Walt Disney World keeps moving forward on the Monstropolis land at Hollywood Studios, continuing demolition in Muppets Courtyard and construction backstage on the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster. Here are project updates, along with aerial photos documenting the progress.
Construction walls are up along the edge of Grand Avenue on the Muppets Courtyard side, with the main thorough leading to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge still open. If you stand back by BaseLine Tap House and the other facades, you can still get a glimpse of the former facades of MuppetVision 3D, PizzeRizzo, and so forth.
We were on the ground this past week at Walt Disney World and, honestly, not much has visibly changed from within the park. The biggest change came a few months ago when the Stage 1 Company Store was demolished in the span of a few days. In comparing my summer and off-season photos with ones from the start of Christmas, the only other material change is the removal of the MuppetVision marquee.
Otherwise, not many changes are visible. Not that we’d expect to see much. All of the other buildings in Muppets Courtyard are being repurposed. The exterior of what was Mama Melrose is changing considerably to become Harryhausen’s, but we’re not sure “demolished” is the right word to describe what’ll happen there. (Even if it were, you can’t see Mama Melrose from Grand Avenue.)
Accordingly, we need a different vantage to see the Monstropolis demolition and construction. To illustrate the progress, let’s take a look at eye in the sky photos from friend-of-the-site bioreconstruct, the go-to source for aerial theme park photography…
Here’s a view from behind the park, with the former Mama Melrose in the foreground, PizzeRizzo above that, and the MuppetVision theater above that.
It’s been a few months since our last update on this work, but not a whole lot has changed. The biggest difference, aside from the removal of the MuppetVision marquee, is clean-up from the demolished Stage 1 Company Store. The brick pavers have also been removed, and the site is cleared for repaving at some point in the future.
Here’s a wider angle that shows the service road behind the park as well as Grand Avenue. You can also sort of make out the small construction wall blocking off the former entryway into Muppets Courtyard.
Below is a closer look at the park-facing side of the area. Walt Disney World hasn’t shared many new details about Monstropolis in the last year, but there is new concept art in the park on the construction walls and as part of an exhibit in Walt Disney Presents.
That features a display on Monstropolis (confirming the name that was already more or less confirmed), sharing what’s to come in the land. The future occupant of the MuppetVision theater is still unclear, with the building now being named “The Glob” as opposed to “Monstro Theater.” What was previously teased as a late night talk or variety show is now more vague.
As before, my big question is what’s going to happen to the former Muppets Courtyard over the next few years? As noted above, all of the remaining buildings here will be preserved.
Again, the MuppetVision theater, PizzeRizzo, and Mama Melrose are all very clearly in the Monstropolis concept art. These will be reimagined, but the venues will all still serve the same purposes, just Monsters, Inc. restaurants and a show.
The only structure that was going to be demolished was the Stage 1 Company Store, and that only took ~3 days to demolish. So, what else here is possibly going to take ~3 years to accomplish?!
This question is rhetorical. All signs point to Muppets Courtyard closing in mid-2025 for operational cost-savings, not due to tight construction timelines. With Villains Unfairly Ever After and The Little Mermaid ~ A Musical Adventure opening, DHS did not “need” MuppetVision.
Mama Melrose wasn’t popular to begin with and PizzeRizzo operated with reduced hours. It’s likely that Walt Disney World could concluded that Disney’s Hollywood Studios didn’t need this many shows and restaurants, or wanted to offset the new operating expenses.
After visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios over Veterans Day weekend, I’m inclined to push back against this notion that the park doesn’t “need” more capacity (the quoted wait time to order at ABC Commissary was 30+ minutes and every table was full, both inside and outside). But it’s also true that PizzeRizzo and Mama Melrose weren’t exactly popular in the mid-afternoon and evening ~300 days per year.
Nevertheless, it’s not as if Muppets Courtyard needed to close to facilitate construction of the Monsters, Inc. Doors Coaster.
That new attraction is being built as pure park expansion on the Cast Member parking lot, so it wouldn’t disrupt anything inside the park for a while. There’s a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done backstage, and that’ll be the case for the next year-plus.
The construction of the roller coaster and gravity building around that, along with the queue and facade for the Monsters, Inc. Doors Coaster, will take much longer than preparing the MuppetVision theater for a new show and refreshing restaurants. DINOSAUR isn’t closing until February 2026, over 8 months after MuppetVision, for a reimagined ride that should be opening roughly a year earlier than the MuppetVision stage show replacement.
This likelihood that Walt Disney World closed Muppets Courtyard earlier than strictly necessary (per construction timelines) should be further underscored once you see progress on the Monsters, Inc. Doors Coaster.
