A new theme park land based on director James Cameron's Avatar movies is coming to Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort, aiming to match the massive scale of the films' spectacle in real life. The specific location of the land within the theme park makes its construction something of a puzzle, and Disney is finally getting the first pieces in place.
The first step toward the Avatar expansion at Disney California Adventure is now underway, and we have a look at how this ambitious project will change the very fabric of the Disneyland Resort experience. Disney has revealed much more about this project than at first meets the eye, and we're zooming in on the details while keeping the big picture in mind. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including a new Haunted Mansion merchandise collection and Disneyland's new $59 ticket.
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Disneyland Begins First Step on the Road to Avatar
The upcoming Avatar land at Disney California Adventure will be located in a space currently used for two very different purposes.
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Firstly, a portion of the real estate belongs to part of Disney California Adventure's Hollywood Land, specifically the section of the land featuring the Monsters, Inc. ride and the Hollywood Lounge snack location. These remain standing and operational for now, but will eventually be demolished.
Disney has confirmed the Monsters, Inc. ride will permanently close in early 2027. That closure was initially set for this year, but pushed back.
Secondly, the Avatar land will also replace part of what is currently the Disneyland Resort transportation hub, home to pickups and drop-offs for rideshare businesses and buses servicing nearby parking lots for guests and cast members. A replacement transportation hub will be part of a new parking structure being built to the east of Disneyland, complete with a pedestrian bridge traversing over Harbor Boulevard.
The new parking structure will be located where, until very recently, a cast member parking lot and Disneyland administrative building were in use.
This cast member parking lot closed on June 28, 2026, marking a significant milestone in the eventual construction of the Avatar project. Avatar can't be built until the new transportation hub is open, and the new transportation hub can't open until the cast member parking lot is closed.
See our separate coverage for a more thorough analysis of how all these pieces fit together in Disneyland's long-term plan, recently approved by the local Anaheim government to reallocate some of Disney's property for theme park use.
As for what to expect from the upcoming Avatar land at Disney California Adventure, the attractions will take a different approach from Walt Disney Imagineering's previous Avatar work. Let's take a look.
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A New Kind of Avatar Land Coming to Disneyland
In 2024, Disney shared its plans to build a new Avatar “destination” at Disney California Adventure in Disneyland Resort. A lot had changed, though, in the 13 years since Walt Disney Imagineering first started working with 20th Century Studios and James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment to build Avatar attractions in Disney theme parks
For starters, what was once a licensed property from a third-party studio now belonged to the Disney synergy machine, as Disney had acquired 20th Century Studios in 2019.
Imagineers also had a whole new canvas with which to play, following the 2022 release of the long-delayed Avatar sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, which focused on Pandora's aquatic life rather than the mountainous regions of the 2009 original.
The future Avatar land coming to Disney California Adventure will draw its inspiration from this oceanic side of Pandora as guests step into a large-scale environment inspired by Avatar: The Way of Water and 2025's Avatar: Fire and Ash. This is not a duplicate of Pandora – The World of Avatar from Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, which opened in 2017 and took its cues from the first film.
Disney hasn't announced the name of the Avatar land coming to Disney California Adventure or how many attractions to expect, but concept art clearly shows a boat ride that traverses both indoor and outdoor areas. As we analyze the artwork, though, we must remember that concept art is just that, conceptual, and is subject to change.
The artwork shows the boat ride featuring both thrilling and calm moments. One scene shows an exciting encounter with a Tulkun, a whale-like creature native to Pandora and a key species in the second and third films.
Another scene depicts a tranquil forest at night, complete with a Na'vi figure and creatures in the water. Again, though, this is not a copy of Florida's boat ride, Na'vi River Journey.
A different forest scene is more sinister than serene, showing a pack of ominous creatures encroaching on the guests' boat.
One illustration shows how the ride may meander through the outdoor portions of land, in full view of guests not riding.
Given the scale of what Disney has promised and the variety of what's shown in the concept art so far, Disney California Adventure's Avatar boat ride may be the first attraction of its kind in a U.S. Disney theme park. It may or may not be the same ride system as Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure at Shanghai Disneyland, which combines a traditional boat ride with huge screens and nontraditional maneuvers.
The most comparable attraction in the U.S. may be NightFlight Expedition, a new ride opening this year at Dollywood. That boat system will simulate various speeds and movements thanks to an innovative chassis underwater that can control the direction that the boat faces and the degree of its tilt.
Disney has not shared if the boat ride will be the only attraction in Disney California Adventure's Avatar land, but it certainly seems primed to be the headliner ride.
Zooming in on Disney California Adventure's concept art for the overall Avatar land itself, we can imagine what might be a dining location or two. Whether Imagineering would opt for a quick service location like Florida's Satu'li Canteen or build a more elaborate table service restaurant remains to be seen.
Those are most of the concrete details we know. For hints of the emotional angle of Disney California Adventure's Avatar land, not to mention its scale, we turn to the past.
Avatar as Disney's New Frontier
Avatar was a smash upon its 2009 release. With groundbreaking motion-capture techniques and innovative 3D presentation, this tale of an ex-Marine soldier who becomes part of the Na'vi on the distant moon of Pandora was an instant crowd-pleaser and a commercial titan.
In 2011, Disney announced its plans to build an Avatar-themed land in Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
These plans materialized with the 2017 grand opening of Pandora – The World of Avatar, an immersive, 12-acre locale that greets its guests with the giant floating mountains of the Valley of Mo'ara, just like in the movie, now feats of engineering in real life.
The star of Disney's Pandora was Pandora itself. Imagineers opted for experiences that showed off the rich worldbuilding of the planet and its ecosystem of flora and fauna rather than spotlighting specific characters and storylines from the movie.
On the Avatar Flight of Passage simulator ride, guests don 3D glasses and mount a bicycle-like seat, meant as a stand-in for a banshee. Riders even feel the creature's functioning respiratory system. In front of a giant screen, the seats move to give riders the sensation of soaring over Pandora. The experience is thrilling, yes, but also surprisingly pensive, poetic, and some might say emotional.
The other ride in Pandora – The World of Avatar is Na'vi River Journey, a calm, indoor boat ride through a bioluminescent forest at night. The attraction opts to evoke a mood rather than convey a plot. Its highlight is a full-body Audio-Animatronics figure resembling a Na'vi shaman, one of Disney's most advanced of its kind.
Disney filled out Pandora – The World of Avatar with Satu'li Canteen, hailed as one of the best quick service restaurants in Disney World, as well as an abundance of detail in the land's architecture and pathways.
Now, Imagineering's Pandora story continues, this time on the other side of the country. Though Disney California Adventure's Avatar project is not a duplicate of what came before at Disney's Animal Kingdom, we can look to the Orlando counterpart's immersive architecture, menu of attractions, and provocative narrative as hints for the type of rounded experience to expect in Anaheim.
We expect Disney to share more details about the future Avatar land on August 15, 2026, during the Disney Experiences Showcase at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, along with lots of other major theme park news.
In addition to the Avatar land, Disney California Adventure will also welcome an Avengers Campus expansion and a Coco ride in the coming years.
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