It has been a busy couple of weeks for Villains Land new and (especially) rumors, and Walt Disney World just added fuel to the fire with a fresh set of filings. Honestly, this feels a little like Imagineering is trolling fans, with new construction permits offering a Rorschach test, of sorts, allowing fans to see whatever they want to see in them.
In case you missed it, yesterday’s big new post covered the Magic Kingdom Bigger & Bolder Villains Land Rumor: Emperor’s New Groove Coaster, Maleficent Mega E-Ticket, Hades Dinner Show & New Third Ride! In that lengthy post, we covered full details of the alleged changes the land, plus our assessment of whether each change passed the smell test.
At nearly 4,000 words long, I fear I might’ve overdone the analysis. Especially since some of the comments and social media reactions kind of missed the point. I’m going to endeavor to be much more concise in covering today’s new filing with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for “Project SNK.”
If Project SNK sounds familiar, that’s because Walt Disney World previously filed documents with the FDEP on this project that revealed the outline of buildings in Piston Peak and Villains Land, offering an idea of the lands’ layouts, locations of each attraction, sizes for show buildings, and more.
The FDEP filings reveals multiple facilities, as well as their location in the former River of America. The permit shows a total of 8 facilities versus the 4 attractions confirmed for the expansion, but there’s also expected to be restaurants, retail, as well as backstage support.
Let’s start with the FDEP filing for Project SNK from mid-January:
These FDEP filings are the first to show facilities, which fans assume to be buildings. I’ll admit that this type of filing is well outside my area of expertise, and I’m slightly reluctant to read too much into it (more on that later). Nevertheless, let’s walk through the expansion, with my theories, hesitations, etc.
The two facilities on the southern side of the construction site, closest to Country Bear Musical Jamboree, are for the Cars Piston Peak National Park Land. The upper hexagonal “building” is the flat ride, which oddly has been omitted and obscured from concept art and presentations Disney has done on Piston Peak. The space dictates it’s a flat ride, a la Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree or Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters.
The lower u-shaped building will likely be under themed environments, similar to how Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a building enveloped by rockwork with roller coaster track going around and over it. Our expectation is that the Cars E-Ticket is likewise a multi-story indoor-outdoor attraction. The concept art strongly suggests as much, and that’s more or less necessary to fully maximize this footprint and not have a blink-and-it’s-over attraction.
Here’s another look at the January FDEP filing:
The facilities above Piston Peak mostly relate to Villains Land.
In our previous post, I speculated that the slim structure adjacent to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad could be the outdoor roller coaster load station or perhaps a show scene, which would explain its smaller size and long footprint. Based on what I’ve learned since, that was wrong. I’m now almost positive that this is unrelated to attractions; think more along the lines of the marketplace stalls in Galaxy’s Edge.
The two largest buildings at the back of Villains Land are for the roller coaster (left) and dark ride (right). It’s my understanding that the latter also houses the land’s main restaurant. The current tracks for the Walt Disney World Railroad will be re-routed farther to the north, going behind the roller coaster; the facility above the dark ride is a new station.
Above is a color-coded illustration that I cobbled together to make this easier to visualize.
It’s not perfect, but it should give you a better idea of where everything is (allegedly) going. Lightning McQueen’s signature red is Cars Land; green is for the Haunted Mansion mystery project; purple is for Villains Land. The one very obviously backstage building is grey.
One thing I cautioned against doing previously was taking all of this at face value. As I wrote in our previous post on these facilities, I’m slightly skeptical that this shows all of the buildings. Since this filing relates to wastewater and utilities, and the facilities are almost incidental, it’s possible that the buildings are only shown to the extent necessary or relevant. And that they are rough approximations.
For example, Villains Land is going to be heavy on restaurants and retail, and there simply is not sufficient space for that and two major attractions as depicted. And no matter how you slice it, that long rectangular building is oddly shaped, even if it is reasonably large in size at 15,000 square feet.
It’s also unclear to me just how “facilities” are defined. For example, what appears to be the entirety of the Cars flat ride is shown as a facility, even though it’s likely to be an outdoor attraction. If you look at just the above section of the Piston Peak Fun Map, it looks to me like there are multiple separate structures that would each qualify as facilities, but that are not reflected in the FDEP filing.
