Robert Downey Jr. isn’t quite done with Tony Stark just yet.
The actor hung up the Iron Man superhero suit in Avengers: Endgame, and he is poised to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the evil Dr. Doom for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
But first, there’s a theme park ride to launch.
At D23 last year, Disney announced that the actor would reprise his role as Tony Stark for a new ride coming to Avengers Campus in Disneyland: Stark Flight Lab. On Saturday, Downey Jr. surprised a crowd of nearly 2,000 in Austin, Texas to preview a pair of upcoming Marvel-themed rides coming to Avengers Campus in Disneyland. And yes, he will be reprising his role as Tony Stark.
“It’s been 17 years of being associated of an iconic superhero, but it is the message he represents that I am grateful for,” Downey Jr. told the crowd. “Tony opened my eyes wider to the power technology has to impact the world for good and that is something I will carry with me for the rest of my days.”
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Downey Jr. was the surprise guest at the Disney panel at SXSW Saturday, fronted by Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman. The pair of execs were joined in cameo appearances by a veritable who’s who of Disney A-listers, including Marvel’s Kevin Feige, Pixar’s Pete Docter, The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau, andDisney Imagineering chief Bruce Vaughn.
The purpose? To demonstrate Disney’s prowess at taking characters from the screen and bringing them to life at the company’s theme parks and experiences around the world.
“For us, it all starts with great storytelling, and that’s beginning, the middle and the end for us with each of our brands,” says Bergman in a joint interview alongside D’Amaro with The Hollywood Reporter, conducted ahead of the panel. “And we’re fortunate because obviously we have Disney and Pixar and Marvel and Lucasfilm and Avatar. So we’re also able to, with great stories, build great worlds.”
“This goes back to Walt when he envisioned what this company ultimately was going to be,” says D’Amaro. “He had storytelling and content in the middle and all of these businesses surrounding it, such that we could stay with the consumer, wherever they were, literally in the world.”
Bergman and D’Amaro each play a pivotal role on Disney’s IP flywheel. The Disney film studios, which Bergman oversees, develop the characters and franchises and build the worlds. D’Amaro’s team, which includes Disney Imagineering, turns those characters and worlds into real tangible experiences building the emotional connection to Disney that helps define the company.
At the SXSW panel, the creatives (along with a few BDX droids, the Mandalorian and Grogu from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge) joined the chairmen on stage to explain how they work to take the characters they create for the screen and develop them for Disney’s experiences, be it a theme park land or attraction, or a cruise ship spinoff.
“Our filmmakers like Kevin Feige or Pete Docter, they’re huge, huge parks fans as well,” Bergman says. “So as they are developing the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what it has in it, or our animated titles, whether it be Pixar or Disney, Frozen and Zootopia: As they’re envisioning their films, they get the story, and then they’re able to expand the world. It’s a great extension of what we do.”
“Before even a movie is hatched, sometimes we’re having discussions about, can you imagine what this could be? And of course, then the rest of the team is going to take the lead on that,” D’Amaro adds. “From a parks and experiences standpoint, Alan and his team invite us in very early in the process, sometimes before there’s even a script. So the Imagineers will be talking to a Pete, talking to a Kevin on imagining what these spaces might look like in physical form and now in the future in digital form as well [in Disney’s upcoming Epic Games world in development].
“That’s why when you walk into a Cars land, or you walk into Star Wars: Galaxy’s edge, or a Guardians of the Galaxy, you feel the same thing that you feel when you’re in the theater watching that movie for the first time,” D’Amaro continues.
And they used the SXSW stage to unveil a number of announcements coming to Disney’s parks.
First up was a look a look at new Star Wars entries, with Mandoloian filmmaker Jon Favreau joining imagineers in introducing Austin to the BDX droids and an animatronic droidsmith that will be seen walking around the Disney parks. And Disney will bring a brand new mission to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run that is inspired by Favreau’s upcoming Star Wars feature, The Mandalorian & Grogu, a ride which will debut the same weekend as the film over Memorial Day weekend 2026.
“As much as I like going in to the park where I feel like a kid, I love seeing backstage. You realize that there is a lot of technology, but at its heart are these people who are passionate about storytelling,” said Faverau, who shouted out the SXSW film festival where his feature Chef premiered in 2014 before leaving the stage.
After Star Wars, Disney took the Austin audience to the world of Pixar, with chief creative officer Pete Docter saying that the Disney parks are frequently in the thoughts of its animators. Said Docter, “We ask ourselves: ‘Is this somewhere I want to go if they build it at Disneyland?’” Doctor’s movie Monsters Inc. is the inspiration for a new rollercoaster modeled on the film’s “door vault” sequence where characters cling to suspended closet doors. It will be Disney’s first suspended roller coaster, with animatics getting oohs and aahs from the audience. Additionally, a new ride inspired by Cars at Magic Kingdom will be a recreation of an off-road rally race filled with new “race car personalities” created by Pixar.
“The Cars franchise is so, so powerful, clearly evergreen, something that we’ve had a lot of success with in Disney California Adventure,” D’Amaro says. “So we see a great opportunity at Walt Disney World building another Cars themed area. And while technology may not be in the forefront of the consumers mind, the technology that we will use to translate what Pete and the team have created to an off road rally race is going to be phenomenal in terms of the how the car moves, how it reacts to the terrain, how it makes you feel you are out in in the wilderness, really experiencing what the cars would would experience.”
Closing out the presentation was Marvel head Kevin Feige who brought out the surprise guest, Robert Downey Jr. who elicited the biggest audience reaction of the panel.
Disney is doubling the size of the Avengers campus at the Disneyland Anaheim park. The new ride Stark Flight Lab will take guests inside Tony Stark’s technology workshop where guests will sit inside a “gyrokinetic pod” where guests will sit rolling along a track and will be picked up by lines of robotic articulating arms.
Downey, who has been working directly with Disney imagineers on the new attraction, said: “What I didn’t know was how stealth and exclusive Walt Disney Imagineering HQ was. You want to talk about a closed set? It’s the Area 51 of fun!”
They also announced that the Fantastic Four characters will appear at Tomorrowland.
Perhaps no franchise defines Disney’s approach than Pirates of the Caribbean. The franchise traces its origins to Disneyland and Walt Disney himself, before becoming a film franchise which in turn led to new elements being added to the original rides, namely Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow. The Disney flywheel in full effect.
“[Pirates is] a parks IP that goes over into the studios, and these guys make incredible content from that, and that cycle has repeated itself as well,” D’Amaro says.
“One of the greatest rides that you have at any of the parks is in Shanghai, that Pirates ride,” Bergman continued, recalling how he took Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer to preview it early on in development. “We were actually at [Imagineering] sitting in one of these little rolling chairs, looking at cardboard, no joke, really early on.”
“And you were like, ‘I hope you guys can pull this off,” D’Amaro replied.
“It blew away our expectations, it’s so amazing,” Bergman said. “Look, we’re going to be making another Pirates movie. So it’s just great. It really is great.”
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