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Universal Orlando
Orlando, FL
NBC Universal / Comcast
---- THE LATEST NEWS ----
(9/4/2025) The Worst Halloween Trend Of All Has Now Arrived at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights
(8/28/2025) Halloween Horror Nights - Notes about The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks Haunted House
(8/20/2025) See the Themed Food and Beverage Lineup For Halloween Horror Nights
(8/19/2025) Universal Orlando To Bring Back Volcano Bay Nights w/ Scooby Doo and Friends
(8/10/2025) The Firefly Funhouse Comes To Halloween Horror Nights and More
(8/8/2025) Watch the Fuel Girls Prepare To Bring Circus Of Decay To HHN Orlando
Volcano Bay Rehabs - Dates are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as refurbishments are subject to change.
TapuTapu System To Be Retired Oct. 1, 2025
Entire Park To Be Closed from Oct. 26, 2026 through to March 24, 2027
Click Here to read the full Screamscape Review of Halloween Horror Nights 33
Click Here to read the full Screamscape review of Halloween Horror Nights 29
VOLCANO BAY IS NOW OPEN - Read the official Screamscape Review!
LOWES Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando - Read the official Screamscape Review!
 General Resort News - (8/19/2025) Blooloop reports that Universal Orlando is bringing back Volcano Bay Nights this fall, taking place every friday night from Sept. 5th through to October 31st. For a bit of extra fun, in addition to the music, DJs and food, guests will also get to see new experiences set up featuring Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Fred and Daphne… along with a few classic Scooby-Doo villains.
(7/3/2025) Universal Orlando is offering a special ticket offer to Florida residents right now with a Buy 2 Days, Get 1 Day Free offer when you buy a 2-Park / 2-Day ticket. Before you get too excited however, this deal DOES NOT include access to the new Universal Epic Universe theme park, it is limited to visits to just Universal Studios Florida and Islands of adventure, and those three visits must be completed by Sept. 24th.
But other than being a good deal for summer visits, the timing is also good for anyone wanting to turn a September Halloween Horror Nights adventure into a multi-day Universal experience.
(5/11/2025) I haven’t seen a confirmation from Universal Orlando yet about this, but according to the scuttlebutt on the web, Universal Orlando may remove the last smoking areas from within all of their theme parks as early as May 15th.
Prior of 2022, Universal used to feature several designated locations within each park, but that all came to an end during the COVID era, where it was reduced down to a single location within each park. In fact, even Epic Universe has had one during the preview dates, located between Stardust Racers and the Isle of Berk.
But the online buzz this week is that these remaining locations will be scrapped this week, leaving those wishing to smoke or vape forced to exit the theme park and do it in a designated location outside the gates somewhere at Epic Universe, or within the previously designated locations at Citywalk outside of Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure.
(5/11/2025) Sometime it's the little things that make the biggest impact. When Universal first announced so many years ago that they were going to convert part of the Lost Continent in the Islands of Adventure theme park into a new Harry Potter themed land, I’m sure we all expected some very big things to come from that deal.
Somehow, I don’t think anyone really expected just how huge “Butterbeer” was going to end up being in terms of that new experience. Butterbeer, a fictional beverage created for the book series, was brought to life by a genius Universal chef, and our tastebuds have never been quite the same. The only problem is that you’ve really only been able to get your hands on a mug of the stuff while visiting one of the many Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park lands around the world at select Universal theme parks.
That all changed this week when a Harry Potter themed expansion to the official Universal Studios Store in Universal Orlando’s Citywalk opened and surprisingly enough, actually features a stand where, for the first time ever, you can actually purchase a mug of either regular cold or frozen butterbeer… OUTSIDE of the theme parks.
(5/1/2025) Some big changes are coming to Universal’s Volcano Bay waterpark. According to the Orlando Sentinel, starting October 1st, the park will discontinue the use of the TapuTapu wearable. This is kind of mind-blowing to me, as the TapuTapu wearable device that was provided to every single guest to use was your link to the entire waterpark, and really was the one major thing that set Volcano Bay apart from every other waterpark.
