We got some MAJOR NEWS during D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in 2026 about a NEW land coming to Disney World!

Villains Land Concept Art
©Disney

We were invited by Disney to attend a media preview before the D23 fan expo officially kicked off on August 14th in Anaheim, California, and then attended the expo throughout the weekend — wow — do we have a lot to share with you! We got some exciting updates to share about Villains Land in Magic Kingdom that you cannot miss, especially if you’re as excited about this new land as we are!

During the media preview, we got an early taste of Villains Land news in the form of a new model!

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Called the Dark Forest, these creepy-looking trees will be featured within the new Villains Land, and it gives us our first tangible sense of how the vibes might actually be in this new Disney World area.

Spooky

This land will be home to some of the Disney villains we “know and loathe” from our favorite Walt Disney Studios animated films. Disney continued to say that, “The evil ambition of all these Villains means that the possibilities are endless for the stories that can be told — and visitors to the dark and thorny land should be prepared for whatever chaos might come their way.”

Ta-da!

The land will house two major attractions, an undetermined amount of dining options, and some shopping on an “incredibly twisted grand scale.” In the past, Disney has shared some of the architectural inspiration for this space and where Imagineers have traveled to gain insight for building the new land.

Architectural inspiration for Villains Land

During this past D23 Expo, we also learned that the official name of the land will be Villains Land…

©Disney

…we got details about one of the rides — a NEW dark ride involving catacombs and the Magic Mirror…

©Disney

…a new look at the Maleficent-themed roller coaster…

©Disney

…and MORE! It’s a majorly exciting time to be a villains fan!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE EVERYTHING ANNOUNCED FOR VILLAINS LAND SO FAR

Looking for more recent Magic Kingdom news? Check out our posts below!

Stay tuned to DFB for all the latest updates!

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How do you feel about this new land? Tell us in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney to attend their D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