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Universal’s Epic Universe
Orlando, FL
NBC Universal / Comcast
Opening 2025
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(12/15/2024) Watch an Epic Universe nighttime Stardust Racers Run From the Air
(11/19/2024) A First Look Inside Harry Potter and the Battle of the Ministry Queue and Ride Vehicle
(11/17/2024) Universal Epic Universe Construction Update
(11/12/2024) Fantastic Epic Universe Teaser Ads Have Launched
(10/30/2024) Universal Monsters Revealed and Newt Scamander Leak For Universal Epic Universe
(10/27/2024) New Universal Epic Universe Fly Over Video
 New Park - (12/15/2024) While we eagerly await the opening of Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park, a fantastic video featuring the park’s iconic Stardust Racers racing across the park at night has been captured from the air and posted online. Dare I say that it does indeed look quite magical?
I do… I did… and if this looks fantastic now, just wait until the park opens!
(11/19/2024) Universal Orlando released a whole collection of photos taken inside the new Harry Potter and the Battle of the Ministry attraction queue to People magazine this week. Follow the link to see what’s in store for this amazing themed walk through the Ministry of Magic. They have our first look at the inside of one of the magical Elevator themed vehicles you’ll ride in… and while I know I have previously described the ride system itself as being a sort of evolution from the Adventures of Spider-Man ride system, you would never know it based on how the interior of the vehicle looks more like something akin to Disney’s Tower of Terror seating arrangement.
(11/17/2024) Some great overhead footage of Epic Universe shot a few days ago can now be found below, shot by the infamous Bioreconstruct during one of his flights over the park.
(11/12/2024) A couple of ads teasing the opening of the new Epic Unvierse theme park have been posted online. Check them out below along with an awesome third video of aerial park footage posted by Bioreconstruct showing off Hiccup’s Winged Gliders coaster in action!
(10/30/2024) In an interview with Deadline, Eddie Radmayne who plays Newt Scamander, confirms that as far as he knows, the studio is done with the Fantastic Beast films and his character. HOWEVER… he did let it leak that fans should get a “glimpse” of what Newt has been up to since the films as part of the newest Wizarding World attractions at Universal Epic Universe when it opens next year.
On an even more exciting bit of news, Universal just blew me away this week when they released a new detailed video about the incredible MONSTERS animatronic figures that will be part of the Monsters Unchained anchor attraction within the Dark Universe portal of Epic Universe. For many years now, Universal’s critics have often taken a jab at the theme park’s heavy handed use of attractions that relied almost entirely on screen projections.
Now Universal is pulling back the curtain to show off four of the amazing… no… mind blowing animatronic figures they have built for this crazy new attraction. According to the video, these are just four of the 14 figures they built, with the video showcasing Woflman, Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. For anyone who may have been worried about exactly what Universal might be planning in the way of “re-creating” these classic Universal Monsters for the current generation, I think you will be very happy, as these are indeed still your favorites, keeping all the features and attributes that made them so iconic for generation.
(10/27/2024) A great new clip of aerial footage flying over and around the new Epic Unvierse theme park has been posted by Attractions Magazine. Check it out below!
(10/26/2024) While there has been some frustration with the launch of purchasing Epic Universal tickets from what I’m being told, there is a silver lining, and that would be the Universal Helios Grand Hotel. While your cost for staying at the Helios Grand is going to fluctuate a lot based on what days you select for your visit, I’ve heard back from several readers now who managed to book stays at Universal’s newest hotel with a cost far below the prices Universal has listed for the other Signature Collection tier hotels, in particular Portofino Bay, Hard Rock and Royal Pacific, and more around the same line as what you would get for a stay at Sapphire Falls. One big reason is that, like Sapphire Falls, a stay at Helios Grand doesn’t come with the free Express Pass perk that makes staying at those other hotels such a premium experience.
Regardless, if you know you want to stay at the Universal Helios Grand Hotel, then don’t delay… the prices may not be as high as you think, but they’ll only go up as it begins to fill up! Of course, if it does, there is always the new Sella Nova and Terra Luna Resorts just down the street.
(10/20/2024) With Epic Universe tickets set to go on sale this week for the first time, but ONLY in a Mutli-Day Pass format, and even then only one of your days can be spent at Epic Universe, what is your plan going to be?
(10/18/2024) Universal Orlando confirmed yesterday that the new Epic Universe theme park would open to all guests starting on Thursday, May 22, 2025, just ahead of the Memorial Day Weekend.
The theme park resort has also confirmed that “Select Multi-Day Tickets and Vacation Packages Inclusive of Universal Epic Universe” will also go on sale on October 22, along with the opening of reservations for the Universal Helios Grand Hotel for stays starting with Check-In dates of May 22, 2025 and later.
Current Universal Orlando passholders were get an opportunity to purchase special “‘Single-Day Tickets’” for Epic Universe starting on October 24th. As for the rest… other ticket options, including Single-Day Tickets for the General Public will not go on sale until a bit later, with no specific date set in stone just yet.
What will be on sale starting Oct. 22 will be Multi-Day tickets and packages that will include 3-Day, 4-Day, and 5-Day tickets, but in each case only 1-day of your multi-day pass will be good for Epic Universe. All other days are only good for visits to Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure.
Enjoy the new teaser for the launch of Universal’s newest theme park below!
(10/15/2024) While they don’t have a source to quote, a new article in the Wall Street Journal about the plans to open Universal Epic Universe mentions that their sources are claiming it will be ready to open by Memorial Day Weekend. Universal Orlando, of course, says that they don’t have a date set just yet.
Memorial Day Weekend, which is typically a generally accepted ‘start of the summer season’ date for many parks, does make sense, but it may also just be a general placeholder or construction deadline Universal has been throwing around internally as they rush to finish the park. Early clues also hinted that they may have been trying to get it open as early as the week of Easter 2025, but Universal has also been known to soft opening their new parks when a limited set of attractions is ready to go to get them broken in while they rush to finish the rest of the park. Many believe they may do just that once again with Epic Universe, perhaps as a way to entice their passholders into buying preview visit tickets to be some of the first to experience the park, as they are also not expected to sell Annual Passes with access to the new park until at 2026.
The WSJ piece also mentions that Universal may be ready to make the big announcement about an opening date as well as put the first tickets up for sale within the next month or so. Until then, it’s a waiting game…
(10/6/2024) Universal Orlando has released some new details about the Epic Universe attractions opening in 2025 on the official park website. This includes the official height requirements for each of the park’s main attractions.
Celestial Park: Stardust Racers (48”), Constellation Carousel (none but under 48’ must be with ‘Supervising Companion, but no hand-held infants)
Wizarding World: Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry (40”)
Super Nintendo World: MarioKart (40”, but under 48” must have a supervising companion), Mine-Cart Madness (36”, but under 48” must have a supervising companion), Yoshi’s Adventure (34”, but under 48” must have a supervising companion).
Isle of Berk: Hiccup’s Wing Gliders (40” but under 48” must have a supervising companion), Dragon Racer’s Rally (48”), Fyre Drill (none but under 48” must have a supervising companion).
Dark Universe: Monsters Unchained (48”), Curse of the Werewolf (40’).
(9/29/2024) Will some new secrets be revealed soon about Universal Epic Universe? Quite possibly, as an entire panel about the new park is now planned to take place at the New York Comic Con on October 19th in one of the panel rooms. The panel is only open to those attending the Comic Con event at the Javits Center, but the timing is right for some major new announcements to be made, and quite possibly, an opening timeline.
(9/10/2024) A quick word of warning… I’m going to talk about something that is JUST A THEORY of mine right now about when we might see Epic Universe open. While this may end be being the most likely game plan, do not make travel plans based on this theory, because the park is still under construction and a lot needs to happen between now and when they are ready to open. A lot can still change, and even go wrong during testing that could affect it all, so again… do not make travel plans yet.
With all that in mind… I get asked a lot about when I think Epic Universe might be ready to open. My more “safe bet” for those looking to start making travel plans now has been to tell people that their best option would be to plan on a Summer 2025 trip. However, based on the latest information I’ve been seeing and hearing, I do think that the park itself will likely be able to open a little sooner than that.
How soon? Right now I’m starting to think that they may be shooting for a grand opening in time for the start of Spring Break 2025, so either Friday, April 11th or Saturday April 12th. AGAIN - - DO NOT MAKE TRAVEL PLANS YET BASED ON THIS THEORY!!
So how have I settled upon this possible date? There are a large number of factors in play, and things can obviously change, but for starters, based on the visible progress of things at the park, it looks phenomenal so far and if Orlando can stay mostly dry and hurricane free this fall, I don’t believe the park would have trouble making this timeline from a construction point of view. Most of the outdoor rides have been installed and seen testing, and those that haven’t will likely start in the next month or two. Given that the hidden indoor rides were the first structures to be installed, those attraction are also rumored to have begun testing as well. Keep in mind that they are hardly ready, as any final edits of ‘media’ (video, music, etc…) is not going to be finished yet, so by testing, I mean that the physical ride systems are moving along the tracks, and undergoing their basic programming and initial movement testing taken care of.
Universal Orlando has now essentially completed their initial series of video releases about the expansion property, which included an initial video about the park’s entry and Celestial Park central area, four dedicated videos created for each of the four themed lands / portals, and a video all about the Stella Nova / Terra Luna hotels, and a final video all about the Helios Grand Hotel. Since then we’ve only seen a construction teaser about the Stardust Racers coaster and some extra teaser content about the new Wizarding World dark ride included with the Back To Hogwarts global promotion from Warner Bros. Now Screamscape has been sent a rumor claiming that we can expect a final Epic Universe video to be released sometime in October that will finally announce the intended opening date for the new theme park. It would also make sense that just such a video would likely give everyone a roughly 6-month heads-up to make travel plans, which would again, lead us to an April 2025 timeline.
Then there is that current vacation package promotion that includes a free $1000 dining card to use to eat while on your vacation. The last date you can use that $1000 dining card is April 10th, 2025, which seems to imply that Epic Universe will not open until at least April 11th at the earliest.
Now assuming the timeline I’m talking about is true, opening a brand new theme park at the start of Spring Break 2025 is a bold move to say the least. On a PR side of things, you are virtually guaranteeing that your park will be packed to the gills and will visually look like a huge success on camera… while at the same time, if things go wrong and rides are breaking down left and right (as new rides often do) then you could end up with a park full of miserable guests on camera instead posting to social media, or even worse, any mainstream media on site to report on the grand opening. The only way to really properly prepare your park for this is to “soft open” the park somehow a couple of months early, allowing your new crew members to be fully trained at their new jobs, and in general, allow for time for everything and everyone to be operational enough to work out the kinks ahead of the grand opening.
Obviously Universal team members will likely be the first to experience Epic Universe this way, but Screamscape has also heard that Universal is also not intending to offer a new Annual Pass that will include admission into Epic Universe until either late 2025 or even 2026. Universal has always been fairly generous and fair to their passholders, so the general assumption right now is that the park may offer their passholders the chance to purchase admission to early “technical previews” for the park ahead of the grand opening, with some limited attractions being offered as part of the experience as they come online. So based on my predicted timeline, these potential passholder previews might take place sometime between mid February and early April. These will likely end just ahead of whatever massive multi-day media preview event Universal Orlando is planning as well to take place just ahead of the grand opening.
Opening a new park is a rough process that isn’t easy… so many parts and pieces that all have to be finished and ready to go all at the same time, and I think Universal is going to take the time to make sure Epic Universe is as polished as possible by the time they are ready to open. Looking back to the past, you may recall that Islands of Adventure underwent a similar progress when it first opened as well. While Islands of Adventure held a grand opening celebration on May 28, 1999, the park quietly soft-opened for preview visits with limited attractions running on March 27, 1999, a full two months ahead of the grand opening. This is why I’m expecting a similar rollout for Epic Universe as well.
Now we just have to wait and see if this prediction theory plays out as I’m imagining it.
(9/3/2024) As part of the Back to Hogwarts day presentation, Universal Orlando revealed some new details about the upcoming new land opening in 2025 at Epic Universe.
The video below includes a number of new pieces of concept art showing off various rooms in the queue experience that you’ll get to see on your way to the loading station, as well as a few bits of footage of the shooting of live action footage for the new attraction as well.
(8/24/2024) Universal has posted a new video showcasing the Helios Grand Hotel built into the new Epic Universe theme park opening in 2025, created with Universal’s fantastic resort partner, Loews Hotels. New details and images released about the Helios Grand Hotel showcases the hotel entry, peeks at the room elements, theming throughout the resort and more. The designers say it features a Mediterranean style theme throughout the hotel, and will include a rooftop bar that features an incredible view into Epic Universe.
There will also be 14 How to Train Your Dragon themed kid suites, a dedicated entrance into the theme park for hotel guests and resort shuttles to take you over to Citywalk and the other two Universal Orlando theme parks.
(8/18/2024) Universal Orlando’s ‘Ride Guys’ are back with a behind the scenes video where they check out the upcoming Stardust Racers racing/dueling roller coasters at the new Epic Universe theme park. This includes a visual preview of the “Celestial Spin” element where the trains invert and rotate around each other, to a preview of the on-board audio soundtrack.
They also discuss a little bit about the night-time look of the coaster, where instead of lighting up the track, they’ve opted to leave it dark and instead focus on lighting on the trains themselves, which are supposed to look like fiery comets soaring across the sky.
(8/14/2024) According to notes given during the Discover Universal Podcast it was confirmed by the creative team that the various water features and lighting in the Celestial Park section of Epic Universe will be programed one way during the daytime, but able to be reprogrammed to perform all new action sequences after dark as part of an ‘epic’ nighttime spectacular they have planned for the new theme park.
The plot behind the night show is said to revolve around the handover of the park from the god Apollo during the daytime to Luna who oversees it all at night. Lights, fountains, music will come to life all around the park’s buildings and landscaping as the park transforms each night for evening operations.
(8/3/2024) Sorry I’m a bit late on this, but we’ve got some fun Epic Unvierse news to share today. For starters, crazy footage was posted online when a ‘Dragon’ was spotted flying in the sky around Epic Universe. Keep in mind that this may just be practice for a limited promotional stunt next year when the park opens, much like how Disney flew a drone shapes like Dragon one time over the Magic Kingdom when New Fantastyland opened, an a X-Wing drone over Galaxy’s Edge when it opened.
But what if it isn’t? Wouldn’t it just be, well… EPIC to occasionally witness dragons flying in the skies over Epic Universe from time to time once the park opens? Talk about some fantastic bit of viral advertising if those dragons are spotted by guests at any of the other near-by theme parks in the area, right?
On to the other huge news this week, on July 31st, Harry Potter’s Birthday, Universal revealed the details behind their final portal. As we previously revealed, this one opens to another section of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the Ministry of Magic. More than that, it specifically opens to the French section of the Wizarding World which will offer all different (and to scale!) architecture of Wizarding Paris, but also new foods, flavors and new attractions! Eat at Cafe L’air De La Sirene, try Biere Au Beurre (French Butterbeer), or drop into Cosme Acajor to buy a designer French magic wand.
Just as we told you long ago, the main attraction within this land will actually take you via the Floo network back to the British Ministry of Magic where you will arrive just in time to witness the trial of Delores Umbridge as part of the “Harry Potter and the Battle of the Ministry” dark ride. While you may have started in 1920’s wizarding Paris, once you enter the Ministry you’ll enter the first attraction designed to take place within the Wizarding World AFTER Lord Voldemort has been defeated. As I previously revealed in a past post, Umbridge escapes just as you arrive on the scene and chaos ensues in a big way. According to Universal, this attraction is the most ambitious ride they’ve ever created.
