What’s Going on With Disney World’s Guardians of the Galaxy Ride?

EPCOT is currently undergoing a huge transformation.

Back in 2019, Disney announced a multi-year project dubbed the “EPCOT Transformation,” which involves revamping the entrance area, adding multiple new attractions, reimagining several shopping and dining locations, and creating a completely new pavilion. Many of these projects are already well underway, while others have faced significant delays or postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And, one of the projects facing delay is the brand new rollercoaster — Guardians of the Galaxy — Cosmic Rewind.

The ride was originally planned to open in time for the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary celebrations but has since been delayed with no anticipated opening date announced. Once complete, guests will be immersed in a new story and go on an adventure with the characters from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy featuring the first reverse launch for a Disney ride.

At the end of last year, Disney shared sneak peeks of the ride vehicles and even released a video of the ride vehicles in action!

And, we also got a very brief look at the ride vehicles on the track indoors. What makes these ride vehicles so unique is that they feature seats that rotate 360 degrees so that riders’ attention can be focused on the many storytelling aspects that will be featured throughout the ride.

We haven’t seen any other updates from the construction going on inside the ride, but we have seen some progress on the outside. Most recently, we noticed that all the solar panels had been reinstalled on the exterior of the building. These will be what power the ride!

From the concept art, it looks like we’re still waiting for a few more installments on the exterior before it nears completion. The entrance area will feature a Star Blaster that is flown by the Nova Corps in the movies, but that hasn’t been installed just yet. And, it looks like Disney might have a bit of painting to do on the outside as well.

The new rollercoaster has been described as a “storytelling coaster” by Disney and we have been able to see a preview of the journey we may be going on from the short promotional clip in the EPCOT Experience. From the clip, it sounds like Xandarians have come from their planet to ours to create the first other-world showcase pavilion in EPCOT. The presenter is interrupted by Rocket Racoon, but comes back briefly at the end saying “now you know the secret of the universe.”

Not many updates have been released on the ride lately. Most recently, we got an update from the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, James Gunn, who confirmed that scenes for the ride still needed to be filmed.

Additionally, we have seen the debut of a WALKING, life-size Baby Groot being worked on. At this time, we don’t know if that is something we can expect for this ride, for Avengers Campus in Disneyland, or another project altogether!

All that being said, while Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind could open for Disney World’s 50th anniversary on October 1st, it’s also a definite possibility that we won’t see the new coaster open until 2022. We’ll continue to keep you updated as things develop, so stay tuned to AllEars for the latest!

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Which EPCOT project are you most excited to experience? Let us know in the comments!