Walt Disney World has given us all backstage passes (wait a minute…I love that idea) for a sneak peek at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets. This includes brand-new concept art, backstory about the reimagined ride, and details about how the Muppets are going to take over G-Force Records and fit into the pre-show and show scenes vacated by Aerosmith.
Earlier this summer, MuppetVision 3D and more closed to make way for Monstropolis. Walls are now up around Muppets Courtyard, and work has already started in the area, with the long-shuttered Stage 1 Company Store already demolished. Themed elements and props have also been removed, as Imagineering works to transform the area to the Monsters, Inc. land.
When announcing the closure of Muppets Courtyard, Walt Disney World revealed that Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and more of their friends will be moving right along to Sunset Boulevard. The Muppets will be taking over Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, teaming up with some of music’s biggest stars for a rockin’ music festival. With today’s update, those moves earlier this summer make a bit more sense.
The Electric Mayhem are headlining their biggest Hollywood concert ever! Anyone who’s anyone is in attendance to witness Animal, Dr. Teeth, and the rest of this groove-tastic group rock the house down. There’s just one little problem: the band is nowhere to be found.
Across town at G-Force Records, we’re treated to a VIP tour of the legendary rock and roll recording studio. Things might look a little different around this Hollywood institution, as the label has recently come under new management – The Muppets!
The colorful crew has landed some new digs, with just a little help from Scooter’s uncle, real estate tycoon and owner of the Muppet Theatre, J.P. Grosse (he puts the G in G-Force). Just wait until you see how they’ve made these hallowed halls their own, creating the perfect place to make sweet, sweet Muppet music together!
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Courtyard
For fans of that big guitar (for now the only comically large icon in DHS…until the Sorcerer Hat makes its triumphant return to the Magic of Disney Animation), you’ll be stoked to know that the newest residents of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster are putting their own spin on that ruby red paint job.
A vibrant and psychedelic new design will grace the bottom of the guitar (inspired by a classic Muppet car paint job); the piano motif at the base will feature a golden key as a nod to Dr. Teeth. Otherwise, it looks like the courtyard is mostly unchanged, as is the actual facade of the building.
This was to be expected, as previously-filed construction permits indicated that the guitar was being repainted. It wouldn’t have made sense to repaint it so close to closure…or to repaint it and then remove the guitar. But stranger things have happened, and one hand doesn’t always know what the other is doing.
Welcome to the Studio
With your VIP passes, you’ll be welcomed inside the recording studio, where you’ll find the Electric Mayhem are cranking out some seriously rocking tunes. Along with the finest audio engineers (all penguins, of course) we’ll see Scooter doing his best to convince Electric Mayhem to stop jamming and get to their increasingly restless fans. But will it be enough to get the band across town and onstage in time?
As is probably pretty obvious, this pre-show occupies the exact same space as the current Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. It even uses the same style, with the Electric Mayhem Band on the other side of the recording studio “glass” via a large screen. Also appearing on separate screens flanking the main one are Kermit and Miss Piggy.
What’s less obvious is that Scooter and the penguin audio engineers are Audio Animatronics! This is a huge win for an attraction that we previously expected to be an efficient and inexpensive project–a “no dough” reimagining that was a passion project for Imagineers, as opposed to a well-funded one.
While Walt Disney World hasn’t confirmed that the latter are being repurposed from MuppetVision, that seems somewhat obvious. They’re not exactly core characters that would warrant inclusion but for the assets already existing in MuppetVision.
This isn’t criticism in any way, shape or form. We’re really, really pleasantly surprised by this. Penguins as audio engineers is humorous–just like penguins as an orchestra. And it’s a nice nod to MuppetVision.
It also could help explain why MuppetVision closed when it did. If Imagineering is starting off-site prepwork on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster right now, it’s possible that they need the Audio Animatronics and other assets to begin the repurposing process now.
I’m not saying this is absolutely the case, but the more we see recycled from MV3D, the better I’ll feel about losing the show roughly a year before it seemingly needed to close for the sake of Monstropolis construction. (Because, again, the roller coaster is going to take a lot longer to build than the existing courtyard will to reimagine.)