In a previous report, I also mentioned that the land once had a second ride (VR Broom riding) and a live show where you would come face to face with an assortment of creatures released from within Newt Scamander’s magical suitcase. At the time we had heard those additional attractions were both cut, but it seems that development of the live show continued after all! Following a similar concept, guests to Wizarding Paris will get to witness Le Cirque Arcanus and come face to face with a number of astounding creatures from the Wizarding World! There will be a bit of an illusion as you enter as well, as it will appear as if the entire show theater space is contained within a simple and small fabric tent set up in the streets of 1920’s wizarding Paris.
Check out the two details videos from Universal below, one going into the details about the land and attractions with the creators at Universal Creative, while the other features a highly detailed fly-though the new land.
(7/6/2024) For those who were planning to drop into Universal’s new EPIC UNIVERSE park as soon as it opens in 2025, your plans may have just become a little more.. complicated.
According to a scoop over at Attractions Magazine, Universal released some ticketing information about the new park to their third-party ticket selling partners which revealed a unique surprise.
When they are allowed to start selling packages to visit the park, Universal informed them that the only way their guests can visit Epic Universe would be to purchase at least a 3-Day Universal Orlando ticket package, and only ONE of those days may be used for entry into the new Epic Universe theme park. It is also worth mentioning that while Universal Orlando multi-day / multi-park passes typically include the option for park hopping (the only way to ride the Hogwarts Express) park hopping will not be allowed as a form of entry into Epic Universe.
So in other words… for at least the immediate time-period when the park first opens, there will be no way to purchase a single day ticket to visit Epic Universe. Keep in mind that right now this has only been released to these third-party sellers, and may not represent what you can purchase from Universal directly next year. I’ve also got a strange hunch that for those who reserve a stay at the brand new Universal Helios Grand Hotel that is actually built into the backside of Epic Universe, that there may be some special admissions options available to them. As for Universal’s Annual Passholders… I’ve got a feeling you may have to wait a little bit before you can purchase a new AP that will also include Epic Universe.
The move is a bold one for sure, but it will go a long way to helping restrict capacity at Epic Universe, virtually ensuring that those who visit should have no problem experiencing everything that the park has to offer in a single day. This also seems to be something of an experimental strategy on Universal’s part as something of an attack on the Walt Disney World’s stranglehold on families with smaller children in the region. Three of the four lands within Epic Universe will have a strong appeal to a large number of children with Super Nintendo World, the Isle of Berk (themed to How to Train Your Dragon) and of course, another Wizarding World of Harry Potter themed land.
It is no secret that a large number of families will visit Orlando and simply just get locked into a Walt Disney World vacation plan and not even bother to leave the compound to visit Universal, SeaWorld, Fun Spot, Legoland, let alone venture further to see Busch Gardens Tampa. When they do leave… they may break out to check out SeaWorld or Universal, but typically for just one day due to their Disney vacation package.
Requiring at least a three day visit to the Universal Orlando Resort parks in order to visit Epic Universe is a very interesting move designed to give those families who only stay at Disney another option. Add in the fact that Universal Orlando’s other theme parks (Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay) are already highly attractive options to families with tweens, teens and young adults due to their more thrilling attractions lineup, and this strategic gamble by Universal could be one that could quite literally pull those families out of visiting Walt Disney World at all in 2025.
(7/2/2024) In a very exciting bit of news, it has been confirmed by the man himself that film composer (and former Oingo Boingo frontman) Danny Elfman was tapped to compose music you will hear within the new Dark Universe portal at Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park.
The scope of this work has not been confirmed however, as this could mean he is just making music you’ll hear during a single attraction, like the land’s main Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment ride, or perhaps the Curse of the Werewolf roller coaster… or maybe music you’ll here in the queues, or perhaps even music you’ll hear as you stroll throughout the landscape.
(6/21/2024) As promised, Universal Orlando has announced all the juicy details for Dark Universe and without a doubt, I think this announcement has been the best one of them all. Sure, Celestial Park is beautiful, and we knew all about what to expect from Super Nintendo World from when the Japanese version opened a couple years ago. The Isle of Berk is also fantastic, but is aimed more at the younger guest demographic, but this… the Dark Universe… this is something I’ve been waiting my whole life to see as over a century of Universal Monsters mythos and lore is being brought to life. (If you remember, Screamscape revealed many of the details for this land last year which were right on the money...)
Check out the reveal video, followed by an animated walk-through video that I know you are just going to love. It simply gave me chills by the end!
(6/19/2024) I’ve mentioned it on Screamscape’s social media channels, but Universal Orlando has confirmed that the announcement about the portal to the Dark Universe world at Epic Universe will take place tomorrow, June 20th. As before, Universal Orlando had sent me a small package containing a small Medallion to be placed into the model of the Chronos that serves as the opening of the portal to the world of the classic Universal Monsters.
(6/16/2024) Universal Orlando has posted the date for the next big reveal for the Epic Universe theme park as June 20, 2024. We’ve already had reveals of Celestial Park, Isle of Berk and Super Nintendo World, so will this be for the Paris theme Wizarding World or Dark Universe?
(6/1/2024) Remember that lawsuit filed by the Starfall education software company against Universal over the use of the name “Starfall Racers” on the new racing/dueling roller coasters coming to Epic Universe? While I can’t help but feel that Universal would have likely won if if they took the case to court, it appears that the company has decided it would just be easier to rename the coaster now, before they open the park and have to change any signage or branding.
If you visit the official preview website for the new theme park now the former Starfall Racers entry has now changed the name of the attraction to Stardust Racers, which honestly isn’t that big of a deal.
(5/27/2024) Having a brand new theme park under construction is always a rare thing to witness during your lifetime. There is just something so fascinating in seeing how so many different themed attractions and lands are created out of nothing, only to become filled with their own legends and lore for the generations to come.
With each project, there are always concepts that fail to make the leap from the design sketchbooks into reality. Sometimes they are left behind due to budget limitations and sometimes they just need more time to be developed. Perhaps they fail to move forward because there is a licensing deal that fails to come together while others are just pushed back into “Phase 2” development hell where they are eventually forgotten.
Epic Universe is no different, and as you can imagine for a new park project that actually came together during the COVID pandemic, there are sure to have been many design changes made throughout the development of the park, especially as much of the original design team was let go at the start of the pandemic, only for a mostly new team to be brought together to finish the things about a year later.
Since site clearing was already well under way by 2020, the basic layout and lands for the park remained the same in this case. Epic Universe was always going to feature a central hub land surrounded by portals to lead guests into four different themed lands, with the Helios Grand Hotel standing tall in the background of it all. While guests will enter and explore Epic Universe much like how you think they would, would you believe there were some early ideas that would throw this very concept on its head?
One of the strangest early concepts was essentially inspired by the cruise ship industry, which was the inspiration for the whole “portal” concept that will serve as the entrance into each themed world. This early concept was to essentially treat the various lands as different ports of call that guests would visit while staying on-site at one of the Universal hotels. Rather than have access to the entire theme park, the idea was for guests to purchase packages that would grand them access only to certain lands on each day, creating the need for a multi-day stay just to visit and see everything Epic Universe would have to offer. So the idea was to essentially treat guests like they were being put on a cruise ship that really wasn’t going to physically go anywhere.
The concept should sound familiar to Star Wars fans, as Disney had been working on their Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser resort concept across town around this same time period. Given that the Galactic Starcruiser concept ended up failing in a short period of time, it is probably for the best that Universal dropped this concept. The idea of limiting access to the various lands remained active for a time however, as there was also talk about leaving the central Celestial Park area open to the public to serve as a sort of cosmic CityWalk, and guests would pay for access to the various lands they wanted to visit, and could also allow the public the option to pay for individual rides on the attractions in the central hub, such as the Constellation Carousel or Starfall Racers roller coaster. Don’t sneer at this idea too much, as the way things are being built over at Epic Universe, especially with Helios Grand Hotel built right the mix of things, there is always the chance that some of these ideas could be revisited, especially as a possible perk for on-site resort guests.
With regards to the lands themselves, well… things are always subject to change. While I don’t know everything, from what I’ve seen so far it looks like Super Nintendo World is being manifested exactly the way it was envisioned, which should be no surprise as the creation of the land over at Universal Studios Japan served as the template for it all.
From what I can tell, the Isle of Berk is essentially being built extremely close to the original vision as well. The only huge change here that I can think of is that the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders roller coaster is a little bit shorter than how it was first planned to be. While the ride starts off the high speed action with a short of a launch up the first hill, there is a second more powerful launch planned for the finale section of the ride. What I’m not entirely sure of is how will be done in the final version, as the original design had the train enter a mini cave/canyon area for this, but it would fail to make it over the hill, roll backwards into this themed space, pause for some kind of show element and then launch at full speed out into the finale track segment. How things will play out in the final ride as built remains to be seen.
The Wizarding World land has perhaps undergone some of the most drastic changes over time. The official reveal of the exact contents of this land is still to come, but it is fairly common knowledge at this point that the land will only feature one major attraction, themed as battle within the Ministry of Magic as Dolores Umbridge breaks free during her trial and wreaks havoc. In the original designs, the land was to also feature a very large live show production and a second attraction, loosely described as a VR based ride on a broom. As the time-table for the park itself was pushed back, apparently Universal had already done a bit of development on their VR broomstick ride concept. They also became threated in part by the opening of the Harry Potter store in New York City, which also opened with two VR based attractions of their own, one of which was also themed to going for a ride on a magic broomstick. Feeling a bit irritated and threatened by the smaller attraction trying to steal their thunder, Universal did for a period of time create plans to build the VR broom attraction as a stand-alone expansion to Diagon Alley that would have taken the place of the former Fear Factor show venue the year after Villain-Con. Those plans were canceled for a couple of reasons, as the VR attractions in the New York retail store were poorly received and eventually closed within the first year, which led to a more strong internal review of Universal’s own VR plans, which determined that their own concept may have ended up being much less magical that they had hoped, so the plug was pulled. As for that live action show I mentioned, it would have been themed more around the Fantastic Beasts film lore, essentially using Newt Scamander’s magic suitcase as a plot device where they would encounter a number of the magical beasts contained inside. Beyond this very vague concept, I never really heard much more, but I believe WB’s push to move away from this spinoff franchise sort of lowered the priority to create this attraction.
For now the portal into the Wizarding World land seems entirely focused on the Battle for the Ministry dark ride, but even the design for that ride has changed extensively from how it was originally envisioned. The ride system we are getting for this now is said to have been inspired by the ride system used for the Adventures of Spider-Man and Transformers, which was also repurposed in China for their Jurassic World dark ride as well. From what I’ve been led to understand, the ride system in use at Epic Universe is sort of a next-gen evolution of this concept, where the cars will apparently also offer a bit of vertical motion in addition to everything else they can do. The reason for this likely has more to do with the ride system envisioned in the original concept, which was to take guests on the same style adventure while seated inside a magical floating elevator. The vision for this concept can best be described as taking a pod of riders, but then take a motion base similar to what you would find under a Spider-Man car and mount it to the top of the pod instead, which would then be attached via a small scissor-lift to a ride track mounted to the roof of the building. If you ever rode the original Kongfrontation ride, then you’ve got a good idea of where this was going, as it essentially was a combination of the old Kongfrontation and Spider-Man to increase an inverted version of the ride system that could take guests on a flying journey through the attraction space. The concept even went so far as to even have a prototype mock-up built for management to sit inside and feel what it would be like. Unfortunately when it came time to put up the budget to build this mind-blowing new ride concept, management grew cold feet over both cost concerns. It wasn’t all cost cutting mind you, as they also really wanted to have an attraction that just worked, and were more comfortable building something based on technology they were familiar with that would be less likely to suffer technical issues and downtime.
And finally we come to the land of the Universal Monsters. Perhaps more than any other, this land has undergone a number of changes, all while keeping the basic premise of being themed as an old world village living in the shadow of Frankenstein’s castle. While I believe a few ride concepts were considered at one point, this main E-Ticket attraction has been essentially locked in to using a modernized version of the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride system. In a way this not only makes sense, but takes the development of this ride system full circle, as long before Universal had a deal with WB to create the first Wizarding World attractions, Universal had first envisioned this very same ride system to be put to use within another attraction at Islands of Adventure that would have also been themed like a giant castle. In this case, I’m talking about the nearly built Van Helsing themed dark ride that would have put guests in battle against the whole slew of classic monsters, themed to the 2004 action film starring Hugh Jackman as the famous monster hunter. The film was directed by Stephen Sommers as a follow-up to his blockbuster reboot of The Mummy in 1999 starring Brendan Fraser and everyone expected Van Helsing to be a guaranteed hit… until it wasn’t. When the film bombed at the box office, the plans for the Van Helsing ride were also quickly shelved. Fortunately those plans didn’t spend too long gathering cobwebs, as they were dusted off and redesigned for the first Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride that opened in 2010.
Now in 2025, we will finally get to see how guests would have come face to face with a number of different monsters inside this new attraction which may go by the name of “Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment”. Today’s version of the land has been expanded a bit with the creation of a “Curse of the Werewolf” spinning roller coaster, but that was not part of the original plan. While I don’t know all the details, Screamscape sources mentioned that the other big original attraction for this land that was cut was to include a large-scale stunt show of some kind that was expected to involve water and of course, monsters. We don’t know exactly what themed it might have taken, though there are some who claim it may have been inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon film. In my own head I can see that idea working, especially if you ever got to see the old Miami Vice Stunt Show that was put on at the Hollywood park long before the current Waterworld stunt show replaced it. Unfortunately, Universal Orlando has moved away from stunt shows over the years, retiring old attractions such as the Wild Wild Wild West Stunt Show at Universal Studios Florida and the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad stunt show at Islands of Adventure. Meanwhile they’ve built copies of the Hollywood park’s Waterworld stunt show at Universal Studios Japan, Beijing and Singapore that those park’s audiences love. Unfortunately the monster stunt show, in whatever form it might have taken, was cut from the land during the design-team swap caused by the COVID pandemic and never returned. As for the rest of the Monsters land, while were aren’t any rides coming in right now, at one point we did hear that monster themed “Scareactors” might be unleashed throughout the land after dark, turning the entire attraction into a giant Halloween Horror Nights style interactive ‘scare zone’. Very little has been said about this since, but as we are still waiting for Universal to reveal the final details of this land as well, I’m hopefully that this is something that might still be on the table.
(5/19/2024) Some awesome footage of Starfall Racers testing, and actually dueling, was posted over the weekend that you don’t want to miss. Check it out below!
(5/15/2024) A local news chopper has posted some great footage of Epic Universe under construction, with a good look at the park-facing side of the new Helios Grand Hotel, some close-up shots of various buildings and themed structures now in place, the Donkey Kong coaster and the entrance to Bowser’s castle.
(5/11/2024) In what has to be one of the oddest lawsuit claims I’ve read about, it seems that Universal Orlando has found itself as the target of a trademark lawsuit from the Starfall Education Foundation over the use of the name ‘Starfall’ in their new upcoming raceing/dueling Epic Universe roller coaster, Starfall Racers.
So, who exactly is the Starfall Education Foundation and why do they feel threatened? The group is a non-profit company that produces educational programs and feels that Universal’s attraction’s use of the word “Starfall” as part of the roller coaster’s name could cause confusion and damage to their educational brand and reputation.
