The Society of Explorers and Adventurers
Back in 2021, For All Mankind’s Ronald D. Moore became attached to showrun a number of Magic Kingdom universe tales for television. The first: a series inspired by the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, a deep cut Easter egg for theme park nerds. It refers to a fictional secret society composed of people who have had a hand in the history of certain theme park rides and their fantastical artifacts, along with famous adventurers and explorers from the Disney-owned film universes. For example, Jock Lindsay’s Hanger Bar is a real bar you can go to at Walt Disney World; it’s also known to be a place that members of this society have frequented, since Jock Lindsay is a member along with Marion Ravenwood—both characters from the Indiana Jones franchise. The society is also name-dropped in the recent Jungle Cruise movie, and specific rides from all over the world feature symbols to tie all this untold lore together. It’s a lot to dig into and somehow connects theme park ride backstory lore into a shared reality with other big Disney IP.
While there hasn’t been an update on the series in the intervening years, Deadline announced in 2022 a live-action film also based on the SEA (but unconnected to the TV series) was being produced by Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort and written by Strange World’s Qui Nguyen.
