Pilot Ordered for Spaceship Earth-Inspired TV Series on Disney+

A pilot has been ordered with the potential to bring EPCOT's Spaceship Earth to life as a Disney+ series - but don't expect a Judi Dench narrated historical journey.

What's Happening:

• A pilot for a new series based on EPCOT's Spaceship Earth has been ordered, with a potential to lead into a series on Disney+.
• Jason Fuchs, co-showrunner for IT: Welcome to Derry, is set to showrun and executive produce the project. Michael Waldron, head writer for Loki, is set to executive produce alongside Lee Toland Kreiger, who is directing the pilot.
• According to TheWrap, the logline reveals a bit more about the project, which is produced by 20th Television, reading: "When a mission to avert an imminent global cataclysm goes awry, a small band of teenagers from Earth's past and future must join forces to confront a threat as vast and mysterious as time itself."
• Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro was part of Disney's Earnings Call yesterday, where he is going all in on making Disney+ the "digital centerpiece" of the company, teasing a transformation into a more "comprehensive membership ecosystem."
• The pilot order is only the latest project for the platform, after earlier announcements like a series featuring a TikTok star that is in development, a series in the Riverdale universe, and others.
• There is currently no officially released production timeline for the Spaceship Earth project.

The Ride:

• Many EPCOT fans will be sure to point out that the Spaceship Earth attraction at the Walt Disney World park does NOT follow teens with a cataclysmic disaster.
• However, it does feature time travel as the ride vehicles traverse a journey into the park's signature geodesic sphere on a slow-moving dark ride through the history of human communication.
• Overall, the message of the ride is that each generation builds upon the discoveries of those before it, creating an ever more connected world.
• In 2019, a key part of the D23 EXPO that year focused on a massive transformation of EPCOT - including Spaceship Earth.
• At the time, then-CEO Bob Chapek shared that that guests would still travel through human history in "Spaceship Earth: Our Shared Story," but now the emphasis was not on technology and communication, but to the "Shared Story" that people tell through art, language, music, and culture.
• The project was cancelled, along with a number of others, as Walt Disney World came out of the COVID-19 pandemic and re-evaluated their long-term plans.