Be Kind, Rewind
During my first trip to Walt Disney World in May 2022, we were heading to the monorail and got a glimpse at the closed-in site where Epcot’s newest big ride was just a few days from opening. Announced at the D23 Expo in 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind was built in the space previously occupied by Ellen’s Energy Adventure in the World Discovery area.
The Guardians of the Galaxy have always been one of the more unusual groups that made the leap from comics to the MCU. The version of the Guardians we all know (i.e. Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot, Drax, and Gamora) first appeared in comics in 2008 in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 #1. The original version of the team debuted back in 1969 in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 and consisted of Vance Astro, Martinex T’Naga, Captain Charlie-27, and Yondu Udonta. This team, with a few changes, lasted until 1995, when the Guardians run ended with Guardians of the Galaxy #62. Several of the original team members would appear in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
Cosmic Rewind wasn’t the first Disney ride to feature the Marvel team. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! opened at Disney California Adventure five years earlier in 2017 in what is now the Avengers Campus. Unlike Cosmic Rewind, Mission: Breakout was a revamped version of California Adventure’s version of the Tower of Terror (which I talked about in a previous blog.)
The entrance for Cosmic Rewind is set in a pavilion known as the Wonders of Xandar. There’s a Nova Corps ship out front that is a gift to the “Terrans” (aka the people of Earth). The queue line shows a number of exhibits and models featuring the technology of Xandar. There are also a number of screens that play interviews with the Guardians regarding a battle with the Kree.
Once you get into the pre-ride show, everyone is greeted by Nova Prime Irani Rael (played by Glenn Close) and Centurion Tal Marik (played by Terry Crews), who transport everyone to a Nova Corps ship to demonstrate the Cosmic Generator, a super powerful piece of Xandar technology.
However, the generator is stolen by a Celestial who plans to use it to undo Earth’s creation. The Guardians show up just in time to go after it while all the guests are going to get to the escape shuttles. Rocket Raccoon decides to use the shuttles to follow the Celestial to get the Cosmic Generator back. And that’s the set-up for the ride.
There’s a brief story sequence at the start of the ride involving the Guardians trying to retrieve the cosmic generator. This is where you’ll first notice that the individual ride cars rotate to face whatever the focus of the scene is. It’s a very smooth effect. As things go wrong in the story, the ride train launches backward, and the main part of the ride starts. If you want to avoid the strongest part of the launch, it’s recommended to be in the back two rows of the train.
I will say, right off the bat, this ride is fast, especially by Disney ride standards. So be prepared for that. Now, one of the coolest features of Cosmic Rewind is the randomly selected song that starts playing after the reverse launch. We got 80’s one-hit wonder “I Ran (So Far Away)” by Flock of Seagulls, but some of the other songs include “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire, “One Way or Another” by Blondie, “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears for Fears and “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps. It’s a feature that definitely makes Cosmic Rewind worth checking out over and over to hear them all.
With the Cosmic Generator secured and the Celestial defeated, the shuttles return to Earth, and the Guardians thank everyone for their help (in their own slightly backhanded sort of way), and the ride comes to an end.
Cosmic Rewind is definitely one of the stand-out rides at Epcot. So, the next time you’re there to unwind, be sure to rewind.
~Stephen
