During an interview with Entertainment Weekly on Monday, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro expanded a bit on some of the plans he revealed during September’s Destination D23 event at Walt Disney World. The interview occurred at a press preview for the grand opening of Hong Kong Disneyland’s World of Frozen.
D’Amaro referenced the concept art shared during the event (above), which showed an Indiana Jones-inspired structure where the current DINOSAUR attraction sits in DinoLand at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. He jokingly said, “I think I actually played some music, didn’t I?” If you remember, the Indiana Jones score by John Williams played in the background while D’Amaro spoke about the rendering. He stressed that although the artwork was not set in stone, this is “where our heads are” as Disney Imagineers continue “dreaming” plans for that area of the theme park.
We’ve got so many stories to tell, we have so many things we want to make even better in the theme parks. My plan is to continue to share that with the guests. I know people are like, ‘My gosh, I can’t believe he’s saying this. Is he serious, is he not?’ The answer is, we are absolutely serious. We know what this business is capable of, we know what our fans expect of us, and we’re going all in. You’re going to see more and more of that. As we make our way through some of these ideas, some of them will become real, and we’ll say that’s specifically what we’re going to do, but I want our guests to be on the journey with us.
Josh D’Amaro
While not ready to dive into further details regarding any expansion at Animal Kingdom, D’Amaro did mention that he “was fortunate enough to have run that theme park” and knows “how special it is.” He also shared that there are many more stories to be told that will allow the company to “stay true to Animal Kingdom and express new properties” as well.
