Disney World's Monstropolis opens in 2027, but Monsters, Inc. coaster has no date
Disney revealed the shops, restaurants, and show coming to Monstropolis at Hollywood Studios, confirming parts of the land open in 2027. The Monsters, Inc. door coaster, rumored by fans since roughly 2006, still has no announced opening date.
Monstropolis is opening in phases, and Disney isn’t saying where the main ride falls.
At the Horizons: A Carousel of Progress showcase at D23 on August 15, Imagineers Michael Hundgen and Chris Beatty laid out what’s coming to the Monsters, Inc. land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Parts of Monstropolis will open to guests in 2027.
Disney said work continues on the door coaster while those parts open. It stopped short of saying when the coaster arrives, and no date for it has ever been announced.
Disney said parts. Not the land. Parts.
The coaster has been rumored since about 2006
Fans have been trading rumors about a Monsters, Inc. doors coaster for roughly twenty years, according to Disney Tourist Blog’s Tom Bricker, who has watched the story circulate across his entire adult time in the fan community. At one point it was considered locked for the plot beside Toy Story Mania in Pixar Place, back before Toy Story Land existed.
Then Josh D’Amaro announced it at D23 in August 2024, with Billy Crystal on hand.
“The first time I saw Monsters, Inc., all I wanted to do was ride on one of those doors like Mike and Sulley,” D’Amaro told that crowd.
It will be Disney’s first suspended coaster and its first with a vertical lift, mimicking the claw that hoists doors in the film. Steel is rising on the show building behind the construction walls.
Randy Newman wrote his first Disney theme park song
Disney Legend Randy Newman composed “Welcome to Monstropolis,” and Disney says it’s the first song he has ever written for a Disney theme park.
Decades of Disney and Pixar scores behind him, from Monsters, Inc. to the Toy Story films, and this is his first park piece.
The song shares its name with the new show at the Glob Theater, where Mike and Sulley host and introduce humans to their city. Beatty described Sulley building something modest while Mike, being Mike, plans surprises.
“Hopefully not literally,” Beatty said of Mike bringing down the house.
Harryhausen’s restaurant is becoming real
Harryhausen’s is the sushi restaurant where Mike takes Celia on their disastrous date, and it’s opening as a table-service location. Hundgen promised a menu unlike anything else at Walt Disney World, calling it a good place to bring your Schmoopsie-poo.
The famed sushi chef appears as a new Audio-Animatronics figure, tentacles working through his prep.
The name is a tribute. Ray Harryhausen was the stop-motion pioneer behind Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans, and Pixar named the restaurant after him in the 2001 film. Now it takes reservations.
Three more Monstropolis locations confirmed
Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza, the city’s top-rated pizza spot, named for Fear Tech’s six-legged mascot from Monsters University, the one MU students kept stealing
Monsters University Alumni Club, next door, housing the elite Scarer’s Club honoring the school’s legendary graduates
Scareporium, the land’s shop
Why humans are allowed into Monstropolis
After Sulley and Mike discovered that laughter generates more power than screams, Monstropolis stopped being afraid of humans.
The city formed a Department of Human Relations and declared H.U.M.A.N. Day, short for Humans Understanding Monsters Are Nice, opening its doors to human visitors for the first time. The city newspaper, the Monstropolis Horn, has been covering the decision.
That’s the setup for your visit.
Monstropolis replaces the former Muppets Courtyard and Grand Avenue area, where Muppet*Vision 3D closed to make room. Construction started in 2025, with the coaster’s show building rising on former cast member parking as a genuine expansion of the park.
No specific 2027 date for the land. Nothing at all for the coaster. Fans waited twenty years to get told to keep waiting.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Disney Parks Blog (August 15, 2026), the 2027 partial opening, the Randy Newman song, the Glob Theater show, Harryhausen’s and its animatronic sushi chef, Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza, the Alumni Club, the Scareporium, and the H.U.M.A.N. Day backstory
Disney Tourist Blog (August 2024 and 2026), Tom Bricker’s account of the door coaster rumor dating to roughly 2006 and the abandoned Pixar Place location
Disney Parks Blog (August 2024), the original D23 announcement and the Josh D’Amaro quote
Attractions Magazine (August 2026), the construction status, the show building on former cast member parking, and the Muppet*Vision 3D replacement