In the mid- to late-1990s, Michael Hundgen was a high school student who was facing an assignment for his marketing class. The task? Come up with a product and create a marketing plan for it. An avid fan of The Lion King , which was in theaters at the time, he envisioned a villains-themed park at Walt Disney World
Flash forward a little over a quarter century. Hundgen is now a Disney Imagineer, and as executive vice president of creative for the Walt Disney World portfolio, he’s overseeing the creation of a major park expansion that will focus exclusively on characters like Captain Hook, Scar, Ursula the Sea Witch, and Maleficent.
That expansion is part of a $60 billion investment Disney is making in its parks and experiences over the next decade. And it comes at a critical time for the company…