Disneyland Paris has confirmed that a brand new, world-first land based on The Lion King will be built inside its transformed Disney Adventure World second park, joining World of Frozen and fronting the new Adventure Bay lake area.

Replacing earlier plans for a slightly scaled-down copy of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on the same plot, the immersive new “Pride Lands” themed area will remarkably be the first Disney has ever built based on the multi-billion dollar Lion King franchise and will be anchored by a new, exclusive family water ride with “state-of-the-art” Audio Animatronics and an outside flume drop.

Revealed at the major D23 Expo event in Anaheim, California last night, the land will begin construction at Disneyland Paris next year, in 2025, meaning an opening date could still be at least three years away from now. Although the key concept art released shows characters and a design palette more aligned with the 2019 live-action film, the press release and other sources suggest the land’s design will based on, or at least closer to, the 1994 animated classic, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Here’s the full press release and updated concept art for Disney Adventure World showing the new land and its Pride Rock landmark. Keep scrolling for a few extra thoughts.

THE FIRST-EVER ATTRACTION AND IMMERSIVE AREA THEMED AROUND THE LION KING IN A DISNEY PARK

In front of an excited audience, Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences, unveiled the upcoming creation of an all-new extraordinary area at Disneyland Paris dedicated to one of the most beloved Disney franchises, around the world and particularly in Europe – The Lion King! This larger-than-life area will bring guests on a journey through the African savanna and immerse them into the unforgettable adventures of Simba, Timon, Pumbaa and many other iconic characters from the beloved Disney film, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. For the attraction, Disney Imagineers will bring to life the majestic Pride Rock, which will serve as the gateway to an adventure-filled water attraction that will plunge guests beneath the rock to follow Simba on his journey from cub to king, in a retelling of the story from the classic animated feature film. When visiting the Pride Lands, guests will be immersed in the world of The Lion King thanks to Disney character greetings, themed dining, and shopping opportunities, which promises an unforgettable experience for guests of all ages.

“We are very excited and proud to be unveiling the next immersive area of Disney Adventure World, our second park that has been undergoing an expansion on a never-before-seen scale. This marks another milestone in the ongoing transformation of Disneyland Paris. After Worlds of Pixar, Marvel

Avengers Campus and World of Frozen – our Frozen-themed land that will open in 2026 – the creation of an immersive experience dedicated to The Lion King is a testament to our commitment to immersing our guests into breathtaking adventures inspired by their favorite films, at the heart of themed areas that are faithful to the originals. This new area – which is inspired by the unforgettable story that has enchanted several generations of viewers – exists nowhere else in the world. It will make it possible for guests of all ages to make one of their wildest dreams come true: exploring the Pride Lands alongside all their favorite characters,” said Natacha Rafalski, Présidente of Disneyland Paris.

Inspired by the African savanna and iconic locations from the franchise, this new area will push the boundaries of immersion with its unparalleled level of detail and a new, unique attraction, which will seamlessly blend a spectacular water experience with state-of-the-art Audio-Animatronics® technology. Imagineers have dreamed up the perfect way to carry forward Disney’s uniquestorytelling tradition! With construction set to begin next year, the Pride Lands near Adventure Bay will bring the resort’s ongoing transformation to new heights!

“From the moment the sun rose on the big screen in theaters all around the world, audiences were captivated by the story of The Lion King, and its characters, and it has not lost any momentum since. Our goal as Imagineers is to translate the emotional core of the film into this exciting project and have you relive that feeling all over again as you experience this unique attraction. I’m thrilled and excited that The Lion King will make its attraction debut here at Disneyland Paris.” said Michel Den Dulk, Portfolio Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering Paris.

Ceaseless speculation has suggested The Lion King pushing out Star Wars to be the reborn second gate’s third new land (including Marvel Avengers Campus), but we really didn’t know for sure until Disney said it itself. Could it have been Avatar? Could it have been nothing at all, an expansion pad doomed to sit empty for decades? (Hi, Disneyland Park.) No, it’s real, it lives! And it turns out, it looks pretty much entirely as expected — which, when you’re talking about Disney finally, finally building a whole Lion King land, isn’t a bad thing at all. Pride Rock the anchor, water flume dropping down the hillside, lots of lush set design blending wild savannah with green jungle.

