Let's play being head of Universal Creative...

[UniversalRBLX]

I'm still not going to believe the resurgence of USF's classic IPs as new attractions until I see it...

... but I'd love to see it. JAWS and BACK TO THE FUTURE, as films, are too important to the legacy of the entire company to not have significant representation in the theme parks.

I'm sure at one point, Comcast saw legacy IPs as dead and to prioritize new experiences based on the latest box office hits. However, Epic Universe has proven that they don't necessarily need to rely on recent relevancy to base a popular attraction or land on.

I've asked this before, but I feel like no one has been able to provide a clean look. So... in the chart below I split properties between Universal and 3rd Party IPs, and where they rank in the utilization of Universal Parks (focused on UOR below). Top row are currently utilized in a significant matter, bottom row are not utilized. In the middle are either properties that were utilized in some form previously or are utilized in a fairly small matter (SpongeBob store).

Outside of Wicked, they really have no other options but to go 3rd party if they don't want to invest back into their legacy IPs of Jaws/BTTF. Not saying that's what happening, but strategically they've already mentioned how they'd like to focus on their own IPs as a "pipeline" for growth.


*Let me know of any significant IPs not mentioned that could work in a theme park setting. I'm working on a separate one for HHN as well. Obviously, Disney-owned IPs are excluded.

What do you have on the Universal Store and hotel?

At the moment, Epic Universe doesn't sell the standard merchandise offerings that the other two parks have (Jurassic Park, Minions, etc.) so a Universal Store at the south campus can offer that without intruding into existing park retail space.

The hotel I'd like to see be a proper Greek theme. With it being by the water, it could be a nice Mykonos-esque resort. I'd love to see Universal go back to the moderate-level resorts.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I'm sure at one point, Comcast saw legacy IPs as dead and to prioritize new experiences based on the latest box office hits. However, Epic Universe has proven that they don't necessarily need to rely on recent relevancy to base a popular attraction or land on.

I've asked this before, but I feel like no one has been able to provide a clean look. So... in the chart below I split properties between Universal and 3rd Party IPs, and where they rank in the utilization of Universal Parks (focused on UOR below). Top row are currently utilized in a significant matter, bottom row are not utilized. In the middle are either properties that were utilized in some form previously or are utilized in a fairly small matter (SpongeBob store).

Outside of Wicked, they really have no other options but to go 3rd party if they don't want to invest back into their legacy IPs of Jaws/BTTF. Not saying that's what happening, but strategically they've already mentioned how they'd like to focus on their own IPs as a "pipeline" for growth.

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*Let me know of any significant IPs not mentioned that could work in a theme park setting. I'm working on a separate one for HHN as well. Obviously, Disney-owned IPs are excluded.


At the moment, Epic Universe doesn't sell the standard merchandise offerings that the other two parks have (Jurassic Park, Minions, etc.) so a Universal Store at the south campus can offer that without intruding into existing park retail space.

The hotel I'd like to see be a proper Greek theme. With it being by the water, it could be a nice Mykonos-esque resort. I'd love to see Universal go back to the moderate-level resorts.

This made me think:

I'm curious if we could ever see a significant addition to the parks involving Stranger Things. The show is ending soon, but at least imo, I don't think the popularity of it would die down at any point soon.

I even made a post in here years ago with an idea of converting Springfield to Hawkins, lol

 

[mccgavin]

I'm sure at one point, Comcast saw legacy IPs as dead and to prioritize new experiences based on the latest box office hits. However, Epic Universe has proven that they don't necessarily need to rely on recent relevancy to base a popular attraction or land on.

I've asked this before, but I feel like no one has been able to provide a clean look. So... in the chart below I split properties between Universal and 3rd Party IPs, and where they rank in the utilization of Universal Parks (focused on UOR below). Top row are currently utilized in a significant matter, bottom row are not utilized. In the middle are either properties that were utilized in some form previously or are utilized in a fairly small matter (SpongeBob store).

Outside of Wicked, they really have no other options but to go 3rd party if they don't want to invest back into their legacy IPs of Jaws/BTTF. Not saying that's what happening, but strategically they've already mentioned how they'd like to focus on their own IPs as a "pipeline" for growth.

View attachment 28272
*Let me know of any significant IPs not mentioned that could work in a theme park setting. I'm working on a separate one for HHN as well. Obviously, Disney-owned IPs are excluded.


At the moment, Epic Universe doesn't sell the standard merchandise offerings that the other two parks have (Jurassic Park, Minions, etc.) so a Universal Store at the south campus can offer that without intruding into existing park retail space.

The hotel I'd like to see be a proper Greek theme. With it being by the water, it could be a nice Mykonos-esque resort. I'd love to see Universal go back to the moderate-level resorts.

