Walt Disney World has permanently closed the opening act for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith ahead of the ride reimagining that’ll see the Muppets take over in 2026. This covers the latest development about the pre-show’s retirement, and when you can expect the old thrill ride to close & new attraction to debut.
As basic background, Walt Disney World has revealed that Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and more of their friends will be moving right along to Sunset Boulevard. The Muppets will be taking over Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, teaming up with some of music’s biggest stars for a rockin’ music festival.
At Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets, you bet we’ll have rock as we roll across Hollywood on a wild ride with the Electric Mayhem – complete with backstage chaos, high-speed thrills, signature Muppets music & humor, and all-new Audio-Animatronics figures.
Within the last couple of months, Walt Disney World has really started pulling the curtain back on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets. We’ve learned about the courtyard, backstory, music, Audio Animatronics, and pre-show stage-setting scene. If you missed any of this, see the first half of this post: Walt Disney World Reveals Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets Opening Season. We’re going to forgo the lengthy recap here, but that covers everything we know so far about RnRC: Muppets Edition.
The biggest development of the last month-plus has been, as the title there suggests, that we now have an opening season for the Muppets takeover of RnRC. If you’re already ready to go pedal to the metal and experience the high-speed hijinks of The Muppets in this latest story, the good news is that the wait will be over before you know it.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets opens Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Summer 2026!
Walt Disney World shared one-half of the timeline for the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster project, but we still don’t have the necessary prerequisite to the reopening date: the closing date for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.
That remains true to this date, although process of elimination does ‘confirm’ that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith will close by September 22, 2026 at the absolute latest, because that’s how seasons work.
Now that Walt Disney World has pulled back the (figurative) curtain on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets, they’ve put up the literal curtain on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. Or at least, the pre-show.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith has now permanently retired its opening act, with the pre-show sealed off in preparation for the upcoming reimagining of the ride to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets. Once the doors to the RnRC pre-show open, guests now walk straight through to the loading area without waiting.
With this, Walt Disney World has officially started work on the new Muppets takeover of the fan-favorite thrill ride. This project is being done in phases to minimize the amount of downtime for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. With the pre-show walled-off, Disney is able to operate the attraction during the transformation, as opposed to starting a lengthy ride closure right ahead of the heart of the holiday season.
Regular readers of DTB should not be the least bit surprised by this development. We’ve been speculating about this possibility since (quite literally) the ride reimagining was announced. Once Walt Disney World narrowed the closing and opening of RnRC to 2026, we doubled-down on it. When the opening season was announced with no closure date, we tripled-down.
As we’ve pointed out repeatedly, the trickiest and most time-consuming changes to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will happen in the queue and pre-show. There are at least three Audio Animatronics being added to the pre-show, and that’s not simply a matter of plopping down figures. There’s all kinds of electrical and other work that needs to be done to prep the space (just look at how long the Hatbox Ghost installation took). We’d also expect modern new screens in the pre-show and plenty of other changes.
We’ve also discussed contingency plans Walt Disney World has had for years that would allow for the overnight removal of all references to Aerosmith. That Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster could continue operating, without closure, in the event of an Aerosmith scandal that required Disney to distance itself from the band immediately. This same contingency plan would allow for a reimagining with minimal downtime.
To accomplish this, Imagineering could wall-off the pre-show to accomplish at least a portion of what will be the biggest and most time-consuming changes to the attraction while it’s still operational.
This is possible because, unlike many other attractions, the non-skippable safety spiel is not during the pre-show. Such a reimagining would not be possible with most other attractions (Avatar Flight of Passage, for example, has non-skippable pre-shows due to safety spiels).
This is precisely why you can walk right on through the previous RnRC pre-show during Early Entry or After Hours! With the doors open on that pre-show room allowing for guests to pass through, this theoretically opens the door for the Muppets Mayhem takeover to come to life with less downtime than would otherwise be required.
At this point, we know enough to reasonably believe this won’t be an overnight switchover. Walt Disney World has indicated as much by referencing the phased nature of the project and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster minimizing the amount of time the attraction is closed, which suggests there will be at least some downtime. But the point is that it could, in theory, if there was such a desire by Walt Disney World.
This is how the Jungle Cruise reimagining was conducted post-COVID, for reference. And given that Walt Disney World continues to decline to share a closing date for RnRC, we’re increasingly inclined to believe that it’s a tighter turnaround time.
Now that this has happened, it likely won’t be long before Walt Disney World does make an official announcement. In fact, I’m half-expecting something in my inbox as I type this up. Normally, Disney would reveal a closing date before quietly putting the walls up like this. I’m guessing the holiday weekend interfered with the announcement, and that one will be made before this week is over. The clock is ticking!