Against that backdrop, here’s the new February 2026 FDEP filing:
As you can see, the facilities have changed slightly in the new filing.
Again, this is going to function as a Rorschach test, of sorts. There are visible changes to the previous FDEP filing, which could “confirm” that the plans have already changed or, at minimum, can change. After all, if things are able to shift like this, it means they can probably be adjusted further.
Or it means that, as we cautioned, the original FDEP filing was never to be taken literally in the first place. I probably should’ve emphasized this more at the time, but I’ll double down on it here: this (still!) does not show everything in the Cars and Villains Lands. And that’s true regardless of whether or not you believe the plans have changed.
This shows a bit better definition of one version (the original? the only?) of the plans, but it’s not comprehensive or completely accurate to site plans. The “why” of that is beyond my expertise, but my best guess, as I wrote before, is that this FDEP permit only documents what’s necessary to the extent of wastewater and utilities.
Once again, I would warn against taking this too literally. If another permit is filed in a few weeks that shows a slight variance on these outlines, it won’t be because the plans changed again. It’ll be because these outlines were never 100% accurate in the first place. (As just one example, does anyone really believe the mostly outdoor family story coaster is fitting neatly into that box?)
One specific point worth emphasizing is that the show building for what’s widely expected to be the dark ride is roughly 80,000 to 90,000 square feet per the FDEP filings. This may not seem like a significantly sized structure; for reference, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is 92,000 square feet.
That is, until you realize that the land’s main restaurant is otherwise unaccounted for. And also that the combined restaurant and show building for Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure at Shanghai Disneyland is double that size. If you assume that ride system is being used (per yesterday’s rumor) and that it’s a combined restaurant and attraction, this building is still woefully undersized…even if it did supposedly grow (and change shape) slightly since last month.
The good news is that there’s plenty of unaccounted for space behind “it’s a small world” where the show building could be extended, assuming you buy into the new rumor. (See above photo courtesy of bioreconstruct, which shows all of that land having been recently cleared.) It just seems logical to position show buildings behind one another to make them easier to conceal.
In case it wasn’t completely clear from yesterday’s rumor reporting, I’m highly skeptical of the purported changes to the plan. My view is that there’s truth to much of the report, but that the accurate elements do not represent recent or ongoing changes (for example, that it’ll be a family-friendly land and not a truly dark or intense one).
It’s my understanding that the core components of the project are locked-in, and that any changes that happen at this point will be at the margins. Upgrades in placemaking, bigger budgets for certain show scenes, and that sort of thing.
The biggest possible realistic change I could see happening is the flat ride shifting from Piston Peak to Villains Land, or possibly a third flat ride being added. Even that would pose a challenge at this stage in the game, though.
I do not believe that, for example, the dark ride is going to double in size. There are also a bunch of little details in the rumor reporting that I view as dubious; that’s especially true if this is still on the drawing board within Imagineering, for several reasons that I won’t rehash.
There’s so much about the report that I want to believe, but don’t. In fact, the fan backlash to the rumored changes caught me by surprise (ignoring the supposed themes for the two main attractions), as almost all of that would reflect an increase in ambition and bigger budget.
I think it’s going to be a big and bold land, regardless, but I personally far prefer the version that gets the Shanghai Pirates ride system, which is more wow-inducing and revolutionary than any ride system at any domestic theme park–including Epic Universe.
Beyond all of that, there’s this: if you believe the rumors of major changes coming, how do you also believe that newly-filed plans already reflect that, but only via minor changes? Either they’ve gone back to the drawing board and we will see major changes to the plans down the road or they haven’t, and this reflects (at best) minor tweaks and (more likely) different definition to precisely the same plans.
To each their own, but I do not see any reasonable interpretation of this filing that gives added credence to this week’s rumor. Maybe it’s accurate–I honestly hope it is! But this is not supporting evidence. If anything, it’s a soft rebuttal to those rumors. But like I said at the top, this is basically a Rorschach test, and fans are going to see what they want to see, using it to confirm their priors. Great job, Disney. A+ trolling effort.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of this facilities filing for the Cars and Villains Lands in Magic Kingdom? Do you think this shows everything in the expansion, or are some facilities/buildings left off for whatever reason? Think this confirms or refutes the recent rumors? Or, are you in wait and see mode with this? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!