Walt Disney World has revealed what appears to be the outline of buildings in Piston Peak and Villains Land, offering an idea of the lands’ layouts, locations of each attraction, and more. This covers the filing, sizes for show buildings, and our commentary.
These details come from a new wastewater filing with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for “Project SNK.” In that, Disney shows not just the locations of utilities, but also building outlines for the attractions, restaurants, and retail coming to the Cars and Villains Land expansions in Magic Kingdom. Oh, and even more fuel for the fire on the Haunted Mansion Mystery Project.
This mostly aligns with what we already from way back when the substance of the ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ expansion was revealed during the Parks Panel at the 2024 D23 Expo. In that, Walt Disney World announced two all-new Cars attractions in a reimagined ‘Piston Peak’ area of Frontierland at Magic Kingdom. This is not Radiator Springs or a clone of Cars Land from DCA, but it’s sizable enough for us to consider it a miniland at minimum.
Along with this, they officially announced Villains Land expansion at Magic Kingdom. During that presentation, Walt Disney World shared that Villains Land at Magic Kingdom will be home to two major attractions, dining, and shopping on an incredibly twisted grand scale.
That concept art features thorn-covered roller coaster tracks, and it’s been widely speculated based on previous filings (and, frankly, logic) that the other attraction would be house in a show building tucked behind Haunted Mansion and “it’s a small world.”
Fast forward to the new FDEP filing, which reveals multiple “facilities” or buildings, as well as their location in the former River of America. The permit shows a total of 8 buildings versus the 4 attractions confirmed for the expansion, but as noted above, there’s also expected to be restaurants, retail, as well as backstage support.
Against that backdrop, let’s dig in!
The above filing from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for “Project SNK” was first uncovered by Behind the Thrills, and is the latest large package regulatory filing with the State of Florida.
Most notably, there was the ‘original’ or threshold permit issued by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), which gives Imagineering until February 17, 2030 to redevelop the area and modify utilities, make updates to the drainage system, facility renovations, stormwater management enhancements, and more.
The underlying SFWMD permit is massive in scale and scope, encompassing over 300 acres around Magic Kingdom and beyond. This includes the three gravel laydown yards around the northwestern perimeter of the park. It also includes a new retention pond for water management that’s roughly three-quarters of a mile to the northwest of Magic Kingdom. The project site itself, where the Cars and Villains Lands will be built, is about 14-plus acres.
Somewhat notable for our purposes is that Walt Disney Imagineering has created a trailer park with field offices in a backstage area behind Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom. Every time this appears on maps (like above on the far left) or aerial photos, some fans question whether Walt Disney World is going to have a new parking lot and guest entrance behind Magic Kingdom. No. Large as it might look, that parking lot is way too small for guests. (See Disney Files Construction Permit for Imagineer Trailer Park Near Cars Land at Magic Kingdom for more on this.)
This new FDEP filing is the first to show facilities, which we assume to be buildings. But I’ll admit that this type of filing is well outside my area of expertise, and I’m slightly reluctant to read too much into it (more on that later). Nevertheless, let’s walk through the expansion, with my theories, hesitations, etc.
The two facilities on the southern side of the construction site, closest to Country Bear Musical Jamboree, are for the Cars Piston Peak National Park Land. The upper hexagonal “building” is likely for the flat ride, which oddly has been omitted and obscured from concept art and presentations Disney has done on Piston Peak. My best guess is that there has been internal debate on the ride system, because I doubt this would be a ‘big reveal.’ The space dictates it’s a flat ride, a la Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree or Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters.
The lower u-shaped building will likely be under themed environments, similar to how Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a building enveloped by rockwork with roller coaster track going around and over it. Our expectation is that the Cars E-Ticket is likewise a multi-story indoor-outdoor attraction. The concept art strongly suggests as much, and that’s more or less necessary to fully maximize this footprint and not have a blink-and-it’s-over attraction.
The facilities above Piston Peak mostly relate to Villains Land. The long rectangular building is a bit of a wildcard. My initial inclination was an outdoor roller coaster load station, which would explain its smaller size and long footprint. But it’s fairly close to both Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Cars Land. Maybe it’s actually an indoor show scene for a ‘story coaster’, or perhaps restrooms or retail? Your guess is as good as mine.
The two largest buildings at the back of Villains Land could then be for the two major attractions or restaurants and retail…or both. Note that the left of these could also be a Villains Land railroad station, as it does pass over the current railroad tracks. But it’s massive by railroad station standards, and the current tracks can always be re-routed farther to the north. The wildcard here is if we’re actually looking at an in-park hotel…or a portion of one. The smaller building above that, as well as the one to the northwest of BTMRR is almost certainly back-of-house.