It you used as a virtual queue reservation system for almost every major attraction in the park, so you never had to wait in long lines, it allowed interaction with various displays, water elements and kiosks within the park, it serves as your virtual wallet for all your purchases, so you could use it to put all your belongings inside a locker and not need to access them again until you were ready to leave. So the dropping of TapuTapi is honestly a huge shock to me, as it really was the thing that made Volcano Bay stand out as a unique experience.
According to Universal, the dropping of TapuTapu will “allow guests to access attraction queues at their leisure”... or not, as who wants to stand in a long hot line in the sun getting burned? I’d rather take a few laps in the lazy river while waiting for my time to ride the Krakatoa Water Coaster. Alas… I can only hope that they reconsider this plan.
The other big announcement was that Volcano Bay will be closed for several months over the winter of 2026 in order to perform numerous maintenance projects as well as inspections and so on. Volcano Bay will close on Oct. 26, 2026 and apparently not reopen again until sometime around March 24, 2027. This does may be wonder if we might see some changes made to some of the attractions, or perhaps even the introduction of a new attraction within this time frame.
(3/7/2025) A new promotion video from Universal Orlando about “Epic Universe & Beyond” has a lot of great footage fans will enjoy. Not just of Epic Universe, but showing off iconic locations all around the Universal Orlando resort, highlighting how it’s grown over the past 35 years since it opened as just a single theme park in 1990.
They also drop a major announcement about 2 minutes into the video, where they announce that there are “already so many things in the works now. We have a slate of new attractions that were already in development for every one of our Parks. We’re already planning for the next thing at Epic!”
(2/27/2025) Starting on March 1st, the Wizarding World locations at Universal Orlando will begin to offer new second generation magic wands for sale. While guests who visit with the original wands will find that they still work as before, the new wands come with an assortment of new features. Key amongst them is that you can link your new wand to “Universal Play” within the official Universal App. This allows the use of your wand to be customized a bit by creating your own wizard profile, selecting certain attributes, such as your patronus, and with the app you’ll earn points for your house with every successful spell cast. As you progress, even more features and spell will be unlocked.
As part of the new program 5 new interactive wand stations will be added to the existing Wizarding World locations in Hogsmeade & Diagon Alley, and once Epic Universe opens in May, even more stations will be added. The new locations will include a ‘Dueling Club Tent” in Hogsmeade, another in The Owl Post (also Hogsmeade) and three in Diagon Alley: Ariadne’s Sppinners, Knockturn Alley Sky and Knockturn Alley Staircase.
(11/29/2024) After months of waiting, Wicked (Part 1) has finally hit the theaters and if the early results continue, Universal has a mega-hit on their hands, especially since Part 2 is already set to hit theaters next year on Nov. 21st, 2025. Of course, as a highly themed IP, theme park fans want to know when they can expect to see Universal Creative act on this and create something Wicked for the Universal theme parks.
Know that Universal Creative has already been working on ideas ever since the films were green-lit. I hinted at one possible idea way back in January 2024, when I mentioned that everyone should keep an eye on the former Fear Factor show venue at the park for signs of possible demolition. The park has been looking for a project to fill the gap between Diagon Alley and Men In Black for quite some time now, and at the time, I was told that corporate was close to greenlighting a project that would have seen the Day 1 show venue razed to the ground in order to build a massive new indoor theater venue designed to showcase a stage version of Wicked, but purpose-built to include a large number of special effects systems.
This wouldn’t be the first time a Universal park has performed a stage-version of Wicked, as Universal Studios Japan performed the show there in a theater for five years (2006 to 2011) along with a small Land of Oz themed area around it.
