Iran has been firing ballistic missiles and drones at Abu Dhabi and Dubai repeatedly since late February, hitting airports, hotels, residential buildings, and oil facilities. That raises a question about the new Disney theme park planned for the region. Is Disneyland Abu Dhabi still on?
At least officially, Disney and Miral are still saying it is happening.
In mid-March, Miral CEO Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi flew to London to meet with Tasia Filippatos, Disney’s newly appointed President and Managing Director of Disney Parks International. He posted about it on LinkedIn afterward, saying the two sides discussed the Abu Dhabi project and were moving forward. Around the same time, new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro brought up the Abu Dhabi park at his first shareholder meeting since taking over from Bob Iger.
That is the public case for why the project is still on. But there are also a few reasons to be careful about overstating it.
The meeting happened in London, not Abu Dhabi. The shareholder mention was one line among many. And neither Disney nor Miral has put out a formal statement specifically addressing the war or what it means for the project.
Disney is not carrying much direct financial exposure here. Miral is funding and building the park entirely, while Disney is licensing its IP in exchange for a royalty. Miral is also a UAE state-linked entity with its own reasons to stay publicly positive. Neither side has much incentive to be the first to say the project is paused.
Legal analysts told Variety the most realistic scenario is not cancellation, but a delay nobody officially announces while both sides wait out the conflict. The park was still in early design when the war began, with construction at least two years away and an opening target in the early 2030s. In other words, there was not much to stop because very little had actually started.
The short version: Officially, this project is still on. The evidence for that is a LinkedIn post and a shareholder meeting mention, not a formal statement about the war. Whether that holds if the conflict drags into next year is genuinely unknown. Anyone telling you otherwise is getting ahead of the facts.
For the broader context around why this project was controversial well before the war, see our earlier coverage.
From The Kingdom Sentinel
Planning a Disney trip? Get matched with a specialist.
Five quick questions. Free for travelers, no obligation to book.
