spiderman web launcher
SHANGHAI DisneyLAND
上海迪士尼乐园
Attraction Concept
and Design
Disney announced a handful of new Marvel attractions at D23 in 2024, including this Spiderman coaster for Shanghai Disneyland, the Spiderman (now Marvel) drop tower in Hong Kong, and the expansion of the Avengers Campus in Disneyland. Coming a full five years after Avengers: Endgame and in the midst of a period of superhero fatigue, this felt like a slightly curious time to go all in on the Marvel franchises, but nevertheless this collection of attractions all sounded exciting when announced.
For Shanghai Disneyland, we learned that:
"an all-new Spider-Man thrill attraction is coming to Shanghai Disneyland! Peter Parker has gotten himself — and us — in a bit of a tight spot. We’re going to follow HIM – at very high speeds – to get us out of trouble." (Disney Parks Blog)
We were treated to a couple of great pieces of concept art, which each gave a couple of clues as to what to expect from the attraction:
On the left we see a highly themed room with some coaster track emerging in the near distance. Given the degree of theming here - with possibly some kind of interaction with Spiderman via screen at the top of the picture - it's safe to assume that this is a ride element in which vehicles are stationary (rather than flying through at speed). It's foolish to read too much certainty into mere concept art, but yet this room looks more like one in which you arrive during the ride (perhaps coming in backwards) before being launched out of it again. There seems to be too much going on for it to be the ride load/unload station to me.
The second picture, on the right, seems to be a fairly generic shot of a rollercoaster track, although this does seem to confirm that this will be a lap bar rather than shoulder restraint ride vehicle. The more interesting element is that image of Spidey swinging close to the coaster train. Now, again, this could well just be concept art artistic license, but Imagineers tend to put things in their artwork for a reason and I therefore wonder if this suggests that there will be elements with the ride that make it looks like Spiderman is swinging by our train. For a primarily outdoor coaster, a screen based effect is unlikely to work, so we'd have to therefore expect some kind of physical effect. The fact that Spiderman swings rather than flies, would make this element more achievable as the "web" gives you something to physically attach to a pivot point around which Spidey could rotate. Over on YouTube, user Parks by River has a really nice illustration of how this element could potentially work.
Track Layout
Thanks to a public permit filing with the local government in Shanghai, we have been able to see in some detail how the show buildings and track for this attraction will be placed. Jack at DSNY Newscast has helpfully overlaid the track so we can see it a little more clearly:
1
2
3
GUEST ENTRANCE
ride station
retail
CHARACTER MEET
BACKSTAGE OPS
forward launch
REVERSE
launch
Let's break down the elements of this potential track layout:
1. Soon after the load station, we have a reverse launch, which takes us into a fairly long backwards track all the way to the second launch building. Mention of a reverse launch at a Disney park conjures images of EPCOT's Cosmic Rewind, though in this case we believe you will enter into this feature forward and then reverse out, rather than the ride vehicles having any form of rotation.
2. After a fairly long backwards section of ride track, it looks like we come into a second building and a second launch, this time going forward. I would guess that this is the location of the concept art image shown on the left above, where we can pause, interact with our friendly neighbourhood hero, before leaving that station.
3. There are a couple of locations where we could potentially have a "swinging" Spiderman animatronic alongside our train, as in that second concept art picture shown earlier. The track turns on the purple/yellow and light blue/dark blue areas of track could possibly work, but these areas appear to be right on top of the pathways and queueing portion of the attraction space. That area marked with the [3] is buried deeper into the attraction space, where Imagineers would be able to ensure that the element is only seen from exactly the right angles as intended.
Location
This new Spiderman attraction is going to slot into an expansion pad that was previously being used for backstage operations, nestled between two great areas of this park: Zootopia and Treasure Cove:
Overlaying the architectural drawing from the permit onto Google Earth gives us a good sense of the scope of this attraction (it's pretty big!):
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
ZOOTOPIA: HOT PURSUIT
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
GUEST ENTRANCE
RIDE
STATION
Timeline and
Construction Updates
When announced at D23 in August 2024, as is typical, we didn't hear much in terms of concrete timelines or expected opening dates. Disney's rollercoasters have typically been housed in a huge gravity box (Cosmic Rewind, Tokyo's New Space Mountain), or involve the construction of significant surrounding scenery (Expedition Everest, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train), and there aren't too many straight up outdoor coasters to compare timelines with. One potential comparison is Slinky Dog Dash at Hollywood Studios.
Slinky Dog Dash was similarly announced at D23, this time way back in 2015, as part of the new Toy Story Land at the Studios. Groundbreaking on the land begun in spring 2016, and accelerated through that year. The final track piece was lowered into place in August 2017, almost two years to the day since the first announcement. It would be another 10 months however, until the ride finally welcomed its first official guests on June 30, 2018.
Applying a similar timeframe to this project in Shanghai, we would expect something like the below:
D23 Announcement
Aug 2015
Groundbreaking
May 2016
Track Complete
Aug 2017
Attraction Open
Jun 2018
Slinky Dog Dash
D23 Announcement
Aug 2024
Groundbreaking
May 2025
Track Complete
Aug 2026?
Attraction Open
Summer 2027?
Web Launcher
We can see that groundbreaking took place on exactly the same schedule as with Slinky Dog Dash, and with the track installation progressing nicely at the time of writing, completing that by summer of 2026 looks feasible. That would put us on track for an opening time of the summer of 2027 based on this same schedule.
It's worth noting that Slinky Dog opened as part of a wider land which could have pushed up the time from track completion to opening. While this Spiderman attraction isn't literally just a single ride - there is also a retail location and small character meeting area - it is presumably an easier undertaking than a whole new land - with two attractions and a couple of food locations - like Toy Story Land. This could mean that Disney could consider pushing opening day to more like late Spring, if all goes well and they can maintain this same timeline.
Construction Updates
2026
Apr
Disney shared an official image of the track coming together nicely.
TDR Explorer shared a couple of other track images showing the considerable progress being made so far. Of particular note is the second image, which shows the words "Web Launcher" on one of the support beams. This seems like the potential name of the attraction and the working title I am using for now.
2025
Sep
TDR Explorer shares news of the show buildings starting to "go vertical" with metal supports going into place.
2025
May
Disney shared the first official image of the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Spiderman attraction. This comes about 10 months after the initial announcement at D23 2024.