So what’s happening in Florida now? Well, we know they built the Wicked Experience retail / attraction space near the front of the park as a lead-in to the opening of the film this week, but obviously they never demolished the old show venue earlier this year to begin work on a Wicked attraction there. It does make sense, as the resorts efforts are highly focused on opening Epic Universe in 2025, and I don’t think the original intent was to open any kind of permanent Wicked attraction until at least 2026, after both films had been released and had their time to shine at the Oscars where nominations were virtually guaranteed in a number of areas, including music and costumes.
However as the film’s release inched closer and closer, I think the hype and response about Wicked may have been much higher than initially anticipated. So much so, that the film’s fans are wanting more than just a show in the parks, they want an entire themed land. So this puts Universal Orlando in an interesting position… as there are a few locations where they could make this happen, but likely outside of Universal Studios Floridia who is more likely going to move forward with yet another Fast & Furious project instead first.
Islands of Adventure could become home to a Wicked zone, perhaps taking over section of Toon Lagoon between Ripsaw and Spiderman where there already is a mostly vacant theater space and nearby shops and restaurants that could be revamped. But even more inviting may be the remains of the Lost Continent section of the park across the lagoon, where they have a completely empty large show venue formerly used for the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad show, along with the very large space taken up by the closed Poseidon’s Fury attraction, along with plenty of space between the two current used for food and merchandise locations. IOA needs a big project that could warrant a budget worthy of creating an entirely new land here, and Wicked could fit the bill.
And if none of that works, there is always some open plots left in place for expansion properties over at the new Epic Universe park, as I’m sure the future fans of Epic Universe wouldn’t mind adding a new Portal to Oz as the first expansion of that park as well. Either way, I’m sure there are already meeting on the schedule for Monday when the execs get back from their holiday vacation to discuss this very thing, so stay tuned!
2025 - New CityWalk Developments - (9/14/2024) According to the latest updates, the Universal Studios Store in CityWalk Orlando will be getting an expansion sometime in 2025. This isn’t just a general expansion to the store however, this is an expansion to add some very specific things that will be around for quite some time.
For starters, one section of the expansion will be to add a large themed area for Super Nintendo World merchandise. This makes sense as while any gift shop can certainly sell Nintendo merchandise, once Epic Universe opens with a line of brand new and semi-exclusive merchandise, normally the only way to purchase it would be to journey over to the Epic Universe theme park, which is not physically connected with the rest of the Universal Orlando Resort. So setting up what will essentially be the Nintendo merchandise HQ for the main Universal Orlando Resort inside CityWalk is a good idea.
The second big expansion is something people have been craving for the longest time… a way to purchase Butterbeer to drink OUTSIDE of the theme parks. Once again, we know Epic Universal will be opening with its very own Wizarding World land, making it the third site in Orlando to purchase the popular beverage, but now a new dedicated Harry Potter / Wizarding World merchandise section will be added to the CityWalk shop that is supposed to bring regular Butterbeer, Frozen Butterbeer, Hot Butterbeer as well as the new Vegan Butterbeer for sale for the first time to a location that is technically OUTSIDE of one of the (soon to be) three Wizarding World lands. In addition to Butterbeer, the themed section is also supposed to be putting some of the exclusive merchandise from each land on sale as well.
Halloween Horror Nights 2025 - (9/4/2025) The worst trend in the Halloween Haunt industry has finally arrived in the one place that I hoped it never would. Halloween Horror Nights is now selling their own version of the glowing “No Boo” glow necklace guests can use to keep all the scary creatures of the night from trying to scare you. Universal’s version is called the “Deathly Afraid” necklaces and if you want to know just why these little items are able to completely suck all the fun out of your night at a Halloween haunt experience, you can read the article I wrote about just that over at Blooloop back in June.
And then watch the video below, as seems content creators are now grabbing them to use as tools for their own video footage, taunting the monsters to come and get them, even though they can’t. As I pointed out myself, the Scareactors are so busy trying not to do anything to the person with the camera, that they’re completely ignoring all the other paid guests all around them who DO want to be scared.