Would Five Nights at Freddy's technically fall under the left side of this chart? Universal does not own the IP outright, but the films are a partnership between Universal, Blumhouse, and Scott Cawthon. I also wouldn't be surprised if the franchise eventually has a more permanent presence at the park if the second film does well, and it continues to be successful at HHN.

 

[LPCaptainDeath]

This made me think:

I'm curious if we could ever see a significant addition to the parks involving Stranger Things. The show is ending soon, but at least imo, I don't think the popularity of it would die down at any point soon.

I even made a post in here years ago with an idea of converting Springfield to Hawkins, lol

With Netflix having done pop-up "Stranger Things: The Experience" all over the world (now in Abu Dhabi) as an hour or so long walkthrough attraction and now with "The Netflix House" locations coming to Philly(One Piece and Wednesday), Dallas (Squid Games and Stranger Things), and Vegas (not announced yet) i want to say it's unlikely, but you never know!

I'm not saying i WANT E.T. to go BUT...
If it ever did, i'd love to see the ride system remain and turn the ride into Stranger Things. Keep the bikes. Keep the forest. Keep the old school charm. Instead of the Green Planet, we go to the upside down? Would this be the easiest ride swap ever? Possibly. Would it piss off Steven Spielberg? Absolutely.
Animal Actors becomes a Hawkins Lab walkthrough attraction?
Kidzone Pizza becomes Surfer Boy Pizza?
Gimme a Fort Byers photo op with a Demogorgon and i'm sold.

 

[mccgavin]

With Netflix having done pop-up "Stranger Things: The Experience" all over the world (now in Abu Dhabi) as an hour or so long walkthrough attraction and now with "The Netflix House" locations coming to Philly(One Piece and Wednesday), Dallas (Squid Games and Stranger Things), and Vegas (not announced yet) i want to say it's unlikely, but you never know!

I'm not saying i WANT E.T. to go BUT...
If it ever did, i'd love to see the ride system remain and turn the ride into Stranger Things. Keep the bikes. Keep the forest. Keep the old school charm. Instead of the Green Planet, we go to the upside down? Would this be the easiest ride swap ever? Possibly. Would it piss off Steven Spielberg? Absolutely.
Animal Actors becomes a Hawkins Lab walkthrough attraction?
Kidzone Pizza becomes Surfer Boy Pizza?
Gimme a Fort Byers photo op with a Demogorgon and i'm sold.

I'm not sure if Stranger Things will have staying power years after the show has ended. Also, I cannot get behind any plan that involves replacing E.T. Adventure...

 

[LPCaptainDeath]

I'm not sure if Stranger Things will have staying power years after the show has ended. Also, I cannot get behind any plan that involves replacing E.T. Adventure...

Let me repeat - "I'm not saying i WANT E.T. to go" - Me, 20 minutes ago.

I thought this was a Bluesky forum? Let me Bluesky dammit.

(Also, Stranger Things is getting a theatrical release for its finale AND 2 spinoff shows in the next couple years - soooooo...)

 

[Suchomimus]

*Let me know of any significant IPs not mentioned that could work in a theme park setting. I'm working on a separate one for HHN as well. Obviously, Disney-owned IPs are excluded.

The Flintstones were used for The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barberra if that counts.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

A more detailed follow up to my previous Blue Sky update.


View attachment 28208
Map Key -> Purple is existing structure, yellow is new/rethemed/repurpose.

There's a lot of smaller improvements/changes, but the overall idea is to get USF as proper theme park that doesn't need events to boost itself. With that said, events are obviously necessary so there still needs to be space for them.

