Disney Explores the Future of World-Building at SXSW Conference

For more than a century, The Walt Disney Company has been looking to the future by mixing its artistry with its innovative technology. Working seamlessly across the company, Disney has crafted a world of its own — one in which new advances in technology are bringing the stories that unfold on-screen, and the stories guests experience in-person, closer than ever before.

On Saturday, Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman explored Disney’s unique power to connect creativity with innovative experiences at the company’s featured session at the South by Southwest® (SXSW®) conference in Austin, Texas.

“We’re constantly developing new tools that allow us to tell our stories in even more compelling ways. It’s a seamless blend of art and science we take directly from our founder, Walt Disney. He was our original visionary and innovator,” D’Amaro said to kick off the company’s session, The Future of World-Building at Disney, on Saturday.

In front of a packed crowd, Bergman echoed D’Amaro’s sentiments by noting that at Disney it all starts “with great storytelling.”

“We work with the best storytellers to dream up new worlds full of heart, fun, and imagination,” he said. “We truly have something for everyone, with so many ways to experience it. This helps us have strong connections with our audience, which is so unique to Disney.”

Here is a look inside the company’s featured session at SXSW — including some of the exciting announcements that Disney revealed on Saturday.

D’Amaro and Bergman began the session on Saturday by focusing on Disneyland, which is celebrating its 70^th anniversary in July.

“Disneyland is an incredibly special place. It’s our original park. It’s the only one Walt physically walked through during his life,” D’Amaro said. “When he began working on this new venture in the early ’50s, there really wasn’t anything quite like it at that point. So, to turn this dream into reality, he went to the people he trusted most. He went to his storytellers.”

Bergman explained that Walt reassigned a small group of animators from the movie studio to design this new experience to bring these stories to life.

“Eventually, he coined a new term for these creative geniuses – he called them ‘Imagineers,’” D’Amaro said.

Bergman added that “the key to all of this is the partnership we have between our two teams. And we start that collaboration very early on.”

“One of my favorite parts of my job is joining Josh and his team early in those concept meetings, where we get to see our stories and characters take on a whole new life,” Bergman continued.

Because at Disney, according to D’Amaro, stories don’t “end when the credits roll on a film, or when you walk out the front of one of our parks.”

“They keep growing and they keep evolving,” he said.

And one of the best examples of this type of world-building is taking place in a galaxy far, far away…

The next part of the World-Building session focused on the iconic Star Wars brand. D’Amaro and Bergman brought out Imagineers Leslie Evans and Asa Kalama, as well as The Mandalorian and Grogu director and Disney Legend Jon Favreau. Not to mention, a flock of BDX droids.

“We’ve been working in robotics at Imagineering since the very beginning. Walt really saw this technology as a cool way to bring characters to life,” Kalama said. “Think tiki birds, Abraham Lincoln, it’s a small world, but obviously today the technology has really come incredibly far.”

However, unlike the animatronics of the past, the BDX droids can learn and teach each other. This process, called reinforcement learning, is an entirely new way to program animatronic characters, according to Evans.

She explained that the BDX droids walk freely around and explore environments, interacting with guests and each other. To achieve this, Imagineers built digital avatars of the droids and set them loose in a virtual environment — thousands at a time.

“They learn, they experiment, they teach each other, and they figure out how to navigate different types of terrain,” she said. “When we’re training in simulation, we’re not just teaching them to balance, we’re teaching them how to learn to walk as characters and imitate those core animations that really give them their personality.”

As for Favreau, he revealed that the BDX droids — which first appeared at Disneyland — will be making their on-screen debut in next year’s The Mandalorian and Grogu — another showcase of the seamless connection between Disney’s studios and its experiences.

But that’s not all. The droids will be visiting Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris later this year.

And Kalama explained that the popular Star Wars attraction Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will be getting an update which takes guests into the world of The Mandalorian for Memorial Day weekend 2026 — the very same weekend The Mandalorian and Grogu movie debuts in theaters.

“This really all goes back to what Alan and Josh were just talking about — the incredible collaboration between our teams. I mean, opening an attraction and such a big movie like this on the same day, it really wouldn’t be possible without the relationships we have inside Disney,” Kalama said.

Star Wars isn’t the only Disney brand that benefits from the collaboration between Studios and Experiences. Pixar, the beloved and award-winning animation studio, has seen its footprint grow at Disney parks and resorts over decades.

“We at Pixar have been working with Imagineering for a long time creating these incredible experiences, all over the world,” Pete Docter, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, said on stage. “We’re such fans of the Disney parks, we even use them as a sort of test for ourselves. When we’re coming up with the sets and environments, we ask ourselves, ‘Is this somewhere I’d want to go if they built it at Disneyland?’”

Docter continued by saying that in the end, the filmmakers at Pixar and the Imagineers rely on a fundamental principle in everything they do: specificity.

