Disney almost gave one of its most divisive ride replacements a very different Marvel identity.
Tower of Terror has long been one of Disney’s most recognizable thrill rides, pairing a haunted hotel setting with sudden drops and a story inspired by The Twilight Zone. That concept can still be found at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Paris (with an alternate, non-Twilight Zone version at Tokyo DisneySea), while Disneyland Resort’s version disappeared nearly a decade ago.
Disney California Adventure closed its Tower of Terror in January 2017 and reopened the building that May as Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: BREAKOUT! The change kept the drop ride system but replaced the Hollywood Tower Hotel with the Collector’s Fortress.
The retheme sparked immediate backlash. More than 35,000 people signed a petition opposing the move, while some fans feared Disney could eventually make similar changes to the remaining versions in Florida and Paris. Disney has announced no such plans for either attraction.
Disney Considered Another Marvel Hero First
It turns out Guardians of the Galaxy was not Imagineering’s first choice for the California tower.
Retired Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde, who led the project, recently revealed that he initially pitched a Doctor Strange attraction for the existing Tower of Terror building. According to a September 8 report from the Los Angeles Times, Rohde thought the hotel facade could be adapted into a mysterious sanctum.
The idea did not make it past Disney executives. Rohde said the company considered Doctor Strange too obscure at the time to carry such a major attraction and instead asked Imagineering to explore Spider-Man.
That presented a different problem. Rohde felt the existing ride system simply did not suit the character.
“Spider-Man needs room to swing,” Rohde writes in his book. “We only go up and down. There’s nowhere for Spider-Man to be!”
Guardians of the Galaxy ultimately became the solution. Rohde said the project was not conceived simply to capitalize on a new Guardians movie, but to give Disneyland Resort something new to promote in 2017 while beginning to establish a Marvel presence at the parks.
The change also had to happen quickly. Rohde told the Los Angeles Times that the fixed opening date left little room for prolonged reviews or major revisions once work was underway. Imagineering instead had to make decisions early and commit to them.
Mission: BREAKOUT! opened on schedule in May 2017. Four years later, the attraction became one of the anchors of Avengers Campus when the six-acre land officially opened at Disney California Adventure on June 4, 2021.
Doctor Strange still made it into the land, just on a much smaller scale. Disney created the Ancient Sanctum, where the character has appeared in live entertainment and demonstrated the “Mystic Arts” for guests.
Spider Man Is Getting a Tower Attraction After All
The rejected Spider-Man proposal has become more interesting with time.
Disney is now building a new Avengers attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland that places Peter Parker inside a towering ride experience. The project is part of an expansion of Stark Expo and will be housed inside a new Avengers Pavilion.
Disney says the story begins at Avengers Research Testing Labs, where Peter Parker works alongside Stark Industries on powerful new technology before villains take an interest in what the team has created.
The company has also confirmed that the attraction will use more than 120 feet of “storytelling tech,” taking guests through locations including Wakanda and Asgard alongside Spider-Man and other Marvel superheroes.
That does not mean Disney has revived Rohde’s exact concept. Hong Kong Disneyland’s attraction is being built from scratch rather than retrofitted into an existing Tower of Terror, giving Imagineers far more freedom to design the experience around Spider-Man from the beginning.
Still, Disney is now pairing Spider-Man with the kind of vertical Avengers attraction that Rohde once argued was a poor fit for the character.
Nearly a decade earlier, Imagineering had been working within the restrictions of an existing Tower of Terror. Rohde’s complaint was straightforward: a character defined by swinging through open spaces was difficult to translate into a ride that primarily traveled up and down.
Meanwhile, Tower of Terror continues to operate at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and Disney Adventure World in Paris. The Paris version sits directly beside Avengers Campus, which has helped fuel periodic fan speculation about whether Marvel could eventually spread into the attraction.
Do you think a Doctor Strange attraction would have worked?
