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Park News - (5/14/08) According to pictures taken a week ago on SFNE Online, Six Flags seem to just be covering up the old Dark Knight Coaster site with dirt. Apparently the plan right now is to bury it and place a bunch of trees, benches and picnic tables into the site for now. As for the rumors of something more interesting at work… so far that doesn’t look to be the case.
  (5/13/08) While I don’t know quite what is going on yet, I’ve been informed that we should be keeping an eye on the former Dark Knight Coaster location. Something interesting may be taking shape there soon. Anyone know more?
  (4/21/08) A photo trip report to Six Flags New England has been posted to Theme Park Review.
  (4/18/08) In response to the dropping of The Dark Knight Coaster project, Six Flags New England has announced an extra perk for passholders this season in the form of a passholder ERT session on June 19th from 10am to noon. There are also details on how you can get a full refund for your pass if you no longer want it by calling 413-786-9300 ext. 3464, but you have to do it before May 1st.
  (4/15/08) Today you can find pictures from Six Flags New England’s opening weekend posted to SFNE Online. In addition to the opening day pictures from throughout the park (including shots of the open Kontiki and Superman open with only the Red train) they’ve got a whole section showing off the frozen construction state of now confirmed as dead Dark Knight Coaster. As you can see Six Flags did manage to get the building’s frame work up before they were ordered to stop construction, which makes me wonder what will happen to the building frame. Meanwhile I noticed that the old Batman: The Dark Knight coaster still had not changed it’s name on the building to Batman: The Ride to match the change noticed on the website last fall. Looks like they may keep the old name after all.
  (3/26/08) The latest buzz from Six Flags New England talks about the various other changes in the works for the park. The new Johnny Rockets is expected to be ready by opening day and will take the place of the former DC Superhero Grill. There is another new restaurant on the south end of the park called Gotham Works which is said to feature Pappa Johns pizza and Cold Stone ice cream. By naming it Gotham Works, it kind of reinforces the old rumor that this area of the park could be turned into a new Gotham City themed area in the next year or two. As for the rides… I’ve been told Catapult should get a new version of the restraint system more resistant to clamping down harder of the riders in mid-ride. Meanwhile the new mandatory lockers have been installed on Superman, Batman, Mind Eraser and will be on Dark Knight when it opens as well.
  (2/25/08) Six Flags New England will open their first Johnny Rockets restaurant in 2008.
  (12/7/07) Good news for Six Flags New England fans! According to SFNE Online, the park has had a change of heart and will be keeping the Catapult (S&S Sky Swatter) and Kontiki attractions. This explains why the Catapult was relisted as being no longer available on the used ride website just before Thanksgiving. However the Rodeon, Double trouble and Bumper Buggies are all still expected to be removed soon over the off-season. As previously mentioned, a new Johnny Rockets located is also expected in 2008.

2008 - The Dark Knight Coaster / Glow In The Park Parade - (4/29/08) A new construction update, or rather a demolition update, has been posted to SFNE Online showing off the empty hole where the Dark Knight building once stood.
  (4/28/08) Screamscape has been informed that the metal framework for the Dark Knight Coaster building has now been torn down.
  (4/16/08) First I’ve got some clarification on the new Glow In The Park parade coming to Six Flags New England. From what Screamscape sources tell us, the park will not be borrowing the parade from Mexico or new one on the way to Great Adventure and will instead have their own set of parade floats built just for them.
  Now that we know what’s being built… it’s time to take about what’s coming out. The local news has now confirmed that the framework already built for The Dark Knight Coaster will now be removed entirely from the park. Now I’ve got to wonder… if the building parts are on the way out… then we can also assume that whatever coaster parts that they received would also be on the way out of New England. Obviously Six Flags now has a coaster with no home and really no time at all to build it anywhere before the end of the Summer. The way I see it there are really only two choices now… send The Dark Knight Coaster project to one of the other Six Flags parks where it can sit around for months and wait to be built for the 2009 season… or maybe they could do the smart thing and send a care package to Six Flags Magic Mountain where they could start construction immediately and have it up and running before Christmas… probably just in time for the DVD’s of The Dark Knight film to hit store shelves. To be fair… either of the Texas parks or even Discovery Kingdom could also be a good home to the ride for Christmas since they’re all open for Holiday In The Park winter events, but to be fair… all three of those parks are receiving brand new coasters this summer while SFMM just lost two coasters and a good number of smaller rides in the last year and could use it more. Just an idea… someone get Shapiro on the phone.
