Disney has revealed new details, concept art and ride system video for Stark Flight Lab, one of two attractions being built in Avengers Campus in California Adventure at Disneyland. This post shares everything we know about the new Marvel ride plus our commentary about this news.
Let’s start with the latest news announced during Disney’s feature presentation, “The Future of World-Building at Disney,” during South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas on March 8, 2025. Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman took the stage, along with some special guests, to share insights about the future of storytelling at Disney Parks and beyond, focusing on the intersection of imagination and innovation. Mostly a lot of fluff, but it’s fun.
Among those on stage were Bruce Vaughn, President and Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Imagineering and Kevin Feige, producer and president of Marvel Studios. One of the projects they provided an update on was the expansion of Avengers Campus at DCA, and the Stark Flight Lab, specifically.
Stark Flight Lab is the secondary attraction being built during the expansion of the Marvel land at Disney California Adventure. The E-Ticket that will anchor the whole land is Avengers Infinity Defense, where you’ll assemble with the Avengers and battle King Thanos across multiple worlds. Join alongside the likes of Black Panther, Ant-Man, Hulk, and so many other favorites to save the universe – again.
Stark Flight Lab will essentially train you for the battle against King Thanos, putting you inside Tony Stark’s workshop to check out some of the new tech he’s working on and allow you to test it out yourself. And who better to show off his tech than Tony Stark himself?
With thunderous applause, Robert Downey Jr. made a surprise appearance at SXSW, calling the Imagineers working on these new experiences, “the living embodiment of the Stark Enterprises mission statement.”
“The curiosity, the passion, the inventiveness, the occasional flair for the dramatic, most of all a drive to put something good out into the world to make life better, at the minimum more fun by a mile, ” Downey told the crowd. “It’s the privilege of a lifetime to be invited to participate.”
Downey was also pretty excited just to be invited into the Imagineering world, joking about the stealth of WDI headquarters. “You wanna talk about a closed set? It’s the Area 51 of fun!”
In Stark Flight Lab, guests will sit in “gyro-kinetic pods” and roll along a track before stopping in front of a giant robot arm. This robot arm will hoist you into the air where you’ll make several high-speed maneuvers inspired by Iron Man and some other Avengers. (“That I will select based on merit and whomever picks up my FaceTime calls on the first ring,” joked Downey.)
“Transferring from a track to a robot arm and then back again – nothing like this has ever been done before in a theme park, and we’re so excited about it,” Bruce explained. “Usually, we hide all the tech behind the scenes so you can focus on the story. Here, the tech IS the story, so we’re putting it front and center.”
During SXSW, Walt Disney Imagineering shared a new animatic look at the “gyro-kinetic pods” and ride system during a simulated test flight via the KUKA Arm technology:
NEW: Disney shared a new animatic look at Stark Flight Lab coming to Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure. The animation shows the ride experience inside Tony Stark’s workshop where riders fly like Iron Man in a “Gyrokinetic Pod” during a simulated test flight. pic.twitter.com/5j56hSvGZT
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) March 8, 2025
One piece of tech that has become important to Tony Stark’s lore is his beloved little robotic friend, DUM-E. When Downey first visited Imagineering, he commented how much the robot arm for Stark Flight Lab looked like DUM-E, and that quickly worked its way into the attraction.
Using dancers and motion capture, the team made a “virtual mirror” to incorporate some of these movements into early ride mockups. The Imagineers want to make sure the robots in Stark Flight Lab feel as lifelike as possible, just like DUM-E.
And this is only just the beginning of what guests will soon see in Avengers Campus. “Even after we finish with the Flight Lab, I want to stay with you all for the long haul,” Downey told Feige and Vaughn amid screams from the crowd, “This isn’t a one-time deal. You need more me.”
Although RDJ is a good and charismatic actor, he seemed sincere with his enthusiasm about working with Imagineering on Avengers Campus. Maybe he was faking it, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he had an awesome time visiting Glendale, seeing the tech being created at R&D and getting a chance to play around and test things out.
It’s really cool stuff no matter your age or interests that really brings out the kid in anyone. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if known fan Kevin Feige dragged RDJ along to WDI and they had a blast. (Seriously, watch the last ~5 minutes of the SXSW livestream–it ends with RDJ getting “verbal confirmation” from D’Amaro that he’s welcome at WDI whenever.)
Here’s hoping that translates into more ambitious Marvel attractions around the world, because Disney has yet to build one that surpasses Universal’s decades-old Marvel ride. But I digress.
During SXSW, Disney also revealed that the groundbreaking for the Avengers Campus occurred recently and work is now underway on the expansion.
Avengers Infinity Defense and it could, in theory, open as soon as 2026 if Disneyland so desires. We suspect that they do not. Disney has likely learned the hard way that bifurcated land openings pack less of a punch, so we suspect the doubling of Avengers Campus will open all at once in 2027 or 2028.
