Disney Shares First Look Inside the Upcoming Villains Show at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Mar 27, 2025 in "Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After"

Gallery / 6 Photos
Villains Show concept art

Posted: Thursday March 27, 2025 3:35pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has released a behind-the-scenes video offering the first look inside Sunset Showcase as staging preparations begin for Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After, the new live show debuting this summer at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The video, shared on the official Disney Parks channels, gives fans a glimpse at the early work happening inside the theater space. While the full set and show elements have not yet been revealed, the footage shows stage construction in progress, rigging being installed, and creative teams preparing the venue for what Disney promises will be a bold, theatrical production.

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Set in the mysterious realm of the Magic Mirror, Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After will feature iconic characters like Cruella de Vil, Captain Hook, and Maleficent as they take the stage to argue that they’ve been misunderstood. The show will include live music, special effects, and an interactive finale where the audience helps decide the villains’ fate.

Disney officially announced earlier this week that two new live entertainment productions—The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure and Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After—will both debut at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 27, 2025.

Villains Show concept art

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ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ28 minutes ago

Hmm, I think they'd be better off with shows on the hour, with a runtime in the 30-35 min range to ease the turnaround time. Pad-out the current runtime with lesser Villains heckling the audience or acting out skits while glancing often at a big clock counting down to the main "gathering" of villains in keeping the concept in-theme. Have the Mirror tell jokes submitted by the audience via their own magic mirrors aka phones using the Play Disney Parks mobile app. Or just show a refresher 10 min video montage. From an operations standpoint the added runtime and downtime would allow them to up-charge with concessions. (to test the waters for use in the MK land) and better prep for the next showing.

Tori4 hours ago

Gonna be a tight turnaround that’s for sure. Nice to see a couple showtimes after 5pm.

Agent H5 hours ago

Personally I think it’s all about how people want to spend their time. In a park with 9 rides meet and greets and other shows of course no one is going to want to watch a forty minute show. It makes for an interesting comparison to Disney cruise line where people have a lot more time and generally less things to do on the ship (unless you really like restaurants and bars which if that’s the case you won’t be hearing any shaming from me)

TheMaxRebo5 hours ago

Long shows are good in theory but they can muck up the plans for days as you really have to allot a good chunk of time for them (getting there early, filling the theater, emptying the theater, etc) and make sure you make one of the shows as there aren't many and if you just miss one it throws everything off. Even like Indy can have that impact Personally I would rather have an 18 min show that runs every 30 mins and they get 15 shows a day in than be 40 mins and only get in 5 shows or so (like Indy is)

eddie10420 hours ago

I personally think a 40 min show might be a tad bit overkill in this day and age. Depending on the content and if it holds my interest a longer show is fine. 20-25 minutes is the sweet spot in my opinion.

Figments Friend20 hours ago

Guests in general have shorter attention spans then ever before it seems. The decision to have the show be shorter then originally pitched makes sense from that perspective. It also helps insure they will be able to provide multiple showings per day. Looking forward to seeing this once it opens. -

Comped22 hours ago

I remain unconvinced the 40 min show ever existed except as a concept (certainly have never had its existance confirmed by anyone I've talked to). DLE hasn't made show that long for Orlando since Frozen (Nemo since it was cut doesn't count), with original Nemo being the last one before that anytime close. (And even Nemo was cut down from a full length show after previews.) Disappointing to say the least.

ToTBellHop23 hours ago

It’ll be a tight turnaround but doable. 3D shows unload and reload pretty quickly. Unfortunate that this was trimmed down. Hopefully, it still works. This combined with Mermaid are a nice capacity boost to the park.

Comped23 hours ago

18 is right. Very annoyingly.

Jedi141 day ago

I’m guessing the show is about 18 to 20 minutes if they can run it every 30.

TheMaxRebo1 day ago

Glad to see so many shows - some at DHS don't have many and can restrict the flow of your day Though do worry if they will be able to get the theater turned over in time when the showtimes are only 30mins apart if the run time is the reported 17-20 mins

Gusey1 day ago

I'm glad they're having so many shows. Since Lightning McQueen ran every 10 minutes, it meant it was always operational. With live stage shows, the more shows the better as more opportunities to watch

discos1 day ago

With showtimes this close together, it's more than likely they'll have 4 sets of casts per day. Two casts will alternate performances during the first half of the day and then two alternating in the 2nd half. LOVE seeing a nice boost in the amount of equity roles available on property.