Shanghai Disneyland Resort looks set to open another park by 2031. (Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Future Publishing via Getty Images

It has emerged that Disney is understood to be developing a new theme park as this author reported last week.

The park is expected to be located next to Shanghai Disneyland which celebrates its tenth anniversary today. Ahead of its anniversary, the resort hosted an event yesterday where it announced that it has installed the final piece of the roller coaster track for the centerpiece attraction in its upcoming Spider-Man land. It added that its third on-site hotel will be called the Disney Enchanted Star and a fourth property is on the way. Its Disneytown dining and entertainment district will also be extended though the second park was not announced at the event.

I was invited to the media festivities but was unable to attend due to lengthy processing timelines for travel documentation. However, the reports from the event have shone a spotlight on the expansion plan outlined in my report last week. Robert Niles, eminent editor of industry title Theme Park Insider, confirmed that after "speaking privately with insiders" at the event, "a second gate in Shanghai is happening."

Reflecting this, independent Disney site WDWNT noted that executives from China's state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group, which is the majority shareholder in the resort, "indicated an initiative to make Shanghai Disney Resort and the surrounding resort district a multi-day vacation destination over the next few years with as-of-now undefined projects. This certainly hints at the second park."

As this author reported last week, adding more hotel rooms suggests that the resort is preparing for a lot more visitors. This corroborated the news that there is a plan to build a second park in Shanghai. WDWNT concurred and said "we think there is." The big question is when will Disney make it official and when will it open?

Last week's report noted that the announcement could come as soon as the tenth anniversary event but an even more logical opportunity is on the horizon. WDWNT pointed out that Shanghai Disney will probably want to complete the work on its new hotels and the new land before construction gets underway on a second park. This is in line with comments from Jim Shull, a former designer in Disney's Imagineering division, which is named after its imaginative approach to engineering.

Shull is one of the most talented artists to have worked on Shanghai Disney and now hosts the Disney Journey YouTube channel. He forecast that "likely a second park is coming to Shanghai Disneyland to open around the 15th anniversary". Following yesterday’s event he added that Disney's upcoming biennial D23 bash in August "would be the perfect place to make the announcement".

Forecasting the content of the park isn't so straightforward. Initially thought to be science-themed, it is now said that the park will instead feature immersive lands based on local favorite films and franchises such as Avatar, Marvel and Moana. A third option has also come to light and this one would open up a whole new world for the resort.

It comes from Imagineering's former president Bob Weis. He revealed in his book, Dream Chasing: My Four Decades of Success and Failure with Walt Disney Imagineering, that a concept for a second theme park was devised in the early stages of developing Shanghai Disney.

He described the second park as "a compliment to the first, and an exponential expansion of the resort. The team presented a highly creative, new kind of park...with elements of nature, culture, and the arts." According to Weis, this design concept received an extremely rare standing ovation from internal evaluators and Disney executives.

He added that the company ultimately deemed the project to be too premature but as the Imagineers often say, good ideas never die. Projects may get canceled or shelved but the best ideas behind them are never truly thrown away. After more than a decade in the archives it may finally be time for the Imagineers to dust off the plans for the Shanghai's second park.