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Hi guys. It's been 4 years since Alton Towers' 8th Secret Weapon, Wicker Man, opened, so I thought SW9 deserved its own speculation thread! I made this thread, however, because we've now had confirmation as good as any that SW9 is well and truly in the pipeline; Nathan Graveson, a designer who worked for Intamin and designed the likes of VelociCoaster, Toutatis and the Parque Warner Madrid launch coaster, has announced that he is now a project director for Merlin Magic Making, and has stated SW9 to be one of MMM's upcoming projects. He said the following, and the bolded explicitly references SW9: "I also have a massive announcement. Since my recent departure from Intamin as a thrill coaster designer, I have recently been hired by Merlin Magic Making and have officially been made the project director and designer for Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and the Legoland parks. This means I have now moved from just coaster layout design, to full coaster and theming design, which will test my artist qualifications I got at University, all them years ago. When I worked for Intamin I was actually allowed to do some area design as well, so you will see that at Parc Asterix for Toutatis, which I designed the theming for and looking back, I worked closely with Universal Orlando on the Velocicoaster project. I can officially say that the final project that I did for Intamin was the new Batman coaster at Parque Warner Madrid, which I can tell you is the best layout I have done for a coaster, which I look forward for you all to see and ride. So, look out in the future as us at Merlin Magic Making are going to be developing some incredible attractions, Alton Towers' Secret Weapon 9, Thorpe Park's Project Exodus, Chessington' "World of Jumanji", and the various Legoland Projects coming. So I say thank you for the amazing reception to my coaster designs at Intamin and I look forward to your reactions to our future attractions!" Source: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/chessington-world-of-adventures-resort.97/page-293#post-374226 So what do we think SW9 might be, then? I'm not really sure myself. I personally reckon it could be some sort of Intamin Blitz Coaster or similar, but I'm not sure whether that's just me saying what I want rather than what I think will happen. Whatever happens, though, I don't think it'll be your typical ride; both Chessington and Thorpe's recent new coaster announcements have certainly been pretty crazy, out-there choices, so I don't see why Alton's wouldn't be the same! But what do you guys think SW9 might be? I'd be really keen to know!

In an interesting development, John Burton (creative lead for Resort Theme Parks) posted this on Twitter yesterday: Could this be a further hint towards the ride returning to its roots somewhat?

Sorry to reply to a 2 month old post, but I think the illusions and Smiler graphics on the back of the trains were removed in favour of clearer safety signage following the crash. The back of the seat in front where the illusions were is certainly where the safety signage now sits, and I seem to remember that changing after the crash.