Guardians of the Galaxy Coaster Construction Updates – February 2020

(UPDATED 2/18/20): This is a construction update for the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster for February 2020. Disney announced its plans for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind coming to Epcot over two years ago, and since then we’ve seen the construction rise to the next level.

In this post, we’re going to look at all the latest construction updates from the Guardians attraction, and see what’s new.

Scroll down for the latest construction photos of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster…

Most of the interesting work on the attraction is happening inside the show building, which unfortunately right now is completely covered in walls. In fact, it’s difficult to give a regular construction update on the ride because the vast majority of the work is taking place within those walls and we can’t see it, (Unlike the TRON coaster).

The last time we looked at the progress on the Guardians coaster we saw work being done to the new concrete pavement at the attraction entrance, and some more work on the exterior of the building.

This week we are going to continue that theme as we see some activity on the roof, the side of the building, new light fixtures and what it’s like to

To learn more about this attraction read our Guide to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and find out everything we know so far including opening info, ride vehicles and more…

For sure it’s one of the most amazing new Disney rides and attractions coming in the next few years!

You can also get the latest from around Disney World at more construction projects currently going on in our Walt Disney World Construction Updates page.

Big thanks to @Bioreconstruct who takes amazing shots of all the construction projects happening around Disney World and most of all the awesome aerial shots giving us an overhead view of all the ongoing projects. Be sure to check him out!!

Also, don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Weekly E-Mail Newsletter. There we bring you the latest updates on all the newest additions to the park as well as vacation planning tips. You can sign up here: Join our E-Mail Newsletter!

Let’s take a look at the construction underway at the Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster:

(NEW PHOTOS: 2/18/20)

This week we are taking another look at the new solar panels that are being put on the roof of the queue building, plus what it looks like to arrive there from the new walkway coming from the Epcot entrance.

Even from a distance, you can see the mounting stands for the solar panels installed on the roof:

A closer look shows three rows so far of the frames:

It will be interesting to see if Disney comments on the solar panels and how much energy they will produce. I’m not a solar energy expert by any means, but perhaps it will be enough to power the ride, or at least the pre-show area?

As you may have already seen in our Future World Construction update, there are two new pathways which now take guests to one side or the other of Future World, right from rope drop. Included in that is the left side walkway which takes guests directly to the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster entrance.

When you make it around the corner and start heading down the pathway, the Guardians building immediately stands out:

Turn the corner and the pathway runs right along side of the pre-show building.

A look at the newly paved sidewalk, which looks strangely void of proper water drainage when it rains.

This is a convenient way to get to the ride when it does open, as it would have been a much longer hike coming through the center of Future World. It also basically has its own built-in ride queue as this pathway will be filled with people waiting to get on.

I’ll be interested in seeing how they handle the lines for this ride, if it will be a standard queueing system with FastPass+ like Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway is doing, or if there will be boarding groups like Rise of the Resistance.

We’ll keep you updated with the latest when we know more.

That’s it for now from the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster. Be sure to check back soon for more updates and also keep scrolling down to see what happened in previous updates.

(NEW PHOTOS: 2/13/20)

Starting out, we can see the new building which will house the Guardians coaster on the right. It’s the giant blue and green one, you can’t miss it!

Just look how it dwarfs everything around it! The ride will be launched from the building which will house the queue and gets will shoot through that narrow tunnel connecting the two.

As we head up to the sky, look at the bases being installed on the roof which will hold the new solar panels. Paying tribute to the Universe of Energy?

It looks like they have been fastened down, and once that part is complete, the panels themselves will be added on top of them.

Looking on the left side of the building you can see the concrete is finished being poured and the section past the front has been roped off.

This area leads to the new shortcut walkway which will bring guests directly from the park entrance to the new coaster and the rest of the pavilions on this side of Future World. Still no word on when exactly that pathway will be open.

Finally, we have a look at the new lighting fixtures that have been installed at the front of the pavilion:

These are futuristic and made to fit in with the theming for Guardians of the Galaxy. Expect more of these to pop up soon.

(NEW PHOTOS: 1/21/20)

Things have been moving along on the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind coaster, unfortunately, most of the interesting work is being done INSIDE the walls of the attraction’s show building. That doesn’t mean though that there is nothing interesting to see on the outside. Let’s take a look.

