Credit: Sony PicturesIt’s been a long time coming, but the characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will finally have a presence at Tokyo Disney Resort.
The Japanese Disney resort has just announced its new nighttime spectacular, which will feature familiar faces from the likes of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and the MCU – a first for the park.
Until recently, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea have been bereft of superheroes for one key reason: licensing. Since 2004, Universal Studios Japan has retained the rights to use Marvel characters in its theme parks thanks to its clone of Universal Orlando Resort’s The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.
In a sad twist for Marvel fans in Osaka (but potentially great news for those in Tokyo), the 4-D attraction closed down for good on January 22, 2024. This marked the exact end of Universal’s 20-year local licensing agreement, opening doors for Disney’s parks in Japan to finally introduce Marvel characters to its parks.
And it seems like the resort is wasting no time in doing so. Concept art provided by the Oriental Land Company for Tokyo Disneyland’s as-yet-unnamed show features both Iron Man and Captain Marvel – as portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. and Brie Larson in the MCU – soaring over Cinderella Castle.
Realistically, Marvel will only play a small part in Tokyo Disneyland’s new show when it premieres in September. It does, however, signify what could be a much more superpowered future for the park and its neighbor.
Back in August 2023, the chairman and CEO of the resort’s operator, Oriental Land Company, revealed plans to expand Tokyo Disney Resort well beyond the upcoming new land Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea. There’s no guarantee that Marvel will factor into those plans – and, in fact, we’d be surprised if it did receive the Avengers Campus treatment considering the franchise’s relative lack of success at the Japanese box office compared to other markets.
But Spider-Man is the outlier. The friendly neighborhood webslinger has long proven Marvel’s most successful hero with the Japanese audience. In fact, every single entry in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy outperformed Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Marvel’s top-performing film of all time – in Japan. The ride’s popularity at Universal Studios Japan tells you everything you need to know about Spider-Man’s commercial value; its final few days of operation generated wait times of over three hours.
With that in mind, it seems more unlikely that Tokyo Disney Resort won’t capitalize on its newfound Marvel IP at some point in the near future (especially when it already has a ready-to-clone Spider-Man attraction at both Disney California Adventure Park and Walt Disney Studios Park). It may start with a handful of superheroes in a nighttime spectacular, but surely it’s only a matter of time before Marvel’s next attraction lands in Tokyo.