Credit: DisneyThe Marvel show “Doctor Strange: Mystery of the Mystics” was abruptly aborted by Disney today.
As Disney has doubled down on its Marvel TV shows and films in recent years, its theme parks have followed suit with a massive surge in Marvel-themed attractions, bringing the cinematic universe to life like never before.
This started with the addition of Stark Expo – a Tomorrowland expansion at Hong Kong Disneyland – followed by Disney’s first fully-fledged Marvel land, Avengers Campus, at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California, in 2021. A year later, the same land also opened at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris.
The land’s design is rooted in the idea of a fully operational base for training and recruiting new superheroes, offering attractions like WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure, where guests team up with Peter Parker in an interactive web-shooting adventure.
In Anaheim, the land also features the Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! attraction, a reimagined version of the park’s former Tower of Terror ride (and will expand to feature two new rides in the coming years).
Character interactions play a significant role in Avengers Campus, with opportunities to meet heroes like Captain America, Black Panther, and Iron Man. Live performances and events bring Marvel’s epic battles to life but have been dramatically slimmed down in California lately following the unionization of the resort’s entertainment cast members.
At Disneyland Paris, however, the entertainment offerings have actually improved in recent months. November saw the debut of “Doctor Strange: Mystery of the Mystics,” a new rooftop stage show in which Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch “must harness their mystic powers to confront a dark, unseen threat detected by F.R.I.D.A.Y.”
This is currently performed daily and will continue to do so until March 29, 2025. Today, however, the show met an abrupt end after technical difficulties saw the projections glitch across Avengers Campus.
DLP Report shared a video of the disrupted show, which reportedly ended as soon as the error occurred.
💥 At Avengers Campus, the projections for “Doctor Strange: Mystery of the Mystics” switched to 2 frames per second and the show suddenly ended. Nothing to see here 😬
💥 At Avengers Campus, the projections for “Doctor Strange: Mystery of the Mystics” switched to 2 frames per second and the show suddenly ended. Nothing to see here 😬 pic.twitter.com/oDRnXyphfO
— DLP Report (@DLPReport) December 7, 2024
When it runs properly, the show also features Agatha Harkness, fresh off the recent release of Agatha All Along on Disney+.
Technical glitches are relatively commonplace at Disney, as they are in all forms of live entertainment. Earlier this year, Walt Disney Studios Park—like multiple Disney parks—was struck by mass issues after Microsoft servers went down worldwide due to an issue with computer threat checker Crowdstrike Falcon.
Turnstiles were subsequently down at the entrance to Walt Disney Studios Park, forcing Disney cast members to check each guest’s ticket manually. This meant that crowds gathered outside the parks, and entry took considerably longer than usual.
The IT outage also affected displays outside certain shows and attractions at the park, such as Stitch Live! and TOGETHER: a Pixar Musical Adventure. As shown by DLP Report, the screens instead showed the dreaded Microsoft “blue screen of death,” AKA “recovery mode.”
In general, Walt Disney Studios Park has earned a negative reputation in the eyes of many Disney fans in recent years.
While Disney in the process of rejuvenating the park with a massive makeover right now – complete with a new World of Frozen land, The Lion King (1994) area, and a Tangled (2010) ride, plus a lake area for nighttime spectaculars à la California Adventure Park – it still retains a haphazard mish-mash of low-budget attractions that don’t gel with the best of Disney’s theme park efforts.
Have you ever experienced a technical glitch at a Disney park?