Disney is digging into its theme park catalogue once again, with Disney+ ordering a pilot for ‘Spaceship Earth’, a new adventure series inspired by EPCOT’s iconic attraction.
Rather than following tourists slowly travelling through the history of human communication, the potential series appears to be taking the attraction’s themes in a much more dramatic, time-bending direction.
The official logline reads: “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.”
Casting for the pilot is currently underway, although Disney has not yet announced who could be joining the temporal teenage team.
Jason Fuchs, who co-created and co-ran HBO’s ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’, will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Michael Waldron, best known for developing Marvel’s ‘Loki’ and writing ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, is also executive producing through his Anomaly Pictures banner.
Lee Toland Krieger (‘You’, ‘Riverdale’, ‘Shadow and Bone’) will direct and executive produce the pilot. Adam Fishbach and Anomaly Pictures’ Adam Fasullo are also executive producers, with 20th Television producing.
It is worth stressing that ‘Spaceship Earth’ has only received a pilot order at this stage, rather than a full series pickup. Disney will presumably assess the completed episode before deciding whether to send the project hurtling through time for an entire season.
The original Spaceship Earth attraction opened alongside EPCOT in 1982 and is housed inside the park’s enormous geodesic sphere, otherwise known to generations of visitors as the giant golf ball.
The attraction takes guests through the development of human communication, covering everything from early cave paintings and the invention of writing to printing, radio, television and digital technology. While the pilot’s story sounds considerably more apocalyptic, its mixture of characters from different eras seems to retain some of that journey through human history.
Disney has, of course, plenty of experience turning its theme park attractions into films. The most successful example remains the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise, while ‘The Haunted Mansion’ and ‘Jungle Cruise’ have also made the leap from ride queue to cinema screen.
The company previously explored plans for a wider collection of interconnected projects based around Disney theme park mythology, including a ‘Society of Explorers and Adventurers’ series developed by Ronald D. Moore. Those projects ultimately failed to move forward, but ‘Spaceship Earth’ suggests Disney has not abandoned the idea of mining the parks for new stories.
‘Spaceship Earth’ is currently at pilot stage, with no Disney+ premiere date announced.
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