Disney: What’s going on at Epcot’s Guardians of the Galaxy ride, inside and out

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Disney opened ground floor of Epcot’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind ride to the media. What we saw was big and dark.

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Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will feature a reverse launch when it debuts at Epcot in 2022. (Walt Disney Co. / Courtesy photo)

 

One surprise at Walt Disney World last week had little to do with its 50th anniversary. The ground floor of Epcot’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind was open briefly to members of the media covering the event.

The roller coaster, set to open sometime in 2022, had just moved to the stage of its construction where hard hats were no longer required. Folks were escorted in, a dozen or so at a time, to peer up at the rails and hear spiels from two Imagineers. Photography was not allowed. Questions were not allowed.

What we saw, in three words: big and black.

There were black walls, black ceiling, black support poles, black fencing and loads of black, curved railing filling much of the available space. There was a purple set piece that looked like a comic book explosion. And this, they said, was about half the experience.

They didn’t say much else, but the next day, Alex Wright, senior creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering, fielded my questions.

Such as, wow, that’s a lot of black paint, right?

“We will not want you to know that you’re on a roller-coaster track,” Wright said. “There are things that we learned about camouflaging things in the dark [at Space Mountain] there that we’re kind of employing here. So, it’s all to this lineage of things we’ve done before and kind of taking them to the next level.”

The Cosmic Rewind experience, he said, “is intended to come across as flying around in space.”

Deep, dark space, it appears. This illusion also will be achieved by the ride vehicle and techniques adapted from old school attractions such as Haunted Mansion. It’s like that ride’s Omnimover system but cranked up.

“We learned about how to orient the guests within a ride through experiences at a slow speed at Haunted Mansion and others. … Now we can do it at high speed. It really does change the nature of the experiences,” Wright said.

There will be height restrictions for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, but they haven't been revealed yet for what Disney calls a 'family thrill ride.' (Courtesy of Disney)

“It enables us to, obviously, focus you where we want you to be. But with that comes the ability to extend a show scene longer than what you could typically do on a traditional coaster,” he said.

Think of the mansion’s Doom Buggy movement, which steers attention toward (and away) from specific items. Now do that quickly.

Expect varied speeds and directions for the new ride.

“It’s highly controllable and programmable,” Wright said. “We have referenced our reverse launch, so that tells you that you’re going to be somewhere ramping up to speed in a rear-facing orientation.”

The intensity level of the new ride will be between Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, he said.

“We’re trying to find a sweet spot in between that really pays off on the thrill factor without being intense and uncomfortable,” Wright said.

Florida is in the midst of a coaster boom. Disney also is building Tron Lightcycle Run, a thrill ride at Magic Kingdom. Its opening date hasn’t been shared. SeaWorld Orlando says it will open Ice Breaker in February, and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will introduce Iron Gwazi in March. Universal’s Islands of Adventure debuted its Jurassic World VelociCoaster this summer.

Imagineers aren’t giving out numbers as far as Cosmic Rewind’s speed and height, not even for the building. Wright said that it’s a “taller interior volume than we’ve done before.”

It’s a different scale for Disney, he said.

“This one still makes people’s jaws drop. Even internally when we share it with people who are not on the project teams, they’re still surprised by it,” Wright said.

The massive building containing 'Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind' is painted sky blue (with greens below the tree line). The indoor roller coaster debuts next year. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Cosmic Rewind is replacing Universe of Energy, but we were standing in the new attraction’s big boxy addition, which is painted sky blue on the outside.

“It was a very carefully chosen color, and what we’re trying to do with that is communicate to the guests — much the way we have with the Soarin’ building over the years — this is what you pay attention to and this is what you don’t,” Wright said. “Obviously it can’t say that it’s not visible, but we try to make it kind of blend in and be make it clear to the guests what’s meaningful and what isn’t.”

Disney announced last week that Cosmic Rewind will debut in 2022, but it wasn’t specific about month or season of its opening.

“You can probably see there’s activity happening outside the building now. … It’s already taking shape and very plainly visible from the monorail,” Wright said. “We’re at the point where we’re putting together all the finishing stages inside the attraction and getting it ready. … For a lot of us that’s the fun part because you’re seeing the culmination of things that you’ve been working on for a period of time and everybody’s efforts coming together, and that’s exciting.”

Dewayne Bevil

Orlando Sentinel