Here we can see the current state of the Guardians coaster:

The entrance and the attraction queue, along with its various showrooms, are in the old Universe of Energy building on the left. Then you can see the launch tunnel where the long, thin green part goes to the right and connects with the enormous gravity building on the right.

We’re going to go back a couple of weeks before we show you the very newest photos of the construction to help bring you up to speed on the latest.

You may have heard there is a new pathway on each side of Spaceship Earth which will be used to bring guests through Future World once the Spaceship Earth refurbishment gets underway later this year.

Here is a look at the path that brings guests over to the Guardians of the Galaxy side:

They will walk along the side of the building, eventually arriving at the attraction entrance.

Even though most work is being done inside, sometimes you’ll catch a glimpse of workers on the outside, like these ones doing work on the roof:

Occasionally you can also see into the building like here around the back:

And here too:

The biggest project that is visible to guests is the new pavement that is being installed outside the attraction both on the side and in the front entrance plaza. Here we can see workers laying down the forms so the new concrete can be poured:

This is that same pathway that guests will take from the park entrance and a couple of weeks ago most of it was still not completed.

This is work being done right next to that at the front entrance plaza:

You can get an idea of what it will look like when complete by looking at the Epcot Experience model in the Odyssey Pavilion. There is a model of one of the Xandarian spaceships right in the middle of the plaza, and pools around the sides.

It should be quite beautiful when complete!

Bringing you a bit more up-to-speed, you can see a big part of that pathway is now finished. Just look at the walkway on the left side of the building:

More work is being done to the roof right now as well:

Lastly, we see what it is like to pass under the launch tunnel, backstage during the Marathon weekend:

That’s it for now from the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster. Be sure to check back soon for more updates and also keep scrolling down to see what happened in previous updates.

(NEW PHOTOS: 12/16/19)

While it is hard to see the changes to the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster since most of the construction is taking place on the inside, that doesn’t mean we can’t see anything from outside.

First up, the outside of the building by the launch tunnel looks all buttoned up now:

It’s strange to wonder though what that weird cement stairwell is for and why it’s still that ugly grey color. I’m guessing it’s going to be painted over blue soon to match the rest of the wall otherwise it would stand out too much.

The biggest changes to the building are happening on the side where workers have just poured some new concrete:

You can see only a few days earlier they were building the concrete forms on that side:

No word yet what these are for, but they obviously are going to be building something on top of them. We’ll have to wait to find out.

Over in the front of the building, we see the front entrance which has been totally torn off and the courtyard there is currently holding a lot of the construction equipment that is needed for inside and outside the building:

It looks to be a staging area where they put materials before bringing them inside to install.

Eventually, this will be where the entrance to the attraction is, and it will lead guests into the queue and to the pre-show area.

The courtyard in front will also hold a Xandarian ship that guests will walk past before entering.

Now let’s look around the back and see the construction going on there:

There is a rather large opening in the wall that lets you see inside. Of course, you have to have the right conditions, and night time is much better for seeing inside:

If you look closely in the back you can see a steep incline! I know it’s a bummer not to see more of the track and how the ride will be, but that will make it all the more exciting when we actually get to ride!

(NEW PHOTOS: 11/5/19)

In this aerial shot we can see the two buildings for the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster, the main attraction building is the light blue and green one on the right, while the attraction pre-show queue is the one in the top center with the black roof:

That long narrow building connecting the two is the launch tunnel where guests will be launched backward through the building!

Notice the long crane in the middle of the photo which is stretching out to the roof of the Guardians building:

Then here we see what it’s doing. It’s delivering large bundles of materials to the roof:

What exactly are these materials for? That’s anyone’s guess. The reason they are being delivered to the roof though its probably because they are needed on the roof itself, or on the inside at the top of the building, otherwise they would bring them in the door at the bottom.

An interesting fixture has been added to the side of the building in the last few days, what looks to be some kind of shaft running along the side of the building from the ground almost to the top:

Here is a better look at the shaft:

Not sure exactly what this is for yet, but most likely it’s an emergency exit from the attraction itself in case people get stuck inside or other emergencies:

Yes right now the color is an ugly grey and doesn’t go with the rest of the exterior, however, it will most likely be painted light blue like the rest once it’s finished going up.

(NEW PHOTOS: 10/22/19):

It’s been months since our last update to the construction work on the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster, and the differences that are visible from the outside are mostly aesthetic.

