FANTASTIC WORLDS: A Land-by-Land Tour of Park Lore’s Blue Sky, Built-Out, Armchair Imagineered Disney Park

MARVEL UNIVERSE: ASGARD

Pitch

At long last, we’ve made it to the land in the “twelve o’clock” position around the Sea of Stars. Welcome to Marvel Universe: ASGARD. Home of Thor and Loki, this glistening, ancient city of gold nestled into the mountains of Ygdrasil is a citadel of floating ships, Norse steeples, and cosmic energy.

Inspiration & Concept

At least so far, it sure doesn’t seem that Marvel will ever get the kind of billion-dollar in-park presence that Disney has afforded Star Wars. As you no doubt know, there are a few reasons. The easiest (and frankly, least likely) scapegoat is that Disney’s engaged in what you might call an Avengers: Custody War over how they’re allowed to use the heroes they acquired for $4 billion in 2009. That’s because of a pre-existing deal that a pre-Disney Marvel signed with the then-owners of Universal Orlando, giving Disney’s only serious competitor east-of-the-Mississippi exclusivity to most of Marvel’s comic book heroes.

That hasn’t completely stopped the flow of Marvel (even in Florida), but it has centered Disney Parks’ Marvel presence into three lands in California, France, and Hong Kong. Set in their own continuity, separate from the sacred timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), these lands are good, but decidedly not great. They’re sort of invented flex spaces that allow heroes to come and go as promotional campaigns require, which is a must with how quickly the MCU moves.

The “Avengers Campus” model surely offers the simplest canvas for Disney to have a little Spider-Man action, some cosmic Guardians of the Galaxy fun, and maybe an ancient Dr. Strange sanctum or two, loosely tied together by an invented story about the heroes building a new recruitment center in an old Stark Motors manufacturing facility. It works, and it gets the job done for a relatively low budget. (After all, Disney’s reportedly $1 billion Star Wars lands have their own issues despite their big budget rockwork and their exhaustive adherance to canon.)

But surely another reason Marvel lands have only ever come in the form of catch-alls is because – like Star Wars – there are just too many places in the films that would be worth seeing, and yet few that are easily theme-park-able in their scale. Worlds like Wakanda, Stark Expo, and even Lamentis come to mind as compelling environments that would translate well to the medium, but only Asgard feels distinct enough, symmetrical enough, and fantastic enough to occupy this space in the park.

Asgard makes sense as the land’s central anchor for several reasons. For one, the shimmering royal palace of Valaskjalf is perhaps the park’s most apparent icon; a visual centerpiece that serves to ground the rest of the lands. In Marvel lore, Asgard is also home to natural nexus portals, powered by deposits of the wormhole-sensitive, crystal-like material used in the construction of the Bifrost Bridge.

Speaking of which, that bridge – build of dark crystal and pulsing with rainbow lights – connects Asgard back to Hallow Vale and the Tower of Light. That’s right – this “Islands” park doesn’t use the “wheel” layout, but a figure-8 with the Rainbow Bridge as its connection. (See the full map of all of our lands so far at the bottom of the page.)

All of that energy gathering at the base of Hallow Vale’s lighthouse by night? It serves to power this connection, sending light zipping across the Sea of Stars (which hopefully now also makes more sense), bridging these worlds together. Here, too, water spills off of a raised plateau around Asgard, just as water falls off of its face and into the cosmos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

(Note that I am totally aware that in the continuity of the MCU, Asgard no longer exists thanks to the events of the aptly-named Thor: Ragnarok. Luckily, Marvel theme park installations are guided by what’s known as the Marvel Theme Park Universe of continuity, which is much kinder and allows – for example – Scarlet Witch and Iron Man to mingle with crowds despite the MCU impossibility of that.)

So with Asgard as a fantastical, otherworldly, Scandanavian god kingdom that’s somehow cosmic and nautical, we’ve surely found an incredible centerpiece for Fantastic Worlds… So let’s talk about what I put inside of it.

Experience

Obviously, there are three entrances to Asgard – through a cavern from Explorers Landing, across the Rainbow Bridge from Hallow Vale, or from the land to the west. Given that, the experience of the land may differ. However, since we’re on a circumnavigational tour around the park, why stop now? Let’s imagine entering from Explorers Landing and Hallow Vale.