I suggested it on Blooloop and I’ll do it here again… if you’re going to sell these monster neutering devices, then please sell something that does the opposite for those of us who want to supercharge our Haunt experience. Think of it as a sort of cat-nip for monsters, something to buy to have them stalk and chase you all night long.
Otherwise, just ban these anti-monster necklace things all together… if you are that afraid of being at the Haunt event to need one of these, then do you really need to be going in the first place?
(8/28/2025) A couple of notes have come out regarding The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks haunted house at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. In an interview with Universal’s Mike Aiello and WWE’s Taylor Rotunda (Uncle Howdy), it was noted that a special unreleased version of Bray Wyatt’s “Shatter” theme song was given to Universal to use in the haunt and that you’ll get to hear it near the end of the experience.
When asked if there would be any “representation” in the haunt for the late Wyatt family member, Jon Huber (better known as wrestler Luke Harper) Aiello confirmed that, while not giving anything away directly, everyone connected to the late Windham Rotunda (aka: Bray Wyatt) in storyline sense will be included in the experience in some fashion. Some will be obvious, some will require fans to investigate a little.
(8/20/2025) The TODAY Show posted a detailed look at all the themed exclusive food and beverage options that will be coming to Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando this season. Follow the link to check it out.
(8/10/2025) For the WWE fans coming to Halloween Horror Nights, you’ll like this one. In memory of Bray Wyatt and for the Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks haunt being featured this year, they’ve already set up a Firefly Funhouse themed food stand at the park! Check it out and others themed booths in the clip below.
(8/8/2025) The Fuel Girls are hard at work preparing to the new Circus of Decay show for Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights. Check out their preview teaser below.
(7/30/2025) Halloween Horror Nights has now confirmed the last haunted house experiences coming this year with the confirmation that Five Nights at Freddy’s will be a haunted house along with confirmation of the rumored WWE themed “The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks” haunted house, where you will be lured “through the ominous doorway to their shadowy realm.”
RUN!
(7/26/2025) Universal Orlando has confirmed that a new edition of the popular Nightmare Fuel show will be coming to Halloween Horror Nights this season called, “Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay”. Also on the entertainment side of things a brand new lagoon show will also be returning this season called Haunt-O-Phonic: A ghoulish Journey.
(7/19/2025) While not quite announced as Scare Zones, Universal Orlando has announced that two new “street experiences” will be coming to HHN this year: “Mel’s Die In Zombies” and “Club Horror”. Unfortunately they say “Details coming soon”, but also mention Zombie Carhops at Mel’s and undead DJs… so these may be some kind of party or dance style version of a scare zone… or perhaps better described as a horror themed party zone.
While this may be a first for HHN in North America, the concept of a horror themed dance party zone has been a popular one used at HHN at Universal Studios Japan for the past few years. I believe the concept first started in 2018 where the roaming hordes of zombies that wandered the street would occasionally break into an organized dance routine. Perhaps it may be best to think of that early version of more of a Zombie themed Flash Mob style experience in the streets, kinda like Michael Jackson’s Thriller. When the music stops… the dancing zombies suddenly revert back to their flesh eating selves and chase after the living.
While HHN 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic, the concept restarted for HHN 2021 when they were looking for a way to still use zombie hordes, but instead taking place in the streets, they put them on a stage and made a show out of it. The park also started to team up with popular Japanese music acts and place their music into these performances that would turn into big group dance
So consider this a bit of a guess, but I’m wondering if either of these new “street experiences” may borrow some DNA from USJ’s Zombie Dance Party performances.
(7/17/2025) Universal Orlando has announced another Scare Zone for this year’s HHN, this one called “Mutations Toxic Twenties”. Yep… toxic mobster monsters.
(7/16/2025) Two more scare zones have been announced for Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando: “Masquerade: Dance with Death” (welcome to the Vampire’s Ball) and “The Catlady of Crooked Lane” who turns naughty Trick-or-Treaters into “feral felines”.