“Getting to know all the little details and getting those right, that’s how we build authenticity into our worlds,” he said. “It really has to feel real because that’s what allows you to believe in the story.”

Imagineer Michael Hundgen joined Docter on stage to talk about two new Pixar projects in the works for Walt Disney World, starting with an amazing new attraction that takes guests on a rip-roaring ride through the door vault in the company’s first land inspired by Monsters, Inc.

“We have never done anything like this before,” Hundgen said of the new attraction. “It’s Disney’s first suspended coaster, it’s our first vertical lift. We’re designing this experience to be as memorable and as fun as the film itself.”

The other innovative Pixar attraction coming to Disney World is an off-road rally race inspired by Cars.

“When we’re designing our attractions, our primary goal is to create an emotional experience for our guests, just like the filmmakers do on the screen. For this Cars attraction, we need to invent a new type of ride vehicle to create that feeling,” Hundgen said.

He continued by saying that Imagineers took a trip out to the Arizona desert and rented some off-road vehicles to ride along different trails. This helped them bring authenticity to the story. The Imagineers took everything they learned during their trip to build a custom dirt track with geometry similar to what they liked on the trails.

Then, once the data was collected, it was time to start working on the attraction vehicle.

“The workload on our ride vehicles far exceeds a normal car,” Hundgen said. “They run 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for decades. If your car does 13,000 miles a year, ours go up to 65,000 miles every year, depending on the attraction. And on top of that, we’re running it on this really tough terrain.”

Docter concluded the Pixar section of the session by returning to the theme of specificity.

“Like I said at the beginning — specificity is key. You can see here the level of detail the Imagineers are going for. Now imagine that applying to everything, every part of the attraction,” Docter said. “That’s the standard [Imagineers] set, and we’re proud to work alongside Imagineering these many years to really try to bring our movies out there into authentic Pixar experiences.”

Next up was Marvel, Disney’s blockbuster Super Hero brand, and what would a conversation about innovation and Marvel be without… Iron Man?

“I’m digging this wild blend of art, science, and culture that SXSW has become,” Disney Legend Robert Downey Jr., Tony Stark himself, said surprising those in attendance on Saturday. “It’s the place to be!”

But he wasn’t alone. Kevin Feige, Producer and President of Marvel Studios, and Bruce Vaughn, the President and Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Imagineering, also joined Downey Jr. on stage.

“Just like my colleagues at the other studios, I’m a giant, giant Disney parks fan,” Feige said. “I’m always drawn to the places that showcase Walt’s vision for the future — particularly Tomorrowland and EPCOT. They share a mid-century, retro-futuristic design language that I love… In fact, it’s served as an inspiration for our new film coming out this summer, The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”

Vaughn shared that guests will be able to see the entire Fantastic Four at Disneyland this summer. Disney Imagineering is creating a real-life Herbie robot from the film, too.

“This is what is so great about our teams collaborating the way they do — we’re always coming up with crazy ideas that we know our guests will love,” Vaughn added.

He noted that Disney recently broke ground on a massive expansion for Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure — doubling the size of the land with two incredible new attractions.

The first: Avengers Infinity Defense, which will have guests assemble the Avengers to battle King Thanos across multiple worlds. That includes fighting alongside Black Panther, Ant-Man, and the Hulk, among other heroes.

“I think it is by far the largest collection of heroes we’ve ever put into an attraction,” Feige said.

The other attraction is Stark Flight Lab, which hits close to home for Downey Jr.

“Tony opened my eyes wider to the power technology has to impact the world for good, and that’s something I’ll carry with me the rest of my days,” Downey Jr. said.

Vaughn added that Downey Jr. will be reprising his role in the attraction, which takes you inside Tony’s workshop filled with cutting-edge tech. That includes a massive robot arm that reaches down, grabs a guest’s pod, and lifts them off the track, where they will make several high-speed maneuvers inspired by Iron Man and some other Avengers. After your flight, the arm sets you back on the track and you zip away again.

Vaughn continued by telling the audience that Downey Jr. was invited to Imagineering to see what Disney is working on as well as help them get the details right.

“What I didn’t know was how stealth and exclusive Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters was,” Downey Jr. said. “It’s the Area 51 of Fun.”

Downey Jr. added that even after Disney finishes Stark Flight Lab, he’d like to stick around.

“I want to stay involved for the long haul. I want to be part of the future,” he said. “So, this isn’t a one-time deal, and I say this with all the humility I can muster, you need more… me.”

A request that D’Amaro and Bergman were more than happy to make happen.

“Oh, you don’t have to ask us twice,” Bergman said returning to the stage with D’Amaro.

“Anytime you want to want to come over to Imagineering, you are welcome,” D’Amaro added. “Tony Stark lives on forever with us.”

Downey Jr. then quipped, “so that’s a verbal confirmation. It’s binding. I thank you for stating it with 2,000 witnesses.”