In so many ways, Avengers Campus is going to be the anti-Wizarding World or Galaxy’s Edge. Full disclaimer – Galaxy’s Edge is awesome and my favorite theme park location on the planet. That being said, while riding the still popular Star Tours at Disneyland last week, I began to think – is there a part of the more immersive Galaxy’s Edge experience that some ticket-holders might find too esoteric and/or too much work to enjoy? Basically – what I am trying to say is some guests come to Disneyland to be entertained, not to experience – these are two distinctly different entertainment goals. I think Star Tours entertains and while I thin Galaxy’s Edge is an experience. And I think Avengers Campus will offer some of the latter it will be far more closer to the former.
After combing through as many press articles and youtube speculation videos as I could – I began to think about Avengers Campus. Many are already comparing it to Wizarding World and Galaxy’s Edge. But I 1.) Do not think that is a fair comparison and 2.) I don’t think it is an accurate comparison.
It’s not a fair comparison because the Avengers Campus is, to be quite frank – small. But I think it is small on purpose. It is meant to be a contained experience with very specific goals that are transparent and achievable to its audience – unlike Galaxy’s Edge or Wizarding World who seem to grow in value the more time you spend there, when you see the nooks and crannies of the art deco, when you meet the shop keepers, when you find that special curio in a shop that could only exist in-universe.
And that brings up to point 2: it is not accurate. I think the kind of experience that Avengers Campus will harken back to will be the original – and still quite awesome – STAR TOURS ride, not the more recent Galaxy’s Edge or Wizarding World. Let me explain.
Galaxy and Wizarding are meant to be experiential destinations. There are no signs on roofs or even doors – there are things unadvertised that are amazing and just there for those who arrive. Your expectations are constantly being subverted such that even the idea of having expectations before arriving at either of these destinations would be counterproductive to just going and letting the experience wash over you. Even the E+ ticket ride Rise of The Resistance is an attraction where little is known, few pictures have been published even by Disney, and little to no description of the intricacies of the ride are known to the general public. Of course you could always watch a ride-through video on youtube – but where would be the fun in that – so do yourself a favor and don’t.
On the other side of things is Avengers Campus – which like Star Tours before it – is delivering an experience based on expectations and attempting to exceed those very quantifiable expectations. We know exactly what the WEB SLINGERS ride will be and we even already know all of the accessories we can buy for the ride – BEFORE THE RIDE IS EVEN OPEN. We know what will be serving at Pym Kitchen. We know Doctor Strange has a show and we know there will be shawarma (two stands, in fact). The other big attraction at Avengers Campus, Mission Breakout, has already been in service for almost 4 years!
But this is what the MCU does. Kevin Feige does not deliver JJ Abrams mystery boxes – and neither did George Lucas, when he was making the OT or when he was crafting Star Tours. Feige and Lucas are delivering a product and assuming you know exactly the parameters of what that product – or in this case experience – could be – and they are going to deliver and exceed on those expectations.
When Lucas created the original Star Tours, his intent was to create a ride that mimicked the Star Wars movies as an experience for guests that was both digestible and efficient. This was not a ride where you had to know a ton of Star Wars lore to really appreciate. It was a ride that would feature the most recognizable parts of the universe for the Star Wars mythology: C-3PO, R2-D2, a ride building and vehicle that looked like the most glammy version of Star Wars – and a general concept that harkened to something easily digestible – an airport (a very relatable location of our world) in the Star Wars world that exists AT Disneyland.
If anything this ride and experience was bending over backward to come to the mindset of the guest and very realistically be located in the park (again as an airport) – and not challenging the ticket holder to mentally “come to it”. In the ensuing years, locations like Wizarding World (and the new Super Mario Land) have shown that fans might be willing and up for the challenge – though Galaxy’s Edge might be showing it may be a more difficult feat to repeat.
I think in many ways Avengers Campus will be the same way and takes the same approach as Star Tours. The concept is simple – a recruitment and educational training center for guests to become Avengers. Per Buzzfeed there is a defined backstory: Tony Stark built the campus on the site of one of his dad’s old Stark Industries complexes. The idea behind it is that the campus welcomes all Avengers, their allies, and new recruits. Immediately there is a purpose to this location – we need more Avengers and the guests are going to be them. Each location within the campus is labeled and the guest is given a clear set of expectations and an accessible experience to meet those expectations.
WEB SLINGERS is a high octane shooter ride where we are to help Spider-Man in a training mission gone awry, Pym Kitchen and Tasting is a restaurant with Ant-Man themed big and small dishes. Avengers Headquarters is where you can see the Avengers for meet and greets. And the Doctor Strange show will be a show with Doctor Strange. Sure there will be easter eggs and fun little things for the super-fans like me throughout the campus. But EVERY fan will be able to engage in this land quite easily and without hassle even if they’ve only see like Iron Man, Black Panther, the Raimi Spider-Man films and Endgame.
Look at the above promotional artwork/posters – you know exactly what you are getting and what you are getting is awesome. In 1987 you were getting an e-ticket ride with your favorite droids. In 2021 you are going to go on a high flying web slinging adventure with Spider-Man. Ask most people what they get when they go to Galaxy’s Edge and they might say “I get to fly the Millenium Falcon – or maybe my family does – I think and there is also that ride that has Kylo in it – I think.” Look this is not a dis – again. I LOVE GALAXY’S EDGE. And Smuggler’s Run and Rise of The Resistance are incredible rides but the expectations and delivery are not clearly defined – and yes that is largely by design and as someone who recently went to Galaxy’s Edge I am so happy I just got to experience and absorb the land. But I think the design of the experiences at Avengers Campus are quite different – and will prove to be wildly popular.
No Scoops Club 