Given the relative complexity of Avengers Infinity Defense, our best guess is that construction on that will take much longer. On the plus side, the facade is already built and the land is largely cleared backstage already. For the most part, it’s a matter of building a show building and then walling off a mostly-unused portion of Avengers Campus to connect the expansion.
Our best guess is that this all opens between Christmas 2027 and Summer 2028. Here’s hoping that’s wrong, and Disney finds a way to condense its construction timeline. In all likelihood, these are the next new attractions to opening as part of Disneyland’s upcoming development cycle, so perhaps they’ll prioritize the project in an attempt to get it done by Summer 2027. Maybe in a different multiverse, Disney builds faster than Universal!
Stark Flight Lab was first officially announced during last year’s D23 Expo.
Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro offered a sneak peek at concept art for the future in addition and teased what was to come in a few years. He was interrupted by Deadpool, who stormed the stage to pitch his own ideas for what he thinks might be good additions to Disney Parks around the world.
D’Amaro and Imagineer Scott Trowbridge did have several other Marvel attractions to announce during that D23 showcase. This included new rides for the international parks, and that the size of Avengers Campus at Disneyland will double with not one but two brand new attractions to suit up and fight alongside some of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
It’s also worth touching upon the background of Scott Trowbridge, as he’s the Imagineer who is now in charge of the Marvel portfolio at Walt Disney Imagineering. You might recognize Trowbridge’s name as the lead Imagineer on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Prior to that, he was at Universal Creative for 15 years and helped develop the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. Meaning he has experience managing big franchises, as well as Marvel specifically and has worked with one of the ride systems that’s coming to Avengers Campus.
By all accounts, Trowbridge is a tremendous talent and is great at shepherding this type of project. He also obviously has relevant experience that’ll likely be valuable–and it’s probably good (for him) to be managing a global portfolio. Honestly, I was hoping he’d be the lead on the Pandora project at DCA. Now that Joe Rohde is gone, I can’t think of anyone else other than Trowbridge who has helmed that type of project. But I digress.
Turning to commentary, Stark Flight Lab seems sweet and simple. It reminds me a lot of Sum of All Thrills at EPCOT, but as an open air attraction. Not to get too “inside baseball,” but that extinct attractions in the former Innoventions (along with the anglerfish in the Seas with Nemo & Friends) used KUKA Arm technology.
Sum of All Thrills was pretty cool–and clearly ahead of its time. It was far and away the best attraction in Innoventions (not a high bar), giving guests the opportunity to design their own roller coaster using mathemagic and science and that sorta thing, and then ride their design.
Sum of All Thrills was also woefully inefficient, with atrocious hourly throughput. It was an itinerary buster, and something we recommended prioritizing at rope drop because lines got so bad. (Even if they were short, it could be a long wait–we’re almost talking meet & greet-level capacity.)
For west coast people, Stark Flight Lab should similar to the ride system for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey or Monsters Unchained over at Universal.
Obviously, very different from the substance of the attraction (no, Stark Flight Lab won’t take you on a tour of Hogwarts or Frankenstein’s Castles…to the best of my knowledge) but powered by the same piece of impressive technology.
The animatic released by WDI shows that it will have a load station and then dispatch the pods to the KUKA Arms–so not quite continuously loading like Forbidden Journey, but not a stationary process like Sum of All Thrills. That alone will be huge for hourly capacity.
Honestly, it’s pretty much necessary. The Sum of All Thrills could “get away” with having inefficient operations because it was tucked away in the hallways of Innoventions–a part of lost EPCOT that was pretty unpopular. I can only imagine how much demand will explode when Stark Flight Lab is added to Avengers Campus, given a wrapper of Marvel theme, and touted as something with endless re-rideability because the flight simulation will change. It sounds like a fun addition, and this pod conveyance should bolster hourly capacity. It’ll still have long lines for what it is, but not perpetual 90+ minute waits.
As nice of a “bonus” ride as Stark Flight Lab is, I still wish the amazing KUKA Arms were being put to more ambitious use, as Universal now has two flagship dark rides that use this technology (invisibly) as part of very unique ride systems. I assume Universal Creative owns patents on those particular ride systems–hence Disney instead using KUKA Arms for more garden variety purposes like this and the anglerfish in Finding Nemo. There’s gotta be something Imagineering can figure out that sidesteps Universal’s patents, though.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What is your reaction to Stark Flight Lab being built in Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure? Which of the two new Marvel rides are you more excited to experience? Wish Imagineering were using different ride systems for the new Avengers Campus attractions? What future plans for Disneyland Resort have you most and least excited? Anything you’re hoping does not end up coming to fruition? 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!
