Last month, Hong Kong Disneyland opened their new Iron Man Experience, the resort's first ever Marvel attraction. It is a simulator ride in the vein of Star Tours: The Adventure Continues. There are also two more Marvel attractions in the works for this Asian park. New concept art has debuted from one of these currently-untitled rides, which features Ant-Man (or, possibly Giant Man). Unfortunately, we don't have much more to go on, aside from the concept art. But we do have new details about why Disney decided to use their Hong Kong theme park for the Iron Man Experience and its Stark Expo.
The Los Angeles Times debuted the artwork, though no further details were revealed. The art shows Ant-Man/Giant Man fighting off a number of robotic enemies, with visitors joining him in battle.Hong Kong Disneyland announced in November that one of these new Marvel-themed areas will be a reimagined version of the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters attraction, along with another thrilling attraction dedicated to one of the most popular Marvel franchises. The original Buzz Lightyear attraction is a moving dark ride that takes guests room to room, where they can shoot at targets causing interactive events. At the end of the ride, guests get to see who got the best score out of the other tourists in the ride vehicle.
There was concept art of the re-imagined Buzz Lightyear area released in November, which you can check out below alongside the new Ant-Man concept art, which is what the refurbished Buzz Lightyear ride will now look like inside. Although it has not yet been revealed what the third attraction dedicated to a popular Marvel franchise will be. Ted Robledo, the Imagineer who was the creative lead on the Iron Man Experience, revealed to The Los Angeles Times that he struggled with certain elements of this first attraction, before he came up with the conceit that Tony Stark himself had come to Hong Kong.
"How do you represent Iron Man in a park that has a castle at the center of it and typically focuses on stories and characters from our animated classics to original [attractions] like Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion? How do you bring in a superhero into a setting like that and make it believable, make it feel acceptable, if you will? I think what we keyed into early on, and it became our save, really, was the fact that what makes the Marvel universe and its heroes very unique is the fact they live in our world. They don't live in fictional cities. They don't live in an alternate version of the United States. Walt Disney had partners in the industry, RCA, Monsanto, McDonnell Douglas, to help support these great, now past, attractions. So if Tony Stark came up with a flying tour vehicle and wanted to showcase some new technology, it's not too far-fetched to believe that he'd choose Hong Kong and choose Hong Kong Disneyland."
Robledo added that the early version of the attraction was set in New York City, but it was Pixar's John Lasseter who suggested that they set the attraction in Hong Kong. As for the other two Marvel attractions, it hasn't been confirmed when more details will be announced, or when they plan to open at Hong Kong Disneyland. While we wait for more updates on these Marvel theme parks, take a look at the concept art below.
