Disney has moved its next D23 expo back a year until 2022, the company announced Monday.
The seventh biannual event, held in Anaheim, Calif., at the Anaheim Convention Center, had been scheduled to take place next summer, but will now be held on Sept. 9-11, 2022. Disney said it will use the event to kick start the company’s 100th anniversary celebration, coinciding with the 1923 founding of the company by Walt Disney.
D23 is the official fan club for The Walt Disney Co. The group was founded in 2009 with Bob Iger unveiling it at the company’s annual meeting. It’s best known for its exposition event, the D23 Expo. Membership includes discounts and early access to the convention.
The first D23 Expo was held at the Anaheim Convention Center with pavilions from Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Consumer Products. It showed off an expansion of Fantasyland, an extensive re-hauling of Star Tours for Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a fourth film in the “Pirates of the Caribbean franchise,” and appearances by John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Patricia Heaton, Kelsey Grammer, Tim Burton, Selena Gomez, Robin Williams, Johnny Depp (as Captain Jack Sparrow), as well as live performances by Miley Cyrus and The Muppets.
Last year’s D23 included giant Marvel exhibits and a kiosk to sign up for Disney Plus and save $23 per year on a three-year subscription to the streaming service. The event presented preview looks at “Frozen II,” “Onward,” “Soul,” “Black Widow,” “Eternals,” “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” “Mulan,” “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” “Jungle Cruise,” and “Cruella” along with 20th Century Fox projects “Ford v Ferrari,” “Spies in Disguise,” and “The King’s Man.”
Disney has been forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to delay many of its film including “Jungle Cruise,” “Eternals” and “Black Widow.”
