In 2013, you may remember Disney released a live-action film based on the iconic character and franchise known as The Lone Ranger. The film was not exactly the success Disney had planned on and, according to The Wrap, Disney actually had the idea to bring the film to Disneyland in a several ways, including an overlay for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
- The Lone Ranger, and more specifically a draft of the screenplay for the film written by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, references the iconography of Disneyland’s Frontierland multiple times, especially Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
- While the film was still in development, Rossio received an unofficial memo from Walt Disney Imagineer Brandan Kleyla that outlined potential integration of the film into the Disney Parks.
- The memo featured a variety of ideas form a “standard meet-and-greet” to “an all-new E-Ticket Attraction, using the Festival Arena, Big Thunder Ranch, and Circle D Ranch area.”
- Another idea was for a Big Thunder overlay subtitled “Curse of the Silver Mine.”
- The overlay would have featured new additions to the queue like mine cars full of silver and wanted posters as well as all-new animatronics, including The Lone Ranger and Tonto in the attraction itself.
- It was also said to feature “terrifying coyotes” and “an integration of the frantic piano playing that made for such a memorable moment in the original script.”
- One of the biggest additions would have been onboard audio, featuring the “William Tell Overture,” better known as The Lone Ranger theme.
- This potential overlay had a precedent as Pirates of the Caribbean had undergone a refurbishment that brought Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl characters to the classic attraction seven years earlier.
- Of course, Pirates had grossed more than $650 million in worldwide box office earnings, which led Disney to set a lofty goal for The Lone Ranger.
- The film fell well short of that goal however, bringing in just over $260 million worldwide and thus the Lone Ranger ideas for Disneyland never came to fruition.
- You can learn more about the full story of The Lone Ranger and the potential Disneyland additions from The Wrap.
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