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Universal Epic Universe - New Florida Theme Park

I really believe that when visiting a theme park nobody actually cares about thematic cohesion to the point that traveling from the French wizard street directly to the British Ministry of Magic will be a real problem.

They tried making everything fit perfectly together in a specific point in a specific timeline with Galaxy's Edge and by now I think everyone realises that was a bad call. Though in this case, calling it "The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter - Ministry Of Magic" and having the majority of it be a French street is a bit of a mismatch, but in the end it's another piece of overwrought theme park land marketing along the lines of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge which will probably be ignored by most people in favor of "French Harry Potter Land" or something similar.

I also wouldn't think too hard about the plot for the ride... Umbridge is one of the better villains of the series they haven't used yet, and her trial at the ministry is a pretty excellent setup for the obligatory "something goes wrong" turn that is mandatory on rides of this scale.
 
Interesting that they referenced Harry, Ron, and Hermione seeing how I'd imagine the actors would be very unlikely to return to film anything for this. Especially as they've seemingly fell out with the author, and are now much older than the characters would be. Have heard that Imelda Staunton has reprised her role as Umbridge. With Umbridge she was just evil as well, didn't matter if it was Voldemort running things or not.

Edited to put in the correct name of the actress.
 
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Llama said:
They tried making everything fit perfectly together in a specific point in a specific timeline with Galaxy's Edge and by now I think everyone realises that was a bad call. Though in this case, calling it "The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter - Ministry Of Magic" and having the majority of it be a French street is a bit of a mismatch, but in the end it's another piece of overwrought theme park land marketing along the lines of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge which will probably be ignored by most people in favor of "French Harry Potter Land" or something similar.

I also wouldn't think too hard about the plot for the ride... Umbridge is one of the better villains of the series they haven't used yet, and her trial at the ministry is a pretty excellent setup for the obligatory "something goes wrong" turn that is mandatory on rides of this scale.
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It’s because Warner Brothers cancelled the Fantastic Beasts franchise after the financial (and critical) failure of the third instalment whilst Universal were mid-development with the Fantastic Beasts land.

The area & show remained the same as it was always intended but it was decided to change the e-ticket attraction to Potter. But considering the explaination has been done with lore that already exists within Universe, and going from Paris to England isn’t a massive stretch by international standards.
 
John_P said:
Interesting that they referenced Harry, Ron, and Hermione seeing how I'd imagine the actors would be very unlikely to return to film anything for this. Especially as they've seemingly fell out with the author, and are now much older than the characters would be. Have heard that Tilda Swinton has reprised her role as Umbridge. With Umbridge she was just evil as well, didn't matter if it was Voldemort running things or not.
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Wasn’t the whole storyline of the Umbridge trial and bringing back Voldemort from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, where Harry, Ron and Hermione are much older anyway?
 
From what I understand despite changes following fantastic beasts failing the main ride was always planned to be what is being installed. The original plan pre reworking the land was a second attraction which was the rumoured VR broomstick ride that was set in the French ministry of magic. And the land would have had both the British ministry and the French ministry.

During Covid and as part of reworking the land they decided to move that ride to the studios to replace the fear factor live stage and fit it in with dragon alley, however it was ultimately decided that the technology wasn’t good enough and the attraction was cancelled.

The only changes to the land as far as I am aware is the name of the land rather then having fantastic beasts in the title and the removal of the second Paris ministry based ride. The main ride has always been planned to be set in the British ministry from what I am aware, changes where made to the planned ride system as it was developed, in the end they opted for a modified Spiderman/transformers based system as the base system is tried and tested.
 
I believe in the land by were the French ministry building should be/is there's expansion space behind it for a future attraction.

Though supposedly one of Epics first post opening expansions will be a Hogwarts Grand Hall dining experience, to again really confuse the guests.
 
Matt N said:
Wasn’t the whole storyline of the Umbridge trial and bringing back Voldemort from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, where Harry, Ron and Hermione are much older anyway?
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No, no no! They do not want to touch the utter stoolwater that is Cursed Child! It's little more than a rehash of the infamous fanfic "My Imortal", with a few simple magic tricks, puppets, and pyro to distract you from how bad it is.
 
Regardless of how cohesive it is, the French streets outside look beautiful, and the ministry of magic itself looks absolutely stunning.

Is that ride the only planned attraction for the area? Seems like most of the areas in Epic will be opening with only one or two attractions each in, won’t be at all sufficient I wouldn’t have thought?
 
Mick said:
Regardless of how cohesive it is, the French streets outside look beautiful, and the ministry of magic itself looks absolutely stunning.

Is that ride the only planned attraction for the area? Seems like most of the areas in Epic will be opening with only one or two attractions each in, won’t be at all sufficient I wouldn’t have thought?
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There's the circus show as well.
 
There's loads of interactive things as well, which you'll need to buy things for. The wristbands for Super Nintendo World, wands in Potter land, and it's believed the other two worlds will have similar things as well.
 
I hope they give Bioreconstruct a lifetime pass for his work chronicling the construction of this park. Like everyone here I'm firmly in the target audience for this place and the marketing videos they've been putting out have indeed been incredible, but I'm mainly hyped for it just having been able to watch them build it, via Bioreconstruct's photos, over the past few years. We've never had such an in-depth look at the day-to-day construction of a modern theme park, and not only that, but he posted it all for the reasonable price of totally free. Truly a hero of the modern theme park internet. Salute to Bioreconstruct.
 
Although I have been following the construction since the start I have been in the preview centre this evening and the model looks incredible. It’s also great to hear all the other guests who haven’t followed discussion being excited and discussing the various lands and rides.
 
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