Here’s a color-coded illustration that I cobbled together to make this easier to visualize:
It’s not perfect, but it should give you a better idea of where everything is (allegedly) going.
Lightning McQueen’s signature red is Cars Land; green is for the Haunted Mansion mystery project; purple is for Villains Land. The one very obviously backstage building is grey; the other is purple in the hopes that maybe we’re getting a new villainous Walt Disney World Railroad scene.
It would be easy to take all of this at face value, and that’s probably what I should do since I’m out of my element here. However, I’m slightly skeptical that this shows all of the buildings. Since this filing relates to wastewater and utilities, and the facilities are almost incidental, it’s possible that the buildings are only shown to the extent necessary or relevant.
I would imagine that Villains Land is going to be heavy on restaurants and retail, and there simply is not sufficient space for that and two major attractions as depicted. And no matter how you slice it, that long rectangular “building” is oddly shaped, even if it is reasonably large in size at 15,000 square feet.
It’s also unclear to me just how “facilities” are defined. For example, what appears to be the entirety of the Cars flat ride is shown as a facility, even though it’s likely to be an outdoor attraction. So by that same standard, shouldn’t the entirety of the roller coaster be shown as a facility? And does it even make sense to have its station that close to Big Thunder and Piston Peak? (If you look at just the above section of the Piston Peak Fun Map, it looks to me like there are multiple separate structures that would each qualify as facilities!)
Another interesting detail from the FDEP filing is that it’ll be able to accommodate over 9,000 guests at a time. The permit uses 9,316 as the average total guests when calculating the capability of the upgraded stormwater systems. This seems like a reasonable number for the expansion given that it’ll house 4 attractions plus restaurants and more. If the theoretical hourly capacity of the 4 rides is a combined 6,000 guests, it’s plausible to have 3,000 people in the rest of the lands.
Then there’s the show building for one of the major attractions. At 83,000 square feet, this is a not-insignificantly sized structure; for reference, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is 92,000 square feet.
At the same time, we would’ve expected this to be nestled as far behind Haunted Mansion and “it’s a small world” as possible. See above photo courtesy of bioreconstruct, which shows all of that land having been recently cleared. It just seems logical to position show buildings behind one another to make them easier to conceal. And honestly, I expected this building to be larger and house not just the marquee attraction, but also a restaurant and retail.
Maybe all of the shopping and dining will be located in the other building, which is roughly 55,000 square feet in size. Now that’s big enough for plenty of food and merchandise! The only problem then is where does the other attraction go? It just feels like this expansion would be more facilities-heavy, for lack of a better term.
Of course, just because there’s a lot of empty space in between buildings doesn’t mean that’ll truly be empty space. You can look at the concept art and then look at this permit and start to see how everything aligns, spatially. We’re expecting a lot of placemaking in the land thanks to rock-work, water features, and more.
There’s also going to be a lot of “Conjured Architecture” in Villains Land, and our expectation was that it would have the feeling of a quaint, European village. Something similar to Darkmoor in Dark Universe at Epic Universe, or honestly, even the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic with its Parisian streets. The filing makes this look far more open than either of those areas.
Even though I’m obviously out of my element here, I’m not inclined to take this filing at face value. Fun as that might be, and sensible as it might seem at first blush, I think cracks start appearing once you scrutinize just what will be necessary and logical in this land based on what’s already been announced.
Ultimately, our hope and expectation is that this new filing reveals the rough contours of Piston Peak and Villains Land, but not everything. Cars Land looks more or less accurate, and this further reinforces our prior speculation about the Haunted Mansion mystery project (and increases the likelihood of that being the DCL parlor), so the biggest question marks pertain to Villains Land.
It just seems like there will be more facilities in Villains Land based on what Walt Disney World first announced almost two years ago at the last D23 Expo. Then again, if we had a map like this of Toy Story Land, it would probably show even fewer facilities. There’s nothing to say Villains Land won’t be another in Walt Disney World’s line of recent, mostly-outdoor lands. Hopefully we’ll find out in a few months at the 2026 D23 Expo–stay tuned!
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of this filing for the Cars and Villains Lands in Magic Kingdom? Do you think this shows everything in the expansion, or are some facilities/buildings left off for whatever reason? Are you optimistic that this will usher in an era of expansion at Walt Disney World? Excited or underwhelmed by the plan? Or, are you in wait and see mode with this? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
