ATTENTION: THE FOLLOWING REOPRT IS A RUMOR. PLEASE TAKE THE FOLLOWING STORY WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.
It’s no secret that in recent years Disney has tried to connect as many of their theme park attractions to their films and other well-known IPs. One of the biggest examples is Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney added new animatronics as well as audio/visual references to the movie franchise that spawned from the ride.
Well, it turns out that one of Disney’s other classic rides, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, almost experienced a similar retheme. The Disneyland version, which opened in 1979 is considered an iconic part of Frontierland. Imagining it being changed is almost unthinkable (they said the same thing about Splash Mountain).
Apparently, it almost happened. According to a story from The Wrap Disney was considering retheming the ride to tie into their then upcoming 2013 film The Lone Ranger. The film starred Armie Hammer as the titular masked avenger while Johnny Depp played his faithful Native American ally, Tonto.
Disney believed that since the same team behind the first Pirates of the Caribbean film (director Gore Verbinski and writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio) were behind the Lone Ranger film that it would be as successful as their previous venture.
The retheme was apparently going to include a subtitle being added to the overlay “Curse of the Silver Mine” and would have seen animatronics of the Lone Ranger, Tonto, silver miners and a group of terrifying man-eating coyotes sprinkled throughout the ride.
However, the plans were apparently scrapped rather quickly as the film was considered a box office flop both critically and financially. The film grossed $260.5 Million of a $250 Million budget and received a 31% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. 
While we currently have no worries about the ride going anywhere anytime soon, imagine an alternate timeline where the film was indeed successful, leading to this possible retheme where we saw a robotic Johnny Depp wearing “redface.” I’m not sure how people would have reacted to such a change, especially with today’s “sensitivity consultants.”
What do you think? Would you have been okay with a Lone Ranger addition to this classic Disneyland ride?
Source: Laughing Place
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