Now for clarification, I’m no lawyer, but it has always been my understanding that the world of trademarks is a bit of a slippery slope anyway, as I was once told that the act of actively protecting your trademark was just as important as having it in the first place, so with that in mind, the objection to Universal’s use of the word does make some sense. However, as I understand it, “Trademark law prohibits businesses from using marks which are likely to confuse a reasonable consumer.”
I think the last two words there are very important… a “reasonable consumer”, who is someone interested in purchasing your particular product, which should mean that they are aware of the brand, so the goal is to prevent confusion of another company offering a similar product with a brand name that could easily confuse the consumer, or one who offers a product with a nearly identical looking logo meant to confuse the consumer. For example, “Redd’s Wicked Apple Cider” would certainly be able to object to another company selling a beverage with a name like “Red Apple Cider”. Or you may recall the spoof restaurant, McDowell’s in the comedy film, Coming To America, that not only looked like a McDonald’s, but even had their own logo that spoofed the company’s ‘golden arches” M-shaped logo.
So with that in mind, I highly doubt a “reasonable consumer” visiting the Epic Universe theme park would have any confusion at all about the educational software being offered by the Starfall Education Foundation because the products are not in the same “class of goods and services” at all. Then there is the issue of trademark protection, because if you google the name Starfall, there are several video games and apps out there (and a boardgame) that also currently use the Starfall name. With that in mind it doesn’t appear that they attempted to block the use of the name for other software products where it could possibly cause some confusion as well.
Again… I’m not a lawyer, not even pretending to be one, but it does seem odd for a non-profit to attempt to legally tackle a company as big as NBC-Universal, especially in the realm of Trademarks. Obviously a studio as big of NBC-Universal would have a whole company division devoted to filing and maintaining their various Trademarks. My only thought is that this is just the non-profit’s way to showing that they are actively defending their use of their own trademarks, even if they lose or just simply come to a settlement/agreement.
(5/2/2024) Universal Orlando has posted two new videos all about the Super Nintendo World themed portal opening with Universal Epic Universe in 2025. This includes an animated fly-through video showing off the entire land from the entry portal all the way back to Donkey Kong Country, and the second longer video features interviews with the Universal Creative team members working on the project. This includes a more detailed breakdown of the various attractions in the land, aided by video footage of the versions already open at Universal Hollywood and Japan.
(5/1/2024) Be on the lookout for Universal to announce all the details about Super Nintendo World coming to Universal Epic Universe tomorrow (Thursday). Just as before, when they announced all the details about the Isle of Berk, a small package arrived on my doorstep this evening containing a box with another portal token to be inserted in the Chronos.
Stay Tuned!
(3/29/2024) Another token arrived at my door late Wednesday night, with instructions to insert it into the Universal Epic Universe Chronos, unlocking a portal to the Isle of Berk, home to the hit animated series (and soon to be Live Action as well) How To Drain Your Dragon!
A new view video has been released, offering a tour through the portal into the Isle of Berk itself, showcasing the land’s many various new attractions. Honestly, out of all of the worlds to be offered at Universal Epic Universe, the Isle of Berk will have the most attractions to offer. Here guests will enter a world where Vikings live in a world full of Dragons, with attractions that offer a variety of exciting adventures, characters to meet, and an array of incredible foods and beverages to taste. According to Universal, the Isle of Berk will be a living, breathing attraction just to itself, featuring a bustling village with active dragon habitats, sheep attempting to disguise themselves as “Terrible Terror dragons”, rolling hills, vibrate dragon houses, and the occasional eruption of fire.
Guests will enter the Isle of Berk past the two 40-foot tall Viking statues set into the sea, into a land with four attractions, one live action show and where several character and dragon “meet-and-greet experiences” await. While character meets can be fun, especially for the kids, keep in mind that this is Universal Orlando and what a fantastic experience they were able to at Islands of Adventure with the Raptor Encounter. Now add Dragons to that mental image and you’ll see where I’m going with that, as I expect you’ll be able to come face-to-fang with both friendly dragons like Toothless and a few that might have a more grouchy disposition.
Roller coasters are always the most popular attractions and the Isle of Berk will feature Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, a family launched roller coaster experience that will shoot riders up into the sky for a dragon’s eye view of Berk. Guests will fly alongside Hiccup and Toothless and reach speeds of 45mph as you go on a wild adventure tour around the perimeter of Berk, including a drop down through the lagoon itself, showing everyone just what it is like to fly on the back of a dragon.
The Untrainable Dragon - “Inspired by Universal Beijing Resort’s wildly successful “Untrainable” show, this dragon-filled live spectacular takes guests on an unforgettable journey with beloved characters Hiccup, Toothless, Gobber, and Astrid as they work together to solve the mystery of The Untrainable Dragon. This heartwarming story comes to life with captivating musical numbers, breathtaking sets and life-sized dragons soaring overhead.”
Fyre Drill is a splash battle style flume ride. “Mischievous Viking twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut invite teams of Vikings to compete to outscore and out-soak each other on this wet-and-wild boat battle. Guests will board a colorful dragon-headed boat and blast water cannons at flame-like targets to practice putting out fires – a crucial skill to master when living with dragons.”
Dragon Racer’s Rally - “Berk’s new Vikings racers can practice aerobatic maneuvers and high-speed barrel rolls on two Viking-made dragon-riding trainers that reach heights of up to 67 feet in the air. Guests can control how “wild” or “mild” their experience will be as they perform high-flying, gravity-defying, swooping and soaring skills that are necessary to earn the accolades worthy of a true champion dragon racer.”
Viking Training Camp - “Junior Vikings will learn everything they need to know about dragons as they climb, slide and explore their way through this sprawling interactive adventure play camp – featuring a Viking agility course, a Toothless-themed teeter-totter, baby Gronckle dragon climbers and so much more.”
Meet Hiccup and Toothless - “Guests can visit the Haddock Paddock for an incredible meet-and-greet experience with heroic Dragon Rider, Hiccup, and pose for a photo with his friendly Night Fury, Toothless. Plus, throughout the day, guests may also encounter other familiar Vikings and dragons while exploring Berk.”
Speaking of exploring Berk, you’ll also encounter the Mead Hall where you can feast like a Viking, or grab a quick bite from the Spit Fyre Grill (where your meals are flame-seared by a helpful but unseen dragon fry cook), or try Hooligan’s Grog & Gruel for more quick bites. You can also visit shops like Viking Traders, How to Treat Your Dragon, Hiccup’s Work Shop and Toothless’ Treasures.
(3/23/2024) A first look at one of the boats in the flume (with water) for the How to Train Your Dragon land at Epic Universe has been found. Looks like the boats will be armed with some kind of cannons along each side… but no word on if these are water cannons (splash battle style) or some kind of infrared targeting cannon system to shoot at targets laser tag style.
(3/20/2024) Ready to see Starfall Racers in action? Check out the footage a local news chopper caught of Epic Universe’s signature roller coaster making some test runs yesterday.
(3/17/2024) Coaster Studios has posted their own video showing off the construction of Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park. The video gives a ground level look at the site, aided by a large camera lens form the look of things, and captures footage of some rides testing, including what may be the first peek at the How To Train Your Dragon themed family coaster making a test run, as well as a ton of footage of the Curse of the Werewolf making several test runs. Plus a look at the current status of the Stella Nova, Terra Luna and Hellos Grand resorts.
(3/16/2024) Some new aerial footage of Epic Universe now shows off the Yoshi themed ride in Super Nintendo World that are now unwrapped. Thankfully those cars are multi-colored after all, as the previous long distance photos made them appear as if they were all going to be green based on the material they were wrapped in.
(3/15/2024) The local news has posted a video showing off the “Curse of the Werewolf” spinning coaster in the Dark Universe portion of Epic Universe making a test run.
(3/10/2024) I came across a great aerial photo showing off the look of one of the new Starfall Racers roller coaster trains from Mack Rides. This is our first glimpse of the colorful interstellar theme we can expect to see from the differently themed trains on each track. It isn’t mentioned in the post, but based on the many little while polka-dots you can see spread out across the nose-cone and along the side of every single car, I believe those are for an ultra-intense LED light package, not unlike what we saw Universal install onto the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit coaster that looks so impressive after dark.
While there are still many months to go until the park is ready to open, the picture is clear enough to get a good view of the restraints installed. As of this moment there is no sign of any extra seat-belts added like what we saw Carowinds do to Copperhead Strike, nor any sign of the oversized grip-bar add-on, such as on Manta at SeaWorld San Diego.
For those who have not ridden a Mack Rides launched coaster before however, know that the overhead lapbar design used is somewhat similar in nature to the one used on VelociCoaster, which means it can be a tight fit for some larger riders. Europa Park (owned by Mack Rides) has modified seats in the last car of each train however made to accommodate larger riders without the need for anything additional which is great, but it has also been noticed that when Carowinds and SeaWorld installed their coasters that use these same train styles, those parks opted not to include this option on Copperhead Strike and Manta. So for the sake of everyone, and faster load times, I’m hoping that Universal has chosen to opt in for the seat mods on Starfall Racers.
(2/24/2024) A fantastic bit of unofficial fan animation has been posting giving off a great preview of how the new Donkey Kong Country roller coaster ride is expected to look and feel to the riders. Check it out below!
(2/4/2024) Aerial footage found online shows off the Werewolf themed spinning coaster testing at Universal Epic Universe. The speculation that the train would essentially launch at first and then slow down to enter into a “swing launch” while traveling forward and backwards through a themed structure before launching at full speed forward up and over a hill to complete the course. The cars appear to be white with some black trim in the footage, but look a little different from any Mack Rides spinning coaster cars that I’ve seen before. Given the distance at which we are watching though, it is hard to make out details other than that the train is made up of 5 cars, each of which is expected to hold 4 riders.
(1/31/2024) At last, Universal Orlando has broken their long silence about their newest theme park, Universal Epic Universe. Yesterday a just over 7 minute long video all about the new park was posted, which had a heavy focus on what we can expect from Celestial Park, the central land within Epic Universe. The video briefly touches upon the official names and overall themes of the four other lands within the park, but fails to go into detail about what we can expect within. I suspect over the next 6-9 months Universal will release at least four additional updates about the park, each one will aim a spotlight at an individual land in detail.
The official names for each of the four other lands will be:
How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk - “The World’s first Dragon / Viking Utopia”
Dark Universe - themed to Classic Universal Monsters
Super Nintendo World - Step inside the video game universe, brought to life!
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic - Experience the 1920’s Paris from Fantastic Beasts and the British Ministry of Magic
Meanwhile, looking back at Celestial Park, in addition to breathtaking landscaping, the land will feature amazing restaurants, unique shopping experiences and three attractions. The video shows off a huge-scale upscaling dining experience structure that just has the name “Atlantic” across the front, while the back of the land will be anchored by the 500-room Universal Helios Grand Hotel, with the Blue Dragon Pan-Asian Restaurant nestled to the left of the hotel.
The list of attractions includes:
Constellation Carousel - A new take on the concept of a classic Carousel ride where the celestial beasts you ride are only attached to rotating platforms on the floor.
Astronomica - A large dancing water play area
Starfall Racers - A Racing / Dueling pair of launched roller coasters where you become a shooting star.
Check out the videos below to get your first look inside Universal Epic Universe and Celestial Park yourself, along with a peek at an incredible gift bestowed upon Screamscape to celebrate this historic milestone.
(1/18/2024) Some great new aerial images of the Donkey Kong coaster at Epic Unvierse have been posted by Bioreconstruct, along with a couple of pics of the Yoshi themed omni-mover ride. I’ll include a few below, but follow their regular postings online to see even more.
(1/16/2024) For those still trying to wrap their head around exactly what the “Boom Coaster” concept designed for the Donkey Kong coaster is, I came across a tweet with a short animation that shows it off perfectly.
(1/1/2024) It’s hard to say for certain, but there may have been one significant change made to an attraction coming to Super Nintendo World in Epic Universe that will make it stand apart from its Japanese counterpart. Based on the latest aerial construction photos of the land posted in an article by Attractions Magazine, we can see that the Yoshi shaped ride vehicles have now been added to the track of the attraction. While they are all still covered up in some kind of semi-transparent protective wrapping, all the Yoshi’s visible in the images appear to be green.
While Mario’s pal Yoshi in the games is also green, the reason this will stand out from the Japanese version of the attraction that opened first is that the Yoshis in Japan come in in many different colors: red, blue, yellow, orange, pink, purple and green. In fact, I think there are even a few cars painted like white eggs with green spots that I believe are wheelchair accessible in Japan as well. (I’ve included some video footage of the Japanese version below for reference)
I guess we’ll know the car colors for sure once they are ready to unwrap the vehicles later this year.
(12/25/2023) A great collection of aerial images of Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park under construction can be found collected together at ThemeparX. This includes a lot of closer-view images of the How to Train Your Dragon themed land, which will feature a few flat rides, a water ride and an impressive family coaster with lifts and launches.
(11/9/2023) According to Theme Park Insider, a website for the new Stella Nova and Terra Luna Resorts (from Loews Hotels) went live briefly by accident, before being taken down once again. But… not before some details and images were grabbed and spread across the internet. According to the post the website listed the opening of the Stella Nova first on January 21st, 2025 (which would be ahead of the likely opening date of the Epic Universe theme park) but it is also very likely that any dates right now would simply be placeholders until actual dates are determined. A number of promotional images showing off the look of the two new Universal Resorts, both inside and outside, were also posted.
Based on the images, the overall look of the lobby areas almost seems to be a hybrid concept of Universal’s Endless Summer and Aventura resorts. I haven’t stayed at the Endless Summer yet, but the artwork showing off a room layout also reminds me a bit of the Aventura rooms, just with more color to them, making it seem more inviting and less sterile than Aventura’s Apple Store inspired mostly-white everything look.
(11/6/2023) An incredible aerial photo has been posted to Twitter showing off the incredibly well themed entrance ‘portal’ to the future Universal Monsters land at the new Epic Universe theme park. Each of the four main ‘worlds’ at Epic Universe will feature a portal entrance for guests to travel though. We know the Super Nintendo World portal will be themed as a giant green video-game style “Warp Pipe”, but I don’t think we know for sure exactly how the portals into the Wizarding World and How To Train Your Dragon worlds will appear.
(10/15/2023) A fun new look at the construction taking place at Universal’s Epic Universe theme park has been posted by Midway Mayhem. This includes a view of the park construction from ground level as well as a look at images shot from the sky by drone-cam. This includes a look inside Super Nintendo World, the work taking place in the central “Celestial Gardens” area, as well as various views from all angles of the rides and attractions being set into place.
With the grand opening not set to take place until 2025, you can imagine that much of the park is still quite a mess in terms of construction, but boy is there activity all over the place, with rides, attractions and themed structures rising everywhere you look. One area of interest is that Universal appears to have completed the green landscaping all around the back half of the twin-tracked Starfall Racers coasters, making this the first section of the park that appears to be nearby complete. Now I wonder when we might begin to see this coaster start testing.
(10/13/2023) In an interesting move, it seems Orange County just approved a new ‘special taxing district” to be formed for the property containing Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park and resort area. They’re calling it the “Single Creek Transit and Utility Community Development District”.
The special tax district will be involved in the planning of the Sunshine Corridor railway from the Airport to the Convention Center as well as handling the maintenance duties for the new station. It will also be responsible for upgrading the county’s water reclamation facility and more.
