Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets is an indoor launched roller coaster located at the end of Sunset Boulevard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Debuting on May 26, 2026, the attraction represents one of the most substantial thematic changes in the coaster’s history, replacing the Aerosmith storyline that had defined Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster for more than a quarter century while retaining the high-speed ride system that made the original a Hollywood Studios landmark. Rather than simply replacing one musical act with another, Walt Disney Imagineering rebuilt the experience around the chaotic world of The Muppets, turning G-Force Records into a remarkably dense celebration of Muppet history, The Electric Mayhem, and several attractions and props that disappeared elsewhere in the park.
The premise begins with The Electric Mayhem preparing for what is supposed to be one of the biggest concerts of their career. Dr. Teeth, Animal, Floyd Pepper, Janice, Zoot, and Lips are scheduled to perform across Hollywood, but in classic Muppet fashion, there is a significant problem: the band is still inside the recording studio instead of heading to the show. Guests enter G-Force Records as VIP visitors and discover The Electric Mayhem happily rehearsing while Scooter, serving as the group’s increasingly desperate manager, attempts to get them moving before their audience loses patience.
G-Force Records itself survived the transition from the Aerosmith attraction, although its fictional corporate history has been rewritten. The label is now connected to J.P. Grosse, Scooter’s wealthy uncle and the owner of the Muppet Theatre originally established in The Muppet Show. Disney uses that bit of relatively deep Muppet lore to explain how the characters acquired their new Hollywood headquarters, while simultaneously preserving the G-Force name that had been part of Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster since 1999. The queue is filled with Electric Mayhem concert posters, music-industry jokes, memorabilia, visual gags, and celebrity appearances involving performers including “Weird Al” Yankovic, Neil Patrick Harris, Travis Barker, Wayne Brady, John Stamos, Danny Trejo, Darren Criss, Awkwafina, and Yvette Nicole Brown.
One of the attraction’s most significant additions appears in the recording-studio preshow. The Electric Mayhem performs “Can You Picture That?” while Scooter tries to convince them that it might be useful to actually attend the concert they are supposed to headline. Helping him are a crew of penguin audio engineers, an appropriately absurd Muppet touch. Scooter is represented by the first Audio-Animatronics figure ever created for the character. Imagineering used motion-capture data from an actual Scooter puppet performance to help reproduce the distinctive movements and mannerisms of the character in Audio-Animatronics form.
Once it becomes apparent that everyone needs to reach the concert immediately, Muppet Labs provides the transportation solution. The familiar stretch limousines from the Aerosmith era remain, but they have been reinterpreted as the Lengthy Immediate Motion Object, or L.I.M.O.—exactly the sort of unnecessarily elaborate acronym one would expect from Muppet Labs. Guests board behind Studio C before launching onto the Hollywood freeway.
The underlying thrill ride remains unmistakably Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster. Riders accelerate to approximately 60 miles per hour in about three seconds before plunging into the attraction’s darkened network of illuminated Hollywood roadways. The layout contains three inversions—two rollover inversions and a corkscrew—and maintains the 48-inch height requirement of the previous version. Because so much of the ride takes place in darkness, the sensation of speed is amplified; riders often have only a fraction of a second to process road signs, scenery, and Muppet jokes before they disappear behind the train.
Music remains every bit as important to the attraction as it was during the Aerosmith years, but the new soundtrack is built around The Electric Mayhem performing rock covers. Different rides can feature “Song 2,” “Born to Be Wild” with Camilla the Chicken, “Love Rollercoaster” with Jennifer Hudson and Questlove, “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” with Def Leppard, or “Walking on Sunshine” with Kelly Clarkson. The onboard audio system turns each train into a moving concert venue, preserving the fundamental marriage of roller-coaster acceleration and synchronized rock music that distinguished the attraction from conventional indoor coasters.
Outside, perhaps the most recognizable element of Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster was also retained rather than demolished. The enormous guitar towering over the courtyard—40 feet tall in the original attraction—was transformed from its familiar red appearance into a brightly colored psychedelic design inspired by The Electric Mayhem’s famously outrageous vehicle. Even the piano-key detail at its base received a Muppet-specific alteration, with a gold key included as a reference to Dr. Teeth.
What elevates the 2026 version beyond a straightforward character overlay, however, is the amount of Muppet history hidden throughout the building. Imagineering incorporated genuine material saved from the former MuppetVision 3D complex, creating a surprisingly direct physical connection between the Muppets’ old and new homes at Hollywood Studios. Shipping crates from the former attraction appear in the alley, along with Statler and Waldorf’s theater-balcony chairs, Gonzo’s stunt airplane and banner, the cannon once associated with MuppetVision’s chaotic finale, and even the Muppet Mobile Lab. Along the freeway, guests can spot the PizzeRizzo sign, World Wide Studios from The Muppet Movie, and a reference to Waldo C. Graphic—the troublesome “Spirit of 3D” created for Muppet*Vision.
The preservation becomes particularly meaningful near the end of the ride. Statler and Waldorf themselves appear backstage using elements from Muppet*Vision 3D, while the portrait of Jim Henson as a Muppet that once hung in the former attraction has been relocated to Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster. These touches give the attraction an unusual role: it is simultaneously a new Muppet experience and, in places, a repository for pieces of the Muppets’ previous three-decade presence at the park.
That history stretches back well before the Muppet version. The original Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster was dedicated with Aerosmith on July 29, 1999 and opened to the public the following day at what was then Disney-MGM Studios. It was a major technological milestone for Walt Disney World, becoming the resort’s first attraction with a high-speed launch and its first coaster with multiple complete inversions. The story sent guests from an Aerosmith recording session to a concert aboard a “super-stretch limo,” with different ride vehicles playing different Aerosmith songs and medleys through elaborate onboard sound systems.
That version survived for more than 26 years. Its final operating day was March 1, 2026, after which the attraction underwent an unusually rapid transformation before reopening less than three months later on May 26. Importantly, Disney did not discard the attraction’s fundamental identity: G-Force Records, the limousine conceit, the concert destination, the giant guitar, the launch, and the coaster itself all remain recognizable. What changed was the personality layered over those elements.
The Muppet transformation also followed a major reshuffling of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Muppet*Vision 3D and PizzeRizzo gave their final performances on June 7, 2025 as their former Grand Avenue area was prepared for the development of Monstropolis. Disney simultaneously announced that the Muppets would relocate to Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster on Sunset Boulevard, describing the project as the first Disney ride built around the characters. That made the new attraction more than an Aerosmith replacement: it became the principal permanent Muppet attraction at Walt Disney World and a way of carrying pieces of their Hollywood Studios history forward after the closure of the Muppet Courtyard complex.
In its current form, Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets succeeds largely because the characters fit the attraction rather than fighting against it. The Electric Mayhem has been a rock band since the earliest days of The Muppet Show, so the recording-studio setting, concert storyline, loud soundtrack, eccentric vehicles, and barely controlled rush across Hollywood all feel natural within their world. At the same time, the attraction retains the intense launch and inversions that have made Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster one of Walt Disney World’s signature thrill rides since 1999. The result is an unusual combination of old ride infrastructure, new storytelling, deep-cut Muppet references, modern Audio-Animatronics technology, and carefully preserved pieces of Disney park history—a reinvention that changes nearly everything guests see and hear without erasing the coaster underneath it.