Villains Land: Disney Reveals the Name, the Story and Both Attractions

Magic Kingdom Park's villain-themed expansion took up the closing stretch of the "Horizons: A Carousel of Progress" showcase at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event. The Magic Mirror appeared on stage first, delivering a message before introducing Disney Experiences Chairman Thomas Mazloum. Walt Disney Imagineering's President and Chief Creative Officer Bruce Vaughn and Executive Creative Director Caroline May then took over, calling the project one of the most eagerly awaited they have worked on.

The name came first. The area will officially be known as Villains Land, chosen so it sits naturally beside Fantasyland and Tomorrowland despite offering an atmosphere nothing like either.

The storytelling is where Disney is taking the biggest swing. The characters are drawn from classic Walt Disney Animation Studios films, but the narrative wrapped around them is entirely new. It starts the way fairytales tend to get interesting — by leaving the safe path for the forest. Somewhere in that forest stands a wishing well that has been ripped apart. An evil wish made there long ago was potent enough to corrupt the stone, break open the structure and push the well's poisoned magic out into the surrounding woods.

That corrupted power is the draw. One villain after another has arrived to claim what remains of it, and the land itself is shaped by what they conjured with it: fortresses and palaces built to match their personalities, doubling as places for guests to browse treats, trinkets and other temptations. Asked about scale, the team compared the footprint to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.

D23 2024 had already established that Villains Land would carry two headline attractions alongside shops and restaurants, and both were fleshed out here. The first is a coaster built around Maleficent, sending riders racing through enchanted briar around the mountaintop fortress she has invited them to. Imagineers hinted that it will feature elements never attempted before on comparable attractions.

The second is a dark ride hosted by the Magic Mirror, who is kept in the catacombs beneath the Evil Queen's palace. Once guests reach him, he pulls them into his Mirror Realm to see what lies on the other side of the glass, where villain after villain appears through a mix of special effects and physical set pieces.

May framed the land as a way to widen the park's storytelling without abandoning its fairytale foundations, pointing to the power and the occasionally comic streak that defines the Disney villains. The project was first announced at D23 2024, when the earliest rendering appeared — "a fearless new vision for what a Disney experience can be," as then chairman Josh D'Amaro put it. A further update followed at Destination D23 in 2025, where Imagineers detailed research trips to Paris and Barcelona and their fascination with Art Nouveau and Modernisme: rich colour palettes, swirling natural patterns and ominous proportions that suggest a building was summoned rather than built. The team's shorthand for it, Conjured Architecture, now guides the look of the entire land. No opening date has been given.