Categories: Culture

Exclusive Marvel Show Coming to a Disney Park, Uses 500 Drones

Marvel’s getting a drone light show in France’s Disney Park.
Disney Parks

Marvel fans will want to check out the evening skies at Disneyland Paris in the coming months, with exclusive nighttime show Avengers: Power the Night bringing superhero action to the end of the day.

The light show, which runs daily from Jan. 28 through May 8, employs 500 drones to project images of Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Hulk, Scarlet Witch, Shang-Chi and other heroes onto the Tower of Terror in Walt Disney Studios Park (the French counterpart of Disney World’s Hollywood Studios). It might also remind fans of Mysterio’s illusions in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, without the danger.

The imagery is backed by music, lights and pyrotechnic effects that re-create the Marvel Cinematic Universe vibe. The show’s soundtrack will be made of iconic scores re-orchestrated at the Abbey Road Studios in London.

A similar show happened when Avengers Campus opened in Paris last July. The Marvel-themed area includes the rides Avengers Assemble: Flight Force (a re-theme of extremely ’90s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith) and Spider-Man Web Adventure.

The area’s US counterpart, in Disney California Adventure, includes the rides Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout and Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure (there’s also Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in Disney World’s Epcot park). An upcoming expansion will add a multiverse-themed ride that’ll take you into an alternate reality where supervillain Thanos triumphed.

The Avengers light show will be part of the finale for Disneyland Paris’ 30th anniversary celebrations. The first drone show happened when the company kicked off its milestone festivities last April, according to AV Magazine, with the “Disney D-Light” show projecting a giant outline of Mickey Mouse’s ears peering round the main park’s Sleeping Beauty castle. That show will return on April 12, Disney said Wednesday.

These shows use lightweight custom models based on Parrot BeBop 2 quadcopters, with nine RGBW LEDs providing illumination, AV Magazine noted in 2022.

Last year, the company told the Orange County Register it was exploring the possibility of bringing the drone show to US parks. Disney Springs in Florida ran a similar show for its 2016 holiday season, but they aren’t a regular occurrence.