Will Shanghaî Disneyland be the first Disney theme park to have WDI Marvel super-heroes attractions ?

According to the always good Screamscape web site their sources told them that "Disney has asked the Imagineers to start studying up the huge collection of Marvel Comics characters and stories" and "that the first Disney park that could get new Marvel based attractions will likely be the new Shanghai park."

Although it's still a rumor, it's an interesting news and here is why it could eventually really happen at Shanghaî Disneyland before any other Disney theme park.

I'm not aware of the contracts signed between Marvel and Universal before the Disney deal with Marvel, but i won't be surprised that an "exclusivity clause" was asked by Universal to Marvel. At least for each country where the attractions are already built, i.e America and Japan where Universal Studios have theme parks, and the Spiderman ride in two of them.

Now, although Universal do have a theme park project near Beijing - which awaits China officials approval just like Disney for Shanghaî Disneyland - they still don't have a park in China. And, bad news for Universal, Disney now owns the Marvel rights, which basically means that Disney is doing what he wants as long as they're not stuck with previous contract clauses signed before they own the rights.

So which Disney theme park could be better than Shanghaî Disneyland to introduce the first WDI Marvel super-heroes attractions? But there may be also another reason: from what i've been told Imagineers intend to pay tribute to Chinese mythologies in Shanghaî Disneyland. Which is a pretty good idea as chinese are generally not aware of European mythologies - that's one of the reason you don't find any Snow White, Pinnochio or even Peter Pan dark rides at Hong Kong Disneyland. Chinese know more Pixar characters as these are coming from recent animated films but for the old Disney classics it's another problem...



On this angle, Marvel super-heroes mythologies thanks to recent movies - and one dollar pirate Dvds that anyone can find in most Chinese cities! - are probably well known by young chinese generations - and we can count on Disney to have check this with a marketing research!

So, for all these reasons, and although the Screamscape news must still be consider as a rumor, i would bet on it - not only for the fun but also because, as i often say, there is always a logic behind corporate decisions and in this case we can catch a glimpse of the logic who could decide WDI Imagineers to create Marvel super-heroes attractions for the awaited Shanghaî Disneyland.


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Pictures: copyright Marvel