Universal released a video detailing the Harry Potter-themed section of its upcoming Epic Universe theme park in Orlando (due to open in 2025) called "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic." The new park will be set in two Potterverse periods: Wizarding Paris in the 1920s and the British Ministry of Magic at the time of the original Harry Potter series.
When Universal opened its first "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" land in its Orlando Islands of Adventure theme park in 2010, it was a revelation in the theme park world. It was a massive success not only because it was riding the frenzy of popularity of Harry Potter, and not only because of its fantastic flagship ride, "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey," but because of its innovation in what has now become the buzzword of theme park design: immersion.
Guests could experience rides, shopping, and dining in a cohesive, intricately and authentically built replica of the town of Hogsmeade. It felt like you had stepped into a beloved fictional world, far more than theme parks had ever achieved. Parkgoers were thrilled to walk the streets, often in costume, engulfed in the world they had only imagined. It's become unconfirmed theme park lore that just the land's first year's sales of butterbeer, a fictional beverage from the books that the theme park concocted in real life, paid for the construction of the land.
The massive success of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal certainly spurred Disney to create its own similarly immersive Star Wars Galaxy's Edge lands in Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
And the instant popularity of the Harry Potter land in Islands of Adventure — attendance rose by as much as 36% — spurred Universal to start planning, only a year later, a recreation of London's Diagon Alley in its sister theme park Universal Studios Florida. It opened in 2014 and is an even more complex, more immersive experience.
So when Universal announced its third Orlando theme park, Epic Universe, it was no surprise that a third Harry Potter land would be included.
This land will comprise two components: one set in the wizarding Paris of the Fantastic Beasts spinoff franchise and one set in the British Ministry of Magic from Harry Potter. They will be connected thematically with guests walking through giant fireplaces ablaze with green flames. It looks to be on an even larger scale than the other two Harry Potter lands. The Ministry of Magic looks massive, and the shortest building in the wizarding Paris section is taller than the tallest building in the impressive Diagon Alley land.
The attractions announced are "Le Cirque Arcanus," a circus show in wizarding Paris, and a "Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry" ride. More information can be found in a wdwmagic.com article here.
Here is an animated fly-through of the upcoming "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – The Ministry of Magic."
Previously:
• Now JK Rowling grossly equates trans people to her 'Death Eaters'
• In her new book, JK Rowling continues with the transphobia
• Asking for a 'correction' JK Rowling podcast's PR firm mistakenly confirms her transphobia
• J.K. Rowling claims Nazis didn't burn trans books, issues lawsuit threat when called a holocaust denier
• Hogwarts' self-appointed professor of Defense Against Gender Studies beefs with actors