(7/14/2025) Universal Orlando has announced their first Scare Zone for the season as something called “The Origins of Horror”. “Enter a decaying conservatory of twisted vines where artists carve tributes to Halloween Horror Nights 34. You’ll encounter monstrous crows, gargoyles and more.”
(7/11/2025) As rumored, Terrifier was confirmed as being the theme of a new haunted house for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando and Hollywood this season.
This is the 8th haunt out of 10 announced for the Orlando park so far. With two more to go, the various wrestling fan publications have also picked up on the popular rumor we’ve previously mentioned about a WWE themed haunted house being announced very soon as well.
(6/28/2025) Universal Studios Orlando just announced their 5th original IP yesterday… Galkn: Monsters of the North. From the sound of it, this almost has a Game of Thrones / White Walkers inspired vibe to it. “In a remote northern village, a wicked being rises from the dead, bringing a horde of monsters and demons from the fjords to wreak havoc on the townspeople. You’ll face icy, horned, winged and wolfish fiends that gradually merge into one giant horror. Then you’ll try to escape the belly of the beast. ”
And if the rumored lineup holds true… then we now have all five of the rumored original IPs that will make up their half of the 10 Haunted Houses this year. This leaves Jason Universe, Fallout and Five Nights at Freddy’s as official IP partner haunts, with two more announcements left to go. The most popular rumors so far are still Terrifier and a possible WWE themed haunt, and of course a BlumHouse themed Scare Zone that will heavily feature M3GAN.
At the rate they’re going, we may finish up all those announcements within the next week or two.
(6/26/2025) Universal Orlando has announced THREE new original IP haunted houses coming to HHN 2025 this fall.
Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters - A fun western themed haunt featuring red-hot lava demons, bloodshed and chaos. Fun fact… this was actually a fake movie teased inside Slaughter Sinema 2 last year.
Dolls: Let’s Play Dead - Become Doll Sized and be hunted by stitched and melted together evil toy creations created by a twisted little girl.
Grave of Flesh - “Enter the underworld and be hunted by flesh-eaters for eternity”
Oh… and the inside word is that the Five Nights at Freddy’s experience will also include a haunted house along with some other aspects. I haven’t seen this myself, but apparently Hollywood’s John Murdy is said to have confirmed the FNAF Haunt aspect while speaking somewhere. Rumor has it that Universal may not have been ready to announce FNAF first, and had some other announcements to make first, but rumor is that someone at BlumHouse let it slip early, which is why we got the quasi-announcement confirming it was coming, but with more information to come instead of releasing it at that time.
Or that’s the scuttlebutt going around the rumor mill right now… so take that for what you will. In Orlando at least, FNAF is supposed to be located within one of the Sound Stages.
(6/21/2025) The first original haunt for Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando was announced a few hours ago as “El Artista: A Spanish Haunting”. The experience (see below) is described as a taking place in 19th Century Spain where a ‘tortured artist’ moves into an isolated country mansion to be inspired… but instead their art comes alive and possessed him instead. Sounds a bit like The Shining, minus the snow, but that’s okay, because this is going into the Orlando park after all.
While we’re talking HHN, I did hear that similar to last year, we can expect a 50/50 split between Original and IP haunts once again in 2025 between the confirmed 10 Haunted Houses coming. The balance between the concepts seemed to go over well with the fans last year and obviously is easier on the budget than having to pay for 7, 8 or more “IP’ haunts. So far we’ve had two IP Haunts confirmed (Jason Universe & Fallout), as you’ll have to remember that Five Nights at Freddy’s is not going to be a Haunt, but rather something new. (A creepy Dining experience would be perfect!)
So of course we have rumors about some of the other IPs that could be announced in the coming weeks. One that many have been waiting to see if Universal would pull the trigger on is a possible Terrifier themed Haunted House. Between 2016 and 2024 there have been three Terrifier films to hit the silver screen featuring Art the Clown, so they may be on to something here. Plus, rumor has it that despite years of attempts to negotiate the rights to create an “IT” house with Warner Bros. to use Pennywise the clown… they have never been able to come to terms on a deal. So it seems that Universal may be moving on, even with the “IT: Welcome to Derry” prequel series expected to be coming to HBO / HBO Max later this year.