On a much more positive note, demolishing Stage 1 and opening up the courtyard leading to the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster looks good! It’s something that Walt Disney World should’ve done back when Grand Avenue debuted in the lead-up to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, as opposed to painting over a bunch of its more vibrant details.
Stage 1 made the area feel cramped, which was the point at one time to make it feel like an alley in New York, but foot traffic back here likely suffered as a result. Making this park less a mess of soundstages is the smart move as Disney minimizes the studios in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Opening up this courtyard and having a longer approach to the Monsters, Inc. factory will make this feel like an inviting and fully-fledged land, making it more conducive to foot traffic. The E-Ticket roller coaster anchoring the land won’t hurt, either.
Speaking of which, let’s take a look at progress on the building for the Door Coaster…
When we last checked in on the Monsters, Inc. Doors Coaster progress a few months ago, parking lot pavement was just starting to be torn up. A lot has happened since then, albeit not much of a visible nature.
The biggest development was the appearance of a pile driver in late August. We first spotted this from Dahlia Lounge during Destination D23 over Labor Day weekend. It looms in the distance, and is visible from around Walt Disney World. Interestingly enough, though, the sightlines are such from with the park that it isn’t really noticeable when you’re wandering around DHS.
This drilling rig is the towering black structure by the backstage road, closer to the park side of the project site than the parking lot. It looks a lot smaller in the aerial photos than it does from the ground.
It’s unclear to us what the pile driver is doing, aside from driving piles (naturally). Which is to say, we’re not certain as to whether it’s there for roller coaster footers, building foundation, or other infrastructure work.
It’s also unclear which will be built first here: roller coaster or gravity building. Walt Disney World has been known to take both approaches as the circumstances dictate. The two most recent roller coasters reinforce this, with the show building for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind being built before the track was installed.
By contrast, the TRON Lightcycle Run roller coaster track was erected first, and then the gravity building was constructed around the track. Over at Tokyo Disneyland, the massive Space Mountain project that’s currently underway has taken a “both” approach and is rising faster as a result. (Also worth noting that recent Tokyo projects have used multiple pile drivers simultaneously to expedite this type of project.)
There have also been a few filings recently with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District indicating the footprint of the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster gravity building. This isn’t just a large project site with a bunch of dead space for staging and site prep.
The gravity building for the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster is truly monstrous! For comparison, that’s Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance immediately above and to the left. The gravity building is a bit bigger than that–or any other show building at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The Monsters, Inc. Doors Coaster is going to have one of the largest show buildings at Walt Disney World, almost on par with the big blue box for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT.
It’s also likely to be a tall show building, as it’s a suspended coaster with a lifting ride mechanism at the load and unload area of the attraction. Our hope is that the queue and pre-show are under the roller coaster track, both for the sake of an efficiency and engaging guests while they’re in line.
Between the massive size of the building and this potential efficiency, we’re optimistic this will be a meatier attraction than first suspected. Hopefully this coaster will clock in at over 2 minutes long. One of the (many) big advantages Cosmic Rewind has over TRON Lightcycle Run is a much more satisfying duration.
It’d be nice if that’s also true of the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster. It also stands to reason that this won’t be as intense or fast as TRON, so it won’t need as much track for a longer experience duration. I’m looking forward to Monstropolis and its marquee attraction, and really hope Imagineering knocks it out of the park and makes this closer to Cosmic Rewind in terms of the overall experience.
In the nearer term, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is poised to have a pretty big slate for 2026.
The park has Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Starring Baby Yoda coming in Summer 2026. There’s also the Walt Disney Studios Lot and Magic of Disney Animation, which will debut at some point next year.
That’s a trio of ‘singles and doubles’ that should make a big difference to the park as a whole. The Walt Disney Studios Lot replacing the dead mall vibes of Animation Courtyard is a much bigger win than it looks like on paper, and should help revitalize that corner of the park before 2026 is over.
Another couple of years later, Monstropolis will likely open in the first half of 2028. While this is not a ‘pure’ expansion, that roller coaster will be a huge capacity-adding new build that should be an asset to the park. Disney’s Hollywood Studios could really use a few lower-profile family-friendly rides (not shows), but this should still be a big win.
Suffice to say, Disney’s Hollywood Studios could emerge in 2030 as the Walt Disney World theme park that improved the most in the last decade. Even though Monstropolis isn’t on par with the combo of Cars and Villains Land, this expansion plus all of the ‘singles and doubles’ that DHS is lining up should dramatically improve its lineup. And I say that as a huge MuppetVision fan who still laments the decision close that classic attraction.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Monstropolis construction progress? Excited for this new land, or will you miss Muppets Courtyard? What do you think of the massive Monsters, Inc Door Coaster gravity building? Hopeful that the show building size plus its efficient load mechanism means this coaster is longer than 90 seconds? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