Pressing Priorities

• The Park Entrance is outdated. I personally enjoy the studio theme, but out of all the theme park entrance in Orlando... USF is the worst offender. I would create an art-deco motif throughout the area. The ticket booths in front of the turnstile are gone and replaced with more ample space. The studio store is expanded and given zones for each IP. Villain-Con replaced with an Epic Movie Ride experience. Similar footprint to Transformers. I'd make this a trackless vehicle throughout various Universal films. The BMG theater is used for seasonal shows and is gated off by Minion Mayhem's current entrance whenever not in use.
• I'm not fan of Minion Land's current appearance... as it feels very much shoved in. I'd like to give the Minion Mayhem attraction a proper facade with new neighborhood like facades like USH/USJ and more greenery. Music Plaza Stage is replaced with facade work (of Super Silly Fun Land) and a Silly Swirly flat ride (like Dumbo, copy from USH). This will provide the area kinetics and something for kids to do. The Minion Land facing side of Transformers is given either a Gru-Labs paint job or a Super Silly Fun Land scheme. Trees are placed between the spinner and NY to provide a buffer and hide the unthemed side of the Fallon showbuilding.
• New York remains mostly unchanged, with the F&F coaster coming online and the only major change being Ghostbusters retheme of the existing Fallon ride system. The Tribute Store location (Macy's) is returned to Mummy (1-2 rooms) while the remaining is given a smaller seasonal store. (I think they can support multiple tribute store locations versus 1). The Palace Arcade is taken over by the Museum of Antiquities displaying HHN exhibits and year-round tribute store.
• Hill Valley replaces San Francisco. I've mentioned this before if you want to see more info on it.
• The Land of Wicked takes over MIB and FFL. MIB's current plot is split between half of the ride showbuilding and an indoor-section of the Wicked land. The bulk of the land is indoors with a Knockturn-style appearance but almost the size of the entire Diagon Alley area. A Wizomania street shows plays (like Diagon's shows) and the main E-ticket is a inverted-EMV style (Spider-Man but in a Hot Air Balloon). The other major attraction is a Wicked stage show. The land also continues a mini Munchkin-land area.
• Amity returns as the replacement for Springfield. All of the existing infrastructure is kept, but given a New England seaside village aesthetic. More trees are planted to give it a sense of location and a new seaside lounge replaces Twirl 'n' Hurl.
• DreamWorks gets a major capacity boost with 2 new flat rides and 2 new dark rides. A major Shrek dark ride takes over Animal Actors, while Trolls (or Kung Fu Panda) replaces the old parade building. Two new flat rides (a carousel and Waveswinger) add more kinetics to the area.
• Hollywood's major improvement is relocating ET's entrance to the NBC Media center. Cafe La Bamba is replaced with a new themed lounge called Spielberg's with uniquely themed rooms and drinks. This park's Beak & Barrel.

HHN

• With BTTF likely being more popular than F&F (and need the queue space) and Wicked/Jaws taking over some BoH spaces occupied by HHN tents... there is the potential for 5 new house locations. You can add 3 tents adjacent to the two new ones, and even one behind the Trolls Trollercoaster (same size as Fallout/Galkn). If they want to be more ambitious, you can create a proper entertainment back of house space behind Hollywood that can hold the entertainment teams on the 2nd floor, while space is reserved for a house on the first. (You can actually fit two houses here if you wanted to spread crowds even more).

More details below on what the Amity/Hill Valley lands contain. My Terminal Disney Brain has been on a blue sky whirl this week.

 

[Tyc00n96]

More details below on what the Amity/Hill Valley lands contain. My Terminal Disney Brain has been on a blue sky whirl this week.

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View attachment 28288

I need both of these tomorrow lol

I am really rooting for BTTF to replace Supercharged even if it's the same system. That whole side of the park would be amazing.

 

[belloq87]

More details below on what the Amity/Hill Valley lands contain. My Terminal Disney Brain has been on a blue sky whirl this week.

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I love both of these plans.

Presumably the Jaws ride would be a perpetual nighttime cruise?

 

[ChrisFL]

I like the concept of having a Stranger Things temporary overlay of E.T. a la Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas, but probably too late for us to see that happen.

 

[LPCaptainDeath]

I like the concept of having a Stranger Things temporary overlay of E.T. a la Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas, but probably too late for us to see that happen.

I had never thought of it that way... that's a cool way for E.T. to stay in operation AND become a big draw for HHN guests if it can seasonally overlay as an offering every fall.

*redo the queue to play subtle stranger things music, put missing posters on the trees, have a boombox playing "should i stay or should i go" and christmas lights leading off a ways into the forest to set up as easter eggs
*once on the ride, remove the music of the forest - obscure all the animatronics with brush OR change the dialogue of how they're presented with lines from the show where the cops are trying to stop the kids from going into the woods - play creepy music and keep us in the dark.
*change the signage on Elliott's fort to Fort Byers, and right before we take off for the jump, hit us with a projection of a demogorgon jumping out at us (just because i assume they won't build a fully detailed animatronic or have anywhere good to put it within the forest segment at least).
*turn off the lights on the flying over the city segment - play the intro music - fill the room with fog
*instead of the wormhole in space to take us to the Green Planet have a projector show a rift to the upside down opening up
*cover all the animatronics in the planet sequence with foliage/tentacle walls/fog-style obscurities and instead show flashing lights of static demodogs and projector demobats
*in the largest room before the finale, have a large static mindflayer coming out of the wall/forced perspective
*finale room have a wall screen covering E.T. and instead project a rift opening back up with Eleven on the other side getting us out of there.

I don't think it would be too hard and i don't think it's asking for too much outside of strobe lights, fog machines, static figures, and projectors??

 

[ChrisFL]

Exactly, it would be relatively easy to do I think.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

So with these Potter rumors heating up I'm wondering what can be done with the huge plot of land. So I've had some thoughts...

Quidditch, sports, and broom riding all seem like obvious choices for this new ride. I did some quick research on the Wikis and didn't find much information on Quidditch in the 1920s. Perfect, we can build our own. Magic Paris is set in the "1920s", and the Quidditch World Cup is held every four years since 1473. Using my friend Excel, I found three possible years for the attraction: 1921, 1925, and 1929. I suggest 1925 as it doesn't back up against any wars or epidemics if you want to stick to the land's timeframe, but if you're willing to jump around the time line there's one hell of a mystery box you can open that's canon.

