Disney Dreamlight Valley’s next base game update confirms the predictions its playerbase formed when the base game roadmap for the first half of 2025 was released last November. Players breezily predicted that Aladdin and Jasmine would be added to the game’s character roster at the beginning of the year and an Alice in Wonderland-themed update would head to the game this spring. The third image in the roadmap depicted Skull Rock, which is already part of Disney Dreamlight Valley. With the last two images predicted correctly, players were not shocked when the Mysteries of Skull Rock update featuring Peter Pan was confirmed.
What was shocking, at least to some players, is that Mysteries of Skull Rock only adds Peter Pan to Disney Dreamlight Valley’s character roster. In fairness, Disney Dreamlight Valley tends to only add one character every three updates, as it did with Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas in Winter 2024’s Sew Delightful update. Simply adding Peter Pan in Mysteries of Skull Rock, the third update of the year, fits this pattern. But this means that Disney Dreamlight Valley has missed a crucial opportunity to add one of Disney’s most popular mascots and a fan-favorite character: Tinkerbell.
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Mysteries of Skull Rock Snubs Tinkerbell
In her own words, Tinkerbell being excluded from Disney Dreamlight Valley is anything but flitterrific. Though Mickey Mouse will always and forever be the face of Disney, Tinkerbell is often featured in Disney promotional material. In the home video era, Tinkerbell introduced swaths of children to Disney’s Fast Play and even received her own franchise of direct-to-DVD films that garnered a cult following. Peter Pan may be the titular character of his story, but Tinkerbell has had a larger impact on the Disney brand as a whole. The sassy fairy is beloved by many, making her exclusion from Mysteries of Skull Rock surprising.
There are some practical reasons as to why Tinkerbell may not have been included in Mysteries of Skull Rock. The aforementioned pattern of character additions is one of these reasons, but the second half of the game’s Storybook Vale DLC is releasing soon, which may have drawn developer attention away from the update. More importantly, Tinkerbell’s size may be difficult to render in game. Disney Dreamlight Valley has previously experimented with smaller characters in the form of Woody and Buzz Lightyear, but Tinkerbell is even smaller than the two toys. Fortunately, there is still hope that Tinkerbell may join Disney Dreamlight Valley at some point, though it unfortunately won’t be anytime this year.
Tinkerbell May Join DDV in the Future
The Garden of Whimsy Star Path featured plenty of items inspired by Alice in Wonderland, just like its update Wonderland Whimsy. However, playing into the Star Path’s garden theme, Disney Dreamlight Valley also added several furniture items and decorations inspired by the Disney Fairies franchise. The Disney Fairies franchise is most well known for the aforementioned Tinkerbell films, but it also spawned a book series, plenty of physical merchandise, and even an online MMORPG in the same vein as Club Penguin, Webkinz, and so forth. Disney Dreamlight Valley often uses Star Paths as an excuse to bring properties outside of Walt Disney Animation and Pixar Studios into the game, as these studios are the only places Disney Dreamlight Valley has pulled characters from thus far.
The Disney Fairies franchise lies in a sort of grey area, as Tinkerbell is featured in a Walt Disney Animation Studios film, but the Disney Fairies franchise was made by a different subdivision under the Disney company. Tinkerbell herself certainly has the opportunity to join Disney Dreamlight Valley, though her fairy friends, Vidia, Rosetta, Silvermist, Iridessa, and Fawn, may not. The Disney Fairies items from the Garden of Whimsy Star Path and the Mysteries of Skull Rock update all point in the direction of Tinkerbell eventually joining Disney Dreamlight Valley, though that date may be many seasons away. For now, her absence feels like a big missed opportunity.