Disneyland Considered Spider-Man and Doctor Strange Rides to Replace Tower of Terror

Disneyland actually considered Spider-Man and Doctor Strange rides to replace the Tower of Terror. That large structure was a normal sight at the park for many years. But now, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout stands in Disney’s California Adventure. So, how did that become the Marvel franchise chosen for the slot? D23’s official podcast talked to legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde about his work at the park (credit The Direct for their transcript). He helped discuss a number of the ideas that the designers and creatives battled around before settling old Mission Breakout. It would make sense for Disney to turn an eye toward Spider-Man or one of the other Marvel heroes. The company paid a pretty penny for the rights to the characters. Add that fact to the growing popularity of the MCU and it’s a slam dunk.

“Along comes this thing of ‘Hey, we really need a major attraction to open in this window at the Disneyland Resort which is not very far away,” Rhode explained. “So we want you to take Tower of Terror and find an overlay we can do so we can open something big and it would be good for us.’ So I need to think Marvel, what could go into it. We ran a couple ideas, ya know, ‘We could do Doctor Strange, that would work really, really well with almost what Tower of Terror is. Spider-Man, it’s like Spider-Man needs some space, ya know, to do different things. I don’t know if that’s a thing.’”

Comicbook.com’s Cameron Bonomolo talked to the people in charge of the new Avengers Campus at Disney’s California Adventure. Spider-Man gets his long-awaited attraction there with WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure.

“This is where we truly get to step up and answer the call and become heroes, and join Spider-Man on an action-packed adventure where you actually get to sling webs just like Spider-Man,” Brent Strong, Executive Creative Director, Walt Disney Imagineering explained. “This is an attraction that’s for the entire family. There’s no height requirement on this. This is something where guests of all ages get to live out that epic action, which is wonderful.”

“60 times a second we are able to determine where a guest’s head is, their shoulders, their elbows, and even their wrists,” Strong added during a demonstration. “We’re able to track the motion of your body so that when you reach out and sling a web, since we know where your eyes are and we know where your hands are, we can render a virtual web coming right out of the palm of your hand, right out of your virtual web shooters and into a virtual world.”

Which Marvel hero would you like to see get a ride next? Let us know down in the comments!