If the concept of a special tax district in Florida sounds familiar, then you’ve probably been seeing the headlines over the past year or so where Florida’s Governor DeSantis has been engaged in a war with Walt Disney World that saw the state take away control of Disney’s own special tax district away from the Mouse.
(9/28/2023) A great collection of images showing off the state of Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park can be found collected together at ThemeparX this week. There is an aerial drone video, aerial photographs, and even more important, photos taken on the ground very close to the Starfall Racers roller coaster attraction, so check it out!
(9/24/2023) Universal has filed a number of new names for various shops, restaurants and areas coming to their new Epic Universe theme park in 2025.
Clearly intended for the How To Train Your Dragon themed land we now have trademarks for “How To Treat Your Dragon” as a food & snack stand, “Toothless Treasures” as a retail shop and “Hooligan’s Grog & Gruel” as a restaurant. For those not familiar with the series, Toothless is the main dragon character in the series and Hooligan refers to the viking tribe the main human characters are part of who live on the Isle of Berk.
Over in the Universal Monsters land, we are once again seen the name “Darkmoor” filed, backing up our previous rumored posting that the entire area will be themed as the Village of Darkmoor. We also have a confirmation trademark filing of our previous rumor from 2022 that the main E-Ticket dark ride in the land will indeed be called “Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment”. Other names trademarked within the past month include “Monstertreffen” seemingly for use for some kind of Music/DJ party show, Pretorious’ Scientific Oddities (a gift shop themed to the Septimus Pretorius character from Universal’s Bride of Frankenstein film, which would be a perfect name for the exit shop to the Monsters Unchained ride) along with “De Lacey’s” filed for an intended restaurant. Mentions of the the De Lacey family can be found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a family that the Monster silently observes and learns about what it means to be human as well as how to understand and read English.
Finally we have a few new names for locations in the park’s central “Celestial Gardens” themed hub land. New trademarks have been filled for the “Meteor Astropub” (restaurant), “Northstar Wintry Wonders” (retail shop), and the “Lens Flare” (retail shop and possibly where guest photos and prints can be purchased).
(9/16/2023) Screamscape reported WAY BACK before the COVID pandemic that Universal’s Epic Universe theme park would use a lot of facial recognition software and mobile-app technology to control guest access to the lands and various attractions. At the time this technology was being created for day-one implementation for the opening for Universal Studios Beijing, which would allow a safe way to work out any bugs or complications of the system away from prying eyes before the North American launch at Epic Universe in 2025.
According to local news reports, Universal confirmed at an investor conference this past week that Facial Recognition technology will be used at the new theme park for admission and access to special queue-cutting systems like Universal Express. This technology will eventually roll out to the rest of the Universal Orlando resort attractions as well. And speaking of rolling out across Universal Orlando, the conference also re-confirmed the use of an all electric bus transportation system with a dedicated lane to move guests between Epic Universe part of the resort (which will open with an additional 2000 guest roomrs) and the existing Universal Orlando resort. A ride on the free bus system between the two points is expected to take just 12 minutes.
(8/6/2023) A couple of fun new aerial images showing off Universal’s Epic Universe theme park under construction have been posted to Twitter this week. The images below show off the park’s How To Train Your Dragon land as well as the dueling coasters in the background, rumored to be named Starfall Racers. The next image shows that the themed ride structures for the pair of dueling Gerstlauer Sky Fly attractions are now in place as well.
The later images gives us a better look at the opposite side of the park in the background along with the Helios hotel, with the central hub in the foreground. Beyond that is a look at Super Nintendo World and the new Wizarding World land.
(7/21/2023) While browsing through the US Trademark database I came across a number of new filings from Universal that would appear to likely be for the new Epic Universe theme park. While I didn’t notice anything that popped up as a new ride name (the last was Curse of the Werewolf earlier this year) I did find a few related to shops and other retail areas in the Village of Darkmoor… aka: the Dark Universe / Universal Monsters land.
“The Manor Storehouse” (retail), “The Burning Blade Tavern” (food), “Darkmoor Tattoo” (facepaint, temporary tattoos, etc). Other names uncovered include: “Various Emporia”,
“Moonship Chocolates & Celestial Sweets”, “Celestiki”, “Toothless’ Treasures”, “How to Treat Your Dragon”, “Frosty Moon”, “Oddities & Monstrosities”, and “The Oak & Star Tavern”.
(5/29/2023) ThemeparX has a collection of recent aerial photos of Universal’s new Epic Universe park that are worth checking out this week. While there is construction everywhere you look, the Super Nintendo World area is usually the most eye-catching due to the size of the land, the massive walls that will surround it, and it does appear to be the furthest along. The other large buildings already in place would be for the Wizarding World and Universal Monsters dark rides. Of course you can also see coaster track scattered all over the park for the Starfall Racers dueling coaster, the How to Train Your Dragon coaster and for the spinning Curse of the Werewolf coaster in the Monsters area.
(4/23/2023) A number of great new aerial images of the Donkey Kong coaster under construction at Universal’s Epic Universe park can be found over at Attractions this week as early theming work is also starting to go into place.
(3/29/23) A number of new Trademarks have been filed in recent weeks that are likely related to Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park. Those that seem related to the How To Train Your Dragon land have been filed by DreamWorks animation, and include “Dragon Racer’s Rally”, “The Untrainable Dragon”, “How To Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk” and “Hiccup’s WingGliders and Fyre Drill”.
Meanwhile Universal itself has filed new trademarks for “Dark Universe” once again, which may be the name of the Universal Monsters land, “Curse of the Werewolf”, which we said was the rumored name for the new Spinning Coaster, “Constellation Carousel” likely under the park’s central dome structure, “The Oak & Star Tavern” and “Starfall Racers” which is more than likely the new official name for the racing/dueling pair of coasters that start off in the center of the park.
(3/5/2023) Some new cool aerial progress photos of Universal’s Epic Universe have been posted to Twitter by Bioreconstruct this week. The first shows off a general view of the entire park, with Super Nintendo World at the bottom. The big white building would be the location for Mario Kart while the yellowish L-shaped structure to the left of it would be the Donkey Kong coaster.
Next up are several great images showing off the park’s epic racing/dueling coaster from Mack Rides that is now starting to go up very quickly. In some of the images you can also see the white and grey track sections for the How To Train Your Dragon coaster from Intamin being set up nearby.
Below that is a quick look at the large buildings going up for the new Wizarding World land, home to the Battle for the Ministry of Magic ride.
Then they’ve posted some pictures of the How To Train Your Dragon land and attraction spaces, more Donkey Kong, progress on the spinning coaster in the Universal Monsters land and more. They’ve made an interesting note about the spinning coaster, as the sharp hills on either side of the “barn” in the middle of the ride layout may be used for an unusual forwards/backwards “swing launch” element, not unlike how Ice Breaker at SeaWorld launches.
(3/1/2023) A new video of aerial footage showing off the latest construction progress on Universal’s Epic Universe theme park can be see below, posted by Attractions Magazine.
(2/18/2023) Screamscape has learned that Universal Orlando has been sending out an online survey that asks a lot of questions about how people feel about the heavily-disliked reservation system that has been in effect at Walt Disney World since 2020. The speculation based on gathering public opinion on the topic is to find out what people hate most about Disney’s reservation system just in case Universal Orlando is perhaps planning on putting their own form of a reservation system into effect at some point in the future.
Now, I don’t believe this will come into play anytime in the next year or so for the existing Universal Orlando theme parks (USF, IOA and Volcano Bay) but I think they may be thinking more ahead about how to handle the crowds at the new Epic Universe theme park when it opens in 2025. Opening a new park is always a challenge as you have high guest interest and intent to visit, mixed with a brand new park that may not be fully built out yet, and offer only a limited number of attractions at first. Certainly one way to improve the guest experience for those who enter, and make sure they get to see and do everything they want to do, would be to limit your attendance levels at first via a potential reservation system.
A reservation system would certainly be easier to enforce at Epic Universe as the new theme park will not be physically attached to the main Universal Orlando resort property where guests are encouraged to buy multi-day / multi-park tickets and travel directly between the main two parks on the Hogwarts Express train.
(1/27/2023) According to GottaGoOrlando, a Marriott branded “W Hotel” is now planned to be built right next door to Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park, at the crossroads of Destination Pkwy and Universal Blvd. They also claim that the 400-room hotel will also include an interesting feature for an Orlando hotel… a 2,000 seat live music/performance venue along with an accompanying 6-story parking structure.
(1/9/2023) A great aerial video showcasing a flight over Universal’s Epic Universe theme park can be found below. The footage is a little shaky but it does give you more of a sense of where everything is located in relation to each other.
(12/10/2022) A beautifully animated version of what we can expect to see from the racing/dueling Celestial Gardens coaster has been posted to YouTube by Amusement Insider. According to their post, they claim the final name for the coaster may be “Starfall Racers”, but so far Universal hasn’t verified that with any kind of official trademark filing just yet. Keep in mind that this is a fan creation and not an official preview from Universal Orlando, but that said, this does look pretty damn good based on my own private knowledge of the coaster.
As shown the pair of coasters will depart the station, enter a tight u-turn and drop down into a dark side-by-side launch tunnel under the loading station and pause briefly for what is likely to be a lighting and sound effects enhanced launch sequence theme.
Based on Screamscape’s own knowledge of the coaster layout, what you see here in this new animation does seem to be fairly close to what will be built. Without going into too much detail, based on previous artwork I’ve seen, I’d say you could expect the hills to be either a bit taller or have steeping climbs and drops, with some more snappy banking and / G-force filled moments here and there, but otherwise the layout appears fairly sound in principal. I’d just expect the actual version to be a little more forceful, as the animation appears a bit too “graceful” and gentle in the side-by-side flight pattern footage.
As for that layout, after the first launch, riders will shoot up a nice airtime hill, dive to the ground and run side-by-side into an element where they will rise again and bank away from each other to turn around for a bit of racing/dueling fun back towards the station, and then separate again to pass by the station on opposite sides to set up for that head-to-head turn element that will be right in front of the station in view of guests from the main pathway in front of the ride.
The tracks will realign to run side-by-side once again to roll into a booster launch track located just outside the station structure, for a long run out to the far back end of the coaster that will feature some great interwoven track elements, including a helix turn-around to set up the final run back towards the station and brake-run.
In close, it is worth noting that both tracks are unique so you’ll want to ride both sides during your visit to the park. Also, you may be surprised to find out that despite the long length of these coasters, there will only be a single inversion element on each side. So from a design stand-point, these coasters will be very different from the more inversion heavy designs we’ve seen Universal purchase previously for rides like Hulk, Dueling Dragons or VelociCoaster.
(11/5/22) Screamscape has heard some interesting scuttlebut about the Curse of the Werewolf spinning coaster project coming to the Monsters land. While this was said to be a launched spinning coaster from Mack Rides, the early assumption was that would be part of Mack’s “Xtreme Spinning Coaster” line, which has some impressive looking beefy trains that would be easy to apply some very cool theming to, as we’ve seen already done with Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City and Ride to Happiness at Plopsaland De Panne.
Instead, we are hearing there is a chance that Universal might have opted to use an entirely different style train concept from Mack. Mack has a couple of spinning coaster styles under their belt and the concern is that Universal could have opted to use a system similar to the trains used on Cobra’s Curse at Busch Gardens Tampa, which I believe use a restraint system similar to Mack’s wild mouse cars which is a bit cramped for most adult riders and anyone with long legs. Personally, if they opt not to use the new style trains, I would hope that they opt to use Mack’s more comfortable style spinning coaster trains, which Universal actually has experience with, having used them on Space Fantasy at Universal Studios Japan. More on this as we find out.
(11/1/22) While things are always subject to change up until the last second, Screamscape sources have revealed to us the current attraction names from Epic Universe’s Monsters area. For starters, the European themed village itself will be named “Village of Darkmoor”. As for the rides, look for the big E-ticket dark ride to be called “Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment” and the new spinning coaster is expected to be named “The Curse of the Werewolf”.
(10/8/22) Today Screamscape is back with another special reveal about one of the major attractions under construction at Universal’s Epic Universe. Today we’re going to dive DEEP into Universal Orlando’s 3rd “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” themed land, and the key anchor attraction, which is tentatively named, “The Battle for the Ministry of Magic”. I’d expect some small tweaking of the name to take place before things are officially announced, but this title is pretty clear to the story being told within her.
But before we get to that, I’m going to talk about the land itself briefly, which is sure to cause more than a little confusion when it comes to the story being told within the attraction. As previously rumored, the land itself is supposed to be themed as if you are in the French version of the Wizarding World. Guests will enter the land and the surrounding streets and shops, which I believe is called “Place Cachée”, which roughly translates as “Hidden Place”. Fans of the Wizarding World films will have seen Place Cachée for a brief time in the second Fantastic Beasts film, and is essentially a more fancy and French version of Diagon Alley.
While a secondary attraction was once intended for this land (remember that VR Broomstick ride?) it has long since been canceled. Apparently not for budget reasons, but mainly it sounds like when the option came to move it to a new location in the main Studios park and they started to push ahead with building it sooner than later, they realized that it just wasn’t really going to be as good of an attraction as they thought, so they scrapped it. The land where this attraction was going to be placed however will still remain available to add an additional attraction onto the land in the future when the time is right. Otherwise, I think the only other attraction in the land will be some kind of show theater.
So anyway, guests will visit the French Wizarding World for the first time, so you can see how this can open up a lot of ways to sell all new merchandise and food options not already sold in the first two Wizarding World lands over at the main resort parks. Interactive Wands will also be in play here, and apparently the entire interactive wand play as seen throughout all three parks is said to be planned for a major upgrade where all new wands capable of more interactive elements will then be sold. We’ll discuss that more at another time… but just expect to see the wands able to do a lot more here in this newest land.
The entrance to the main attraction will be an interesting feature for this land, as guests will enter into what is essentially a giant public Floo Network station. So you’ll enter into a giant room full of fireplaces that will transport you BACK to the British Ministry of Magic. Yes… you read that last part right… while the entire land is themed as if you are in Parisian Wizarding World, the main attraction for the entire land take place in in the UK, and requires them to come up with an in-storyline method of transportation to get all the guests back to the British Wizarding World, and back again by the end of the experience.
You may find yourself asking… Why did they bother themeing the land to Paris at all then? Or why not come up with a new story involving the French Wizarding World? Both are good questions… and neither have a good answer. Apparently Universal Creative is just hoping that no one will really ask those kind of questions and just go along with the experience. OK then… and oh… don’t even try to bring up the time jump, as the Fantastic Beasts era (early 20th century) theming of Place Cachée will then give way, via Floo teleport, to a future timeline in the regular Harry Potter film series that takes place in the world following the events of the Deathly Hallows book/films but before the events that take place in The Cursed Child play.
All this aside, everyone is trying to get to the London Ministry of Magic to catch the end of the trial of Dolores Umbridge who is about to the sentenced to serve a life sentence in Azkaban prison for her crimes. To do this, guests will enter this magical public transportation station to get to the Ministry, which will actually be done through a very cool room stuffed with special effects.
