Magic Kingdom may have said goodbye to Snow White’s Scary Adventures more than a decade ago, but its wicked spirit could be finding its way back to Fantasyland’s future neighbor.
At D23 2026, Disney finally pulled back the curtain on Villains Land, confirming the stories behind its two major attractions and the wonderfully weird premise tying the entire land together. After years of calling it Villains Land, its official name is simply… Villains Land. As Bruce Vaughn said “why ruin a good thing?”
The land begins with a wandering path through a dark forest, with a twisted Wishing Well. According to the story, someone once made a wish so evil that it corrupted the well, cracked it open, and poisoned the surrounding forest with its magic. That power has attracted Disney Villains, who have used it to create elaborate new lairs of their own.
Disney has cited inspiration from villains including Maleficent, Ursula, Jafar, Hades, Cruella de Vil, Dr. Facilier, the Queen of Hearts, Chernabog and, importantly for this discussion, the Evil Queen.
Maleficent Gets Her Own Roller Coaster
One of the land’s two headliners will take guests into Maleficent’s corner of this twisted kingdom. The thrilling roller coaster will race through enchanted briars surrounding Maleficent’s fortress, eventually bringing riders face-to-face with the Mistress of All Evil herself. Imagineering has also teased that the attraction will use elements the team hasn’t attempted on similar coasters before.
But as exciting as a Maleficent coaster sounds, it’s the second attraction that immediately sent my mind back to old-school Magic Kingdom with a frightful Fantasyland feature…
Is This Snow White’s Scary Adventures 2.0?
The land’s dark ride will begin beneath the Evil Queen’s palace, where the Magic Mirror is kept within her catacombs. Guests will encounter the Mirror before being transported through it and into his mysterious Mirror Realm.
Once inside, the Magic Mirror will conjure appearances from multiple Disney Villains, with Disney specifically showing characters including Cruella de Vil, Dr. Facilier, Ursula, Scar and Jafar. Imagineering plans to combine physical sets with special effects to create the supernatural realm. And I can’t help but think: Haven’t we been here before?
— Photo credit: Yesterland
Snow White’s Scary Adventures closed at Magic Kingdom on May 31, 2012, with its Fantasyland location eventually (unfortunately) becoming Princess Fairytale Hall. The attraction had already been substantially softened during a 1994 refurbishment. The original 1971 version was famously strange and legitimately creepy, presenting the story largely from Snow White’s point of view without actually featuring Snow White herself.
The Evil Queen and Witch were the stars of many of its most memorable scenes. Guests traveled through a sinister forest filled with menacing trees, encountered the Queen before her transformation into the old Hag, and repeatedly found themselves being pursued by her — all through her lair filled with potions and skeletons, as well as a spooky forest with log crocodiles and creepy trees.
— Photo credit: Boardwalk Times
— Photo credit: Disney Wiki
Back to Villains Land: we’re entering another foreboding forest, heading beneath the Evil Queen’s lair and boarding a dark ride where sinister characters appear around us. It certainly isn’t a recreation of Snow White’s Scary Adventures, but there’s enough shared DNA here to make this longtime Disney dark ride fan very happy! Could we even see a modern take on the Evil Queen transforming into the Hag? Please?
Interestingly, Disney has specifically described this attraction as a dark ride, not a boat ride. The vehicle shown in the concept art has a shape somewhat reminiscent of the vehicles used for Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure at Tokyo DisneySea, but Disney hasn’t confirmed the ride system just yet.
That leaves plenty of mystery behind the Magic Mirror… How excited are you for Villains Land so far?
