Summary
On July 25, 2025,Tokyo Disneylandwill join the ongoing company-wide trend of massive overhauls to classic attractions by fully renovating their Space Mountain. The ride will be given a multimillion-dollar update to ensure that the opening-day attraction can remain a park staple for years to come.
In 2022, the company that runs the Tokyo Disney Resort, the Oriental Land Company, announced their plans to completely rebuild their version of the fan-favorite roller coaster in the Tomorrowland area ofTokyo Disneyland. Work began backstage in early 2023 to prepare the attraction for its remodeling.
Changes To Be Made To Tokyo Disneyland’s Space Mountain
Set to close on July 18, 2025, the coaster is in dire need of refurbishment. Space Mountain opened at Tokyo Disneyland on July 31, 2025, as a clone of the Disneyland version in California. As the third of five Space Mountain coasters around the world, the steel-tracked ride is prone to showing its age. Like the version in Walt Disney World, Tokyo’s track was manufactured by Arrow Dynamics, which is one of the biggest reasons for the closure.
Arrow Dynamics utilized hand-bent tubular steel tracks, which are now considered an antiquated form of ride manufacturing. Tubular steel tracks are known to be a source of discomfort for riders once they are about 15 years old, but Tokyo’s Space Mountain hasn’t been retracted in its over 40 years of operation. The last update the ride received was in 2006, and it was for purely aesthetic reasons.
The Tokyo Disney Resort recently opened a sprawling new land titled Fantasy Springs in its other park, Tokyo DisneySea. The decision to update one of Disneyland’s hallmark rides for 56 billion Japanese yen, which is approximately 353 million U.S. dollars, was likely made to match the massive investment in the other park. Space Mountain will see a brand-new exterior unique to the Japanese resort and a completely redone track-and-ride system. The queue will also be completely reworked to accommodate the demand for the attraction, as it currently has a long outdoor queue and an escalator to the interior queue. Despite being one of the oldest rides in Tokyo Disneyland, it is one of the most popular in the park.
Tomorrowland Will Go Through Renovations As Well
Alongside the complete renovation to the ride, there will be renovations to update Tomorrowland to match Space Mountain’s planned astrofuturist aesthetic. It is likely that other rides in the area, such as Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, will be temporarily closed sometime in the future to receive their own external updates. This is for the best, as the “Tomorrowland problem” that haunts each Disney park around the world is best addressed by choosing a timeless sci-fi aesthetic.
This was once the case with Disneyland Paris’ version of Tomorrowland, called Discoveryland. It was designed with steampunk stylings integral to the works of Jules Verne. Unfortunately, as more attractions were shoehorned into the area, the visual coherence was lost. Many fans of the Disney parks wish the company would take the steps the Oriental Land Company is taking to combat the “Tomorrowland problem.”
How Other Space Mountain Attractions Are Faring
Full remodelings, much less re-tracking, are very rare for the Space Mountain coasters. The only extensive track replacement work done to any of the five Space Mountains prior to Tokyo Disneyland was in California’s Disneyland in 2003. All other refurbishments to the coasters worldwide have been for aesthetic purposes or, in the case of Disneyland Paris, to strip the original Jules Verne theming in exchange for aStar Warsoverlay.
TheStar Warsoverlay removed most of the intricate details, such as the cannon launch sequence and all related visual effects when the coaster would be shot from the Earth to the Moon, as well as the entire interior queue. The physical sets and unique soundtrack inside the ride building were also replaced with projections andStar Warsmusic, respectively. While this overlay was meant to be temporary, it has been part of the Disneyland Paris version of the ride since 2017, with no indication of changing any time in the future.The Vekoma-manufactured coaster, now calledStar Wars: Hyperspace Mountain, is also seen in Hong Kong Disneyland. TheStar Warstheming that replaced the original retro sci-fi aesthetic seems to be a permanent fixture there, too. The reception to this overlay has been dicey, as it has gutted the original attractions of what endeared them to audiences in the first place.
Money Is The Issue
However, reverting both Hyperspace Mountains back to their original forms would cost the Disney company hundreds of millions of dollars. This investment issue is also the case for Space Mountain in Florida, as it is in desperate need of updates to its tubular steel tracking and archaic ride system. This Space Mountain was the first ever built, having opened on June 24, 2025, and the first-ever roller coaster to utilize computers for its daily operation. Now, this computer system has a hard time running regularly or making proper calculations, leading to hours of downtime every day.
Beyond the monetary issues the coasters present, they are also popular, high-capacity rides. Closing Space Mountain in Tokyo is part of a three-year plan to give the surrounding area a facelift, with tips on their website to work around this closure.The Magic Kingdom is the most visited theme park in the world, and the lowest-grossing Disney parks are the Paris and Hong Kong locations, making this kind of overhaul unfeasible due to crowding and funding. It is important to remember that Tokyo Disneyland is operated separately from the other parks, allowing the Oriental Land Company to invest in one major project at a time. As a conglomerate, Disney has too many projects in its daily operations and too many other investments to take into consideration. As wonderful as it is that the “Tomorrowland problem” is being rectified in Tokyo, this will probably not be the case in the rest of the parks for the time being.
Work will commence inTokyo Disneylandbeginning May 28, 2025. The three-year refurbishment will see Tomorrowland reopening in full sometime in 2027.