Since the Quidditch World Cup is based on European Football Culture, I think a fun angle for the attraction would be a daily trip to the port key to that day's matches. The Paris Ministry has set up a group broom transit to the port key, but of course Something Goes Wrong (tm) and we fly into it and get transported to the restricted World Cup location ON A BROOM. So we have to escape while flying all around. I think this could apply to 1877 and 1925 equally. It will celebrate fan culture and cover the last remaining Potter dream transit, from benches to brooms.

As for a ride system, I have two ideas. One is a Scoop-like ride system that has a slightly smaller pitch and yaw but instead of being three benches of four in an enclosed bin this new ride platform is five brooms in a 2 3 formation. Go from the large 4K screens to sets and back as guests ride on brooms that could theoretically move independently (to an extent).

The other idea is a full indoor broom coaster like DarkCoaster in BGW. You'll board a broom coaster and since this is indoors, it doesn't matter if the illusion doesn't work off the vehicle if the illusion works on the vehicle. Anyway, this coaster would be Universal's take on Guardians at Epcot with large set pieces in a big building (no spinning, though).

I think a combo of these ideas could work well as, hopefully, finally, the Potter attractions are done for Orlando.

 

[tielo]

The possible Potter attraction building is huge so here is my take. I add 2 rides, one family ride and the other one a slow moving dark ride that also is able to ride by small children.
Remember that door coaster that Disney is building but replace the regular seats with the Tron bike seats. This hanging coaster tells the story of the quidditch worldcup after the 1914 tournament was famously canceled due to the outbreak of the First Wizarding War. But everything isn't well and dark forces are out to sabotage this tournament too. The ride starts with take off in a small courtyard in Paris at night and fly trough an open window where we see a complot taking place to sabotage the tournament. Fast flying sections to get to the current match are changed into slow moving part to find the baddies that result in a chase where we catch the evil.
Meanwhile an open carriage tour with invisible Thestrals is placed on the ride floor making great use of the physical sets but tells a fun story about a Niffler that wants to steal the golden snitch form the tournament. The tour goes trough Paris buildings and a stands for the quidditch match. Both rides will be separated safely by using building roofs, a sewer scene and other tricks.

 

[DrStarlander]

I hope they don't spend all 150,000 square feet on a single attraction that will have a 2-3 hour wait. I'd rather they put a Wizarding World version of Fantasyland in there with many smaller attractions for families and kids. They can hit on many different aspects of the Wizarding World (and get young kids interested in the IP). As for thematic logic/integrity, the whole area can be a kind of a Wizarding World's Fair held in Paris with rides, games, walk-through exhibits, celebrating the history and lore of the Wizarding World...so anything's possible.

This 150,000 square foot area of Disneyland's Fantasyland has 9 attractions, if you count the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through.

I think for Epic to bump its attraction count up 8 or 9 would be a bigger win than one more massive Potter attraction.

 

[Myah1220]

I like the concept of having a Stranger Things temporary overlay of E.T. a la Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas, but probably too late for us to see that happen.

It would be cool if they'd do it in tandem with the final season being released.

 

[Freak]

I didn't know where to put this so I'll leave this here:

Since USF already has the Bourne Stuntacular, I would LOVE to see a similar-style of show with a different IP for USH. What IP would work best in that format? The Matrix.

As a kid, I always thought a great replacement for T2:3D would be the Matrix. Just imagine the kind of stunts that show could involve. Imagine Neo and several "henchmen" fighting over guests heads. I think it would be insane!

 

[pumpkinbot343]

Don’t really have any creative ideas as of now, but I might as well throw this thought for funsies.

Assuming some stupid reason like an alternate universe where Universal owned Marvel, or Disney somehow agreed to this for whatever reason, in this scenario Spider-Man and Revenge of the Mummy would switch places in two different parks, and not only that but the two areas- New York (in this scenario, Fallon does not exist) and Toon Lagoon- would be rethemed to fit the new-ish attractions. New York would be rethemed entirely to the Spiderman IP, while Toon Lagoon would be transformed into either a land based on Ancient Egypt itself, or some hodgepodge land which be themed on “Ancient heroes” (think something similar to Gladiator and Xena).

 

[pumpkinbot343]

Some more ideas on how to bring back the ride:

Make it more like Spiderman and the Harry Potter rides in that it’s a mix of practical sets and screens.

Or, and more unlikely, not bring it back in any of the parks themselves but put the rides in shopping malls. Mainly small scale like VR experiences or those simulator rides in arcades, or alternatively bigger scale in that it’s a full on recreation of the original rides with the queues and pre-show videos and such.