Exciting as another Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge really would’ve been for our transformed Walt Disney Studios Park, there were always some serious stumbling points there: the land’s complete lack of exterior kinetics and movement a key one. The last thing this second gate needs is another static, motionless set of buildings. Even in World of Frozen, though there’ll be a boat ride (you wait decades for one then two show up…), all the action takes place indoors. It’s always been true this park lacks greenery and immersive set design, but what it’s always really lacked (especially over its left-hand side, outside of Worlds of Pixar) is movement and life. So, big tick.

In fact, between us shouting “build a Lion King land!” and it being a reality, you realise one just-slightly important point for Imagineers: there are no buildings in The Lion King. None! And so we can see from the complete (and really, genuinely impressive) land model revealed in a video today that, between natural-looking caves and rock formations, there seems to be a certain amount of animal-led dressing of the scenery to welcome us into a kind of African village environment. Rafiki has been really busy with the bunting.

Obviously we should hesitate to read too much into concept art and models at this stage but in terms of the water attraction, we definitely seem to be looking at something very Splash Mountain in scope. If you asked any Disneyland Paris fan which one attraction (or type of attraction) they’d like to see in Marne-la-Vallée, that’d be up there. Big, big tick. Size-wise things are confusing and hopefully, presumably, the model is far more (if not entirely) accurate for what will actually be built — right down to the more animation-styled Simba figure.

While the lovely but slightly gloomy, live-action-ish concept art shows a relatively small Splash Mountain-style drop with the same illusion of going under water (and ridiculously low-capacity boats!), the model shows the drop sitting higher on a hillside, with bigger boats seating at least three across. If Disney were to build a new Splash Mountain from scratch, three decades on, this is surely what they’d go for. Meanwhile in the art, Simba appears atop a Pride Rock shoehorned part-way down the drop, whereas in the model and park-wide concepts, Pride Rock is clearly a forced perspective “weenie” designed to be in the distance above, very much like Elsa’s ice palace on the side of the under-construction North Mountain.

Shouldn’t it thematically be in Adventureland? Yes, perhaps — let’s even imagine if Pride Lands had been designed to entirely replace the whole Indiana Jones coaster area, how extra-immersive that could be and spot on, equally, for Disneyland Park’s needs as a ride. But for an expansion on the scale of this to even have a hope of fitting there would probably also require major works to the Disneyland Railroad, whose engine shed sits right in the way behind the tracks. So, in reality, not really workable; move on, be glad it’s happening at all. And let the dream of a real Indiana Jones Adventure jeep ride in that spot live on.

Separately, in terms of story and environment, you could ask would an immersive Lion King land really fit in our Adventureland? The rest of that land is all actually very human-scale and somewhat based within reality, albeit one of classic story book myth and legend. Entering a corner with fully anthropomorphic animals could actually be a bit of an odd leap. At Disney Adventure World, it seems every corner will be an absolute leap, so who cares, and at least the “adventure” word and its green, jungley connotations now feels 1% more appropriate in that name.

One disappointment with this “land” announcement is that it seems to be yet another single-attraction environment. Would a bonus flat ride really be a budget killer? Wouldn’t that add even more of the really essential kinetics needed in this new part of the park? Imagine the colour and joy even something as basic as an “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” animal spinner would’ve added. Hopefully this land conveys the fun and abstract feeling of the animated classic and eschews the dull, dour realism of the live action remake. Anyone can build an Africa land but only Disney can build a Lion King (1994) land.

It’s only a shame it’s still going be such a long wait from this point. The “$2 billion” expansion and transformation of Walt Disney Studios Park was first announced way back in 2018 and, even allowing for a global pandemic, progress has been too slow and plans arguably not comprehensive enough. But here today, we got one of the most monumental new expansion announcements in Disneyland Paris history. (Oh, and a new post on DLP Guide. It lives!)