Robert Downey Jr. joined Kevin Feige and Bruce Vaughn on stage at SXSW 2025 to share new details about the Stark Flight Lab attraction coming to Disney California Adventure.
Robert Downey Jr. Talks Stark Flight Lab at SXSW
Announced at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in 2024, two new attractions will soon join Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure. During the “The Future of World-Building at Disney” session, President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige and President and Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Imagineering Bruce Vaughn dove into greater detail on one of those attractions, Stark Flight Lab.
Stark Flight Lab will bring you inside Tony Stark’s workshop to test out some of the genius, billionaire philanthropist’s tech, and there was no better way to show off the new experience than by bringing out Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr.
Downey called working with Walt Disney Imagineering on these new experiences for Avengers Campus “the living embodiment of the Stark Enterprises mission statement.”
The curiosity, the passion, the inventiveness, the occasional flair for the dramatic, most of all a drive to put something good out into the world to make life better, at the minimum more fun by a mile. It’s the privilege of a lifetime to be invited to participate.
Robert Downey Jr.
Downey was also excited just to be invited into Walt Disney Imagineering and made jokes about the stealth of WDI headquarters. “You wanna talk about a closed set? It’s the Area 51 of fun!”
On Stark Flight Lab, guests will sit in “gyro-kinetic pods” and move along a track before stopping in front of a giant robot arm — which will then hoist riders into the air and make several high-speed maneuvers inspired by Iron Man and other Avengers. Above is footage from the animatic released during the presentation.
Transferring from a track to a robot arm and then back again – nothing like this has ever been done before in a theme park, and we’re so excited about it. Usually, we hide all the tech behind the scenes so you can focus on the story. Here, the tech IS the story, so we’re putting it front and center.
Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Imagineering
One piece of tech that has become important to Stark’s lore is his robotic friend, DUM-E. When Downey first visited Imagineering, he commented how much the robot arm for Stark Flight Lab looked like DUM-E, and that quickly made its way into the attraction.
Using dancers and motion capture technology, the team made a “virtual mirror” to incorporate some of these movements into early ride mockups. The Imagineers want to make sure the robots in Stark Flight Lab feel as lifelike as possible, just like DUM-E.
Downey, who will reprise his role as Tony Stark for both new Avengers Campus attractions, joked about staying on longer for more. “Even after we finish with the Flight Lab, I want to stay with you all for the long haul,” Downey told Feige and Vaughn amid screams from the crowd, “This isn’t a one-time deal. You need more me.”
See the animatic in action in the video below:
The other Avengers Campus ride announced will be titled Avengers: Infinity Defense, and will see guests take on King Thanos alongside their favorite Super Heroes. Disney submitted plans for their Avengers Campus expansion preparations late last year. The Red Car Trolley at Disney California Adventure closed in February 2025 to make room for the expansion.
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