Another fascinating rumor may be a deal with the WWE to bring a supernatural themed haunt to the parks in both Orlando and Hollywood. This would actually be the second time a WWE house would come to Halloween Horror Nights if this rumor holds true, as there was an Undertaker themed haunt in the Hollywood park back in 2000. Current rumors have been speculating for months that the possibility may be out there for another WWE haunt, either themed to Undertaker and Kane once again, or involving the “Wyatt Sicks” group may have been under consideration. No word on if a deal was ever real or finalized, but we should find out sooner than later.
Despite years of back-to-back “Universal Monster” houses being introduced at Halloween Horror Nights, rumor has it that the Universal Monsters won’t be back this year, as they have now set up shop over in the Dark Universal portal at Epic Universe, and they don’t want any confusion on that part this year.
BlumHouse has been a huge part of HHN in recient years, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see something involving one or more of their IPs in HHN this year. Though M3GAN 2 is hitting theaters next week, and with reports of M3GAN dance hordes appearing in the parks currently, I’m guessing we’ll see M3GAN in some form in HHN as well, though this is more likely going to be a ScareZone or Roaming Horde kind of thing than a haunted house. Then again, a sort of mixed or shared BlumHouse universe haunt could be a thing once again if needed, but that’s just speculation on my part and not a solid rumor.
(6/14/2025) Universal has announced that JASON from the Friday the 13th films is coming to Halloween Horror Nights this year. It is interesting that while this was announced on Friday the 13th itself, Universal hasn’t actually mentioned the official “Friday the 13th” film branding here. Instead they are marketing this haunt as “JASON UN1V3RSE”, and just referring to him as “Jason Voorhees”. The promotion mentions his shack in the woods, and entering the “summer camp” where the legend began, but I noticed they also avoid mentioning “Camp Crystal Lake” by name as well.
In a quick search, I’m seeing that some of the IP rights are a bit split-up. The original screenwriter of the original Friday the 13th film apparently owns the US rights to the character of Jason Voorhees “as he appeared in the first film”, including the ‘young Jason’ and some other characters from that particular movie. Fans of the character however know that Jason did not appear with his iconic hockey mask in the first film at all, and SPOILER ALERT… the “Jason” who killed everyone in the first film was really Jason’s Mom who went over the top crazy with grief when her son drowned in the lake years before. So clearly any use of “Jason” from this era would would appear a bit different.
However, “Horror Inc.” and “Sean S. Cunningham” (Director and Producer of the first film) owns the rights to the character as shown in the sequels and all the first film rights outside of the US, which means the Hockey Mask Jason we all love. Oh… and “New Line Cinema”, owned by Warner Bros., is the trademark owner for the actual “Friday the 13th” brand.
With some new legal determinations to make the ownership lines clear, things have taken a new twist, with the arrival of “JASON UN1V3RSE” (notice the use of the 1 and 3). Jason UN1V3RSE, or just simply “Jason Universe” apparently is the new initiative from Cunningham and Horror Inc., that launched last month (May 2025) in order to relaunch the character itself along with a new era of storytelling and branding into films, television, games, merchandise and more… and clearly an introduction of the Jason Universe into Halloween Horror Nights fills the “more” category nicely. Oh, and NBC/Universal is already working with Horror Inc on a new prequel series coming to Peacock called “Crystal Lake”, and I imagine we’ll learn more about this new project as part of the Jason Universe haunt.
This is confirmed as coming to both the Orlando and Hollywood HHN events this year.
(6/5/2025) Universal has announced that Amazon Prime Video’s hit series Fallout, based on the video game series, will be coming to Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood and Orlando this fall. This would technically be the first “Haunted House” confirmation from Universal for this year’s event, as the previous Five Nights at Freddy’s announcement was listed as being something else… still to be announced in more detail.