Some fans might view this negatively, as a final nail in the coffin for a comeback of MuppetVision. We’d caution against this line of thinking. For one thing, it was always unlikely that MV3D would ever return to the parks.
For another, reusing some MuppetVision assets doesn’t preclude the show’s return. Personally, I wouldn’t complain if the orchestra was short a couple of penguins. Not only that, but there’s the reality that this is the second MuppetVision to close, and some of the DCA assets probably got archived.
Our perspective is that the more ambitious the reimagining of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets, the more likely it is to stick around for the long haul. And in turn, that increases the likelihood of Muppets Courtyard 2.0 once Villains Unfairly Ever After ends. I still don’t think this scenario is more likely than not to happen, but it’s now more likely (in my mind) than it was yesterday.
A Rock ‘n’ Roll Road Trip
With the help from our friends at Muppet Labs and a very fast limousine, we’ll take a twisting, turning, and screamingly fun road trip across Hollywood to reach the concert in time. The iconic scenery and landmarks of Tinseltown will feature a Muppet twist.
And throughout the journey, you’ll hear the Electric Mayhem playing some of the most iconic, rockin’ hits in your ears to keep the music and adrenaline pumping. Walt Disney World also teased that G-Force Records could release a concert setlist soon.
There are also a couple details here that are notable to me, the first of which is that Electric Mayhem is going to be performing the music played on the ride. Note that it says “the” rockin’ hits as opposed to “their” rockin’ hits, suggesting Electric Mayhem will play covers of hits.
I’m surprised by this, but not the covers part. Some fans believed this meant “Rainbow Connection” on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, but my expectation was always that the on-ride portion was pretty much where the Muppets portion of the attraction ended. That they’d be used as a framing device for the queue and pre-show, but then there’d be a “story excuse” to play a different band or mainstream hits.
I’m very happy to be wrong about that! Again, this demonstrates that Disney is all-in on the concept and investing more money than previously thought on the reimagining. I just hope it doesn’t backfire.
One of the great strengths of Cosmic Rewind is its crowd-pleasing music. I worry that the Muppets don’t have the fanbase to support a regular roller coaster and won’t resonate with the general public. On the other hand, the average guest may not care one way or the other–the thrills are enough for them.
It’s also interesting that the scenery of Tinseltown will feature a Muppet twist. I’d imagine this means that a lot of the existing visuals will be repurposed, which was precisely what we expected, but that there will be Muppet visual gags added to the landmarks. I wouldn’t expect the cut-out style of the scenery to change (after all, we’ll style be zooming around in a very fast limo in the dark), but it would be fantastic if there’s more to see along the way.
With all of these new details, it’s worth revisiting the question of just how long the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster reimagining will take. Test Track was about one year. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be at least that long. DINOSAUR’s conversion into Indiana Jones Adventure will (hopefully) take at least 18 months.
If RnRC’s reimagining is comparable, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith would need to close ASAP in 2026 to accommodate. We might be talking a January closing just to have a chance at a November 2026 opening. Even with these promising new updates, we suspect the RnRC reimagining won’t take that long.
The roller coaster track and layout are almost certainly going to remain unchanged inside the current gravity building, and changes to any of that is what would balloon the timeline of this project. It’s probably not getting a new facade or any structural changes to the exterior.
Given the concept art, we know the ride vehicles are not changing (aside from cosmetically). It’s also likely that the load area, launch, and unload will likely stay the same. From what’s been revealed, Imagineering has created story contrivances that offer considerable overlap with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.
Being a roller coaster in the dark with minimal props, there’s probably a decent amount of prepwork that could be done after hours while Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith is still operational without guests noticing. It’s also entirely possible that the “Muppet twist” to the props really just means tacking on Muppetized (if that’s not a real word, it should be) visuals to the existing flats. Or creating new ones that go in the same spots and using the same infrastructure for the install.
The trickier and time-consuming changes will happen in the queue and pre-show. There are at least three Audio Animatronics being added to the pre-show, and that’s not simply a matter of plopping down figures. There’s all kinds of electrical and other work that needs to be done to prep the space (just look at how long the Hatbox Ghost installation took). We’d also expect modern new screens in the pre-show and plenty of other changes.
