Exclusive: Disney May Turn Avatar Land into Gungan City
ORLANDO, FLORIDA — Pandora, The World of Avatar is set to open in just a few days, but already there’s trouble brewing in the land of unobtainium. Disney is seriously questioning its investment in the 12-acre attraction after yet another delay hit the still-in-pre-pre-pre-pre-preproduction Avatar sequel.
Series creator James Cameron claims a total of four sequels are actively in development, but none of that helps Disney right now. The entertainment behemoth is stuck trying to hawk tickets to an all-but-forgotten cinematic universe without the help of additional films or tie-in merchandise. As would be expected, company brass is not taking this lightly.
Sources tell us Disney chief Bob Iger has had discussions with both Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and Bob Weiss, the head of Walt Disney Imagineering, about the possibility of nixing Pandora in favor of another Star Wars Land attraction. It appears Star Wars Celebration Orlando served as a tipping point for the executives.
During the four-day mega convention, Star Wars prequel stars Hayden Christensen and Ian McDiarmid managed to steal the show against all odds. As a result, Iger has reversed Disney’s stance on the previously reviled trilogy of films. Directly after Celebration, Iger fired off an email to Kennedy mandating that the prequels be embraced by all future canon material.
Spurred on by Avatar 2’s latest delay, which pushed its release to 2020, Weiss was directed to begin assessing the possibility of turning Pandora into something from the Star Wars universe. He quickly laid out a cost-effective plan to re-create Otoh Gunga also known as Gungan City out of the current attractions debuting at The World of Avatar.
It certainly helps that both worlds share similar color palettes as well as lovable alien species. But it’s not a done deal yet. According to our sources, Iger is giving Pandora a three-month window to prove its viability with crowds at Walt Disney World Resort. If the attraction fails to capture an audience in that time, Operation Jar Jar Drop will be greenlit. Should this come to pass, Otoh Gunga would represent the first Star Wars Land attraction to feature the world and characters made famous by the prequel films by Star Wars creator George Lucas.
Full disclosure: we’re hoping for a Jar Jar Binks statue in the center of the entire experience. Despite what jaded adult Star Wars fans may think, 12-year old kids actually enjoy the most famous Gungan of them all.
As always, keep it locked to FakingStarWars.net for updates to this and all other Star Wars news worth faking.
-William “Willybobo” Bobo