Guests will then exit the Floo into the giant hallway of Floos as seen in the Ministry of Magic in the film series. Through design and some effects, this area will be a huge reveal and “Wow” moments for the guests as they move from here into the queue for the ride. Guests will move towards the center of the Ministry rotunda, which will include the huge statue at the center. The buildout of this massive round room has already been spotted in some of the aerial construction photos of the park. From here guests will travel down the various hallways within the Ministry, past various office doors and different Ministry departments, which includes the office of the Aurors. Aurors are essentially the highly trained enforcement arm of the Wizarding World. As I said previously, this all takes place after the Battle of Hogwarts (as seen in Deathly Hollows Pt 2) and before the events of The Cursed Child. In a quick little spoiler here, both Harry and Ron eventually become Aurors, which will be important later.
Working through the Ministry guests will eventually get to the magical elevator bays where they will board the ride vehicle. As I mentioned in the previous article, the originally vision for the attraction was to use sort of Elevator platform attached to an overhead track, not unlike the original Kong attraction at Universal Studios Florida when it first opened in 1990. Instead this idea was revised to use a next-gen Spider-Man style ride car system that will add a significant bit of “heave” movement to the platform. In the vocabulary of motion-base platform rides, “heave” would be described as vertical up and down motion, so essentially this ride platform will move like Spiderman through the dark ride, while being able to also provide lift and dropping sensations during the ride experience, to give it a true elevator motion style feel.
As guests come up into the loading station for the actual ride they will see it is laid out as a dual-side station just like Gringott’s or Revenge of the Mummy, which would be a first for Universal when building a Spider-Man / Transformers style dark ride system. Guests will board and be transported to the courtroom to see the trial of Umbridge. From here, in true Universal ride fashion, things go horribly wrong rather quickly. (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
Death Eaters arrive on the scene to free Umbridge, and the storyline will see the arrival of your three favorite Potter characters (Harry, Ron and Hermione) to battle the evil and stop their evil plans. It seems breaking Umbridge out of the Ministry isn’t enough, she is trying to get into a storage area for powerful magical artifacts to get her hands of a time travel device. If I understand things correctly, Umbridge wants to open a portal back in time to when Voldemort was all powerful and bring that version of Voldemort to the present in order to take over the Wizarding World.
Guests will ride along and enter various rooms in the Ministry and pass through the chaotic magical battlefield as shown through both projection and real-world animatronic effects. When I say Animatronics… apparently Universal is putting some new animatronic figures to use here that go by the codename Megabot. From what I’m told these are the most advanced animatronics ever put to use by Universal Creative ever and not only feature fluid human-like motion, but fully projection mapped animated faces.
While I’m not 100% up on all my Potter universe and magical creatures, you’ll not only encounter some kind of fire breathing chicken creature, but also a frightening encounter with Newt’s Erumpent. While trying to get away Umbridge apparently frees the Erumpent, which is sort of a massive magical creature with a rhinoceros style horn coming from the top of its head. From what I’m told, Universal is going to borrow the effect they created for the Jurassic World dark ride in China here, as the guests will come face to face and then look like they are trying to run away from the charging Erumpent.
It all comes to a head when Delores thinks she has the Time Turner she was seeking out in hand, only to realize that Hermione has done something to it. I’m not sure if she created a fake one, or put a curse on a real one, but in the end Delores Umbridge will see her plan fall to pieces and litterally slip through her fingers, and find her obnoxious pink garb transformed back into prison black & white stripes as she is apprehended once again. From here everyone is taken back to the court room for the final sentencing by Shacklebolt and as the finale scene for the ride.
I’m told that the actress who plays Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) has signed off to film footage for the ride. I know what you are thinking… and yes Universal has reached out to the actors who play Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) to see if they can lure them back to reprise their characters once again for the new ride. This can be done via full performance work, voice work, or give permission for some alternative GCI version of their likeness to be used.
Storywise, this is likely going to be one of the best attractions in the park, and a great example of having a Wizarding World attraction officially expand the universe through a new storyline that has been approved by Warner Bros and everyone involved to be considered as official cannon for the Wizarding World universe. This will include the use of all official characters from the films, and the introduction of some new characters and creatures we may not have seen before. One new character that will be introduced here via an Animatronic is the first female house elf character to be introduced, who I believe will be an assistant to Umbridge. This character may possibly be first shown in the queue as guests pass by Umbridge’s old and very pink office, full of those crazy animated cat plates on the walls.
Once the ride is over, guests will exit through a gift shop area and through another pass through the Floo network to get everyone back to early 20th century Paris once again. I’ve drew up a quick layout drawing of the actual attraction space, where the ride system itself seems to be entirely contained to the upper level of the attraction building. The queue will be contained in the shorter single story building in front of the main attraction building, as well as throughout sections of the first level under the attraction itself, not unlike how the original Forbidden Journey attraction is done.
While I’ve already described the basic overall story to be told during the ride experience, there is nothing in the layout that will really give away which scene is which, but there are a couple of stage areas you can see along with what look like areas where rear projection screens will be placed throughout the ride experience and other areas that appear as if they could use more practical real-world effects. There is also an area where the ride vehicles can be swapped in and out of a maintenance area just after leaving the station, with the maintenance area being in the upper front left section of the building. You can see this shown in a great aerial picture of the site posted by Bioreconstruct on Twitter below.
(9/10/22) Every so often I’ll search through the government's trademark database for new listings related to the industry and this week I discovered that Universal filed for two new trademark names for future Resort projects on Sept. 1st. We know that in addition to the already discovered Grand Helios Resort at the back of the park, Universal’s plans had marked off the locations for two additional resort projects to be located across the street from each other just to the south of the park. While these could be two entirely “separate” resort concepts, my feeling is that we could be seeing a pair of related resorts rise here, in mind the same fashion that Universal’s Endless Summer Resort is made up of two separate resorts, the Surfside Resort and the Dockside Resort.
The new names just trademarked would definitely work either as stand-alone resorts, but with perhaps a related overall theme, as they will be called “Universal’s Terra Luna Resort” and “Universal’s Stella Nova Resort”. These roughty translate from Latin as Universal’s “Earth Moon Resort” and the “New Star Resort” which definitely fits in with the “cosmic” theme they seem to be going with for the Epic Universe expansion property. Another fine example would be the rumored “Celestial Gardens” area for the center of the park that will include a large restaurant, an enclosed carousel under a dome structure and the pair of racing/dueling launched coasters.
Then there is also the “Helios Grand Hotel” project, where Helios was the name of the Greek Titan who represented the movement of the Sun across the sky. Each day Helios was believed to leave his golden palace to climb aboard a chariot pulled by four winged steeds and fly East to West across the entire sky wearing a bright glowing crown that created the blinding light of the sun in an aura around his head.
(8/24/22) Today Screamscape is going to take you into the colorful jungles of Donkey Kong Country for an in-depth look at what you can expect from the Donkey Kong mine kart coaster. For starters, if you missed any of our earlier reports, this has probably been one of the worst kept secrets about Super Nintendo World as Universal Creative filed patents for something they called the “Boom Coaster” ride system for this way back when it was first envisioned for Universal Studios Japan. In fact, the ride is already well under construction in Japan with an intended 2024 opening there, about a year ahead of the clone under construction in Epic Universe for 2025.
The Boom Coaster concept is essentially a small single-car roller coaster system where the vehicle (in this case themed as a mine cart) will essentially hover just over fake mine cart tracks. The real roller coaster track that makes this all work is hidden to the side and below the fake tracks (or scenery) and actually looks pretty like a regular roller coaster track, but installed at a 90º angle. The purpose of this is to hide the real track from easy viewing and instead fill the rider’s view with enough scenery and fake track that it will allow for the mine cart vehicle to appear as if it can perform some pretty nifty looking stunts. Riders will think the vehicle will jump over gaps in the track, be able to tilt and ride on 2-wheels (and 1 fake rail), dive out of the way in unpredictable fashion away from the faux track to avoid collisions and much more. If you check out the images I’ve attached here, you’ll find a series of crude sketches… hand drawn by myself, as a way to try and show off just what this ride system is capable of, or trying to show off what a few of the visual gags that lie ahead could look like. Don’t laugh too much, like I said, crude drawings.
Pretty much the whole of Donkey Kong Country is being built all around this coaster system, with the exception of an airplane themed food stand guests will first notice to the side upon entering the jungle landscape, with a view of a massive temple ahead of them. The temple will be decorated with assorted art of monkey and gorilla symbols, a waterfall falling from near the top, along with the occasional bits and pieces of odd debris, including a giant wooden barrel near the peak. (That barrel will be important later). Guests will enter the queue ahead to the left that will wind through part of the outdoor jungle scenery and past a couple of the lower tier track gags before venturing inside the temple itself for the indoor queue section that will eventually lead to the load/unload station.
Since we are dealing with the issue of unloading and loading a large number of 4-passenger vehicles, I’m assuming that Universal may try to use a continuously moving loading station concept, not unlike what they built for Hagrid and the Forbidden Journey attractions. It really is the best way to keep guests and vehicles moving. Once you board your kart you’ll slowly move outside where the fun will begin.
From here, I’m going to describe some of the basic scenes, gags and effects we expect you to encounter while on the attraction. Keep in mind that much of this information came to us some time ago, and some design revisions may have changes a thing or two between now and then, but you’ll still get the basic gist of what the ride experience is about. You can also follow along with a layout map I’ve created of the ride experience, with each area numbered starting with:
1 - After making a quick u-turn your cart will move up the first lift hill and towards that giant barrel we mentioned that was sitting at the top of the temple. Upon entering the barrel your cart will lurch forward at great speed and perform the first of several “jumps” over a gap in a broken section of track.
2 - Sticking the landing, your cart will head forward and towards an entrance into the temple, but watch out… Donkey Kong and son are riding head-on at you on another mine cart, speeding into view from around the corner up ahead to the left. Without warning your cart vears off the track to the right, diving down into darkness.
3 - Suddenly back on the tracks but at high speed your cart will suddenly climb a hill just as you venture back out into the sun to leap another gap in the tracks.
4 - After a quick straight away you’ll head towards what is either another jump effect or a small dip into a small bunny hop and then quickly bank right into a tight turn towards a cave entrance.
5 - Darkness here, and what I understand in the dim lighting you may see a pair of tracks ahead, each with some kind of construction disruption or a mine-character blocking the tracks so your cart will perform a couple of rapid track swaps to avoid these obstacles and head back towards the light ahead…
6 - Lift Hill 2 - Back into the sun and rising towards the waterfall…
7 - Passing under the waterfall, your view is obscured by mist as you approach what I call the corkscrew gag. The track ahead will appear to literally climb the walls of the temple into a corkscrew inversion. What you don’t see is that the true coaster track below the fog will instead take a steep dive and quickly bank to the right and back outside once again.
8 - Much like Scene 3, your fast moving cart will quickly climb and I believe perform another jump over some rocky terrain.
9 - Sticking the landing, again into another hard banked right turn, but I think you’ll simulate riding on a single rail as you navigate the turn through some kind of rocky section of broken track.
10 - Splashdown… and yes, real water. The true coaster track will dip below grade through the hidden slot while the bottom of your mine cart will bounce and splash across a small body of water, before rising up and going back inside the temple once again.
11 - Finale… you encounter a big animated figure of Donkey Kong celebrating your run with a Hi-5 as you approach a treasure room with Diddy Kong and a massive golden banana before slowly rolling back into the station.
And there you have it… you just took on the Golden Temple of Donkey Kong Country. From what sound of things, this could be an amazing roller coaster system, able to visually look like it is performing a number of incredible stunts all while maintaining a relatively friendly speed and pace, all while appearing to keep the cart (for the most part) on tracks along various surfaces rather than flying high into the sky. The end effect should be a ride that is thrilling to both young and old alike. Be sure to check out the picture below posted to Twitter by Bioreconstruct showing off the current status of Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe. The large attraction under construction on the bottom right is Donkey Kong, with the enclosed structure to be the temple, the L-shaped off-shoot at the top to be the enclosed dark cave section of the ride, and the basin below that for the splashdown area. The circular structure to the left of it all will be for the Yoshi themed omni-mover ride, and the large structure going up above that will be for the MarioKart ride.
(8/22/22) Bioreconstruct has posted an assortment of new aerial images of the Epic Universe theme park under construction this week. I’ve hand picked a few to share, starting with one showing off the massive attraction building under construction for the Wizarding World area that should be themed as a French Ministry of Magic building. From what I’m told this will be the only ‘ride’ in the land when the park opens, along with a live show theater, as all other options were canceled (VR Brookstick ride anyone?) or budget cut out.
There are also a couple of aerial shots of the Universal Monsters land, where the big structure is the Frankenstein Manor attraction, the one with the very low walls right now will be for the launched spinning coaster (you’ll see a few footers) and other items representing the entrance to the land or other random buildings that will serve as scenery, shops or restaurants.
Remember how I said the land will come alive after dark? One such structure will be of great interest to fans of the Universal Mosnters, as they will essentially be bringing to life the finale scene of the 1931 Frankenstein film by creating a massive Windmill building that will seem innocent enough during the daytime. After the sun goes down, just as seen in the film, the villagers will light the windmill on fire in order to destroy Frankenstein’s Monster. Or at least that is how it happens in the film. As for the theme park version, I’m not entirely sure if the plan is for the windmill just to spin on fire all night, or explosively erupt into flames every 15 minutes or so, or if they will try to put on some kind of performance with villagers chasing a monster into the windmill and then lighting it on fire at specific times. Either way, it is a damn cool touch.
Other pictures I’ll add below include a look at the How To Train Your Dragon land, which will feature a number of rides and a fun coaster for the whole family that will feature both lift hills and launch segments, plus a look at the yellow, green and black track stacked up for the Celestial Coaster project, which also will have a significant footprint.
(8/13/22) Ok, I teased it yesterday, but we do know a little more about what is supposed to be going on at the Universal Monsters area of the park. As I mentioned before, a second attraction is being added to the land in addition to the KUKA-arm ride. This new ride is said to be a last second addition to the plans after the show-venue was scraped from the park plans during COVID. From the sound of things, it is a shame that the show concept was scrapped, as it had earned the nickname of “Werewolf Waterworld” from many of the designers. In reality, the show venue would have been a sort of a mix between the Waterworld stunt show concept from the Hollywood park mixed with the technology and video wall of Florida’s “The Borne Stuntacular” show.
As a replacement I’m told that Universal has bought a launched spinning coaster from Mack Rides, not unlike Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City (2018) or Ride to Happiness at Plopsaland De Panne (2021). That said, this will be a MUCH smaller ride than those other coasters however. Look for the coaster to be mostly outdoors with the exception of one indoor show scene that will probably lead up to the launch. Two themes were said to have been proposed for the ride, one involving being chased by wolves through the woods (which is probably the final concept) though there was another concept themed around the idea of Dr Jeckle & Mr. Hyde, where the spinning cars would have likely been themed half and half to each personality.
Now if you are ready, I’ve got all the details you want to know about the land itself, the story they are telling with it and how it relates to the main attraction. Apparently the development teams struggled with this land concept more than any other for the park, but with good reason. The concept of the Universal Monsters is not one that was intended to be used as part of a “shared universe”, but rather was a concept of characters grouped together over time. Universal Studios itself struggled greatly with the “Dark Universe” concept where they wanted to create a rebooted and shared universe for new modern versions of these Monsters before eventually shelving the concept. In terms of the theme park land, it makes sense that they struggled with the concept of creating an overall theme that could represent the various characters in one setting, but there are just so mary variables to choose from, including the era of the setting itself (modern world, european village, black & white era, etc…).
What was selected after all this time was to build what will look like a classic European Village concept, but isn’t just any village, this will be the original village from the Frankenstein legends! You aren’t going back in time however, this will be today’s world, where the inhabitants have, of course, turned the village into a tourist trap to capitalize on the legend of the events that took place inside the creepy Frankenstein manor on the edge of town.
