Disney’s Abu Dhabi theme park will be split into “biomes” rather than traditional “lands,” the new Disney Worldbuilders documentary revealed.
Disneyland Abu Dhabi
The Disney+ documentary by Leslie Iwerks touched on the Abu Dhabi project, following Disney executives, including then-CEO Bob Iger and current CEO Josh D’Amaro, into a meeting with Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the United Arab Emirates’s Department of Culture and Tourism and of Miral Group, which will build and operate the resort.
Walt Disney Imagineering Portfolio Executive Creative Director Tom Fitzgerald explained in a presentation that Disneyland in the 1950s was organized into Main Street, U.S.A., Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland.
“But here we are today,” he said, “we have so many stories. How should we organize our park? And this is one of the challenges we looked at. And the inspiration for where we wanted to go came from here.”
“Here” refers to Abu Dhabi itself, and Fitzgerald revealed a series of photos representing different landscapes in the city its surrounding area like a coral reef and a desert.
“We were impressed with the diversity of the biomes in Abu Dhabi and the story that they create. If you think of classic storytelling, ‘Once upon a time’ is always followed by a location: ‘In a kingdom far away, in a galaxy far, far away.’ Placemaking is key to storytelling and it’s key to what we do, obviously, at Imagineering.”
Iwerks said of the meeting in an interview with PEOPLE, “The energy was very exciting. The opportunities for all these outlets, these brands, these stories are endless.”
She added, “Looking out at this dirt plot that’s going to be the new land is similar to what I thought Walt [Disney] must’ve felt when he was walking through the orange groves of Disneyland. To be with Bob on the plot of land that’s gonna be a new park was a really cool, full-circle moment for me.”
Disney announced their Abu Dhabi destination in May 2025. They indicated the resort could take up to two years to design and another four to six years to build.
During their Q3 earnings call, Disney reaffirmed their commitment to the resort despite conflicts in the Middle East.
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