  (4/15/08) Six Flags New England has confirmed today that The Dark Knight Coaster will not be opening this year. According to the website, “due to a series of unforseen delays, The Dark Knight Coaster will not open in 2008 and an all-new attraction, The Glow in the Park Parade, will make its debut in early summer. "Given what we always knew was a challenging construction schedule, we have been proceeding along a parallel track with a contingency plan for the 2008 season and we're very excited to announce Glow in the Park — a phenomenal nighttime extravaganza that will blow our guests away," said Six Flags New England President Larry Litton.” 
  So there you have it, right from the horses mouth since many of the SFNE fans out there were not quite ready to believe me yet. The Dark Knight is dead… for this year at least. Though they were careful not to commit to saying that they would build it for 2009 either at this point. Right now I’m not quite sure if the park is going to borrow the Glow In the Park Parade that was headed to New Jersey or if they will be using the one that already opened in Mexico. Speaking of which, there is a promotional video for the parade on the front of the Six Flags Mexico website.
  (4/14/08) Six Flags has changed their tune one again on the website about The Dark Knight. The national page has been updated once again to only talk about the Six Flags Great America and SF Great Adventure rides, both of which will open in May. And once again they have removed any mention of The Dark Knight Coaster from the SFNE page. As I said before… say goodbye to The Dark Knight.
  (4/11/08) In the aftermath of our story about the death of The Dark Knight Coaster, it seems Six Flags did a little quick revamping of their website once again and returned The Dark Knight to the SFNE website. The front of the main national SF website now also says “Coming To 3 Parks” once again, but if you click on the “Learn More” button they still have left (for now…) the edited version of the site that clearly says that the ride will only open at two parks in 2008… Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Great Adventure. From what I’ve heard… nothing has changed and The Dark Knight is still dead. They simply were not ready to make an announcement about it yet and the removal of the ride from the site yesterday was causing a bit of an uproar. At this point all I can say is to just wait and see how this all unfolds.
  In the end, this is playing out like a Monty Python sketch... “Bring Out Your Dead!”, “He says he’s not dead!”, “Yes he is...”, “I’m Not!”, “Well, he will be very soon. He’s very ill.”, “I’m getting better!”, “No, you’re not. You’ll be stone dead in a moment.”
  (4/10/08) In a strange move the Six Flags New England website has removed any mention of The Dark Knight Coaster project from the list of park rides as well as removing the press release. Meanwhile the official national page has been edited to now only list the ride as opening at Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags Great America, saying that the “New Attraction Debuts in Two Six Flags Parks Late Spring 2008” instead of three parks. To be honest, I believe all the red tape and hassle laid upon the park by the mucked up Massachusetts government system has done what the Joker was never able to do and actually killed The Dark Knight. Anyone know more?
  (3/31/08) Here’s the latest update on the red tape Six Flags is trying to deal with in order to start construction once again on The Dark Knight Coaster. 
  (3/24/08) The various parties involved have all voted unanimously in favor of the revised plans submitted for Six Flags New England’s The Dark Knight Coaster. This doesn’t get them out of the water yet however as they have several more meetings and approval they need to get before a new building permit is issues and work can begin, so obviously the new ride will not open by Memorial Day as they had hoped. There are still at least two more meeting scheduled (Conservation Commission on March 27th and Zoning Board on April 4th) who must approve of the plans before a permit will be issued. Unofficially, from what I’ve heard, it’s now looking like the coaster may not be able to open until July due to all the delays the red-tape.
  (3/13/08) The way things are looking, don’t get your hopes up that The Dark Knight will open on time. Click here to see why.
