Disneyland Announces November Opening for Marvel 'Super Hero HQ'

October 13, 2015, 10:46 AM · Spider-Man will come to the Disneyland Resort next month, with the opening of the new Marvel-themed Super Hero HQ in the old Innoventions building in Disneyland's Tomorrowland.

Disney is renaming the building the "Tomorrowland Expo Center," and it will house the new Star Wars Launch Bay exhibit in addition to the Marvel meet-and-greet location. The building formerly housed Innoventions and before that, America Sings and the Carousel of Progress.

Spider-Man will start greeting visitors in the Super Hero HQ when it opens November 16. In addition to Spider-Man, Super Hero HQ will include the Thor and Iron Man exhibits previously featured in the Innoventions building. Captain America, however, will be going away when Spider-Man debuts, though Disney said that Captain America will return to Disneyland at some point in the future.

Just to remind everyone - before the inevitable questions in the comments - although Disney owns Marvel and its characters, Universal retains the theme park rights to use the characters at Universal Orlando and Universal Studios Japan. The license for the characters in Japan expire sometime in the 2020s, but Universal holds the Orlando rights in perpetuity, which is why Disney cannot use the Marvel characters in attractions or entertainment in the Walt Disney World Resort's theme parks. Universal used to own the rights to use Marvel characters at Universal Studios Hollywood, but it let that license expire shortly before Disney bought Marvel in 2009, which is which why Disney is free to use Marvel characters in Disneyland today.

Also on November 16, Disneyland kicks off its "Season of the Force" event, which will see the opening of Star Wars Launch Bay as well as the debut of the new Star Wars-themed "Hyperspace Mountain" overlay of the Space Mountain roller coaster.

You Might Also Like:

Replies (9)

Randy Keith

October 13, 2015 at 11:48 AM · This makes me wonder what the future of Tomorrowland is. While Innoventions won't be dearly missed, it fit the original intention of the land more than any other current attraction. Tomorrowland has become the most mismatched, least immersive land of the park. Marvel only adds to that. I think the theme of the land should become more about the idea of tomorrow, instead of the actual future, or just a future that never was. Tomorrowland should inspire people to dream about tomorrow, by reminding them of the ideas about tomorrow throughout history. Get rid of all the themed rides, most are represented elsewhere, and make it about the dreams about tomorrow, and let the focus be about the innovations and ideas form the past, and encouraging people to keep dreaming about tomorrow. Hopefully Marvel will get a land at DCA, and this is just a taste of what's to come

grant crawford

October 13, 2015 at 12:00 PM · Robert, do you have that explanation about the rights to Marvel IP in theme parks saved somewhere so you can just cut and paste?

Court E

October 13, 2015 at 1:35 PM · The biggest eye sore at Disneyland. This building just needs to be razed... I can't wait till Disney finally decides to do something permanent with the Innovations location.

Anon Mouse

October 13, 2015 at 3:24 PM · People need to get over the fact that Marvel will never be in Walt Disney World. Then again, what's its excuse for not moving faster at Disneyland Resort? Everyone wants it now!!! Of course, you're talking about admission prices starting at $200. Boo hoo.

Anyways, I'm slightly disappointed Captain America isn't returning. Spiderman is popular, but the movie franchise is broken.

Kris V

October 13, 2015 at 3:51 PM · Hey if you want to see Captain America, he is probably wandering around Hollywood and Highland daily in LA proper. When I was visiting there last year I saw Iron Man and Spiderman as well (each sporting their various costumes). You don't have to pay a large sum of money to see these characters at Disneyland, you just need to keep an eye on your wallet and head down to Hollywood Boulevard. One of the Spidermen looked a little rough like he had just fought the Green Goblin and he smelled slightly of grandpa's cough syrup, but hey, it's authentic! You might even see a five foot tall Yoda!

Juan Hamilton

October 13, 2015 at 5:09 PM · I agree with Court E- The amount of space the Innoventions building takes up is big enough for an E- Ticket!

150.242.32.36

October 13, 2015 at 5:22 PM · Why wasn't Spider-Man in the park before? Was it because Sony wouldn't allow it or because Marvel didn't want to promote the Spider-Man brand because they wanted it to fail for Sony so they could get the movie rights back?
At any rate even though the Spider-Man movies were on a down trend, Spider-Man is ridiculously popular with little boys (and some girls). That will be a popular meet and greet. Putting Spider-Man in the Captain America movie will just drive up his popularity. It sounds like Disney has just resigned itself to working with Sony because Sony isn't ever going to give up the Spider-Man rights based on what they said from their hacked emails. I wonder if Disney is waiting to build a Marvel land to see if they can get back the movie rights of at least the Fantastic Four and maybe even X-Men before they design anything. FOX needs to make movies from those franchises every four years to keep them. The last F4 movie did really poorly at the box office and Marvel (comics) is trying to not promote those properties at all hoping the movies will fail. It seems like their plan is working for F4, but X-men is still doing well at the box office. Disney could save design money if they put basically the same Marvel area in Shanghai, Japan, Paris, and DL so maybe they are waiting to get closer to the date when they are free to put it into Japan.

66.87.123.115

October 14, 2015 at 3:46 AM · To all of you who feel like ranting about how Disney is using this as a cheap alternative to building actual Marvel-themed rides,

Let me remind you that we still have a certain Land taking place in a certain Galaxy Far Far Away in the works. If we really want that Land to be as good as it can possibly be, then that's where the majority of their funds need to be going right now. Besides, Hong Kong is getting an Iron Man simulator next year, so don't think that Disney will shy away from Marvel rides.

128.115.190.39

October 14, 2015 at 8:20 AM · I keep wanting Disneyland to make the Innoventions/Carousel building into a calm, cool, relaxing planetarium/sit-down restaurant. I feel we need something old-school Disney there that just inspires wonder. That sense of awe about our future potential and new frontiers always balanced out the Disneyland experience for me. Getting lost in the cosmos, expanding my mind, and having a nice meal would go a long way back to that IMHO. Cheap flavor-of-the-month meet and greets probably fill a lot of needs, but tend to add to the hubbub and keep us all stressed and focused on the short term.

Feel free to steal this idea if you're reading this, Imagineers. It's all yours. ;D

This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Disneyland Announces November Opening for Marvel 'Super Hero HQ'

Replies (9)

Industry Legends Share their Lessons at This Year's IAAPA Expo

Vacation deals

Park tickets

Subscribe by email

Subscribe by RSS

New attraction reviews

News archive