To start out, here is the current color of the outside of the old Universe of Energy building where the Guardians of the Galaxy attraction will start off:

You’ll remember the side walls used to be multi-colored, now it’s only two colors, orange and that grey:

This picture was only from September, and you can see the side panels being painted:

A look around the other side of the building shows that wall is also currently getting a new paint job:

And this is how it was only weeks ago:

Upon closer inspection, this wall has seen better days. At the arrow you can see an imperfection which has been there for years, but even after the paint job and work on the outside, it’s still visible:

That’s kind of disappointing and you’d hope that if Disney its spending all this money on a new attraction, at least they’d make sure that the building is in top shape!

My only question after all the orange paint, is how come it’s not orange in the concept art for the building??

Again it looks like a dark grey. We’ll keep an eye on this to see if it changes.

A look to the top of the building shows the final exterior panels installed on the roof:

I’m not sure this is a good idea, but it looks like some trees were cut down that were in front of the Guardians attraction building. At least they blocked the view slightly more, now the giant beast is even more apparent:

Curious to know how workers get up to the top of the building? A cherry picker will do just fine:

There aren’t many views into the Guardians show building where the actual track for the roller coaster is kept, we we can see some work going on on the outside leading into the building. This is likely for something right on the inside of that wall:

As we said, it’s hard to see what’s actually going on inside the building, but turning the corner you can get a brief look at the inside:

Looks like a lot of dirt and heavy equipment. The inside of the of UoE building really did get gutted. I wonder why it cost less to do it this way rather than just start from scratch…

Lastly we can also see in at this angle, but this is going into the launch tunnel area and we can see where the lift hill is:

UPDATE April 2019:

This is our latest Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster Construction Update in Epcot and even though most of the attraction is closed off from the public’s view, one of the most exciting phases of the construction process was just completed: the installation of the roller coaster track in the launch tunnel. It sure looks like it’s going to give guests one heck of a ride!

Over the last couple months lots of progress has been made on the Guardians coaster, but mostly on the inside. The only exception has been the launch tunnel, which we’re going to look more into today!

We also got great news last month when we found out that James Gunn is coming back to work with Marvel Studios and will directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. That’s important because he will need to set aside time during filming for footage which will be used on the Guardians Coaster attraction.

Before we show you what’s new, we want to give a big shout out as always @bioreconstruct over for the awesome construction photos he takes (the aerial ones are especially great) and we get an amazing view of everything going on…Let’s see what’s new on the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster in Epcot…

Looking at the side of the launch tunnel where it connects to the attraction show building you can see the track is now fully in place at that part of the ride:

Wow, oh wow, we knew the coaster was going to go into an incline from the launch tunnel, but we didn’t know how much. From the latest construction photos it really looks like the ride is going to be intense right out of the shoot.

Here is a look back from earlier in the month at how the track was laid out:

We saw the track was going up, we just didn’t know how much.

Now you can see it continues from there as it sets up the ride through the rest of the building:

The interesting thing as you take a closer look at how the track is set up, the track actually banks to the right at the top of the first hill:

It’s strange in a way because you’d think that the track might stay straight in order to use some of the space towards the left of the building before going into the middle, but it looks like we’ll be taking a sharp right immediately:

Lastly we have a shot of the launch tunnel for the Guardians coaster before you get to where the track inclines:

You can see the inside of the launch tunnel and the massive amounts of scaffolding that are setup throughout. The track for the roller coaster trains runs in the lower half of that tunnel.

My question is how are the trains going to return to the loading area once the ride is done in the main attraction show building? Will they install another track above the launch one? Below it?

It didn’t look like there are two tracks installed next to each other on the same level, so unless there is room and they just haven’t done it yet you’ll be returning either above or below. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

We have a whole Walt Disney World construction updates page where you can check out all of the current projects going on around property.

Other Disney World Construction Updates:

• Epcot Entrance Construction Updates
• Epcot Future World Construction Updates
• TRON Lightcycle Run Roller Coaster Updates
• Ratatouille and France Pavilion Construction Updates
• Grand Floridian to Magic Kingdom Walkway

Your Thoughts:

I want to know what you think about the latest construction updates for the Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster in Epcot…

• Are you excited for this ride?
• Which upcoming Disney World attraction are you most looking forward to?

Let us know in the comments section below!

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