One of the best things about theme parks is the way they let you in the world of your favorite franchises. A hit movie franchise from Disney is all but assured to lead to theme park attractions. Today, you can walk on an alien world from Star Wars at Disneyland or Walt Disney World. In Hong Kong, you can take a walk through Frozen’s Arendelle. In the next few years at Disney World, you’ll be able to enter new lands dedicated to everything from Monsters Inc. to Cars.
However, the reverse is also true. While hit movies are sure to become theme park attractions, popular theme park attractions also have the chance to become movies. While Disney arguably has only had one great success with strategy, in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, it hasn’t stopped the studio from continuing down this road. Several movies based on Disney theme park attractions are planned. At least one of them will probably be a new Pirates of the Caribbean film, another could launch a new franchise for Scarlett Johansson.
Jungle Cruise 2
Disney’s Jungle Cruise was a victim of pandemic delays that saw the film starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt pushed back a year, before getting a hybrid release in theaters and on Disney+ as a premiere access title. While that made it difficult to judge the success of the film compared to traditional methods, as the box office was clearly not back to anything close to normal, Disney was a fan of what it saw, and a Jungle Cruise sequel was greenlit shortly after the first film’s release.
A few years have gone by since then, and while it’s clear that Jungle Cruise 2 isn’t a top priority for a very busy Dwayne Johnson, there’s still every indication that this is a film both The Rock and the Mouse want to make it.
Pirates Of The Caribbean
The one clear success that Disney has had in transforming theme park attractions into films has been Pirates of the Caribbean, so it’s little surprise that a sixth movie in the franchise is planned, even if there’s a chance it may move forward without its biggest star, Johnny Depp.
There have been multiple attempts to make a Pirates of the Caribbean movie in the last few years. Margot Robbie was attached to star in one idea, which has since been shelved, though it may not be entirely dead. According to Jerry Bruckheimer, there are currently two different scripts for a new PotC movie. One of them would be a fresh start, with no Captain Jack Sparrow, while the other would include Depp’s return if Bruckheimer, who wants Depp back, can broker a peace agreement between the star and the studio.
Space Mountain
If you’re looking to make a thrilling movie out of a theme park attraction, it probably helps to start with a thrilling ride. This may be why, in October of 2020, it was reported that Disney was in the very early stages of a movie based on the classic Space Mountain roller coaster. The script was set to be written by Joby Harold, who previously produced the Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney. However, in 2024, it was revealed that the screenwriting pair Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, who most recently wrote the John Cena/Idris Elba action-comedy Heads of State, were taking on the writing duties. Harold is still on board as a producer.
As recently as the spring of 2025, co-producer Jonathan Eirich told Collider that the difficulty in adapting Space Mountain was the ride’s lack of an existing story. On the one hand, it gives a writer a completely free hand to create a story and characters, but then, how do you make a movie feel like Space Mountain?
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Margot Robbie may no longer be planning to be part of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, but that doesn’t mean she’s not going to help make a movie based on a popular Disney ride. In 2022, it was announced Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment would produce a movie based on the wildest ride in the wilderness, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The directing duo of Bert & Bertie, who have cut their teeth on prestige TV from Hawkeye to Silo to Twisted Metal, were attached to direct.
It’s been largely radio silent since the Thunder Mountain Railroad movie was originally announced, so it‘s unclear what the current state of this project is. Interestingly, the Walt Disney World version of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has been undergoing a major update itself, which includes a more detailed story than the ride had previously. While it’s unlikely that a movie project influenced this update, it’s possible that the new story might give the film project more to work with when creating its own plot and characters.
Tower Of Terror
One of the most recent additions to the list of movies based on theme park attractions is also possibly to be the next one we see. Despite having some recent conflicts with Disney, in the form of a lawsuit over the Black Widow movie, Scarlett Johansson is currently on board as a producer of a planned Tower of Terror movie.
While there haven’t been any major movements forward on this project, when asked about the film recently, Johansson was clear that people are hard at work on the movie. Although she did admit that, due to the fairly thin story of the attraction, finding the story has been difficult.
While every Disneyland and Walt Disney World attraction has a story, they’re certainly not deep enough to carry a whole movie. In the end, these movies, like the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, will need to create interesting original characters and stories to fill in the story the ride itself tells. But it has worked before, and it certainly can work again. If it does, we could see the premise of these potential hit movies actually circle back around and become part of the attractions that inspired them.