With all of that said, it’s our understanding that Disney has had contingency plans in place for years that would allow for the overnight removal of all references to Aerosmith. That Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster could continue operating, without closure, in the event of an Aerosmith scandal that required Disney to distance itself from the band immediately.
This tangent is relevant because that same contingency plan could allow for a reimagining with minimal downtime. It’s entirely possible that Imagineering could wall-off the pre-show to accomplish at least a portion of what will be the biggest and presumably most time-consuming changes to the attraction while it’s still operational. This is because, unlike many other attractions, the non-skippable safety spiel is not during the pre-show.
With the doors open on that pre-show room allowing for guests to pass through, this theoretically opens the door for the Muppets Mayhem takeover to come to life with less downtime than would otherwise be required. At this point, we know enough to reasonably believe this won’t be an overnight switchover. But there’s a lot of work that could happen overnight while the ride is still running if that’s what Walt Disney World wanted to do. This is how the Jungle Cruise reimagining was conducted post-COVID, for reference.
My bet is that this ends up being somewhere in between, and the reimagining into Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets takes at least 6 months. Again, my perspective is pretty much: the longer, the better.
Maybe it’s not just Audio Animatronics in the pre-show, maybe the next big surprise reveal will be Statler and Waldorf at the finale (or launch!). I’d love nothing more than for this ride to make fairly ambitious changes to the queue, pre-show, and post-show. If it somehow takes a full 12 months, that is absolutely phenomenal in my book.
Not only does it mean that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets will be a better attraction, but it increases the likelihood that the thrill ride will stick around for at least a decade, perhaps more. The longer the closure and the more money spent, the longer Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets sticks around.
My sincere hope is that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith closes on January 5, 2026 and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets opens on December 11, 2026. That would be the absolute best-case scenario based on what we now know. That’s what I wrote before, while also saying that I highly doubted it’d be that lengthy of a project. I still doubt it’ll take that long, but minus the “highly” part.
A reasonable middle-of-the-road timeline would be closing the current version after Spring Break season (mid-April 2026) and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets debuting between Fall Break and Veterans Day 2026. A timeline in this ballpark makes sense, and also might mean that both the reimagined Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and reimagined Animation Courtyard could debut at or around the same time.
Another very real possibility is that the closure and opening occur seemingly at random. This has been occurring more and more with Walt Disney World closures and openings. It’s also possible that timelines are dictated by when Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run goes down–if it goes down. Or even by routine refurbishments. There are a lot of moving pieces, and DHS has to be careful with timing (not the extreme extent as Animal Kingdom, but more so than Magic Kingdom).
Unless they really work hard to keep the ride operational even as work is being done to the exterior, pre-show and ride portion of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, I just don’t see this reimagining being much shorter than 6 months. Perhaps it’s still wishful thinking on my part, but I now fully expect Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster to be closed for more of 2026 than it’s open. Probably sounds odd to hope for more downtime of a headliner, but I’m playing the long-game on a Muppetized ride I want to enjoy for the next decade-plus.
As always, the biggest saving grace for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets is that there are hardcore Muppets fans in Walt Disney Imagineering. We pointed out previously that this means they’ll fight for a healthy budget, reasonably long reimagining, reusing elements from MuppetVision that would otherwise be discarded, and having as much unique Muppets humor as possible.
This being a passion project is a very good thing, even if it’s accomplished on a tight budget (that’s how we got PizzeRizzo). It now appears as if at least some of this is accurate, so kudos to the WDI project team. I can’t wait to see how they pull off this ride reimagining, even if it’ll never fully replace MuppetVision. Then again, maybe it won’t have to…if they do such a good job that this leads to a future Muppets Courtyard in this area!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Does this new reveal have you more excited for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets? Happy to see it’ll have Audio Animatronics and other changes to the exterior, queue, pre-show, and ride-through? Predictions on closing and opening dates? Think this will be a short reimagining or a lengthy one? Are you upset about the Muppets replacing Aerosmith, Monsters replacing MuppetVision, or both? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!