Disney Villains Stage Show Coming to Hollywood Studios

Concept art courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

 

In a somewhat surprising announcement, Disney posted about a new villains-themed stage show coming to Hollywood Studios in summer 2025.  This post will talk about what little we know about the show, what it's replacing and how this fits into all of the recent D23 announcements for the future of the parks.

The actual announcement is light on details (and therefore subject to change before opening) but it says that Sunset Showcase will "transform" into the "mysterious, reflective realm of the Magic Mirror."  It also say that dozens of villains will be a part of the show, including Cruella de Vil, Captain Hook and Maleficent.  

Since that's basically all there is out there so far, let's talk about the why more than the substance itself.  First, Hollywood Studios needs more entertainment - it is the most "top heavy" of the four parks, with a lot of headliner attractions creating large wait times and often not much else to do.  Some of this was mitigated when Fantasmic returned from its Covid-induced slumber, though that only worked to help keep guests there after dark.

In terms of other entertainment, Beauty & the Beast Live on Stage has been running for quite some time.  That show is a bit dated, but is still a fun Cliff Notes-style run through of a classic movie.  In addition, the Voyage of the Little Mermaid abridged show in Animation Courtyard has also been closed for quite some time but allegedly is returning with a new show in that theater at some point.  That will help as well.

The only other staged entertainment at the park was Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy.  I use the word "was" here, as that is the show that is being replaced by this new villains show (Racing Academy's last day is October 7).  So in this way, the new show doesn't really add any capacity but instead is replacing something pre-existing.  The only reason to do this is because the current show isn't a big draw, and Disney assumes that what is replacing it will be bigger.

Is that true?  There's no real way to know on the latter, though villains are always a big crowd pleaser so I suspect that this will be the case.  Also, while Racing Academy was a "live" show, this new villains show promises to be much more cast member heavy, which is a good thing, especially in light of the recent news about Disney and labor unions.  Cast members are the heart and soul of the company, and having a live villains show will give plenty of cast members the opportunity to really connect with guests.

When I originally saw this floating around on Twitter (before having read the Parks Blog post), I assumed this would be going into Magic Kingdom, as that park has stage shows on the stage in front of Cinderella Castle regularly.  I was a bit surprised to see it announced for Hollywood Studios, to be honest - Magic Kingdom is the park getting the new Villains Land, so why bring this show to a different park?

I'm guessing this is a good way to set the stage (so to speak) for the new villains land, without it seeming like they're pushing too hard in one place.  A villains show in the theater next to Tower of Terror also works better thematically; I always found the Lightning McQueen show a bit incongruous down that dead end corridor.

What's especially interesting (at least to me) is that this is the second time that Villains and Cars are intertwined.  First, the announcement of the new Villains Land at Magic Kingdom coincided with a renovated Frontierland, featuring two new Cars attractions.  And now this, where a villains show is taking the place of a Cars show.  My guess is that since the Cars attractions will open first (we think?), perhaps Disney didn't want to oversaturate on Cars across its various parks.  That's just a guess though.

It's also possible that this new show will serve as a "preview center" of sorts for when Villains Land actually opens; in which case, I wonder what will happen to it at that time.  But that's an issue for another day.  As for Lightning McQueen himself, there's no reason for Disney NOT to bring that impressive animatronic figure over to the new Frontierland in some capacity, be it a meet and greet or some sort of introduction into the land itself (kind of like Woody at the beginning of Toy Story Land).

In any case, more (fresh) entertainment is always a good idea.  The niche for the Cars show is probably pretty small, so this expands the amount of guests who will want to watch.  And while Disney has a lot of things in the pipeline for the future, this is the type of smaller investment that is necessary to keep the parks alive while that other work goes on.  I'm actually surprised the theater will be dark for that much time in preparation, but maybe they'll under promise and overdeliver here, with the show debuting for Spring Break 2025.  We shall see.