Whether you first visited EPCOT in the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s, or 2010s, a trip to the park today would tell you that EPCOT’s story has been a complex one. EPCOT is a park rooted in the past and perpetually tasked by the present to envision a future we now inhabit. At nearly every step of its life, it’s battled between what it was, is, and could be. Somewhere between being hopelessly retro and hopelessly futuristic, the park has been the subject of fan debate for decades, even as piecemeal updates, changes, replacements, and character injections have tried to balance EPCOT’s thrills, entertainment, and family appeal.
We all know that in 2019, Disney officially launched a California-Adventure-sized reimagining of EPCOT, committing billions of dollars and at least a half-decade of focused attention to Walt Disney World’s second gate. It’s unlikely than any singular vision for EPCOT could ever balance the whims of fans who recall its intellectually ambitious origin, executives who have long detested its lack of character, and guests who have long been caught between the park’s competing identities.
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