9 Huge Expansion Announcements We Expect Disney to Make This Year

Some big announcements are headed our way in 2026 — especially on the Disney Parks expansion front!

If history has proven anything, 2026 will be a MASSIVE year when it comes to Disney Parks announcements. In 2024, Disney’s D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event expo unveiled a cavalcade of projects (and a slate of exciting developments) that are forever reshaping the Disney Parks experience. With several of these projects already underway, the upcoming 2026 D23 Expo feels poised to not only bring similar announcements but elaborate and provide more important details as a follow-up to what we learned back in 2024.

Held at the Anaheim Convention Center and Honda Center in Southern California on August 14th, 15th, and 16th, 2026, the 2026 D23 Expo should deliver some very important expansion updates and reveals. Here are 9 theme park expansion announcements Disney may make at the event!

New Avatar Land Updates

Disney first confirmed that an Avatar-themed land was coming to Disney California Adventure at D23 in 2024. We learned that the area will be different from Animal Kingdom’s Pandora, being inspired by Avatar: The Way of Water and future Avatar films.

At the expo, we learned that it will include a thrilling and beautiful adventure boat ride. In 2025, we also learned that the new land will replace most of the Hollywood Land backlot area, including the Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! dark ride. Disney also revealed that preliminary construction would begin in early 2026. Aaand that’s about it…

This year’s D23 would be a prime opportunity to announce details like opening dates, ride details, and how this land will integrate with the rest of Disney California Adventure — including the nearby lands and the Disneyland Esplanade. Heck, we’d settle for an official name for the land and its major attraction!

‘Coco’ Ride Update

Disney’s first Coco ride was announced back at D23 2024, and construction to expand Disney California Adventure and install this ride started in 2026. However, we’re still lacking some major details.

Meanwhile, Disney still needs to reveal what the expanded area around the family-friendly boat ride will look like, what kind of special effects and animatronics we should expect, and other ride details.

Avengers Campus Phase 2 Official Dates

Avengers Campus in California Adventure is doubling in size with two new attractions and even more offerings. In fact, construction on this expansion is already around a year old, and the progress has been noticeable.

We already know that we’re getting Avengers Infinity Defense (a big dark ride not too dissimilar to Universal’s Transformers and Spider-Man rides with a plot where Thanos wins and becomes king of that dimension)…

And Stark Flight Lab (a flight simulator experience featuring Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr. himself).

Out of the Disneyland projects we know about, this is currently the furthest along with the most details revealed.

With that said, it feels like D23 would be a good time for Disney to start providing some official dates and concrete timelines.

Dates and Details from Disney World

While some big projects were revealed for Disneyland, Disney World took more of the spotlight in 2024. The Disney team laid out some truly ambitious projects, and each one is already in motion.

At 2024’s D23 expo, we learned about:

• A new Tropical Americas land is coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Pueblo Esperanza will replace DinoLand U.S.A. (which officially closes February 2nd), and will include a new Indiana Jones thrill ride, an Encanto attraction, and a new carousel, among other offerings.

• A new Monsters, Inc. land featuring Disney’s first suspended roller coaster is already under construction and replacing Muppets Courtyard while expanding the area at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

• Maybe the biggest announcement was a new Villains Land coming to Magic Kingdom. Work has already started, but we still have much to learn about this new land.

• And then there’s Piston Peak, a new Cars-themed area joining Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland. This area will feature new rides, shops, restaurants, and thematic elements that exude a national park vibe. It has replaced the Rivers of America and will feature a major Cars ride, featuring a rally race story with off-road elements like mudholes and geysers.

D23 will present a great opportunity for Disney to give us dates, details, and a bunch of teases. These are all major projects, and Disney fans worldwide are clamoring for updates.

EPCOT & Disneyland Park Surprises?

Notably, two major theme parks were left out of the fun in 2024: EPCOT and Disneyland Park. These two parks largely flew under the radar in 2025 regarding any sort of expansion talk, but maybe that changes in 2026.

When Disney announced DisneylandForward — its multi-billion-dollar expansion project — California Adventure was a major focus, but Disneyland was also listed as having the potential to add one or two new lands. Similarly, EPCOT has been suspiciously quiet on the expansion front, so it would not shock us to learn that big plans are in the works there, as well. Even though we will say, EPCOT has recently received quite a few changes, so maybe Disney is just focusing on other areas.

It’s all speculation at this point, but both parks are due for some big news.

News Regarding Parks Around the World

For the last several years, Disney has really zeroed in on expanding its theme parks overseas.  Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris, and Hong Kong have all seen some major projects be announced, start, and get completed. From Lion King lands to the debut of new Worlds of Frozen, it’s never been a matter of whether Disney will expand those newer parks, but of when work will be completed.

In fact, it would be ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING if we DON’T get a bunch of updates on lands like The Lion King Land at Disney Adventure World and the Spider-Man Roller Coaster at Shanghai Disneyland.

2024’s D23 Expo set the bar pretty high, so Disney will need to deliver the goods in 2026. That should come in the form of some MAJOR expansion updates, and we can’t wait to find out!

We’ll be here in Anaheim covering the event in August as well as all the latest Disney news year-round, so keep it posted right here at AllEars to stay in the know!

Disney Shares NEW Updates for 10 MASSIVE Park Expansions

What expansion updates are you hoping to learn more about? Let us know in the comments!

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