Disney Steps Up Efforts To Bring Marvel Characters To Disneyland

When a movie makes one and a half billion dollars, it's going to change a few things. In the case of The Avengers, which is now up to $575 million domestically and $1.4 billion overall, Disney has been happily struggling to catch up to its runaway success. This means more expensive Marvel movies, more merchandise, rumored re-releases and heavy theme park integration.

Theme park integration has always been the most obvious business strategy for Disney and Marvel. Since 2009 when Disney purchased Marvel for $4 billion, they've been trying to get the huge cast of Marvel characters into their theme parks. Until now, that effort has largely been limited to small things like gift shops.

In an interview on the occasion of Cars Land opening at Disney's California Adventure, the head of Disney's parks said they've recently stepped up those efforts in direct relation to the success of the film. Read his quote and more after the jump.

Reuters ran an article with the following quote from Tom Staggs, chairman of Disney's parks and resorts division:

We were hard at work on attractions using Marvel characters previously, and that work has only intensified given (the film's) great success.

But how, exactly?

The setting has to be right, the story has to be right. That takes a fair amount of time.

Staggs did suggest the characters they're mostly focusing on are the stars of The Avengers, such as Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America and that the changes would only be at Disneyland. There can't be any Marvel at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL because of a previous agreement between Marvel and Universal for their theme park there.

Let's put this in perspective though. Cars Land, which officially opens today, was first announced in 2006. That's six years from official announcement to grand opening. So even if "work has intensified" you likely can't expect anything major to open until at least 2016 or so, right?

What is your dream Marvel addition to Disneyland? An Avengers roller coaster? The superheroes walking around the park? A whole new land?