Defunctland: The History of ExtraTERRORestrial: Alien Encounter

Did you know that the Alien franchise is now owned by Disney? It’s easy to forget considering how many different pieces fell under the 20th Century Fox acquisition, and really it’s only been the X-Men and Simpsons stuff that got a lot of attention because Disney started moving to make stuff based on them pretty quickly. PREY was impressive in its own right and showed tons of promise for the Predator franchise, of course, and there’s talk of a new xenomorph series coming from Noah Hawley (Squeeeee!), but we shall see. In the meantime, there is the Marvel Comics series of Alien (that, again, falls under the larger Disney banner) for those looking for signs of the Weyland-Yutani/Disney cross-pollination.

But what does this have to do with a Disney theme park ride?

Back before Disney even owned the rights to Alien or any of its characters, Michael Eisner and George Lucas set out to make an experience ride targeted at older audience (teens and above) that would be based on Ridley Scott’s seminal film (and its sequels). Eventually the tie-in was jettisoned, but the ride persisted and ran from 1994(ish) until 2003. Eventually named “ExtraTERRORestrial: Alien Encounter,” the “theater in the round” experience found at Walt Disney World was certainly different from others of its ilk at the time.

This 2017 entry from Defunctland (created by Kevin Perjurer) looks at the creation of this attraction, how it deviated from the usual Disney templates (apparently at the umbrage of older imagineers), and some of the (rather unfortunate) reasons it may have gone away.

But now that Alien is legally part of the Disney fold, and that the Magic Kingdom sees a ton of interest in all manner of spooky festivities, it’s time to bring this back with the Xenomorph front and center to terrorize a new generation of kids.

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