Disneyland's Avengers Campus lets you sling (virtual) Spider-Man webs from your palm

ANAHEIM, Calif. – What superhero fan hasn't dreamed of shooting a Spider-Man web? Disneyland Resort's new technology will grant this wish at the newly named Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, part of the anticipated Avengers Campus opening July 18.  

The best part? No radioactive spider bites required.

Disney California Adventure Park recently gave a hard-hat sneak peek at Avengers Campus and Disney's first Spidey-themed attraction. The attraction, still under construction, will join Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! as the Marvel superhero fan base of operations in the U.S. (The Iron Man Experience, part of the Tony Stark Expo, opened in Hong Kong Disneyland in 2017. However, that park has been closed since late January due to the coronavirus crisis.)

The new superhero center is being built on the location once occupied by A Bug's Land, with only a few real trees remaining from the previous occupant.

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A key component of the tour was the impressively retro, real-brick Stark Automotive facility, which will house the Web Slinger attraction, and talking through the technology that lets fans shoot virtual webs from eight-person open-pod vehicles – all to help Spider-Man (portrayed once again by Tom Holland) save the day from out-of-control Spider-Bots.

"This new slinger vehicle will allow every one of us live out our Spider-Man fantasy and sling webs just like Spider-Man," says Brent Strong, creative director of Walt Disney Imagineering.

The attraction's back story: Tony Stark is using the location to house the Worldwide Engineering Brigade (WEB), led by Peter Parker and a group of tech-nerd superheroes who carelessly riff on daring new technologies like Spider-Bots. WEB's planned open house turns Parker into Spider-Man and an instant recruitment session for visitors willing to help web up the dangerously self-replicating Spider-Bots.

Web fire at will.

The virtual web shooting is enabled when visitors don 3D "web-vision" glasses and board Web Slinger vehicles that swivel and twist to face the virtual bots while passing through a virtual version of Avengers Campus. 

"We have invented a ton of technology to make it possible," Strong says. "With nothing in your hands, you get to reach out and sling webs."

Disney will lean on some cutting-edge, Tony Stark-esque tech to make this happen, inventing a new interface for a gesture recognition system built into each slinger vehicle. This technology will determine where each visitor's head, shoulders, elbows and wrists are located for precise calculations, 60 times a second.

"We are able to track the motion of your body, so when you reach out, we can render a virtual web out of the palm of your hand from your virtual web shooters," says Strong. "It just feels like Spider-Man."

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Shooters can web shoot casually or contribute to a group effort to capture Spider-Bots. That technology is still being developed and was not demonstrated for the tour so its effectiveness remains to be seen.

But the Spider-Bot merchandise, available at the adjacent WEB Suppliers (also known as the Spidey gift shop), was impressive and available for testing.

The remote-controlled six-legged Spider-Bots creepily crawl or crouch. The bots can take on "tactical upgrades," an exoskeleton shell that gives them the attributes and physical characteristics of Black Panther, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp or Black Widow. They are at their best destroying rival Spider-Bots in laser battles.

Spider-Man looms large throughout the new campus, which will feature an army of Avengers from the Marvel Universe, including Iron Man (both heroes don new specially made park suits, a Mark 80 for Iron Man).

Naturally, much of the activity will be centered around the looming Avengers Headquarters building, where villains like Taskmaster (who appears in the upcoming "Black Widow" movie) and Loki can continue their battles in unscheduled skirmishes.

Thor, Groot, Captain America, Black Panther (or the actors playing them) will roam and mingle with guests. Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje, the elite female bodyguard squad from "Black Panther," will give Wakanda warrior training sessions and Doctor Strange will have his own outdoor sanctum to demonstrate his mystical arts.

"It's the largest assembly of superheroes anyplace," says Dan Fields, executive creative director of Disney Parks Live Entertainment. "This is their home base."

Spider-Man (not played by Holland, of course) has the most dramatic regular acting role, swinging through the air, landing and greeting guests and Spider-sticking to the side of the WEB building.

"There are many iconic moments with Spider-Man, whether it's cute and funny to acrobatic," says Fields, "It's Spider-Man, of course, he's going to hang off the building. He'll fly, descend and talk. He's doing it all."