ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Some assembling is still required, but the Avengers are gathering in a big way at Disneyland.
A new Spider-Man attraction that allows riders to sling webs with their bare hands and live-action fights between Avengers members and Marvel supervillains are among the highlights of the new Avengers Campus that arrives July 18 at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim.
Taking its cues from Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, which debuted across the resort at Disneyland Park last year, the Avengers Campus will be an immersive experience that seeks to tell super-heroic stories across a series of rides, shows and eateries.
"We've been trying to figure out how do we bring this land to life not just where you get to see your favorite heroes or meet your favorite heroes, but where you actually get to become a hero," Brent Strong, the executive creative director behind the new land for Walt Disney Imagineering, said at a media preview that revealed new details and provided a first look at the project that was first announced last year. "It's about living out your superhero fantasies."
Central to that aim is "WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure," which uses a combination of physical and digital imagery to allow riders to play Peter Parker along with onscreen Spidey Tom Holland. The ride begins as an open house where Spider-Man, played by Holland, shows off small but smart-and-powerful Spider-bots that he and a team of other inventive teens known as the Worldwide Engineering Brigade, or WEB, have developed in an old building donated by Tony Stark. Of course, the self-replicating bots spiral out of control and start to overrun the place, and guests are summoned to help round them up.
The eight-seat cars that have been set up to begin test runs through the facility look like many other people-moving vehicles on Disneyland attractions, but its creators say the experience will be something entirely new.
"With nothing in your hands, you get to reach out and you will sling webs on this ride," Strong said. "While there's a ton of technology to make that happen, it just feels like magic, it feels like being Spider-Man."
The imaginary magic comes from a new gesture recognition system two years in the making that can recognize the faces and hands of riders.
Strong says the all-ages, all-sizes attraction can play simple or sophisticated, and those who get a knack for the slinging can experience "layers and layers of game play" and uncover "a million Easter eggs."
Spidey will also be seen soaring over the structures as one of 15 different costumed Avengers -- all of them are still alive in this timeline -- who will roam the land.
"The Avengers Campus is literally going to be teeming with heroes," said Dan Fields, the executive creative director behind the live entertainment for the project. "It's a hero-rich environment."
Entertainment on 03/12/2020