With the curtain closed on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster pre-show, it’s worth briefly revisiting the question of just how long the closure portion of the reimagining will take. Test Track was about one year. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be at least that long. DINOSAUR’s conversion into Indiana Jones Adventure will take at least 18 months.
It’s already clear that this RnRC reimagining cannot be comparable. Even if Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith were to close on January 1, 2026 (and it won’t), it would still only be closed for ~9 months if it reopened on the last day of summer. And that’s basing seasons on the Farmer’s Almanac or whatever, as opposed to the typical Disney definition, which is between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
The good news is that the closure will not need to be as long. The roller coaster track and layout are almost certainly going to remain unchanged inside the current gravity building, and changes to any of that is what would balloon the timeline of this project. It’s probably not getting a new facade or any structural changes to the exterior. Even if it did, that could also be accomplished while the ride is operational!
Being a roller coaster in the dark with minimal props, there’s probably a decent amount of prepwork that could be done after hours while Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith is still operational without guests noticing. It’s also entirely possible that the “Muppet twist” to the props really just means tacking on “Muppetized” visuals to the existing flats. Or creating new ones that go in the same spots and using the same infrastructure for the install.
In light of the latest development about the pre-show, my bet is that the reimagining into Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets takes around 8 months from today. Taking that a step further, I’d bet on a ~3 month closure of the attraction. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s shorter, but I’d be shocked if it’s much longer.
My bet is that Walt Disney World wants RnRC operational not just for this Christmas and New Year’s, but through Spring Break. A closing date on or after April 6, 2026 strikes me as entirely plausible given that work is already underway on the pre-show. And that could, at least conceivably, still allow for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets to open in the second half of Summer 2026.
Honestly, I hope I’m wrong! I would love for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith to close completely on January 5, 2026 and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets to open on September 22, 2026. That would be the absolute best-case scenario based on what we now know.
From my perspective, the longer the closure, the better. Not only does it mean that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets will be a better attraction, but it increases the likelihood that the thrill ride will stick around for at least a decade, perhaps more.
The longer the closure and the more money spent, the longer Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets sticks around. By extension, the greater the chances this area becomes the new Muppets Courtyard, and that MuppetVision 3D is revived and replaces Villains Unfairly Ever After once Villains Land opens in Magic Kingdom. (Now that is some serious wishful thinking!)
I don’t think any of that is what will happen, just to be clear. When it comes to the proper refurbishment, a 3-4 month timeline makes sense, and also might mean that both the reimagined Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and reimagined Animation Courtyard could debut at or around the same time.
Further speculation feels kind of pointless, as we fully expect all to be revealed sometime in the next few days. I’ve half-expected to hear an out-of-left-field announcement while watching “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular” right now on ABC. That’s probably the earliest we’ll get confirmation, with the ABC Christmas Day Parade being the latest.
Regardless, I’m heartened that work is already underway on the pre-show. This gives Imagineering 8 or so months to work on the most elaborate portion of the reimagining, which seems sufficient. It’s also entirely possible that they’ve already started on the show scenes, but we just don’t know because they’re in the dark! And if not, we’d expect that to start happening soon.
I know some fans are going to be upset that they didn’t have proper notice to say their goodbyes to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, and I can sympathize with that perspective. At the same time, we knew this day was coming for over a year.
The last few months have brought the project timeline into sharper focus, suggesting both that the closing date was fast approaching and that Walt Disney World would be more focused on highlighting the good news of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets opening and less so on the “negative” news of the Aerosmith version closing.
Frankly, I don’t quite understand the “strategy” on Disney’s part to ignore the Starring Aerosmith version and not give it a proper sendoff, a la DINOSAUR. At minimum, there should’ve been a notification about the pre-show closure date and upcoming ride refurbishment start to give fans a chance to say their goodbyes.
It could’ve been made back in October when Disney revealed details about the Audio Animatronics and opening season of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets. It almost feels like they’re distancing the company from Aerosmith already.
As always, the biggest saving grace for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets is that there are hardcore Muppets fans in Walt Disney Imagineering. We’ve pointed out previously that this means they’ll fight for a healthy budget, reasonably long reimagining, reusing elements from MuppetVision that would otherwise be discarded, and having as much unique Muppets humor as possible.
This being a passion project is a very good thing, even if it’s accomplished on a tight budget (that’s how we got PizzeRizzo). It now appears as if at least some of this is accurate, so kudos to the WDI project team. I can’t wait to see how they pull off this ride reimagining, even if it’ll never fully replace MuppetVision. Then again, maybe it won’t have to…if they do such a good job that this leads to a future Muppets Courtyard in this area!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about Walt Disney World already closing the pre-show to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith? Surprised this is happening at all–or with no notice? Are you excited for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets? Happy to see it’ll have Audio Animatronics and other changes to the exterior, queue, pre-show, and ride-through? Predictions on closing and opening dates? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!