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Niles: Is there a ‘Fantastic’ future for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland?

March 11, 2025

Marvel is rebooting its Fantastic Four franchise in theaters this summer. As the company so often does when it is debuting a new movie, Disney also will be bringing the Fantastic Four characters to Disneyland.

At the South by Southwest conference in Texas last weekend, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige announced that the Fantastic Four would appear to meet guests in Tomorrowland, starting July 25. Walt Disney Imagineering’s Bruce Vaughn joined Feige for the announcement, which also included the news that WDI is working with Marvel on a H.E.R.B.I.E. robot from the franchise.

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“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is set on a retro-futuristic Earth, which Feige said was inspired in part by Disneyland’s 1960s Tomorrowland. I have no idea where Marvel will go with this new movie, nor how it will perform with audiences. But I would love to see Disneyland do more than welcome just the Fantastic Four characters into the park if this movie hits at the box office and with critics. Tomorrowland again needs a refresh. Embracing the design aesthetic of the Fantastic Four seems an obvious solution to Disney’s ongoing Tomorrowland problem.

The core problem with Tomorrowland is that the theme of “tomorrow” is ever-changing. Yet our view of the future so often is just an amplification of our present mood. When Disneyland opened in 1955, America’s mood was optimistic. The original Tomorrowland reflected that, with its aspirational Rocket to the Moon and Autopia, inspired by the emerging Interstate highway system.

Disneyland refreshed its Tomorrowland in the mid-1960s, which reflected The Walt Disney Company’s optimism about its future as much as anything else. The company rebuilt the land on a much higher budget, adding attractions including Carousel of Progress, People Mover and Adventure Thru Inner Space that reflected the strong economic progress of the period.

The 1998 “New New Tomorrowland” brought environmentalism to the land, with earth tones, rockwork and edible plants throughout. But Disneyland abandoned that deign motif within a decade, repainting the land to its original white, silver and blue for the park’s 50th anniversary.

Twenty years on from that, Tomorrowland needs a refresh, again. Unfortunately for Disney, many Americans’ current view of the future is more dystopian than optimistic. Since the heroes have to win at Disney, a truly dystopian Tomorrowland is not going to fly. So what to do, then?

It seems counterintuitive to think of Tomorrowland as nostalgic, but that’s exactly what the land needs. Disneyland’s Tomorrowland needs to call back to an era when Americans felt collectively optimistic about their future. The company did that for Europeans in Disneyland Paris with its Jules Verne-inspired Discoveryland. A retro-futuristic Tomorrowland that called back to its 1960s peak could work well at Disneyland.

If it also featured attractions themed to a successful Fantastic Four franchise, the rebooted Tomorrowland could satisfy Disney’s corporate need to promote its IP throughout the parks. Maybe even we finally could get something new in the long-neglected Carousel of Progress/America Sings building? Now that would be … fantastic.

Orange County Register

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Niles: Is there a ‘Fantastic’ future for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland?

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