Disney Parks Boss Josh D'Amaro talks more about Disney's plans for Indiana Jones at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Nov 20, 2023 in "Disney's Animal Kingdom"

Tropical Americas Encanto land concept art at Disney's Animal Kingdom
Posted: Monday November 20, 2023 3:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In a new interview with EW, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro discusses Disney's early plans to bring Indiana Jones to Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

D'Amaro first revealed early plans for Indiana Jones to come to Disney's Animal Kingdom during a D23 fan event this past September.

The new land themed to the tropical Americas would replace the entire Dino-Land U.S.A. area, with Indiana Jones replacing the existing Dinosaur ride, and Encanto replacing Dino-Rama.

Fans were surprised by D'Amaro revealing blue-sky concepts still in the early planning stages and not green-lit. D'Amaro told EW, "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."

Imagineering Boss Bruce Vaughn said at Destination D23, "Imagine a land filled with authentic experiences from this part of the world. With all of the placemaking and storytelling you'd expect. Look, it's a beautiful region to explore and has been the inspiration for so many magical stories over the years. We're looking forward to bringing all of that to life."

Vaughn continued, "Imagineering has been talking about stories from this part of the world; Encanto with Indiana Jones just rose to the top. They give us so much to play with. We have a long way to go now and a lot more to discover. But our team here in Florida is all over it."

D'Amaro's latest comments to EW today suggest that Indiana Jones remains at the forefront of Disney's plans in Florida, and the parks chairman is talking up Disney's ambitions.

"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."

D'Amaro also addressed how Indiana Jones may fit into Disney's Animal Kingdom thematically. Much like when Avatar was announced for the park, fans are skeptical about its suitability for a part centered around nature and conservation.

"Animal Kingdom is about exploration and adventure," he says. "I was fortunate enough to have run that theme park, so I know how special it is, and I think there are a lot of stories that we can stay true to Animal Kingdom and express new properties in there, and that's what you see us starting to do."

You can read the full interview at EW.

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Nickm20222 days ago

I find the mayan playground area so interesting because 1. That sounds so cool and well positioned I don't know why Disney hasn't released concept art for it and 2. It could be food carts or something else like show. Personally I've been saying move the UP bird show here

Disstevefan12 days ago

Oh good. You had me worried.

lentesta3 days ago

It is. But Disney drew it differently in the two separate SFWMD filings, so I think it's going to be fully covered.

lentesta3 days ago

Upper left corner. :P

Trueblood3 days ago

I'm a little disappointed that there are no featured animals, and "Tropical Americas" ecology will likely only be represented in the attraction queues, if at all. At least you could squint really hard and see the conservation message in Pandora, this... they have some work to do.

Disstevefan13 days ago

Its about time since Primeval Whirl has been closed since 2019....

Gusey3 days ago

I think that the part labelled "New Indy Covered/Indoor Queue" is the Dinosaur extended queue? It just hasn't been used much in the past

MisterPenguin3 days ago

Where's the DVC kiosk?

lentesta3 days ago

I did a blog post that looked at the SFWMD filings for Tropical Americas, and then made some educated guesses about where and what everything is. Here's the end result map:

Starship8243 days ago

They aren't wasting any time with this project I guess.

Fox&Hound3 days ago

Yay!! Let’s get this thing started :)

sedati3 days ago

Exciting, though the sample more resembles the rock-work at Everest than anything we're expecting at Tropical Americas. In fact, the only new rock-work shown so far is some lush mountain backdrops on top of the Encanto show-building. Could this just be for training, or something else entirely? The mock ups done previously were never so large but did accurately reflect what was coming.

gerarar3 days ago

Trailers/offices now on site and a theme test wall in progress. Source and more:

GoofGoof10 days ago

I feel the same. I was at DLR shortly after Galaxy’s Edge opened (without Rise). I was still happy to see the new land and ride MF but it was disappointing that the headliner wasn’t open. I do think that if part of the land is ready by the start of the Summer and the rest won’t be done until Fall it will probably open in phases. If it’s a few months difference in off times maybe all at once. Disney also probably wouldn’t want people delaying a trip to wait for the land to open. That happened some with Star Wars and was a bigger deal for Universal in the year before each Harry Potter land opened. Maybe this is too minor an addition to move the needle. The Potter lands and SW were much more anticipated.