However, Disney directors eventually decided that it was too risky to venture into city planning now that its biggest advocate was gone. Roy persisted and took the reins on the project, coming out of retirement, but he could not convince the board to build EPCOT.

The "EPCOT" we know today as a theme park is a far cry from Walt Disney’s original vision. Walt envisioned EPCOT as an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow"—a living, working city of 20,000 residents that would never be finished, but would always be testing new systems of transport and urban living. This vision didn't happen primarily because Walt Disney died in 1966, only months after announcing the project. Without his personal drive and creative leadership, the Disney company was hesitant to take on the massive legal, political, and financial liabilities of running a real city with its own residents and governing laws. The Board of Directors feared that managing a "City without Democracy" (where Disney would own all property) was too risky. Consequently, the project was scaled down and eventually reimagined as a "permanent world's fair" theme park that focused on technology and international culture, rather than a functioning urban utopia.