Haunted Mansion Bride Is No Longer A Black Widow in Disneyland?

The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland is set to reopen on January 18, 2025, but some got a look at the attraction’s changes early. One of the big changes is the attic bride and I’m not sure what people will think. Many will probably be glad they returned her more to the original story.

Something old and something new

The new attic bride is seen as she looks in the portrait at the new Somewhere Beyond store, ethereal with a candelabra as we see in the endless hallway.

She seemingly floats above the floor in front of a window, thanks to the new projection technology.

Like the bride of the past, she has a beating heart.

She’s a sad woman and not a murderer.

The bride is no longer a crazed Black Widow, using an axe to kill all her husbands. Now she’s heartbroken and sad because she lost all her husbands.

While the shift might upset some, it returns to a story that aligns with the original bride. The black widow version was added in the 2000s.

From the images, it does appear that the men disappear from the portraits now instead of just their heads.

According to the LA Times, Kim Irvine, the daughter of the late Imagineer Leota Toombs, on who Madame Leota was based, has switched the bride from a murderer to a sad woman.

When the LA Times author asked Irvine about it, here is what she said, 

“That’s intentional, Irvine says, noting the team wanted to heighten the “sadness in her face.”
“We thought, what if we change the story back a little bit to the original story that the Imagineers had about a lost bride in the attic mourning the loss of her husbands,” she says. “It was a sad thing. It was a story about lost love.”

The candelabra in the endless hallway is now attributed to the bride’s story. Another one will appear near the end of the attraction, in the crypt, as well. Symbolizing her search for her loves.

What do you think? Do you like this change or not?

Comment and let us know!