Disney Showed Off Early Testing For Disneyland’s New IRON MAN Attraction, and It Reminds Fans of Epic Universe Ride
Disneyland recently dropped something pretty cool, and if you’re a theme park geek like I am, it’s hard not to get excited. The park just released early testing footage for its upcoming Marvel attraction Stark Flight Lab, and fans are comparing is to an attraction at Epic Universe.
For context, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is known for scrambling stomachs, and Universal staff have never exactly hidden that fact. Epic Universe then announced another attraction using a KUKA arm system, with Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experience and fans loved it.
Now Disneyland seems to be playing in that same space.
The newly released video gives us our first behind-the-scenes look at actual human testing for Stark Flight Lab. We’ve known for over a year that Robert Downey Jr. would be involved as Tony Stark, but this is the first real glimpse of how the ride system itself works.
Watching those robotic arms in motion, it’s hard not to see the similarities to Monsters Unchained. The controlled swinging and the overall motion profile all look familiar.
The comments section on a Disney Food Blog post lit up almost immediately, with fans drawing direct comparisons to Universal’s rides.
“Looks like Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride at Universal Studios…?”
“Hopefully doesn’t make me as sick lol. Monsters Unchained at least didn’t make me as sick as FJ. 🙏🏻”
“This reminds me of Monsters Unchained at Epic Universe! Which is a great ride! Would love to see something similar at Disney!”
At the same time, a lot of fans were quick to point out some key differences. Unlike Monsters Unchained, which uses group ride vehicles, Stark Flight Lab appears to feature single-rider robotic arms.
That lines up with early concept art showing guests seated in individual gyrokinetic pods, though those same renderings suggested two riders per arm.
“The concept renderings show the arms are completely stationary and your seat/vehicle moves around a little track to where the arm picks you up, swings you around, and put you back on the track.”
“It’s the same kind of arm system, but it’ll be interesting to see how it’s used for this ride because I believe it’s being put on a roller coaster type track for more thrill.”
“So it’s Monster’s Unchained and Harry Potter for one person??”
“Everyone saying that this looks like the universal rides, no it doesn’t because this is literally the entire ride, there’s no set and no screens. It’s just swinging around on this that’s the whole ride.”
We still don’t really know how much physical theming, show scenes, or environmental storytelling Stark Flight Lab will lean on. If there’s one thing Disneyland consistently nails, it’s immersion, and I’d be shocked if this attraction didn’t feel completely different from Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey or Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experience once it’s finished.
What we do know is that the ride will place guests inside Tony Stark’s testing facility, transferring riders from the robotic arm to a track as part of the experience. It’ll live in Disney California Adventure’s Avengers Campus. Disneyland hasn’t locked in an official opening date yet.
It’ll be interesting to see what this ride ends up being when it completely finished.