Back at D23 2017, Disney announced that a new theater was going to be built at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom located just off of Main Street. With accounts coming in that the beginning stages of development were finally underway in the proposed area, WDWMagic.com now reports that the project may have been cancelled or postponed.
Via WDWMagic.com:
Construction was about to begin, with various areas cleared backstage to allow the work to get underway behind the existing Town Square Theater and Tomorrowland, but word comes to us from sources familiar with the matter that the construction project has been cancelled with immediate effect.
They also note that it’s not clear if the project has been scrapped entirely, put on hold or potentially planned for a different location. This is a truly bizarre development considering that some fencing and equipment were reportedly already in place. Usually projects are cancelled well before they reach this stage of development.
The theater, which was going to be designed to look like the Willis Wood theater found in Kansas City in the 1920s, was supposed to be a venue capable of featuring “world-class” entertainment. That’s something that the Magic Kingdom could desperately use, particularly when it comes to capacity. The theater would have theoretically occupied thousands of guests (no set attendance estimates) and freed up needed space around the rest of the theme park.
Was a problem found in the potential area for the new theater? Was there a sudden shift in budget due to a need found elsewhere, such as Epcot? Is there a different plan being developed at Magic Kingdom? Will a new theater ever arrive at the Magic Kingdom? Sadly, these questions are currently all unanswered.
