‘Its potential and its dreams’: Why Abu Dhabi won Disney’s first Middle East theme park resort

Dubai: Disney Abu Dhabi may still be an expanse of largely empty land, but Disney boss Bob Iger is already imagining what could rise from it.

In newly released documentary Disney Worldbuilders, now streaming on Disney+, Iger stands at the future site of Disney’s first theme park resort in Abu Dhabi and talks about the thinking that led one of the world's biggest entertainment companies to the UAE And it wasn't a decision made without looking elsewhere.

“We studied different parts of the world that we could expand into,” Iger says in the documentary.

One factor immediately jumps out: location.

“We like being in this region,” Iger says.

“About one-third of the world’s population, actually, can get here within four hours.”

For Disney, which already operates destination resorts in the US, Europe and Asia, Abu Dhabi potentially opens the gates to a vast new audience.

But the documentary, directed by Academy Award and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Leslie lwerks, suggests that connectivity was only part of the attraction.

“We view this as an oasis of the world,” Iger says. “Not just a crossroads, but an oasis.”

The footage, then, lingers on the UAE's landscapes; from its waters and greenery to mountains and desert; while exploring the qualities Disney believes make the capital a compelling setting for its next chapter.

The company is also clearly drawn to Abu Dhabi's willingness to dream big.

Iger speaks of its “potential and its dreams” and “its design ethic”; an intriguing choice of words from the head of a company whose theme parks are essentially exercises in turning elaborate fictional universes into physical spaces.

That sense of possibility becomes particularly striking when Iger is filmed at the Abu Dhabi site itself.

There is no Disney castle looming behind him and no finished attraction to unveil. Instead, the undeveloped landscape becomes a visual reminder of the scale of the undertaking.

“I think if you tell a great story, its potential is limitless,” Iger says.

And Disney has plenty of stories at its disposal.

The documentary flashes through the company's formidable catalogue of worlds and characters, including Cars, Inside Out, Marvel and Star Wars, while examining how stories conceived for the screen can evolve into places audiences can physically enter.

The partnership also makes sense from the other side.

Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi and Chairman of Miral, makes it clear in the documentary that the emirate's ambitions stretch beyond simply adding another blockbuster attraction to Yas Island.

“Here in Abu Dhabi, we’re investing significantly in the creative industries,” Al Mubarak says.

“Because we believe in the creative mind. It’s so powerful. It’s what connects us.”

He points to Disney's sprawling storytelling universe as an example of that power.

“Whether it was Star Wars or the world of Marvel or Pixar,” he says, before adding: “The world of Disney in itself, it’s just unbelievable. You are bringing amazing experiences to life."

He also lauded Disney's efforts at bringing the fantast park to life in the UAE.

"You are really curating an experience that is paying homage to the past giving a glimpse to the future, and cementing our present," he added.

That may ultimately be the more interesting explanation for why Disney and Abu Dhabi found each other.

One has spent generations constructing fantasy worlds. The other is investing heavily in culture, tourism and entertainment and has demonstrated an appetite for building projects on a scale that can turn ambitious concepts into physical destinations.

Disney's Abu Dhabi resort, announced in May 2025, will be built on Yas Island in partnership with Miral. It will become Disney's seventh theme park resort destination worldwide and its first in the Middle East.

Disney Worldbuilders does not give away what rides visitors will eventually queue for or which Disney characters will dominate the Abu Dhabi skyline.

Instead, it reveals something more fundamental about the project: why here? The portions, featuring Abu Dhabi, is toward the very end of the feature-length documentary.

In less than an hour, the documentary underlines that Disney wanted access to a new part of the world. What's more: Abu Dhabi offered that access and also offered ambition, design, landscape and a belief in the economic and cultural power of creativity.

For now, Disney Abu Dhabi remains a promise on an open piece of land.

As Iger puts it: “If you tell a great story, its potential is limitless. You have to have great ambition, you have to dream big and you have to have a wild imagination that can turn a barren piece of land into a magical place.”

The documentary ends on a high note, but does not give the farm away.

What remains under wraps is how all of that will manifest itself when Disney begins turning an empty stretch of Yas Island into its newest world.