Josh D’Amaro arrived at Disneyland with a memory, not a pitch deck. He recalled a 1998 meeting about where to put the trash cans during Main Street USA construction, and said, “I can remember sitting in the room thinking, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
That story set up his case for the Disneyland Resort on Sunday, Aug. 16, at a D23 media briefing at the Anaheim Convention Center. Disney used the three-day D23 fan expo over the weekend to unveil new details about an Avengers Campus expansion, a Coco boat ride, an Avatar themed land at Disney California Adventure, and a Tomorrowland makeover at Disneyland.
Main Street USA and 1998
D’Amaro said the trash-can discussion showed him “the level of detail, the level of excellence, the level of concern for that fan experience.” He is now the Disney CEO after taking over from Bob Iger in March, and he framed that old meeting as a template for how Disney still wants to build inside Disneyland Resort.
The operational message was plain: the company is not treating these projects as broad concepts, but as site-specific work that starts with the smallest guest-facing choices. That is the difference between a theme-park idea and a park plan that can survive construction, crowd flow, and day-one expectations.
Disneyland Resort's new projects
“There is more going on right now than in any time in our history,” D’Amaro said, adding, “There is dirt moving. There is steel being bent.” The line matters because Disney is no longer speaking only in concept art; it is signaling active work across Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
He also said, “We’ll always push on that balance,” and, “We’ll make sure that we respect legacy and what is so meaningful to people around the world and at the same time take some really big, audacious steps into the future.” That is the friction inside the plan. Disney is selling preservation and reinvention at once, which raises the bar on every change at a park built in 1955.
Walt Disney Imagineering's standard
D’Amaro said Walt Disney Imagineering scraps many ideas when they are not good enough: “A lot of things, actually most things, are scrapped.” He added, “They’re just put on the floor. We say it’s just not good enough and we’re going to start over and do it again.”
He tied that process to the next generation of visitors, saying Disney got into video games to help younger fans fall in love with Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters and storytelling, “So that they then take the next step.” For Disneyland regulars, the practical takeaway is simple: these projects are being presented as a long build, not a quick reveal, and Disney has not given opening dates for all of them.
“Now I want to go back to the OG. I want to go to Disneyland, the place that was built in 1955 and is where all of this started,” D’Amaro said. That is the real test now — whether Disney can keep the old park recognizable while pushing through the biggest wave of new work it says it has underway.