Enter into the picture, the great-great-great ancestor of Dr. Victor Frankenstein… who I’m hearing just might be named “Victoria”. Victoria, who apparently will have a sort of sexy “Elvira” vibe, has returned to reclaim the manor and convert it into the most epic of tourist attractions and something worthy of her family name! This has the rest of the villagers a little on edge as the abandoned and dormant castle has been showing new signs of life and activity.
As tourists you are invited to try out this new attraction of course, and meet Victoria Frankenstein in the flesh. Yes, apparently she will be fully present at one point (probably the pre-show) as an awesome animatronic figure. Victoria has been looking to up the ante in building the ultimate tourist attraction, and may have borrowed a page from the Jurassic World playbook. Monsters are not enough… and much like the VelociCoaster, she created something more thrilling… more edgy… or in the verbiage of Jurassic World… she is going to give you something with “more teeth”.
How so? Well, it turns out that old Dr. Frankenstein had apparently collected more monsters from around the world in his day, and had them chained up in an underground dungeon below the manor all those years ago. Upon this discovery, Victoria has “spared no expense” to update the old family manor, bringing in a security force and install the best modern containment systems to keep all those captured monsters in check
So after all the pre-show and security warnings are dealt with, you’ll be led towards the loading station to board your vehicle for the tour. The station will actually be a large rotating platform, not unlike what guests use to board the Popeye & Bluto rapids ride at Islands of Adventure. For those who ever got the chance to see any plans for the once proposed Van Helsing attraction Universal dreamt up first for the KUKA-arm ride concept before converting it use for Harry Potter, this should sound very familiar. From here guests will board their vehicle (where the KUKA-arm is mounted below the seats this time) and start your tour going past this collection of imprisoned creatures. This will lead you to an encounter with the original Frankenstein’s Monster, where as usual… something goes horribly wrong.
The fun of the Universal Monsters land doesn’t end with just the two rides however. Of course there will be gift shops and I’m expected a themed restaurant experience as well, but once the sun goes down, you will be in for a special treat. In the evenings, I’m told that the monsters will escape the manor and begin to hide and roam about the land, jumping out of the shadows to scare guests not paying attention. In essence, the entire land will become something more like a year-round Scare Zone at Halloween Horror Nights, with spooky music, fog and lighting effects and more. Now that’s a plan I can definitely get behind and makes this land sound so much more exciting!
(8/12/22) Back in July I mentioned that the main attraction in the Universal Monsters land at Epic Universe would be an upgraded version of the KUKA Arm ride technology used for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Islands of Adventure. Many have asked for more information about exactly what will be different, and to be honest, the difference isn’t going to sound like much on the surface.
When you look at what the Forbidden Journey ride vehicles look like, the rider’s seats are mounted to the massive KUKA robot arm, attached essentially just behind the spines of the riders. According to Screamscape source the main difference this time around is that the KUKA Arm will connect to the riders from below the seats, rather than in back of them. While the difference is subtle, the point of connection will allow for the ride vehicles to be able to SPIN the riders around far more quickly along the Z-Axis, allow for rapid turns and spins, possibly to better simulate combat moves and impacts. In the original ride vehicle, it appears that all Z-Axis movement was handled by a joint at the extreme furthest end of the arm, which required the entire arm and all the attached hardware to spin as well. Obviously moving that much extra mass takes a lot more time and energy, and moves a lot slower. In essence, think of how fast you can move your hand by rotating at the wrist, compared to how much more effort it takes to move your hand by only using your shoulder joint.
On a related note, we’ve been hearing a little more information about a second ride being added to the Universal Monsters land. This new ride will be taking the place of a previous concept for the land that was going to have a large show theater instead, but the theater has been canceled and this unknown new ride will appear instead. I have a few ideas about exactly what this new ride may be, but I’m not quite ready to reveal it just yet.
(8/5/22) According to the Orlando Business Journal, Universal’s new 500-room Grand Helios hotel at the back of the new Epic Universe theme park is slated to be completed by the end of 2023, over a year before the Epic Universe theme park is set to open sometime in 2025.
Universal has also filed permits to build a second hotel (750-rooms) down near the new Epic Universe park as well that will be located off Universal Blvd. With the addition of these two new hotels, this would bring Universal’s total number of rooms up to 10,250 across the ten different resort properties.
(7/10/22) A great collection of aerial images showing off the progress of things at Universal’s Epic Universe has been added below. As you can see various large steel building structures are now rising on site for some of the park’s major attractions. This includes a look at Super Nintendo World, including the Donkey Kong coaster which already has some track and supports in place, and supports up for the Yoshi’s Adventure family ride. There are also pictures of the massive show building going up for the Ministry of Magic attraction, a pit and footers in place for the high speed head-to-head near-miss u-turn at the front of the Celestial Gardens coaster project, ground work in the How to Train Your Dragon land, and a look at work starting in the Universal Monsters land, with the structure believed to be the entrance to the land’s signature dark ride, a new KUKA arm creation said to be a upgrade in concept to the ride system used for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction. Much like with Forbidden Journey, and as one might expect from a Universal Monsters themed ride, it will have a very large indoor queue that is almost an attraction to itself. I wouldn’t be surprised if this particular attraction takes on an overall footprint similar to the original potter ride with a themed dark castle like structure up front serving the entrance, queue, exit and gift shop hiding the larger show building behind it, which will likely go up after they finish with the front section.
Now that we’ve seen construction taking place on all the lands around the park, is it too soon to talk about what will come next? We know the park will open with four lands themed to various IP, along with the Celestial Gardens central land, space is being left open in the park to add at least 3 or 4 more new lands over the years after it opens. Would it surprise you to know that Universal already has a very special IP in mind to serve as the first expansion land for Epic Universe?
Plans can always change of course, and often they do, as longtime readers may recall reading about a number of new themed attractions once planned for Universal’s Islands of Adventure that were never built. Keeping that in mind, Screamscape sources have told us that the first planned expansion for Epic Universe will be to bring the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth to the park. That is really all I’ve heard at this point, and we don’t have a clue if this will be inspired more from the Peter Jackson series of films (“The Hobbit” / “Lord of the Rings”) made for W.B./New Line Cinema or if they will take inspiration from the upcoming Amazon Prime series: “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”. Either way, this addition does seem definitely to be an “Epic” one.
(6/22/22) While the coaster track for the planned How To Train Your Dragon land ride was spotted last week, we now have pictures from Super Nintendo World where the unique Donkey Kong coaster has gone vertical. As you can see, the track system used here is unique, featuring a vertical orientation that will allow for some fun optical illusions to take place along the way, such as areas where the ride car will appear to be jumping over gaps.
A second picture posted also shows off vertical construction on some of the buildings intended for the Universal Monsters themed land, which will be anchored by a massive new dark ride featuring ride vehicles powered by Kuka robotic arms once again.
(6/19/22) The Coaster Crew reports that a load of what appears to be Intamin style roller coaster track has been delivered to Universal’s Epic Universe theme park. There are a few coasters slated to be installed for this park, including a Donkey Kong themed coaster, a pair of racing/dueling launched coasters (also from Intamin I believe) that will be part of the central Celestial Gardens area of the park, and then a How To Train Your Dragon coaster. The later will be an Intamin built terrain hugging coaster that should offer a ride experience not unlike Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at IOA. As I believe that the Celestial Gardens coasters are intended to be brightly colored, the plain grey track found on site now falls right in line with the design intent for the How To Train Your Dragon themed coaster experience.
(6/16/22) Today we’re going to talk a little bit about Universal’s Epic Universe theme park, in particular I’m going to discuss what we know about a few of the major rides, and how things have changed between now and what was originally intended before the pandemic.
For starters, let's jump into a land we haven't really discussed much before, which would be this park’s addition to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. A lot has changed here from what was originally intended, and there is still so much we still don’t know.
For starters, I’m still not sure exactly what the overall theme of this land will be. Before the pandemic struck, the story was that this would be our first look at the Wizarding World of France, which would include an attraction that would take us inside the French version of the Ministry of Magic in Paris, that long rumored VR Broomstick ride, a live show and possibly a smaller outdoor attraction of some kind.
Things have obviously changed since then, and while I don’t know if Parisian theme itself will even stick, the VR Broomstick ride up and moved itself to become a replacement for Fear Factor at USF, and then it got canceled entirely from both parks. This leaves us with the land’s primary thrill ride, and while the ride system has changed, I’m hearing that the overall storyline to take guests on an adventure inside the Ministry of Magic is likely to remain intact. What was canceled however was the ride system originally envisioned for this attraction, that was said to be a merger of a Spider-Man style dark ride vehicle, with the ceiling suspended ride system used for the old Kongfrontation ride, themed as taking a magic elevator ride around the Minsitry.
So to picture this, imagine taking a Spider-Man car, but flipping it upside down and mounting it to a track on the roof. The motion-base is still there, and attached to the top of the rider’s flying elevator vehicle to rotate and shake everyone about, while adding the Kong style ability to raise and lower the elevator in height as you move around the show-scenes, starting off with the Ministry’s trial of (Professor) Dolores Umbridge… aka that nasty woman in pink who made life hell for Potter and friends in the Order of the Phoenix film. The plot of the ride, which may still hold true in current form, is that Umbridge escapes during the trial, and is trying to obtain some kind of magic item that allows for time travel, so that she can go back and bring the Voledermort of the past into the present day, fully powered and ready to take over the Wizarding World.
Ok, got that?
Good… because the riders get involved in the effort to stop her before it is too late.
What’s changed now? It sounds like the story may essentially be the same, but rather than risk things things by creating a brand-new ride system, instead we are going to essentially get an slightly upgraded “Spider-Man” concept instead, where riders will climb aboard a ride platform not unlike what you are already experienced with on Spider-Man or Transformers, but will include one extra piece of added technology that will allow the riders to be raised and/or dropped about 5 feet along with all the regular motions you’ve come to expect from that ride system. The added vertical (heave) motion will help convey that same feeling that you are riding along in a floating elevator apparently. For comparison’s sake, the addition of “heave” motion is what also makes Disney’s Avatar: Flight of Passage ride system stand out as feeling more intense than the more gentle motion of “Soarin’”.
(2/13/22) While this is something of a no-brainer, early permits uncovered seem to confirm that planning for a second hotel is in the works for Universal’s Epic Universe expansion. Unlike the large planned “Helios” resort planned to go on site at the back of the new theme park itself, the permits for this latest plan (Project 912) show a site located south of the new theme park, along the north side of Universal Blvd.
Keep in mind that Universal owns a lot of land down here now, and master plans have been set to build several new hotels and developments here to support the new Epic Universe theme park since it is not connected physically to the main Universal Orlando resort property.
(1/29/22) In a Comcast earnings call this past week, Universal’s parent company confirmed that they are moving “full steam ahead” on the new Epic Universe theme park project, which is now slated to open in Summer 2025 based on the current rate of construction.
(7/11/21) An interesting report from Theme Park University this weekend mentions that Universal Creative was taken by surprise by the announcement that the Harry Potter New York retail location would have a pair of VR attractions, now set to open this week. It’s a good read, but the big thing is that the surprise comes as Universal Creative was working on their on VR based attraction that would place riders on Broomsticks.
I can confirm this as well, as Screamscape sources confirmed to us long ago that one of the intended attractions for the new Epic Universe theme park was to have a Ministry of Magic themed attraction as part of whole third Wizarding World land. The unannounced new land was expected to feature a live show, a major new dark ride experience and the Brookstick ride where riders would fly, aided with the use of VR style headgear. The early word at the time was that the concept in progress was looking pretty amazing and sure to be a guest favorite.
With the launch of Epic Universe delayed from late 2023 to 2025 right now, Theme Park University brought up the return of another rumor, that said Brookstick attraction might be going ahead as planned, but possibly in a new location as an expansion to the London/Diagon Alley land in Universal Studios Florida where it would take over the Fear Factor Live stadium site. This sort of brings the rumor home once again, as rumors of adding a Ministry of Magic themed attraction on this site started as soon as Diagon Alley opened in 2014.
Much like how the early plans for Orlando’s Super Nintendo World would have placed the new land in the Studios park as a replacement for the Kidzone area before being shifted to become a land in Epic Universe, the early plans for the Ministry of Magic attraction also made the jump to Epic Universe as the start of an entirely new land. I’m not sure how confirmed the plans are to bring it back to the Studios as TPU reports, but I don’t think that would harm the overall larger plan for the third Wizarding World land still intended for Epic Universe.
If anything, it might make the overall theme of the new land make even more sense as we had previously heard that the plan for the new land was to feature a look at the French version of the Wizarding World, with the dark ride to be themed around the French version of the Ministry of Magic located in the city of Paris, and possibly involving the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in the storyline for either the ride or the live show. So moving the rumored Broomstick VR attraction along with a British Ministry of Magic theme from Epic Universe to a location next to Diagon Alley would possibly be for the best.
Of course with the delay added to the new park project, there could be many new changes made to the previous rumored designs.
(7/10/21) Remember those possible ride pieces spotted on side at the Epic Universe construction site? While there was debate on if they were actually ride pieces or not, we’re now leaning towards the possibility of them being ride pieces after all, but not for a roller coaster. MidwayMayhem got a few nice ground-level photos of the pieces, giving us a better look at the details.
It was pointed out that these look very similar to the ride track pieces for the Yoshi’s Adventure ride at Universal Studios Japan, built for Super Nintendo World. The ride system in question would be an omni-mover ride supplied by Japan’s Sansei Technologies (parent company of S&S-Sanesei, formerly known as S&S Power) and you can see some comparison photos posted by ThemeParkShark. Meanwhile InsideUniversal has also posted a screen capture showing that shipments from Sansei were delivered to Universal containing “catwalk” and various track joint, support and walkway pieces for a project “P904” which was rumored to be part of the Super Nintendo World land at Epic Universe.
(6/30/21) Screamscape sources have informed us that the collection of metal pieces unloaded at Universal’s Epic Universe may not be pieces of a ride at all. This makes sense, as the park’s estimated opening is still four years away, but then the question remains, what exactly is it they had delivered?
According to one theory, those may be supports for some kind of awning or shade canopy structure. While this may not be something for the park itself just yet, it could be something for a future temporary support structure on the way to the area as they prepare to bring more activity to the construction site. A good photo showing off one style of shade structure where the supports do share a similar look to ride supports can be found here.
Not saying that is exactly what it is, but just something to keep in mind for the time being, especially given the current timetable that has an anticipated opening four years away.
(6/29/21) A couple of new images posted to Twitter by Bioreconstruct show off what appears to be the first ride track pieces that have arrived on site at Universal’s Epic Universe site for one of the park’s future new attractions. What exactly it is for, I’m not sure, as this doesn’t look quite like anything I’ve seen before. There are support pieces that look like it could be for a roller coaster of some kind, but then the other track looking pieces seem to have a lot of other infrastructure attached to them. Perhaps this may be something for the Donkey Kong Country coaster planned for Super Nintendo World. I say this because the true “tracks” for the Donkey Kong ride system are supposed to be hidden below infrastructure and theming that will be designed to look like a false-track system just below the car, allowing the cars to appear as if they are bouncing and jumping off the fake tracks, while being safely attached to the hidden rails below.
Curiously, they’ve also set up a couple of large above-ground water tanks for something.
