Disney Cut the Cosmic Rewind Preshow Pause Where Some Guests Yelled "Alcoholics!", So Tal Marik Now Glitches Straight to His Next Line

For years, one moment in the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind preshow belonged to the crowd. Centurion Tal Marik would ask what the people of EPCOT call themselves, leave a beat of silence, and often somebody in the room would fill it. A go-to answer, Blog Mickey says, was "alcoholics."

That beat is gone. Disney has removed the pause, and the video now "glitches" and skips ahead to Marik's following line, according to reports from WDW News Today and Blog Mickey on October 4.

Tal Marik mid-glitch in the updated preshow. Photo: WDW News Today

What changed

Cosmic Rewind has two preshows, and this is the first one. That is the room where Nova Prime Irani Rael (Glenn Close) and Centurion Tal Marik (Terry Crews) welcome guests, set up the story of the Cosmic Generator and cover the safety briefing.

Before he gets to the question, Marik fumbles through a few candidates, including "EPCOT-ers" and "EPCOT-ians," Blog Mickey notes. In the old version, the video then waited. WDW News Today says some guests would reportedly yell "Alcoholics!" in that gap, a nod to EPCOT's drinking around the world trend, and that "This was a common enough occurrence that Disney decided to stop giving guests the opportunity to interrupt."

Now the question is followed immediately by a glitch and a cut to the next segment, where a flustered Marik asks whether he is on and says someone needs to tell him when he is on. Blog Mickey says the words themselves have not changed: "There is no change to the actual dialog itself. Instead, the timing of the dialog changes."

WDW News Today also spotted extra glitching effects sprinkled through the rest of Marik's segment, which it suggests keep things consistent and may even foreshadow the arrival of the Celestial Eson the Searcher.

The updated first preshow at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Photo: WDW News Today

How the change surfaced

Videos posted online show the change, including one shared on X on October 3 by @WEDenterprise, captioned "omg they changed it." Disney has not given a reason. Blog Mickey's read is that it is "almost certainly designed to remove a moment that guests have used to shout obnoxious things."

Judging from the videos, Blog Mickey says the edit is limited to the instant after the question, while Marik's name-guessing bit is untouched. From there, the scene still leads into the Phase Chamber.

It is not the only recent tweak around the ride's preshows. WDW News Today notes the ride recently added a crowd-control setup after the second preshow, meant to keep guests from racing for the doors, and that it is not used every time.

So, which side are you on? Was the shout-back a harmless EPCOT tradition, or are you glad Marik can finally finish a sentence?

Sources

• WDW News Today, VIDEO: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Preshow Updated to Prevent Guest 'Jokes' at EPCOT
• Blog Mickey, Cosmic Rewind Pre-Show Changed to Remove Obnoxious Guest Yelling Moment
• @WEDenterprise on X, October 3, 2026

Image credits: BlogMickey.com (featured photo, taken in 2022); WDW News Today (preshow frames).