Spider-Man to join fellow superheroes at Disneyland
Spider-Man was created in the comic books of Stan Lee, shown in 2002. Spider-Man will appear at Disneyland’s new attraction, Super Hero HQ, in Tomorrowland starting Nov. 16.
Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is coming Disneyland.
As part of the theme park’s Super Hero HQ attraction opening Nov. 16 in Tomorrowland, a Spider-Man character will join other Marvel superheroes, including Thor and Iron Man, to pose for pictures and sign autographs with park visitors, the theme park has announced.
The bad news is that Captain America won’t be at Spider-Man’s side.
In the same online post that announced the addition of Spider-Man, Disneyland said Captain America “is leading the Avengers on a new mission and won’t be available at Disneyland this fall, but we do expect him to return in the future.”
The Super Hero HQ is the product of an overhaul of the Innovention hall, a building that has had many uses over the years.
The circular building that once housed the Innoventions exhibit opened in 1967 and was the home of the Carousel of Progress, an attraction of futuristic ideas that closed in 1973 and reopened in Orlando’s Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in 1976.
At the Anaheim park, America Sings, an exhibit of animatronic animals telling the history of America through song, replaced the Carousel of Progress. America Sings closed in 1988, with Innoventions moving into the building in 1998 as part of a larger overhaul of Tomorrowland.
For the last few years, the building has been used partly as a “meet-and-greet” area for superheroes.
The attraction closed in March, with Disneyland announcing an overhaul of the facility to open as Super Hero HQ, including the characters that the Walt Disney Co. obtained as part of a $4-billion deal to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc.
After the overhaul is completed and Super Hero HQ opens on Nov. 16, the Marvel characters will occupy the second floor of the building, and the first floor will be home to a “Star Wars Launch Bay,” where guests can take photos with characters from the Star Wars franchise, including Darth Vader and Chewbacca.
The Walt Disney Co. acquired the Star Wars characters when it bought LucasFilm Ltd. in 2012 for about $4 billion. Disneyland has already announced plans for an expansion, dubbed Star Wars Land, near the northwest end of the park. Construction is expected to start Jan. 10, but a completion date has yet to be announced.
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