Six Flags has found Kryptonite - and it's taken down Superman.
Six Flags Magic Mountain leadership confirmed this morning that it will not reopen its Superman: Escape from Krypton roller coaster. The once-record-setting Intamin roller coaster has not been operating since September last year.
Superman: Escape from Krypton opened in March 1997 as the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster. Granted, it was a more of a drag race experience than a twisty IndyCar course, with a straight up and down ride on an L-shaped track.
But what a ride it was. Superman blasted from its station to a top speed of 100 mph. That speed pushed riders more than 300 feet in the air, rising almost to the top of the 415-foot coaster tower.
In 2011, Six Flags reverse the ride, blasting cars backward from the station so that riders could experience a face-down fall back to Earth.
Six Flags Magic Mountain President Jeff Harris cited repair and maintenance costs for this unique coaster as reasons for shuttering the ride.
"It’s just reached a point in time where we need to make a wise decision on where we really should reinvest funds that improve the guest experience the most," Harris told the Orange County Register. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense from a business perspective to put it back into Superman."
Harris said that the park has yet to decide what to do with the queue, station and launch track from Superman. However, the Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom drop ride attached to Superman's coaster tower will continue to operate. That ride is scheduled to reopen next month.
The former Cedar Fair and Six Flags theme parks last year merged under the Six Flags brand name, but with much of the old Cedar Fair leadership. The new Six Flags has been closing aging coasters across the chain, including another former record-holder, Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
Local coasters fans will not need to wait long for a replacement, however. Next to Superman, Six Flags Magic Mountain has been working on its "first-of-its-kind coaster in North America" coaster for next year. Planning applications have revealed that to be a thrill glide coaster from Vekoma.
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Actually, after talking to an employee, I was told that kumba is going under a refurbishment for another four months by now. Whether this goes through is up to interpretation.
still kicking myself that i opted not to ride it last time i was there. have never gotten the credit. at least i had the excuse that kingda ka was closed but i just opted out of superman...ugh, regret!!
This sounds like what happened at Dreamworld Australia with Tower Of Terror. Tower of Terror was apparently too expensive to run with the electricity needs and maintenance needs, leaving a tower with abandoned track and a drop tower (Giant Drop) remaining in operation.
Got blessed by being able to ride this on my previous visit to SFMM, with it being on one of the few days it was operational last year. While I always had a soft spot for the ride, it falls short on a lot of levels.
To start, the last time I personally saw them run both sides was back 2016. It was a capacity nightmare with wait times of around an hour with not many people in the queue. Second, the AC must’ve been broken for a while because everytime I waited in line I was covered in sweat. The queue itself was quite good (for six flags) but it didn’t matter if all the Guests were uncomfortable. Finally, the coaster was one of the biggest “gimmick” coasters. Seeing it while walking in the park makes it look awesome but so many of my friends came off of it disappointed. Too short and only really one element.
I will however really miss the coaster. You’d always know Superman was open because you could hear it from anywhere in the park. I wonder if they’ll demo the entire thing or just leave the spike track standing for Lex Luthor. I’d hope they do because Lex is the only remaining drop tower of its kind in the country, it would make the sight line of the park less cool with having a 400ft tall spike gone, and it would keep some more capacity in the park.
Here’s to hoping Samurai Summit gets its long rumored major update. Now all we have to do is wait for the news of another coaster closure: Ninja.
Superman last operated Labor Day weekend, and since then no visible work has been seen at the ride. I'm not at all surprised the ride has been retired, but am surprised they waited this long to confirm that decision. It was reportedly the most expensive attraction to operate at the park and just wasn't all that popular with guests anymore. The rumor I've heard is they'll be cutting the track at the base of the tower and leaving that section in place so Lex Luthor can continue to operate, then tearing out the rest as part of a Samurai Summit revitalization coming in the future (timeline unknown, but if you want to make sure to ride Ninja, get there before the end of Fright Fest this year).
I agree with the decision to close this ride and reinvest in park improvements, rather than keep dumping money into the maintenance and operations of this ride that frankly isn't very good. Especially with them getting another new launched coaster next year.
I am not a fan of leaving their tallest coaster SBNO, however. One of the worst aspects of this park is that it feels dead. The place has no vibe and leaving their tallest coaster SBNO just makes it feel that more depressing. The fact that Sky Tower and Superman have been on SBNO on and off again constantly for the last 30 years is a major L for this park. When you drive by it and those are the two biggest rides in the skyline and you know both of them are just sitting there with no riders it just screams "this place is trash," especially if you are going to the park and those two rides are the first thing you see and you go "woah" just to realize they are just lawn ornaments.
So I wish they would just take it out rather than leaving the tower there with the [very noticeable] coaster track.
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Another major attraction closure from Six Flags under the cloak of secrecy. There were some rumblings that this coaster was perhaps getting the axe, but there were rumors that anticipated replacement parts were spotted in the parking lot earlier this year. Considering that Lex Luthor Drop of Doom is attached to Superman, I would probably anticipate the drop ride to eventually meet a similar fate just as Zumanjaro was axed when Kingda Ka was felled - there's little reason to maintain the tower if the coaster is no longer running, so get your rides in while you still can, because you are on notice that SF won't give fans a head's up.
I just don't understand why Six Flags seemingly has so much disdain for their biggest fans who would have turned out in droves if they had announced this closure a couple of weeks before a scheduled final day of operation.
In other Six Flags news, Kings Dominion just announced that Pantherian won't be open until "later this summer", which is a bit shocking seeing as all of the track/support repainting work appeared complete and just minor retheming activities were being finished during the Rapterra Media Event. Park staff provided no indication during the Media Event that Pantherian would not be available on the Opening Day of the season. The announcement of Pantherian's delayed debut was dropped mere hours before Kings Dominion opens for the season.
And so as to not seem like I'm piling on Six Flags, BGT appears to be doing a similar thing with Kumba, which hasn't reportedly run at all in 2025 and was recently spotted with a walled-off entrance pathway. It seems like the coaster that put B&M on the map couldn't even get the Scorpion treatment, and will instead be put to rest in the same manner as many of the recent Six Flags closures from the past 6-8 months - I guess it's a good thing I got some rides in the last time we were in the park last summer.
Finally, just to put a nice shiny bow on this, the number of roller coasters that go 100+ MPH has been cut in half in just the last 12 months. Do-Dodonpa (March 2024, though the coaster hadn't operated since 2021), Kingda,Ka (November 2024), and now Superman, though Falcon's Flight will bring the 100+ club up to 4 when it opens later this year, assuming TT2 actually reopens at Cedar Point in 2025.