During a panel at SXSW about world-building at Disney, more details were revealed about multiple collaborations that are happening between Disney Experiences and Disney Entertainment. This included updates from the worlds of Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel. During the Marvel portion of the panel, the President of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, and President and Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Imagineering Bruce Vaughn shared about the future of Avengers Campus in terms of storytelling and the technology that will be assisting to do just that.
During the announcements about Avengers Campus, a surprise guest appeared. Robert Downey Jr. joined the two executives on the stage as more details about the two new attractions coming to Avengers Campus were shared.
When guests experience Avengers Infinity Defences, they will assemble the Avengers and eventually battle King Thanos. This will take place across multiple worlds. There will also be some heroes joining to save the universe including Black Panther, Ant-Man, Hulk, and more.
The second attraction going into Avengers Campus is Stark Flight Lab. This will put guests inside of Tony Stark’s workshop to check out new tech that he is working on. This includes the opportunity to test it out. This is the point that Robert Downey Jr. appeared to share about the experience.
During this appearance, it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. is working with Imagineering on these new experiences. He said that the Imagineers who are working on these experiences are “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 also shared about working with Imagineering and how excited he was about it. He also noted how secretive and stealthy everything is at Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters. “You wannna talk about a closed set? It’s the Area 51 of fun!”
Stark Flight Lab
Stark Flight Lab will give guests the chance to check out and experience Tony Stark’s inventions. Guests will eventually sit in “gyro-kinetic pods” and roll along a track. Eventually, they will stop in front of a giant robot arm. The giant robot arm will actually hoist the pods into the air and then take them on several high-speed maneuvers that are inspired by Iron Man and some other Avengers. Downey joked about this saying, “That I will select based on merit and whomever picks up my FaceTime calls on the first ring.”
“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.”
A piece of technology that is quite important to the Tony Stark lore is his beloved little robotic friend, DUM-E. While on a visit to Imagineering, Downey noted that the robot arm for Stark Flight Lab reminded him of DUM-E. This quickly ended up becoming a part of the attraction.
Imagineering utilized dancers and motion capture to create a “virtual mirror” that would incorporate some of the dancer’s movements into the early ride mockups. This was in an effort to make sure the robots in Stark Flight Lab feel as lifelike as possible.
A demonstration of the attraction was shared during the presentation. It showed how the attraction would move guests in the pods and then the pods would be lifted.
This is just the first chapter of Downey’s involvement with 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 as the crowd cheered, “This isn’t a one-time deal. You need more me.”
There are lots of other announcements that came out of the SXSW panel. This included updates from the worlds of Star Wars, Marvel, and also Pixar. Daps Magic is covering them all so be sure to subscribe to the mailing list, social media, and YouTube to not miss any of them!
What do you think of these updates for Avengers Campus? What do you think of Robert Downey Jr.’s involvement? What are you most excited about? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
