Disney Worldbuilders, a new documentary from the Academy Award and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks, features some of the company’s most influential filmmakers as they reflect on what’s shaped their creative work. Here are new details and the release date of the next major project from the creative behind The Imagineering Story and Disneyland Handcrafted, plus how this film’s trailer could contain teases for D23 Expo announcements.
In Disney Worldbuilders, some of the Walt Disney Company’s most influential storytellers reflect on the memories, moments and creative breakthroughs that shaped their work. In so doing, they also trace how those stories come to life at Disney’s theme parks around the globe.
Their conversations reveal a creative practice that moves in every direction, where a story can inspire a place, and a place can then inspire the next story. It’s a way of creating that dates back to Walt himself, a creative tradition that continues to shape every new story Disney tells.
Disney Worldbuilders pulls back the curtain on the creative minds behind the interconnected “Disney Universe.” The film features candid conversations with Bob Iger, James Cameron, Jon Favreau, Kevin Feige, Jennifer Lee, Pete Docter, Dave Filoni, Jared Bush and Josh D’Amaro.
Together they reveal how stories like Avatar, Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pixar, and the worlds of Frozen and Zootopia, become places you can visit in real life. Along the way, they walk viewers through these very places via footage from the theme park lands that Disney Imagineers have already brought to life–and are in the process of building.
Disney Worldbuilders captures the architects of these franchises in their own words, on what they’ve built together and where they’re taking it next. Audiences will also get a behind-the-scenes look at upcoming lands at Disney destinations around the world via new footage of expansion that’s underway.
With that, the documentary will offer a window into one of the most ambitious periods of creative expansion in the company’s history. This could explain why it’s being released immediately after D23 Expo, on August 20, 2026.
In the trailer alone, we see Kevin Feige walking what appears to be the Avengers Campus expansion (below) and Bob Iger walking the Disneyland Abu Dhabi site, along with footage from the existing Frozen, Zootopia, and Avatar lands. Those are all projects that are announced, underway, or already existing but rumored to be happening elsewhere. It’s possible that D23 news is hiding here in plain sight!
“I wanted to understand what ignites the imaginations of the storytellers behind some of the world’s most beloved stories,” said Iwerks. “As I sat down with each of them, I discovered a common thread: they often traced their creative journeys back to a single childhood moment—walking through the gates of Disneyland and realizing that impossible dreams could become real. It’s a feeling I know well, and one that has shaped my own journey. My hope is that audiences leave with that same sense of possibility and inspiration.”
Disney Worldbuilders is available to stream on Disney+ starting August 20, 2026. Ahead of its debut on Disney+, Disney Worldbuilders will have its world premiere at D23 Expo on Sunday, August 16, 2026, where attendees will be among the first to see the film in its entirety. (It also doesn’t feel coincidental that even the D23 Expo screening is after the Parks & Resorts panel.)
You can watch the Leslie Iwerks’ Disney Worldbuilders trailer here:
Leslie Iwerks Background
Iwerks comes from a family steeped in Disney legacy. Her grandfather, Ub Iwerks, was Walt Disney’s original animator, designer, and co-creator of Mickey Mouse; her father, Don Iwerks, was a camera technician and inventor; both were Oscar winners and Disney Legends.
Two film pioneers, Ub and Don Iwerks, made their mark on the pre-Disneyland decades of the company. Ub worked at Disney in the early days of the company as an animator and special effects wizard. Don worked at Disney in the 1950s, ultimately overseeing the Studio Machine Shop and the Camera Service Department.
In fact, Leslie’s grandfather and father were particularly instrumental in a large portion of the creativity that has helped take The Walt Disney Company to revolutionary heights over the years. From the landmark creation of Mickey Mouse to the invention of the multiplane camera and the development of 360-degree camera that led to the first Circle-Vision 360° film format, the two played significant roles in the company’s advancement.
Leslie grew up surrounded by these stunning technological feats that helped pave the way for her to become an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker herself.
Frequently having the freedom to explore the Disney studio lot, Leslie launched her early career with an especially personal touch in 1999, sharing her grandfather’s story with Walt and more in The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story.
Driven by a desire to tell her grandfather’s story to an audience, and championed by the support of Roy E. Disney at the time, Leslie was able to share her family legacy with the world through her own filmmaking.
Iwerks’ Past Works
Following the passion and expertise set by her grandfather and father, Leslie continues to leave a legacy with a Disney-filled filmography including The Pixar Story, The Imagineering Story, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, and most recently, Disneyland Handcrafted.
If you missed it in the aftermath of the holiday season, we’d highly recommend taking the time for Disneyland Handcrafted. That documentary reveals the extraordinary artistry and grit it took hundreds of craftspeople to bring Walt Disney’s impossible dream project of Disneyland to fruition, from groundbreaking to Opening Day on July 17, 1955. The documentary captures both the legacy and nostalgia of the year leading up to the creation of Disneyland.
It also captures about 1,955 OSHA violations, and is one of the most unintentionally stressful documentaries I’ve ever watched, despite being about the creation of “The Happiest Place on Earth,” and me knowing exactly how the story ends. Suffice to say, it’s a documentary that OSHA officers should avoid at all costs. Disneyland Handcrafted is basically your Uncut Gems.
For everyone else, Disneyland Handcrafted is a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain at the trials and tribulations of building the park. It’s fun and funny to watch just how differently projects got done back in the 1950s versus today, even if it does seem a bit like a thinly-veiled advertisement for Lucky Strike and Pacific Life.
I’ve introduced several of our family members to Disneyland Handcrafted over the last several months, and all of them have loved it. This documentary is one of those things that transcends the fandom, and is enjoyable for even casual audiences. Not that that’s relevant to you, reader of a Disney blog. (For more, see Review: Disneyland Handcrafted is Must-See Disney TV.)
If you’re newer to the fandom or somehow haven’t seen it, we’d also highly recommend checking out The Imagineering Story. That six-part docu-series premiered on Disney+ back in 2019, and was produced via unprecedented access to archival documents, firsthand insights, and never-before-shared Imagineering projects.
The Imagineering Story is the must-watch documentary on Disney+ for anyone reading this blog. The series chronicles key moments in the design of the parks, from the opening of Disneyland through Shanghai Disneyland and beyond. It’s really well done, and not just a puff piece.
The best episode is unquestionably “Hit or Miss,” which is far more candid and honest than you’d ever expect–and will disabuse diehard fans of the notion that Disney is infallible. The final two episodes teeter into present-day marketing territory, but it’s still an exceptional docu-series.
Disney Worldbuilders should offer more of that. It’s obviously not going to be as theme park-centric as either The Imagineering Story or Disneyland Handcrafted given that the individuals involved are all filmmakers, but it does frame their creative experience through the lens of the parks.
There should be plenty of great footage and insight throughout Disney Worldbuilders. Hopefully it’ll be more like the first four episodes of The Imagineering Story, but given its contemporaneous nature, I suspect there will be shades of those final two episodes, too.
The good news is that several of the creatives featured are actually diehard parks fans (especially Pete Docter and Kevin Feige), so they should have more than just cursory insights about bringing their worlds to life at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond. Iwerks’ recent track record is all hits, no misses, so we can’t wait to watch her follow-up to Disneyland Handcrafted!
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and many other SoCal cities!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Disney Worldbuilders documentary? Excited that Iwerks is following up The Imagineering Story and Disneyland Handcrafted with this? Looking forward to this documentary? Thoughts on the trailer? What topic would you like to see Iwerks tackle next? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? 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!