  (3/4/08) I’ve added two more pieces of concept artwork from Six Flags as well as the animated video teaser.
  (3/3/08) This animation found at the Daily Herald is a little on the quick and dark side, but it shows off what may be the basic look of The Dark Knight Coaster. While I’m still hopefully this will turn out to be a good ride, I just wasn’t impressed by the quick edits and very dark footage, all of which made it about as easy to follow as one of the big action scenes in Transformers. On a side note I’ve also been sent four pieces of concept art showing off the ride’s design as well.

  (2/27/08) Six Flags New England is expecting a two-week delay in construction on The Dark Knight Coaster before they can resolve the issue and resume work.
  (2/22/08) Well it looks like Six Flags really did jump the gun on construction for The Dark Knight Coaster according to aerial footage shot of the park for the news story. As you can see in the video here, they already had the entire framework for ride building already in place after only having the permit for a week. That said, the park is working with the city to come to an agreement on the issue so they can hopefully move forward, though it sounds like what they really need to do is come up with a way to streamline the approval process so that they aren’t waiting until February to get the permit on a new project they want open by May. After all, construction has been going full tilt in Chicago and New Jersey on identical rides for months now.
  (2/21/08) Six Flags New England has been ordered to stop all work on The Dark Knight Coaster because they believe that the park started construction before obtaining the building permit and permission to exceed the area’s 45 foot height limit. While I can see the former, technically they said they were only clearing the site while waiting for the permits to build the ride, so technically they weren’t building anything yet. Though it is silly for the park to have a 45 foot height limit when almost every major ride in the park today exceeds that height already.
  (2/13/08) It may seem a bit strange, but Six Flags New England has apparently just received their final approval to go-ahead and start construction on their version of The Dark Knight Coaster. While they obviously haven’t started any kind of construction yet, they have already cleared the site and begun the prep work in the hopes of being able to open the ride in time for Memorial Day Weekend. SFNE Online has posted pictures of the plans taken at the Agawan Town Hall. We’ve also heard that the Superhero Café next to Superman: The Ride will be refurbished and transformed into a new Johnny Rockets location.
  (10/30/07) Screamscape has heard that a new Q-bot based Flash Pass system may be installed for the 2008 season. These will be a new generation version of the Q-bot that will allow guests to make their ride reservations from the Q-bot itself instead of walking to the attraction and scanning in person. Along with the hardware for the new Q-bot system, the park may be upgrading it’s technology systems across the park including in park music and queue video systems.
  (9/27/07) Six Flags New England has announced The Dark Knight Coaster is coming in 2008. . Riders will become citizens of Gotham City, caught in the middle of a city under siege and torn apart by The Joker. Venture through demented hallways of twists, turns and hallucinatory images, while being tormented by The Joker himself. Then set foot onto a distressed, vandalized train platform. You can only guess at what awaits as you speed through six 180-degree hairpin turns, climb unseen hills, plunge into pitch darkness and dip into unforeseen danger. As you attempt to escape the terror, your only hope is that Gotham's Silent Guardian —Batman — can save you! The website confirms that this is a $7.5 million Mack coaster, 1,213 feet long which is the exact length of a standard Mack Wild Mouse coaster, so it looks like the hopes for something a little more unique on the hardware side didn’t happen.

2009/2010 - Gotham City / New Coaster - Rumor - (10/30/07) From what we’ve been hearing from a few sources, it sounds like there is a plan to start evolving the “south end” of the park into a Gotham City looking area in the future, perhaps in 2009. To that end we’ve heard that a refurbished Joker’s Wildcard may return along with a rethemed version of the Kontiki. Of course, those plans are tentative and as always, subject to change based on different plans and future plans. Of course one of those plans that this could either work with or against is a plan to add a large new wooden coaster to the park in 2009 or even 2010. From what I understand, SFNE almost got a GCI in 2008, but plans swapped around as they always are, and The Dark Knight stepped up instead. So the plans for the woodie are still out there… it’s just a matter of when.