Disney Reveals Why Fantasmic! Has Taken So Long to Return

Every Disney Guest wants to finally go back into Mickey’s imagination and experience the tear-jerker that is Fantasmic!

It’s one of Disney’s most beloved shows, featuring characters like Mickey Mouse, Maleficent, Pocahontas, Tinker Bell, and more, but Fantasmic! has been missing from Disney’s theme parks ever since they reopened following pandemic closures back in 2020.

We finally have a return date for Disneyland’s version of Fantasmic!, with no sign yet of Walt Disney World’s Fantasmic! return.

But what has taken the nighttime show so long to come back to Disney’s Parks? The Parks reopened back in 2020, and even though we’ve seen fireworks and parades return, we’re yet to see Fantasmic! Well, now, we finally have an answer.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios arena has been seeing some changes lately, including the Fantasmic! lagoon bein drained for over a year while major refurbishments happened during its pandemic closure.

While the moat surrounding the stage area was drained, Walt Disney World maintenance teams updated the rigging and technology. Recently shared aerial photos of the Fantasmic! area at Disney’s Hollywood Studios showed that the moat had been refilled.

The beloved nighttime spectacular Fantasmic! will return with new sequences, characters, and magic after a long closure during the pandemic, with the show set to return on May 28, 2022 at Disneyland Park.

In a recent interview in the OC Register, Disneyland President Ken Potrock talked about change, momentum, and the new normal at Disney theme parks, and revealed why Fantasmic! has taken so long to return:

It just took longer to do. We were literally installing towers as of earlier this week. It’s just a much more intricate, complex mechanical endeavor.

The teams have been working extraordinarily hard. Part of it was the fact that parts and workmanship at a lot of places that were happening off property were slowed by COVID. That all fit into the production.

It seems the main reason, as with a lot of things lately, was COVID-19, with the pandemic affecting supply chain issues and materials.

We’ve already seen how small things like merchandise have been affected by supply chain and sourcing, so it only seems right that the refurb of Fantasmic! was also affected.

The new TRON Lightcycle roller coaster at Magic Kingdom has also been affected by labor shortages and COVID issues, now taking longer than the Florida theme park itself to be contructed.

Fantasmic! opened in Walt Disney World in 1998, after originating at Disneyland in 1992. The nighttime show was also previously at Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort. It features fireworks, characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, and mist screen projections.

When the show returns to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World, new characters will be joining Mickey in his imagination. The show will see new scenes from Moana (2016), Frozen (2013), and Aladdin (1992).

In other exciting news, on April 22, 2022, the Main Street Electrical Parade and Disneyland Forever fireworks will return to Disneyland Park. And over at Disney California Adventure Park, World of Color will make its big return!

Disney has also recently announced the return of the Festival of Fantasy parade at Magic Kingdom, following the debut of Disney Enchantment at Magic Kingdom and Harmonious at EPCOT.