Guardians Of The Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT To Replace Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror
Disney will officially close Anahiem's Tower Of Terror in January 2017.
It's undeniable that Guardians Of The Galaxy hit the pop-culture zeitgeist like very few sci-fi blockbusters manage. It was the hot ticket of 2014, easily the most creative of the Marvel Universe films and its worldwide gross of $773 million stands as a ground-breaking figure for an obscure comic book property.
Therefore, it wasn't really surprising when rumours began to circulate a few months back that Disney were looking to add Guardians Of The Galaxy to their theme parks in a big way. However, what was something of a shock was just exactly what Disney had planned to incorporate Star Lord, Groot et all to their Hollywood base.
Scuttlebutt suggested that Disney would completely overhaul the iconic The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror ride at Disney's California Adventure theme park and replace it with a Guardians Of The Galaxy attraction featuring the Collector's museum where our heroes have been imprisoned. The dramatic falls and screams would remain but would now relate to visitors trying to escape the prison than heading into another dimension. Same building, new ride.
Despite uproar from Disney pursuits, those rumours have now proved to be true. Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios' Hall H panel on Saturday proudly confirmed that Guardians Of The Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT! will replace the Tower Of Terror in California by Summer 2017, the same time Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 hits theatres.
Here's a video proclaiming the announcement...
The Twilight Tower Of Terror will officially close in January 2017 with a celebratory final "drop day", though the ride will remain intact in WDW Orlando, at least for now. Who is to say what will happen to that ride, however, if this one proves popular?
As a huge fan of the Disney's Twilight Tower of Terror, this hits me as upsetting news but we've certainly had enough time to digest it. We all knew this was coming, the inevitable railroad of progress to the beautiful landscape and even though it makes no sense to have a futuristic prison fill the skies of a California theme park, Disney aesthetics don't matter when it comes to product placements.
The idea of the ride is great, it's just sad that it has to replace such an iconic part of pop culture and although nowhere near as suspect a knee-jerk reaction as building an Avatar theme park in Orlando, it's hard to be certain that the sequel movie will perform as well as the original and the movie will stay in the public conscience.
Some concept art of what Disney are planning below;
Key quotes;
“Guests will experience multiple, random and unique ride profiles in which the rise and fall of the gantry lift rocks to the beat of music inspired by the film’s popular soundtrack.”
Joe Rohde, the Walt Disney Imagineering and Portfolio Creative Director, who is the chief hand on the project (and also the Avatar Land in Orlando) said;
“The setting is a kind of fortress that’s owned by the mysterious Collector and it’s packed with creatures and his latest acquisitions from across the universe. Now he has imprisoned the Guardians of the Galaxy and they’re hanging in display cases over a giant abyss. The captor doesn’t know it but Rocket Raccoon has escaped and is enlisting our aid—all the guests—to help the Guardians in a breakout scheme. And the rest is comical chaos; a very funny, very irreverent story and a really wonderful addition to Disney California Adventure.”