Villains Land construction update at Magic Kingdom | March 2026
Villains Land construction is underway at Magic Kingdom as Imagineers expand the theme park, as seen below in aerial photography by bioreconstruct.
Villains Land will be located in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., specifically “beyond Big Thunder Mountain,” as execs teased.
Disney has not yet revealed which types of attractions will be found in Villains Land, but concept art depicts what appears to be a roller coaster track. Also to be determined is the roster of bad guys who will star in the land’s attractions. The concept art reveals is Maleficent in dragon form, but no one else.
Artwork courtesy of Disney
March 2026: Site prep on a smooth surface
It’s been a while since our last update, and while there’s not many new developments on this side of the construction site, the land has been fully leveled, so site prep has begun.
Work continues on the plot of land/clearing behind The Haunted Mansion queue, with a big dirt pile forming near the top center of the image below. Pipes are being staged in between these points.
One tree remains on the site of Villains Land before it may be moved to join the family of former Rivers of America trees just off to the left. It’s theorized that these might be placed in Piston Peak.
Piston Peak has been seeing a lot of progress, so it’s only a matter of time before Villains Land starts moving at the same pace.
January 2026: Property behind Haunted Mansion cleared
Some might see piles of dirt, but we see a clean slate. The future site of the land of Disney Villains at the Magic Kingdom is ready for all the work to come.
The land’s construction footprint extends behind Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and all the way to behind Haunted Mansion and “it’s a small world.” The portion behind small world is still being cleared and prepped.
A lot of the trees that existed on the site have been removed and replaced with massive piles of dirt. It’s dirt right now, but in a few years it might just be the best part of Magic Kingdom!
The rest of the plot (south of Villains Land) will be used for Piston Peak National Park, a new area with attractions based on the Disney/Pixar “Cars” franchise.
November 2025: Tom Sawyer Island cleared
The footprint Villains Land will take up can now be seen, altering the shape of Magic Kingdom as trees have been fully cleared for the expansion’s site prep.
Fort Langhorn, a hideout on the former Tom Sawyer’s Island, has been full demolished. This blurs the imaginary land between where the Rivers of America ended and where the expansion pad for Villains Land started, joining the two plots together.
Tom Sawyer Island was a massive obstacle in the way for both the Piston Peak and Villains Land projects. With this out of the way, the coming months will likely see lots of infrastructure installation, as well as site prep for the foundation of the future home of the Disney Villains.
Out with the old in with the new. Fort Langhorn is nothing but a memory now. The Rivers of America is completely dried up, leaving behind the faint trail the riverboat once sailed along. Some trees are still yet to be cleared, possibly being left behind to draw a temporary line between Piston Peak and Villains Land.
September 2025: Trees cleared, trailers onsite
As seen below in aerial photography by bioreconstruct, construction continues in earnest for Villains Land at Magic Kingdom.
Construction crews continue to clear trees in the forested area north of Magic Kingdom’s previous berm.
Trailers are also now onsite (top of photo below), assumedly to accommodate a staging area for what will be a multi-year-long construction project.
Zooming out, you can get your bearings for where Villains Land will be positioned in relation to the rest of Magic Kingdom.
Nearby, the Rivers of America is drained and Tom Sawyer Island remains in tact (though not for long) as Disney preps this area for the construction of another huge project, a “Cars”-themed locale called Piston Peak.
See the photos below to compare the September progress from that of one month ago in August.
August 2025: Construction begins
Following the July 2025 permanent closure of Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America, Disney soon got to work clearing nearby land.
The below aerial view of the entire Magic Kingdom puts into perspective the size of Villains Land (top left corner) in comparison to the rest of the park.
bioreconstruct speculates an additional parcel of land nearby backstage will be used as a staging area for the various ongoing construction projects nearby: Villains Land, “Cars,” and the refurbishment of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (reopening in 2026).
July 2025: Before construction
Here’s what the area looked like just prior to Villains Land construction, with the Rivers of America still filled with water and the nearby trees still in place.
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