Emerging from a cavernous extension of Vulcania, guests would find themselves in the harbor of Asgard; a shining, waterfront village of docked “Space Viking” ships, all perched on the edge of the raised pool as water spills into the Sea of Stars around them.I wanted this side of the land to be somewhat “Old World,” with steeples and moss and wood and bronze and gold creating a fishing village for Asgardians.

Looking out across the docks is the ASGARD MARKET – a quick-service with uniquely in-universe food offerings (like Docking Bay 7 or Satu’li Canteen).

Around the corner I wanted to create a Nordic “town square” of shops populated by real craftsmen (I’d love to see real woodworking, candlemaking, and other trades practiced here). The square also contains BIERKRUG BREWERY – an Asgardian bar with views of the palace – and the ASGARD ARMORY, offering all manner of Norse weapons like swords, shields, hammers, and staves, perhaps offering a sort of “Ollivander’s” style mini-show experience.

A stave church built into the rocky cliffs would serve as the entrance to the land’s first ride – MAELSTROM: AGE OF ODIN. Inspired by the opening scene of EPCOT’s own Lost Legend: Maelstrom, I wanted this ride to see guests board Viking longboats to sail into the light of Odin and all the memories preserved there.

A forwards-and-backwards voyage, Maelstrom: Age of Odin would show the origins of the World Tree through Odin’s eyes, recounting the splendors of Asgard, the wars fought for it, and the path to Valhalla for those who defend it. A sort of quasi-history on the Nine Realms and the lore of Asgard, it’s an all-ages attraction with a wonderful classic dark ride bend.

Naturally, guests could pose for photos on the still-steaming mark of the Bifrost as (via embedded LEDs) it simmers with embers, freshly blasted into the land’s center. Beyond would be a statue of Odin and his sons with the palace as a background. That palace would contain THOR: BIFROST FLIGHT.

Naturally, being positioned inside the palace would give this ride a sense of being the land (and perhaps park’s) anchor, and I wanted to make sure that’s earned. So in the spirit of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the ride’s queue would rise through the castle, touring its dungeons, vault, and throne room. But the ride itself would use the same ride system as Animal Kingdom’s Flight of Passage, sending guests on a trial to brave the Nine Realms on the back of a winged horse.

You can totally write this off as a silly idea or a cheap reimagining of an existing experience, but I actually think that a ride like this could earnestly be an absolute E-Ticket experience that’s beautiful and graceful and moving, but also fun and colorful and maybe even humorous. I don’t want to go too funny, though, because I’m saving that for the land’s other E-Ticket. (Remember my notes on page one: this is a built-out park, meaning Blue Sky, matured, and idealized.)

That would be located in the western half of the land, which I figured would be a little less wooden and merchants and a little more stone and palatial. That’s where you’d find the Avengers Quinjet parked on a rooftop, serving as the entrance to AVENGERS: RAGNAROK REWIND.

As you might be able to tell from its showbuilding, I envisioned this as an adaptation of the concept behind Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – a launched, indoor family coaster that would see the Avengers assemble on Asgard to contend with Ragnarok. Why? Because I’d love to see guests come face-to-face with a giant Audio Animatronic Surtur, to blast out into the cosmos, witness Asgard’s destruction, then – by harnessing the power of the Time Stone – turn back time and see it all undone.

Bring in ’80s rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack and randomized character appearances (i.e. you may ride with Iron Man, or Captain Marvel, or Dr. Strange, experiencing unique scenes each time) and you’ve got yourself a joyful, exciting, re-rideable E-Ticket.

To me, Asgard just feels like such a great keystone land for Disney Fantastic Worlds; if (as one Twitter user suggested) this park is a blend of Islands of Adventure, DisneySea, and Disney IP (which I find to be very high praise indeed), then this land just fits that bill so well. It’s immersive and sprawling; it’s iconic and unique; it’s a habitable, coastal, nautical, totally built-out world that just feels like it fits around this lagoon. At least, that’s my impression… What’s yours?

And what might be next in the park’s lineup?