What Is the New Indiana Jones Ride at Animal Kingdom?

It is Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, the official name Disney locked at D23 for the Tropical Americas attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

At the August 15, 2026 showcase, Imagineers also said Harrison Ford is the model for the ride’s Indiana Jones Audio-Animatronics figure, the first time his face will appear on a Disney park attraction.

What Disney confirmed at D23

According to the Disney Parks Blog, Imagineers Michael Hundgen and Chris Beatty used the Horizons: A Carousel of Progress stage at D23 to open the first public package of ride details.

The headline for planners is the name itself. Until this weekend, coverage leaned on temporary labels such as the Indiana Jones attraction or the DINOSAUR replacement. The ride is now officially Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent.

Lucasfilm’s same-day report matches the Parks Blog on the title, the Maya temple setting, and Ford’s role as the animatronic model.

Ford addressed the D23 audience by video and said he is the actual model for the figure. Disney and Lucasfilm both frame that as the first time his face will appear on a Disney attraction anywhere in the world.

That is a product fact for the ride, not a booking button. The land still targets a 2027 window that Disney has not turned into a ticketed opening day.

The ride story, in plain English

Imagineers place riders with Dr. Jones as he explores a mysterious temple near a once water-filled underground cave called a cenote.

Local legend, in the ride’s fiction, says the passageway leads to the Maya Underworld and is protected by a serpentine creature called the Tsukán.

The Parks Blog says the adventure accelerates when riders are drawn through a portal into that Underworld, then face perils such as monstrous bats, oversized scorpions, fire, and snakes.

Chris Beatty told the audience the Tsukán appears throughout the attraction, including a final confrontation built around a gigantic Audio-Animatronics figure that Imagineers are sculpting by hand.

Concept art released with the announcement shows a luminous green serpent that matches the Jade Serpent title more clearly than any earlier generic Indy rendering.

Why Animal Kingdom is the right park for this version

Hundgen and Beatty framed the attraction as a blend of classic Indiana Jones thrills with Animal Kingdom’s focus on creatures and natural systems, real and imagined.

Disney says the project team worked with archaeologists, anthropologists, and Maya experts so temple art and storytelling stay rooted in the region rather than a generic jungle set.

Research trips to places such as Honduras, including observations tied to the Copán site, informed architecture and art direction for the temple experience.

Imagineers also said the temple entrance is already under construction and showed behind-the-scenes facade progress that had previously appeared only as renderings.

For 2026 visitors, that means the construction site is part of the park’s present map, even while the ride itself remains a 2027-class planning object.

What else lands with Tropical Americas

Tropical Americas is the 11-acre replacement for DinoLand U.S.A., first announced at D23 2024 as a major Animal Kingdom expansion.

Alongside the Indy headliner and the Encanto dark ride, Imagineers named El Carrusel de los Animalitos, a carousel with 22 hand-carved animals drawn from Disney and Pixar stories.

Spottable figures mentioned in the Parks Blog include Scuttle, Squirt, Pua, Pascal, Simba, Eeyore, Kuzco, and Heimlich, plus a nearby play area themed to Maya exploration for younger guests.

Deep Arrival already covered the Encanto ride-vehicle models shown at the same D23 cycle, which remains the clean chronology post for the Casita side of the land.

Older permit and construction reporting, including Deep Arrival’s Indiana Jones permit update for Tropical Americas, still helps explain how the former DINOSAUR show building is being reused, but it does not replace this named product reveal.

How this changes a real trip plan

If you already hold tickets for the rest of 2026, nothing about this D23 package reopens DINOSAUR or restores DinoLand restaurants and play spaces.

Your practical Animal Kingdom map still runs through Pandora, Discovery Island, Africa, Asia, and the current Rafiki’s Planet Watch branch, including Bluey’s Wild World where it is operating.

Deep Arrival’s evergreen Animal Kingdom planning guide is the right place to rebuild a full day around those live lands while Tropical Americas stays fenced.

When you are ready to sequence rides on a future open day, the Animal Kingdom rides order guide will need a Tropical Americas rewrite after opening dates, height rules, and Lightning Lane status are public.

Until then, the traveler decision is simpler than the marketing: enjoy the park you can ride now, and treat Jade Serpent as a 2027 planning signal with a locked name and a still-open calendar.

What remains unknown

Disney has not published a public opening month inside 2027, a height requirement, a Lightning Lane category, or a temporary closure plan for neighboring paths during final install.

It has not said whether Ford’s likeness will appear only as a full-size figure, in multiple scenes, or also in queue media.

Ride-system details beyond the former DINOSAUR building’s conversion remain limited in the official posts, so treat fan track maps as provisional.

Ticket pricing for a first Tropical Americas season will follow Disney’s usual package and date-based model; this naming package does not change 2026 ticket math by itself.

If a later official post moves the open into late 2027 or splits Encanto and Indy openings, that becomes a material update on the same stream rather than a second URL.

For now, the clean move is to update your vocabulary and your 2027 watch list: the Animal Kingdom Indiana Jones ride has a name, a Ford-modeled hero figure, a Maya Underworld story, and a construction site already changing the park’s eastern edge.