The bride of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion has a surprising new backstory

Jack Skellington has left the building Right now as well The haunted mansion It reopens this weekend in its classic glory, but with some quite surprising updates.

In advantage in Los Angeles TimesDisneyland Imagineering Executive Creative Director Kim Irvin We talked about some of the major changes made to one of the Haunted Mansion’s most memorable characters – the Bride – to return to the mystery of her origins when the park opened.

“We thought, what if we changed the story a little bit to the original story that Imagineers had about a lost bride in the attic mourning the loss of her husbands,” she told the Los Angeles Times. It was sad. It was a story about lost love.

Gone is the backstory of fan-favorite Black Widow, which was part of the attraction’s last update in the early 2000s. It featured a bride with an interesting sense of agency who added a fun sinister element to the journey with the gag of her several disappearing husbands’ heads (disappearing because she killed them with an axe). Times change, as do Disney attractions, and Disney Experiences has chosen to return to a more mystical approach.

“The bride that was there was an ax murderer, and in this day and age we have to be very careful about people’s sensitivities,” Irvin said. “We were celebrating someone who beheaded her husband, and it was a weird story. I know the fans, some will like it and some will say, ‘Oh, you changed something again.’ That’s our mission. That’s what we’re here for.”

He has now been restored to his status as merely the desperate presence of a haunting bride, apparently kidnapped by her lovers ghost For unknown reasons – perhaps they died or perhaps they just left her at the altar – it will be interesting to see how these myths fit into the gravitational energy. We’ll be visiting soon to get a better idea of ​​the New Bride story and its implications before doing a lot of advocacy to support not only women’s rights but also women’s wrongs.

The Haunted Mansion is now open at the Disneyland Resort just in time for the park Celebrating the 70th later this year.

Want more io9 news? Check when to expect the latest marvel, star warsand Star Trek Releases, what’s next for DC Universe in film and televisionAnd everything you want to know about the future Doctor Who.