about to happen, and its construction timeframe goes at the same pace of Encanto, we could expect Monstropolis to open in 2028.
New Details on Transforming an Old Theme Park Area
Monstropolis is one of several huge construction projects in progress across Walt Disney World. Also underway are The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the new Disney Lakeshore Lodge hotel, Tropical Americas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Piston Peak National Park at Magic Kingdom.
Collectively, these projects are creating more than 5,000 jobs. This includes construction partners from Buena Vista Construction Company, Acomb Ostendorf & Associates, and Icarus Exhibits Inc. It also accounts for the Disney World cast members who will be hired to operate the attractions once they open.
In addition to the upcoming Monsters, Inc. roller coaster being located on what was previously a portion of a cast member parking lot, the rest of Monstropolis will replace the area of Disney’s Hollywood Studios formerly known as Muppets Courtyard. This entire land was permanently closed in 2025, including Muppet*Vision 3D, Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano table service restaurant, and the PizzeRizzo quick service restaurant. Above is a photo of what this all looked like in May 2025.
Much of the former Muppets Courtyard facilities will remain in place and be repurposed. For example, the previous Muppet*Vision 3D theater will become home to a new Monsters, Inc. indoor theater attraction.
Since this area of Hollywood Studios previously resembled a modern city, it would be natural to assume its transformation into the city vibe of Monstropolis would be minimal on Disney’s part. That is not the case, as Disney shared with us that significant makeovers are in store for all of the former Muppet Courtyard buildings’ aesthetics. Architectural details like gates and sculptures will all contribute to the identity of Monstropolis as a real place, with the intention of having even more monster-themed details than you see in the movie.
During the hardhat tour of the Monstropolis construction site, Disney took us to the second-floor balcony of the former PizzeRizzo to look out over the future Monstropolis. The inside of the former PizzeRizzo, which was Toy Story Pizza Planet Arcade before that, is completely gutted. Disney hasn’t announced what’s coming to this space, but another quick service restaurant seems likely.
Disney confirmed that Harryhausen’s, a fancy restaurant that Mike Wazowski and his girlfriend, Celia, visit in the movie, will be part of the Monstropolis land. This was more or less assumed from the inclusion of Harryhausen’s in the land’s previously released concept art, but Disney hadn’t outright said that until now.
Harryhausen’s will replace the former Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano, but again, Disney is doing more than slapping a new sign on an existing restaurant and calling it a day.
During the hardhat tour, we could see the foundation in place for an elaborate entrance facade for Harryhausen’s, which will feature giant chopsticks holding an eyeball, just like in the film. This type of visual iconography was never part of the more understated entrance of Mama Melrose’s.
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