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We begin by bidding farewell to It's Tough to Be a Bug along with A Bugs Land, which was quickly added in 2002 as a modest attempt to improve the original DCA 1.0 from its epic blandness, five years before Disney launched its 1.1 billion dollar extreme theme park makeover.  For what it's worth, I rather enjoyed It's Tough to Be a Bug, and some years later, when I returned with my then three-and-a-half year old daughter, there were a few other attractions in A Bug's Land that proved enjoyable for the family.  With that said, once Cars Land was parked next door it became obvious that the combination of being essentially a few county fair quality rides themed to a one-off and aging Pixar film wasn't going to cut it in the era of Universal vs Disney competition.

enter the mcu

So most die-hard Disney fans know about the extremely complicated legal gymnastics associated with the Marvel brand as it was sold off piece by piece to Universal, Fox, Sony, and eventually Disney Studios in 2009.  With Bob Iger and Kevin Feige wrestling Sony into submission to share Spider-man with the massively successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, followed by the Mouse House's likely to be approved purchase of 21st Century Fox and with it Marvel's X-Men characters, all the pieces seem to be in place for Disney to make full use of it's new arsenal of comic book gods and goddesses...except for those previously mentioned pesky legal restrictions.  At the other end of the rope in this branding and intellectual property tug-of-war is Universal Studios.  The end result is that Disney has to be very careful in how they roll out the roster of Marvel superheroes at their theme parks. The greatest restrictions are in Florida, meaning that Disney World will likely never have a fully Marvel-themed land and that individual Marvel character attractions can be added only if they are not already being used at Universal's Sunshine State parks, such as the recently announced Guardians of the Galaxy addition to EPCOT.  That leaves the greatest amount of flexibility to the original Magic Kingdom and Disney's oversees parks.  Finally after a couple of year's of leaked rumors and marketing teasers, it was made formal a few weeks ago when Disney announced all new 'Super Hero' lands at DCA, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland.  What surprised some was the aggressive timeline for launching these new homes for the Avengers--that being 2020.  But in the case of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, it makes perfect sense as they hope to bring some 'balance to the force' between the two gates with the launching of Star Wars Land, aka Galaxy's Edge, in 2019.

the footprint

Well that is enough background!  Let's get on with the one thing that all Armchair Imagineers love to do...SPECULATE!  Let's start with the basic footprint.  The press release is still very light on details, with the only thing highlighted being the demise of the previously discussed Bug's Land.  Already shuttered is It's Tough to Be a Bug and by the end of summer all the rest of the attractions will pass on to Yesterland.  Previous comments from Disney senior executive Robert Chapek seem to allude to the backstage parking lot directly east of Cars Land as being a part of the Marvel expansion.  Originally there was talk of this new land consuming a significant part of Hollywood Land but those rumors seem to have gone quiet with Disney giving up on the Eastern Gateway project.

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There was speculation that the new Eastern Gateway would leave room for DCA (and a new Marvel-themed land) to expand into what is currently the shuttle buss drop off. But now that this plan has been nixed, it looks like the Avengers will be focused on the space between Hollywood Land and Cars Land.

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So here is what I believe will be the approximate footprint for the new Marvel 'Super Hero Land' (see picture below).  You will notice that along with the backstage parking lot and A Bug's Land, I've speculated that the buildings which currently house the Animation Academy and the Hyperion Theater could also be used as expansion space.  More on that in a minute.

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other small but necessary changes

A very practical matter that needs to be resolved is the trolley route.  It now feels ridiculously out of place as it rolls towards the new Guardians of the Galaxy and this will feel even more awkward as the area is fully Marvel-ized.  A simple fix is to send it north into the Hollywood Back-lot instead of its current southern route down what is called Sunset Boulevard.  This would require relocating the trolley maintenance facility somewhere in the Hollywood Back-lot area.  I'll be discussing what to do with this ghost town part of DCA in next month's installment of Armchair Imagineering.  

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Also, I hope that Imagineers are thinking about how they can preserve an immersive experience for the new Super Hero Land and its neighbor, Cars Land.  Perhaps they should consider extending the facade of the latter's desert mountain range to obstruct any views of Marvel's attractions, with the exception of Guardians of the Galaxy which unf