Disney Legend Joe Rohde tells EW how James Cameron’s “Avatar” films took over at Disney World in a spot initially meant to be dedicated to fantasy creatures.

Disney Imagineer explains why Animal Kingdom’s Beastly Kingdom area never opened: ‘4 versions’ existed before Avatar

Disney Legend Joe Rohde tells EW how James Cameron’s “Avatar” films took over at Disney World in a spot initially meant to be dedicated to fantasy creatures.

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August 20, 2026 5:19 p.m. ET

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‘Avatar’; Disney World’s Animal Kingdom; unicorns in ‘Fantasia’. Credit:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Kent Phillips/Disney; Disney

- Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde tells ** that “four versions” of Disney World’s long-rumored Beastly Kingdom existed before an *Avatar* land took its place at Animal Kingdom.

- The Animal Kingdom expansion would’ve been themed to fantasy creatures from *Fantasia* and more, and leaked concept art exists online.

- Rohde, who retired from Disney in 2021, called the park’s plans “a radical new idea” at the time.

Before Disney World opened its popular *Avatar*-inspired attractions in 2017, a land themed to mythical creatures was long planned to open on its current site inside the resort’s Animal Kingdom theme park. Now, in an exclusive interview with **, former Disney Imagineer and creative lead behind the animal-themed park Joe Rohde explains why the Beastly Kingdom expansion never opened at Animal Kingdom after all, and teases what it would’ve included if it had opened on the plot of land now occupied by his Pandora — The World of *Avatar** *land*.*

Before it opened in 1998 under his creative direction, Rohde, who retired from Disney Imagineering in 2021, confirms to EW at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event that Animal Kingdom was initially planned to have areas themed to creatures of the present (from Africa, Asia, and other global sectors), the past (dinosaurs, via the now-closed Dinoland, U.S.A. section), and the imagination. Evidence of this can be seen via a dragon statue looming above the park’s entrance gate, as well as a parking area named after a unicorn — both of which were intended to replicate theming that would eventually open as part of the canceled Beastly Kingdom expansion.

The *Floating Mountains* (out Sept. 8) author notes that Beastly Kingdom was heavily under consideration to open at Animal Kingdom, and that “there are four versions” of the area “between [the version in leaked concept art] and the one we decided [to nix for] Pandora.”

“Even though it sounds like there was a whole design there, the moment at which we made the decision that it wasn’t going to happen was right around the moment where we’re selling the idea of the park to [former Disney CEO, Michael] Eisner,” Rohde explains.

As he outlines in his new *Floating Mountains* book, part of that pitching process involved secretly bringing a large tiger into a boardroom with a terrified Eisner and other Disney executives, in a surprise move to prove to the skeptical team that animals were prime subjects for Disney’s next theme park. But, Rohde’s team also wanted to wow Disney guests with fantastical creatures from imagined realms, too.

Rohde recalls that “had we built the whole park, what was on the boards to be built would’ve been [sections themed to] Africa, Asia, Beastly Kingdom, Dinoland, all this stuff,” and that “for phasing — because, remember, this was a radical new idea, never been seen before. No one had built this [animal] theme park — basically, Eisner is the guy who said we can’t do all of this at once.”

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He says the decision was made to go build park sections based on Africa, Asia, and other lush environmental regions because they fit in with classical ideas of animal safaris, as one of the park’s opening-day attractions is the (still operational) Kilimanjaro Safaris car ride through animal habitats, and of course, Dinoland, U.S.A.

“Let’s do the famous things,” Rohde summarizes of Eisner’s alleged directive, paraphrasing the CEO when he adds: “We’ve got to have a hub in the middle, and we’ll do the dinosaurs because we’ve got the *Dinosaur* movie coming out, everybody loves dinosaurs!”

The plan then became, Rohde recalls, to open Beastly Kingdom and other areas “in phases” after opening day, and that a temporary land with more generic character-based theming called Camp Minnie-Mickey was erected as a placeholder in the southwest corner of the park.

‘Avatar’; Avatar: Flight of Passage ride at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom.

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Disney

“Concepts are developed in real time by real people in a constant relationship to the outside world and what’s happening in the world. No matter what the idea was for Beastly Kingdom, if you don’t choose to do it in that moment, by the time you re-choose to do it, it’s another one, and another one,” Rohde explains of the ever-changing plans proposed for the temporary Camp Minnie-Mickey site, which ultimately closed in 2014 to make way for Pandora — The World of *Avatar*, which Rohde worked on with late producer Jon Landau and director James Cameron.

* *has reached out to Eisner for comment.

Since the Na’vi are technically a fantastical creature as well, they also fulfilled Animal Kingdom’s founding vision to represent critters living, extinct, and imagined — and even represent a “more relevant type of mythology” in that the story revolves around “an eco-myth” that made more sense to him and his team than the “classic myth” of rides and attractions themed to things like unicorns, dragons, and more.

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“There were other things as well,” Rohde teases, admitting that he once proposed putting his own version of a Tropical Americas land (currently under construction at Animal Kingdom atop the site of the former Dinoland, U.S.A. area) near Camp Minnie-Mickey. “There are so many things you could imagine doing with Animal Kingdom, and they’re all going on in the background,” he adds, but notes that all projects are born out of “a need, an opportunity, and available money,” but “if you don’t do it this time, they all fall out of phase like a combination lock, and it might not” align for an opportunity ever again.

Elsewhere at this year’s D23, Disney revealed multiple plans for its upcoming theme park projects, including more about the aforementioned Tropical Americas section that’s set to open with three rides: Two new attractions (including an animal-themed carousel and the *Encanto*-adjacent Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto indoor ride) and a revamp of the Dinosaur ride. The new version will welcome back Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, who will take guests on a journey through Mayan ruins while they face the threat of a large snake in the new Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent attraction.

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Source: “EW Disney”