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This morning, Disney announced the decision to delay the return of the park’s nighttime spectacular, ‘Fantasmic!’ to spring of 2024.

They’ve also stated that upon its return, the show will not feature the dragon figure that Maleficent, the protagonist, transforms into.

Instead, the show will feature, “new special effects”, and a new battle scene between the two foes. This will likely be an enhanced “B mode”.

For those unaware, the dragon Audio Animatronic figure is affectionally nicknamed, “Murphy”, after the theory of Murphy’s Law in that, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”.

Murphy was plagued with issues, often forcing Disney to utilize the above mentioned B mode, which consisted of the dragon being projected onto a water wall (with additional effects).

The official statement from Disney reads: “Our goal is to always deliver the best possible show for our guests. With that in mind, we are planning the return of ‘Fantasmic!’ with exciting new magic in spring 2024. As teams continue work on the show, we have launched nightly entertainment on the Rivers of America this summer and we are working on even more exciting entertainment offerings for our guests later this year.”

In the statement, Disney stopped short of confirming that the Murphy Audio Animatronics figure is gone for good. This at least suggests that it could make a return at a later date.

This isn’t the least bit surprising, as the damage done to the Murphy AA by the fire was extensive. It not only destroyed Murphy, but caused considerable damage to the stage and the lift underneath it.

• If you haven’t seen the Murphy fire, give the video below a watch

One could argue that Disney could rush it and bring the show back by the fall with its B mode, but i’ll play devil’s advocate here; Fantasmic isn’t needed once the holidays are in full swing. The Halloween and Christmas celebrations do a fine job pulling in the crowds on their own.

By contrast, spring and even lately, summer, doesn’t have the same pull that the holidays do. So taking advantage of that pent-up demand for a popular show that, by that point, would be offline for nearly a full year, would give Disney a guaranteed boost in attendance.

The full statement from Disney further suggests that Murphy will make an eventual return, but stops short of confirming. The next bi-annual super-fan event, D23, will happen again in 2024. Disney could be waiting until then for a big announcement pertaining to Murphy to stack-the-deck and avoid another disappointing parks panel.

It’s important to note that Disney isn’t committing to the Spring 2024 timeline, that’s what they’re, “working towards”. Remember, that’s the same verbiage they used in their prior statement about it being pushed to Labor Day 2023.

For reasons stated above, though, I believe Spring 2024 is a real target for Disney. Not just a hold-over. Whether it’s a strategic move or one out of necessity, Disney needs a nighttime show. Specifically in the spring when attendance dips.

In the meantime, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

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