(6/19/21) While searching through the Trademark database I came across a new naming filing for the Universal Studios theme parks. This one wasn’t for a new attraction, but was instead clearly the intended name for their next hotel. The name “UNIVERSAL’s HELIOS GRAND HOTEL” was listed as being filed on April 6, 2021.
Universal has stayed away from building hotels at the California park and studio, so for now we can only assume this name is intended for use as their next Orlando area hotel. After building new resort hotels at a rapid pace in Orlando for the past several years, the company seems to be taking a brief break from it, but before the rise of COVID, the resorts next intended hotel was expected to be part of Universal’s Epic Universe new theme park project.
A new hotel is also clearly seen at the back of the aerial concept artwork for the new theme park. If we dig a little deeper into the name, HELIOS was a Greek Titan who represented the movement of the Sun across the sky. Each day Helios was believed to leave his golden palace to climb aboard a chariot pulled by four winged steeds and fly East to West across the entire sky wearing a bright glowing crown that created the blinding light of the sun in an aura around his head.
The interesting thing is that if you zoom in close to look at the hotel in the concept artwork for the park, you will see what appears to be a bright golden figure in the garden in front of the hotel, surrounded by a large golden halo of light, along with the front of the hotel structure also bathed in a golden light. Clearly it is also within the theme of a park named “Epic Universe” to have a celestial figure-head as the namesake for a resort hotel.
(6/17/21) The local news has posted a brief update about Universal’s Epic Universe theme park project. While work to build the park is ramping up again, Comcast / Universal execs mentioned at a conference that the new park would contain areas/attractions themed to Dreamworks IPs, Nintendo IPs as well as Illumination IPs. The latter of which seems to be a new addition to the park’s rumored mix of IPs that is mostly famous for the Despicable Me / Minions movies, as well as The Secret Life of Pets and Hop.
While the news also mentions that nothing was said about Harry Potter, information leaked to Screamscape previously did confirm that the park would have a rather sizeable new Harry Potter themed land with at least two major E-Ticket level attractions. Universal was just not ready to talk about this land at all when the first announcements were made regarding the park, and even went so far as to hide more of the the Potter themed land behind fireworks bursts in the air over the park artwork. It doesn’t sound like anything has changed at this point, though I suspect that we will see a few changes to the park’s attraction lineup by the time they are ready to make the big reveal ahead of the expected 2025 grand opening.
(3/6/21) Fantastic news for Universal Orlando fans came out the other day as Comcast confirmed that work is restarting on their new EPIC UNIVERSE theme park project that was put on hold last year. Currently they are working on restaffing their development teams for the park’s various projects, many of whom were let go when the project was suspended and may no longer be available to return due to new employment. I’m also a bit curious if the year-off has given Universal some time to re-think some of the previous plans for the project, and if we might see some newly evolved ideas and changes added to the project by the time on-site work begins again.
Oh, you’ll have to wait a little longer to visit however. According to the official post, the timeline to open EPIC UNIVERSE has been pushed back from 2023 to 2025.
(8/6/20) I have to admit I was starting to wonder about this very thing, but according to CinemaBlend the delay of building the new Epic Universe theme park may cause Universal to go back to their original plan, which would see Super Nintendo World built at Universal Studios Florida as a replacement for that park’s Kidz Zone area. There is some logic to this, depending on how long Epic Universe will continue to be “on hold”. If construction is not to begin again before the end of next year, it would better suit Universal to move the project back to open at the existing resort in a couple of years, rather than wait another 4-6 years.
(5/18/20) According to various reports the CFO of Comcast mentioned that construction on Universal’s new EPIC UNIVERSE theme park isn’t likely to resume until the economy begins to bounce back. They still have confidence in the project and want to see it through, they just need to be sure about the timing.
(4/30/20) According to the Orlando Sentinel, Universal Orlando has announced that they will temporarily stop construction work on their new Epic Universe theme park. The new park was not slated to open until 2023, though Screamscape’s own sources tell us that the 2023 timeline was based on a very aggressive construction schedule, so don’t be surprised if this pushes back the opening of the new park to 2024.
(2/15/20) While construction on Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park is now confirmed and well known about, there is another interesting secret project that is quietly coming to light. While we’ve all see the initial concept art showing off the four lands connected to a central plaza with a hotel at the back end… would you believe that there is supposedly a second hotel being planned?
Perhaps “hotel” may be a bit inappropriate a word to describe it, because if built this will most definitely fall into a new category… something I’ve chosen to label as “Ultra Themed Resorts”. So what exactly is an Ultra Themed Resort? The world will soon find out when the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser opens in 2021, allowing guests to enter a resort with 100% immersion into a living and breathing fictional universe for the duration of their stay.
Disney is banking on the Star Wars theme to carry this concept forward for them, but I’m told that Universal is already planning their own version of the concept… one that will be themed entirely to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And if it comes to be, it should be located somewhere within the nearby realm of Universal’s Epic Universe theme park.
I wouldn’t expect this to be open at the same time as the new park however, as Universal is likely to keep a careful eye on how things work out for Disney’s Star Wars concept before giving the final green light to go ahead with their own Harry Potter themed concept, but then again Comcast may feel so strongly about the concept that they could opt to just go all in right away. Either way, it should be very interesting to see how this plays out, as while Disney can keep their guests indoors and away from the real world through the story-concept that guests are aboard an interstellar cruise ship, I’m not sure a similar plot device is available here with the Potter IP, though perhaps one may not be needed, depending on the kind of experience being planned. After all the Wizarding World co-exists alongside the real world for those lucky enough to be able to travel between the two. After all, isn’t that the dream for all those Muggles who aspire to to visit the Wizarding World and maybe learn a little magic along the way?
(1/25/20) While this isn’t anything new to Screamscpae readers, it is worth mentioning that the addition of Super Nintendo World as part of Universal’s Epic Universe theme park project was confirmed by Universal Orlando and Comcast executives when it opened in 2023. The addition of Super Nintendo World as an IP in the park was compared directly to the impact of when they added the Harry Potter IP to Universal Orlando back in 2010.
(10/27/19) We now have a confirmation from a Comcast exec who mentioned during an earnings conference call that they would open their “fourth gate in Orlando in 2023”. This matches up with my earlier guesses as well, with construction on the site already beginning to move full steam ahead.
(10/18/19) In our last post about how Epic Universe will function by allowed everyone into the park’s hub area, while only those with paid admission into the individual lands we were told that Universal was going to put some new ‘tech’ to use to handle these potential bottlenecks and make them function problem free. So how do you avoid having long lines to enter each of the lands? I believe the answer to this problem was just announced as being on the way for the new Universal Studios Beijing theme park.
According to new articles it was confirmed that Universal is working with the Chinese company, Alibaba, which will allow guests an easy electronic payment system to use for meals, express passes and even locker rental through their Alipay service. In addition it was confirmed that guests will be allowed into the theme park without being asked to show a ticket through the use of an Alipay and facial recognition technology. Guest faces are scanned by cameras as they pass into the park and the system will determine if they have purchased a ticket or not. This sure sounds like something that would come in handy and be just what Universal would want to handle their new Epic Universe theme park… after a shakedown of the tech is complete in China of course.
(10/1/19) If anyone is curious to see the status of Universal’s Epic Universe property, I was fortunate enough to pass right over it on my flight home from Halloween Horror Nights about three weeks ago. While there isn’t much to see in terms of the new park, you do get a good look at the entire new expansion property and how it is being shaped for future use.
(8/12/19) Now that a little time has passed since the announcement of Universal’s Epic Universe theme park, I’ve also had some time to do a little more digging into this amazing new project and uncover even more great details about what is to come.
For starters, you may have seen a post about some interesting new tower dark ride concepts patented by Universal. While one of these could eventually create an amazing new ride concept for one of their parks… Screamscape has been told that none of these design ideas are part of the immediate plans for Epic Universe, so you can just put those ideas on the backburner for now. ‘
I’ve also been told a bit more information about how Epic Universe will function, and as the one rumor suggested, access to the central “hub” area will indeed be free to everyone, as it will serve as both a hub for the park, as well as a sort of CityWalk style food and retail environment for everyone. You may recall that I pointed out a large seating area around a giant fountain on the far end of the hub (close to the hotel) that looks set for a show to take place in, and this is all very true. The amazing thing is that at night, they are planning to put on a fountain & fireworks show in this area that will be free for everyone to watch and not just the park guests, though I would expect that paying guests may be given access to prime seating areas.
Speaking of attractions… not all of the park’s attractions will be contained within the four lands. There will be three rides that guests will access via the hub area that are not part of the themeing for the other lands. This includes a large carousel attraction that will existing under the large domed structure jutting out into the water in the water area just below the fountain show arena. The other two rides are part of a combo attraction we spotted in our original scanning of the art… namely the two coasters that will make up that large racing coaster that I originally assumed was part of the How To Train Your Dragon land. A reader pointed out that it appeared odd that the entrance to the racing coaster was seen just above the coaster in the artwork, and that there did not seem to be access to the huge structure from within the “Dragon” land, and this is true.
Guests will be given access to these rides from the hub in the same manor that they are given access to the four themed lands. I’m not going to get into the “tech” of it all just yet, but suffice to say that they are confident that there will be no bottleneck and long-lines to deal with at this land-entry portals during your visit to Epic Universe. Universal has a new concept of park access already covered that will be rolled out here that should take care of things just fine.
I imagine that everyone’s next question is about the Dragons land once again. After all, if the big racing coasters are not part of this land, then what will it include? We a;ready covered most of it before as well, with the list to include that smaller family coaster we spotted, the climbing structure area, that flat ride I spotted which looks like a Gerstlauer Sky-Fly, but there is still more to see. A reader sent in another version of the park graphic sent out to the media in another press release that actually includes a look at more of the Dragons land that was cropped out of the first image we use. From here we can see what looks like a Splash Battle style water ride, possibly another attraction or two as well as a large show/attraction building at the bottom. It is nice to see that this land is even bigger than we had previously thought.
(8/3/19) On the morning of August 1st, Universal Orlando held a press conference at the Orange County Convention Center to confirm their plans for the new expansion property they’ve been working on near the convention center. The anchor of this new Universal Orlando campus expansion will be a brand new theme park to be called Universal’s Epic Universe.
“Universal’s Epic Universe will take guests on a journey where beloved stories expand into vibrant lands – and where that journey is as much a part of their adventure as the ultimate destination.”
“Our new park represents the single-largest investment Comcast NBCUniversal has made in its theme park business and in Florida overall,” said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation. “It reflects the tremendous excitement we have for the future of our theme park business and for our entire company’s future in Florida.”
 In addition the new theme park development will also feature a new entertainment center with hotels, new shops, restaurants and much more. This is the start of the build up of this new 750+ acre site that will nearly double the Universal’s total available acreage in Central Florida.
The expansion will allow Universal Orlando to hire an additional 14,000 team members to staff this Epic Universe expansion, in addition to the 25,000 team members they currently have. In addition to this huge expansion, it was revealed by Universal and the city that the previously announced Kirkman road extension that will run through this new resort area and connect to Universal’s Blvd near the convention center will be a 50/50 public-private construction project in which Universal itself is investing $160 million to help fund this new and very important transportation project. As someone who once lived in the area, I can see how this Kirkman road extension will be a great benefit to traffic in the area by providing an high-throughput roadway bypass around the Lockheed-Martin complex, and away from the congested International Drive area.
Now beyond this, very little was announced in terms of detail about the new park, not even a timeline as to when this will be ready to open. They did release a great graphic showing off the entire new park complex, which will include an on-site hotel, which by itself only shows so much to the naked eye. However, based on rumors and special information from confidential Screamscape sources, we can zoom in on this artwork and break it all down for you as best as we can at this time.
For starters, let’s talk about the timeline. This is rumor only, but based on what Screamscape has been told, we should expect to see Epic Universe ready to open the gates to the first guests sometime in mid 2023. A lot can happen over the next four years however, so this time-table could very well slide up to six months in either direction, so don’t try to buy your plane tickets just yet. Also when you view this artwork, keep in mind that you are not seeing any infrastructure, like major access roads, back of park areas, or even parking lots and structures that will all be part of the final build out.
In the first close-up image I’ve zoomed in on the main entrance area to the Epic Universe resort project. We can clearly see a very “Universal” style set of curved-archway portals that will define this new entrance plaza and set the mood. Just inside it looks like a series of retail or park infrastructure buildings on the south side (Strollers, Guest Relations, etc) and on the north side there is a huge building structure that could house the primary gift shop for Epic Universe, and maybe even a few places to grab a coffee or a quick bite to eat.
Just beyond here to come to a central “hub” area for the development, with gateways to four different themed lands all around, plus an entrance into a huge hotel set at the opposite end from the entrance plaza. We see many circular pathways, winding around lush green spots and a central waterway. There are various structures set alongside the water, including a large curious blue/aqua dome structure in the middle, plus lots of various smaller buildings everywhere that will likely house various shops and restaurants. On the north end of things we also see a large circular pool with a series of very large fountains set in the middle. But this is no ordinary fountain, as you can also see that they have set up colosseum style seating in a circle all around the entire fountain structure, with the exception of the north side where there appears to be a small waterfall flowing down the hill from the hotel to feed into the fountain. It is very clear that they are planning to use this space for some kind of show going forward. It may simply be what it looks like, and be some kind of fountain show in the day and maybe something like a next-gen version of the Cinemagic Celebration night show that takes place in the lagoon at Universal Studios Florida down the road. Doing more thinking however, wouldn’t it also be fascinating if they could incorporate some kind of rising-stage structure into the center of the fountains where they could also host concerts and other performance events.
Beyond here is the first hotel to be part of Epic Universe. I say “first” because while you can only see the one hotel, Universal’s own press release clearly says “hotels”, plural. Plus we’ve seen how they’ve been building new hotels like mad at the existing resort complex, so you can imagine that more hotels will pop-up before too long. In the meantime, we know nothing at all about this first hotel, other than what we can see in the artwork, showing off a very grand style semi-curved building structure that should be between 8-10 stories in height. The exterior also appears highly themed, as it should be, as it will be seen in the background constantly by guests as they enter the resort and stroll through the central hub area. From here, guests will then choose which one of the four themed lands in the park they wish to visit. This is where things get a little weird and different, as we’ve heard a few theories on how this will all work.
On the one hand, this could work out like a typical theme park, where guests pay to get in at the entrance plaza, journey to the hub where they will enter and exit each land, with on-site hotel guests also having their own dedicated entrance into the park from the backside. On the other hand… we’ve also heard that Universal may be considering doing something very different from the norm.
This alternate plan would allow all guests (ticketed and non-ticketed) to enter the central hub as an open access area to all, much like Universal’s CityWalk, and then only those will tickets will be allowed access into the four themed lands. I can see how this would work from the layout, but I also see this potentially becoming a huge pain in the butt as guests bottleneck and lineup to get into the lands. The lines can be bad enough just to get into the park once at the start of your day, as there are always those who can’t find their tickets, or don’t have the right tickets, or are just generally having difficulties of some kind getting their act together just to get into the park. Now imagine if you had to endure this kind of congestion and mass of confusion every time you want to enter a land, or switch to another land throughout the day.
