Disney+ Orders Spaceship Earth Pilot Inspired by EPCOT’s Icon

Written by Joshua Posted August 6th, 2026

Disney+ has ordered a pilot for Spaceship Earth, a series inspired by EPCOT’s iconic attraction.

Jason Fuchs will executive produce and serve as the showrunner. He’s recently done the same for HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry. Michael Waldron, creator and head writer of Marvel’s Loki, will also executive produce. Waldron is also a co-writer of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday film.

Casting is currently underway. There’s no word on whether Judi Dench will narrate. That’s a joke, but also a great idea.

Here’s the show’s premise:

When a mission to avert an imminent global cataclysm goes awry, a small band of teenagers from Earth’s past and future must join forces to confront a threat as vast and mysterious as time itself.

So this isn’t a book-report retelling of the EPCOT attraction. That’s excellent news, since most diehard Disney World fans can already recite large portions of the narration. No, we want something original.

Using Spaceship Earth’s time-travel concept as inspiration makes much more sense than a literal translation of the ride. A television series about the evolution of human communication could get a little dry if every episode included someone inventing papyrus, running a printing press, or building an early computer. I’d still watch it, though.

Fuchs and Waldron will write the pilot. Lee Toland Krieger, whose credits include You, Riverdale, and Shadow and Bone, will direct.

At this point, Disney has committed only to the pilot, not a full season. The episode will give the company a chance to decide whether Spaceship Earth moves forward as a complete Disney+ series.

From the parks to the screen

Most modern Disney attractions begin as a movie or television series. Franchises from Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and Disney Animation have dominated the company’s recent theme park additions. But Disney does occasionally work in reverse.

The most successful example is Pirates of the Caribbean. The popular attraction inspired an equally popular film franchise that has earned billions at the box office. Other crossover attempts have been less successful. Disney has released multiple Haunted Mansion-inspired movies, Jungle Cruise, and Tomorrowland. Even Country Bear Jamboree received a movie adaptation in 2002.

Cave drawings featured in a Spaceship Earth scene

Spaceship Earth should differ from most of those projects in a few important ways. First, it’s being developed as a television series, giving its creators more room to build a compelling story. More importantly, the show’s writers are borrowing the attraction’s premise rather than trying to recreate the ride on screen.

I hope the show is incredibly successful. I also hope that, if it is, Disney resists the urge to retrofit EPCOT’s best attraction to match it.