http://www.screamscape.com/html/wdw_-_hollywood_studios.htm:
Star Wars Land - Rumor - (6/27/13) New rumors are flowing about what we might see added to the park with a possible mini Star Wars Land, and there is an interesting twist to it all now. It seems the plan to bring Star Wars Land to life may actually be divided into two phases.
Phase 1 would open rather quickly and see a Star Wars themed outdoor kiddie ride of some kind added, possibly the addition of a Cantina restaurant with Star Wars themed food items as a replacement for the Backlot Express restaurant which would be demolished for the new ride. Meanwhile an new and more impressive version of the Jedi Academy show (likely with a new name) would take up residence in a new indoor air-conditioned setting inside the old Sound Dangerous theater building.
Phase 2 is a little more tricky, as the rumors suggest that the main focus of this phase would be to add a very large E-Ticket Star Wars themed thrill ride to the park. It gets even more interesting when Im hearing that this massive thrill ride may be set to replace The Great Movie Ride. Ive heard it mentioned that the building could be reused and Ive heard it may be torn down, but either way it also sounds like the old Manns Chinese Theater façade out front may be doomed either way as the park prepares to also remove the giant sorcerers hat as well.
The crazy thing is that there are even rumors about removing the nearby Echo Lake area as well, as it sounds like the park is ready to relaunch itself and may be in need of a new icon of some kind. If all those removal rumors are true, it seems almost strange that the American Idol show theater may sit untouched in the middle of it all
but were talking about long term plans over the next 5-7 years, and no one may care at all about American Idol by then. (As if they still do now
)
More on this as it leaks out
but the rumors are starting to get juicy.
- Monstropolis - Rumor - (6/27/13) There has been some interesting buzz coming from various sources regarding the future of the Hollywood Studios theme park and the new long-range plans. According to a posting at the Disney & More Facebook page, a plan to build a Monstropolis themed area is also under consideration here, Shanghai as well as the one we already mentioned for California Adventure.
While the entire idea of the Monsters Inc. Door Coaster concept has been bouncing around as an idea for the Studios park for years to no avail, I had also heard not long ago that the idea of adding any Monsters attractions to the Studios had been dropped. Of course, nothing ever seens to stay dead at Disney
though I find it curious that the newer rumors of building a full Monstropolis area seem tied to the fate of the Cars Land idea. In fact, some are saying that Cars Land at the Studios could be dropped entirely to build Monstropolis instead, but Im not so sure.
I have heard that the previous giant version of Cars Land envisioned for the park (from Catastrophe Canyon to MuppetVision) may have been scaled back to only take over the Canyon, LMA show site and remainder of the Backlot Tour. This would leave all those themed New York street sets and MuppetVision area not only intact, but possibly now available for conversion to become part of Monstropolis.