Personally I enjoy the standard one-wait/one-gate idea, getting it over at the start of the day when you visit the existing Universal Orlando parks. Even better, if you have a two-park pass, this is where the beauty of the Hogwarts Express comes into play, as switching between the two existing parks is a breeze because you can avoid the larger crowds at the main gates. By treating each “land” as if they were a separate gated park, I just see this as a needless complication of things. The only benefit I can see is if Universal were to also offer separate pricing for each of the lands, allowing guests to buy cheaper passes to experience 1 Land, 2 Lands, 3 Lands or all 4 Land passes. This could allow those only interested in one land to visit just what they want to see for less, or also allow the hub and lands to be used as a part-day attraction for those with limited time who maybe just want to come down to have dinner at a restaurant in the hub and enough leftover time to enjoy only one of the lands for a little evening entertainment. In a weird way, this kind of setup would also put the various lands in a sort of competition with each other, with very clear numbers to reveal which land pulls in the most guests. But what happens to the weakest land that isn’t performing as well? Does it get new rides added to bring up the numbers, or if it just doesn’t seem popular with the guests at all, it could be marked for closure and replaced by something new. Just something to think about, and we’ve heard rumors claiming that it could go either way, but as I said before, a lot can happen between now and when it opens. That said, let’s take a nice close-up look at the four lands!
Keep in mind that not a single new land was actually announced or confirmed by Universal Orlando as being part of the Epic Universe theme park. So consider all of the information to come as being unofficial, mostly based on information from anonymous Screamscape sources. However, the one land that Universal has confirmed that they intend to build somewhere in Orlando is Super Nintendo World. The first one is under construction to open in Japan in 2020, with a second one appearing to be under construction already for the Hollywood park as well. It is also fairly well known that the original site for Orlando’s version was intended to go into Universal Studios Florida, but construction never started there and the rumors quickly spread that it would be held off a few years to fit into a new park planned for the area.
A quick zoom into the artwork for the first land on the left side of Epic Universe it becomes very clear that this is indeed Super Nintendo World. In fact, much of the layout and building themes not only match up with some of the early artwork for the land, but they also perfectly match the leaked photos of the scale model created for the project. The entrance to the land is a little vague from the angle show, but could very well use a ‘warp pipe’ style entrance theme to take guests through a structure and into a plaza with a large Mushroom Kingdom style emblem embedded into a large circle on the ground overlooking a square-shaped land area of blocky themed building structures. Follow this along to the left and you see a huge attraction building where the entrance is being hidden from view by the angle shown. Based on the images and model, the entrance to this massive attraction should be themed to Bowser’s castle and serve as the entrance to the most anticipated attraction here: MarioKart. A quick look to the north from the MarioKart building and the theme of the land has changed from the city stylings of the Mushroom Kingdom to what appears to be Donkey Kong Country, complete with the wreckage of a crashed white cargo plane, which will be home to an amazing new indoor/outdoor coaster concept. We’ve discussed this before, but the rumor is that the coaster cars will be themed to mine-train style cars on a traditional rail system, but the real rail system for the ride will be hidden from view below the faux-tracks, allow for the coaster cars to appear as if they are jumping over broken bridges and such along the path through the jungle world of Donkey Kong. According to long standing rumors, and still in those leaked photos from the model, there is also a third attraction that is expected to be a dark ride or omni-mover style attraction called Yoshi’s Adventure that is expected to feature indoor and outdoor ride sections.
Next up on the list of lands is also the most mysterious of the bunch… a rumored land themed around the world of Universal Monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman and more. As you might expect this land is also one that has the fewest details to be seen in the artwork, depicting a very dark world, shaded in purple light, featuring a number of old decrepit looking building structures and narrow pathways, creating the perfect hunting ground for these monsters. While there are many buildings and pathways to be seen, unfortunately the artwork does not reveal any large scale attraction buildings hidden behind the themed facades. Perhaps they are being vague because the design of the land is still in development, or perhaps the land will have a number of smaller attractions, but one prominent and somewhat odd feature of this new land is the creation of a large outdoor performance amphitheater at the back end. From the artwork shown, this amphitheater kind of sticks out like a sore-thumb as not the kind of thing you would expect to see compared to the rest of the land. This also makes me wonder if Universal is planning to bring back a new version of the “Beetlejuice Graveyard Review” show or perhaps something else more dark and sinister… and less musical. While the Beetlejuice show was hugely popular in Orlando until they needed to demolish the theater a couple of years ago to make room for the Fast & Furious attraction, the show did not find the same kind of audience when performed at the Hollywood park, where another famous Universal Monster themed show (Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical) opened in 2009 and closed down about 9 months later.
Across the hub from the Monsters land is where it looks like the next Wizarding World themed land will be going, which is rumored to be themed more to the locations and places shown in the Fantastic Beasts movie series. The design here appears similar in concept to what Universal did with Diagon Alley, featuring city street facades on all sides, leading down to the split path that leads up to another massive attraction building. This may be the single largest attraction building in the entire park, but given the lack of other visible attractions in this new land, I’ve got a feeling that the split pathways going towards this same building may be a clue that it may contain two entirely separate dark ride experiences. If this land is indeed themed around the world of Fantastic Beasts, I would expect there to be ‘beasts’ aplenty represented within one or both of these attractions. Beyond this… we know very little right now about what is going on here.
And finally our last land is perhaps one that almost seems the oddest choice at first glance… a land rumored to be entirely themed around the world of the ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ animated film series from Dreamworks Animation. While Mario and friends will appeal to the smaller kids, the Monsters and Fantastic Beasts may frighten them, so your first assumption about this land of Dragons is that might be the designated “kiddie land” of Epic Universe. Until you see the concept artwork for it and realize that this is where the park’s biggest roller coasters are going to be placed. While the entire land appears to be hidden from view here, the primary feature shown here is a very long building that will serve as a coaster station for what appears to be a pair of racing/dueling coaster tracks… and themed to Dragons no less! In short, it looks like Universal is giving us a spiritual successor to the lost Dueling Dragons coasters from Islands of Adventure. In this case the artwork is somewhat confusing, as we can see two sets of tracks enter this long structure in a few different locations, and the lack of a clear lift hill, leads me to believe it will feature magnetic launch moments in one or more locations along the layout. While the tracks appears white you do see Blue and Gold colored trains running around the track leaving a color-trail behind them in various spots, especially along the left side of the image where the two appears to be heading for a head-to-head fly-by moment near the entrance of the land. There also appears to be a third, more family friendly, roller coaster also in the image, with the station set in the lower right end of the picture which leads out to a small lift hill to the left, dives and travels through a rocky canyon structure between the land and the big coaster’s station building, then out into a spiral near the front of the park and a dive through an underwater tunnel under a pathway bridge and begins to head back towards the direction of the station once again.
Zooming in elsewhere in the land I can see structures that also look more like an adventure fortress set of rope bridges and pathways through some small themed structures, and just to the left of the family coaster station I can see what looks like a large steel arm going out to a series of small pod like structures attached to the end of this arm. If I had to guess, this looks exactly like a Gerstlauer Sky-Fly attraction. South of here, across the waterway, there are also pathways winding past several circular looking attraction pads that could be home to any number of themed round-about kiddie or family friendly rides.
So there you have it… our first early peek at Universal’s EPIC UNIVERSE theme park. Or at least at the design and scope of the project as of mid-2019. But site clearly and early infrastructure work has already begun on the site, so this isn’t just a dream, this is something that is definitely happening. One thing is for sure, this is a great time to theme a theme park fan!
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(7/17/19) OrlandoParkStop has posted an interesting article about the proposed Yoshi themed omnimover dark ride expected to go into Super Nintendo World, based on the photos of that model found a bit ago. The interesting thing about this Yoshi ride is that it appears as if it will run both indoor and outdoor, which seems a bit strange given the crazy weather than can happen in Orlando. But they also have a satellite photo of Super Nintendo World in Japan where you can see the same track layout already built at the park there.
(7/9/19) I’m not sure how accurate or real this is, but OrlandoParkStop has posted a few pictures of a model that looks to represent what Super Nintendo World might look like when they build it. Of course this may be an early model, or perhaps even a model of the version going into Japan which may not look like how they do it in Hollywood or Orlando. The model seems to feature a MarioKart ride, a Yoshi themed attraction and the Donkey Kong Country area, complete with coaster track.
Early concept or not, the land does look fantastic and should bring a smile to the faces of Nintendo fans everywhere.
(4/10/19) We’ve talked about Universal upcoming secret new theme park in Orlando for some time, but we’ve never really gone into detail about what it will be like. After all… for the longest time as soon as I’d heard a rumor about one thing, another rumor would come up claiming something else entirely, so everything seemed very much in flux for the longest time. This is as it should be, considering how much money it costs to build a brand new from-scratch theme park, you know Universal isn’t just going to take the first idea and run with it, they’re going to work all the angles, all the possibilities, try out all the various mixtures of IP that could be used for the possible theming.
While I don’t know if they’ve finalized the design yet myself, this week ThemeParkUniversity has opted to post their own prediction on what the forth park may be like. This includes a strange idea I had not really heard much about which would see the center of the new park with a free-to-enter public hub space that would also serve a similar purpose to Citywalk at the existing resort. From there you would then pass through entry gates into each of the themed-lands, where you would be forced back into the central public space to transition from one land to another.
I’m not sold on this concept, and personally I’d got a hunch it could be axed before the park opens, as it seems like a giant logistical, staffing and security bottleneck just waiting to happen that will cause more problems than give advantages. This also sounds more like a “leftover” idea from one of the original concepts I had first heard about the project before being dropped, where the idea was to build it up with separate lands, where guests would arrive and stay in an on-site hotel and visit each land entirely by itself in the same way guests on a cruise-ship opt for various experiences as they arrive at each port-of-call along the way.
Speaking of hotels… you know there is going to be one, and they claim it will be a large and tall one at the backside of the entire new park, allowing guests to have room views down into the park itself, much like how guests staying in Cabana Bay’s end-towers get an incredible view down into Volcano Bay.
As for the lands… according to their report, the park will open with four and have room for at least two more to add as expansions, which they list as being themed to: Fantastic Beasts, Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon and Universal Classic Monsters. The first two have been fairly locked in for some time now, as well as the Dragons… though I had heard rumors of other plans that could combine the various Dreamworks Animation properties into one land, or give several Dreamworks Animation properties their own lands… but some of those could be for future expansions. To be honest, I find it odd they would limit their Dreamworks presence to just one film property, especially one that just released its final chapter.
The Universal Classic Monsters is an interesting choice, not because it doesn’t have a place at a Universal park, but more so because the Orlando parks have mostly chosen to ignore this part of Universal’s film history over the years outside of Halloween Horror Nights season. Previous rumors however had indicated they might have been looking at a land themed to the new ‘Dark Universe” reboot versions of the monsters, but since Dark Universe has been on-hold since the last Mummy film failed to find big box-office, I’ve got to wonder if they might be better off putting this on hold for a future expansion when they have more solid studio plans.
Meanwhile of all the other rumors… I can see how they may have opted not to try and go with anything Lord of the Rings/Hobbit related, though I’m surprised we’re not seeing anything more SciFi oriented, like all those rumors of trying to include Star Trek into the park just as the franchise is working itself back from a lull. Still… anything can happen between now and when they choose to announce it, so stay tuned!
2026-2028 - Phase 2 Attractions / Expansion - Rumor - (11/11/2023) Not long ago I mentioned that Universal had a couple of irons in the fire early to develop some Phase 2 additions to Epic Universe. At the time we had heard about the Luigi Mansion concept for Super Nintendo World and only that the park’s Wizarding World section was the site of the second project. Now we know a little more about the plan for the Wizarding World addition, and from what I’m told, this may actually be the return of a concept once pitched for the park and then cut.
I’m still a little fuzzy on all the details, but the addition they are looking to bring back to Epic Universe would be to create a “Great Hall” themed dining experience in the park. For those not in the know, The Great Hall was the dining room area within Hogwarts that was shown in many different scenes throughout the film-series that featured four very long tables (one for each Hogwarts “house” I assume) and had all those floating candles in the air.
Beyond this, I’m not sure of much else, but it does seem incredibly strange that while the entire outdoor section of the Wizarding World in Epic Universe will be themed to Paris, the attractions will all need some kind of story element to transport you back to the UK’s corner of the Wizarding World. Be it a trip to Hogwarts to dine in the Great Hall or to the Ministry Of Magic for the trial of Dolores Umbridge, it does make me wonder why they are bothering with the French theming at all.
(10/28/2023) While we still have about 18 months left until Epic Universe is ready to open, would you believe that Universal is already working on the first couple of expansion projects for this mega-park? If you’ve seen the site, you know certain areas are being left undeveloped for future expansion for either new future lands, or to add new attractions to the existing lands.
In this case I’m being told that the first two projects likely to be added to the park will be the later… additional attractions to add better capacity to existing lands where they think the crowds are going to be a little overwhelming. It shouldn’t take you too long to guess which lands will be plussed first.
 Expanding the Wizarding World area will be a priority of course, as the land will really open with just the main main attraction and will be in dire need of additional things for guests to do to keep them in there. This also goes hand-in-hand with the fact that in the original concepts for the land, there was always meant to be a second major attraction of some kind, and in those very early days (pre-COVID) the idea was to create an attraction where guests could ride a flying broomstick through the use of VR-Headgear. This same attraction concept was then going to be fast-tracked and switched over to be built at Universal Studios Florida for a time, taking over the spot of the now closed Fear Factor show venue, next to Diagon Alley as a follow up to 2023’s Villain-Con attraction. This never happened however, and it sounds like this was good news after all, because the early word was that during development management became less and less impressed by what they were seeing was possible. In other words… while the vision seemed like a good idea, the actual realization of what was possible was just falling far short of the vision, so the project was scrapped. I also think that the introduction of a near identical VR broomstick ride experience that was rushed into operation at the Harry Potter New York retail store that opened in 2021 also soured them on the concept. Universal didn’t want to be seen as copying what the retail store had done, and based on the fact that after only running the two VR attractions in New York (Wizards Take Flight and Chaos at Hogwarts) for a short 18-month time span, both VR attractions were then retired for good in New York. What exactly they might add to the Wizarding World in Epic Universe remains to be seen. I’ve heard a few rumblings about various concepts, but with the land itself being themed to the Wizarding World of Paris instead of the UK or USA, we might get something a little more unusual.
Based on the monster crowds Universal has seen swamping the Super Nintendo World lands in Japan and Hollywood, obviously they are now very well aware that they need to be working to add more to the version coming to Florida. While the deal with Nintendo will allow Universal to build attractions based on some of Nintendo’s other IPs like Zelda, Metroid or Pokemon, in this case the idea is to stick to the core Mario Bros. universe world, and I think you might be very happy with the direction Universal Creative is headed. With Mario being the main hero of the Mario-Kart ride, Donkey Kong has a coaster, and there is the cute Yoshi themed family ride, it is only fair that Luigi finally gets to have his own attraction, right? So how would you feel about a ride based on the Luigi’s Mansion game series that sends Mario’s brother on his own epic journey into a dark Haunted House with a flashlight?
 The early description sent to Screamscape sort of sounds like Universal’s Villain-Con and The Secret Life of Pets attraction in Hollywood had a very twisted offspring. Guests would ride in an omni-mover style vehicle system through dark Luigi’s Mansion, but be given a special hand-held flashlight that uses modified Villain-Con blaster tech to bring some ghosts to life when you point at them. I’m not quite sure if your car will feature its own Poltergust ghost-vacuum or if you are just lighting up the ghosts for Luigi to come along with suck them up. To be honest, it’s about time that another park in Orlando had their own haunted “mansion” experience to offer, and I can’t wait to see how this one turns out.
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