While this is probably just a coincidence… it is interesting that the first two IPs announced by Universal this year both started out as Video Games before branching out to become full blown studio productions, with FNAF’s hitting theater screens in 2023 and a sequel expected by the end of the year, and Fallout being a surprise smash hit for Amazon Prime Video in Spring 2024 for season 1, and Season 2 expected by the end of the year and already renewed for a Season 3.
While we’re on the subject of HHN Orlando, Universal has also confirmed that the Premium Scream Night will be back this fall, for one night only, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. The cost right now is $375.00 (plus tax) per person, but it cokmes with short wait times to the Haunts, free parking, all-you-can-eat food options and for the first time ever… Universal is offering this one and only opportunity to wear a “costume” of your own to Halloween Horror Nights. (Subject to a ‘Costume Policy, and No Masks Allowed).
(6/2/2025) Universal has now officially confirmed that “Five Nights at Freddy’s” will be part of the Halloween Horror Nights 2025 in both the Hollywood and Orlando parks. HOWEVER… it sounds as if this may not be a simple Haunt announcement, as their post says that FNAF “is coming in a whole new way”, with more details to come soon.
It definitely sounds like more than a simple Scare Zone or a Haunt… but I’m not sure exactly what. Given the theme involved, some kind of spooky dining event could potentially be possible, or perhaps FNAF will be used for a variety of things in each park.
???? - New Universal Pop-Culture Celebration Event - Rumored To Be In Development -
(3/1/2025) Universal Orlando fans may be wondering just when the Universal Fan Fest Nights event might be coming to Orlando? As you may recall, Screamscape has been talking about this pending event for the past few years, as it was my understanding that the event was first picked as something for Universal Orlando, inspired by the Universal Cool Japan events that have been wildly popular overseas for years now.
I’m not entirely surprised by the fact that the first Fan Fest Nights event will take place at the Hollywood park, mainly because Universal Orlando has been so incredibly busy preparing itself for the launch of Epic Universe in 2025, and I’m sure there are other projects waiting in the wings for the other parks in the years to follow. Launching a brand new theme park is no easy feat, let alone one in Orlando, so I’m thinking they simply opted to wait until at least 2026 or 2027 to launch an Orlando version of Fan Fest Nights. (Assuming the Hollywood version is a success)
If you need any more convincing, check your email, as a survey invitation has been going around for the past week or so, asking guests to compare and rank their favorite live action, animated, and video game IPs. Included in the mix are IPs that you’ll recognize from Universal’s current vaults, items in use at the parks already, new things coming to Epic Universe, new IPs we know are already part of Fan Fest Nights in Hollywood, but it also is asking you to compare which of these you like compared to a large number of other IPs that we’ve never seen at Universal before. One thing that I found interesting was comparisons being asked for to gauge public opinions between more well known American animation properties, like Shrek and How To Train Your Dragon up against some popular Japanese anime properties that have been huge hits for the Japanese parks, like Attack on Titan or One Piece. There are also comparisons to see if potential guests might like more Nintendo properties to be used at a possible future event, or would you rather see more modern game IPs like Halo or Call of Duty?
We’ve also heard some fun rumors that surveys done in Hollywood to judge how the west coast guests showing interest in the IPs being used at first Universal Fan Fest Nights are being ranked. According to some early rumors, upper management was surprised in some of these surveys, as there is said to be much higher interesting in the non Universal IPs being brought into that park for the event, such as Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons and even One Piece than there is for some established park IPs like Super Nintendo World or even Back To The Future, which may be why we’ve seen a last second addition of Wicked character meet & greets added to the Hollywood event. Of course, even if you see it in a survey, it doesn’t mean it will come, as they cast a rather wide net of properties to use in this survey, including some that I wouldn’t think would go over well, and others that were surprising to hear about, such as Amazon Prime’s “The Boys” series.
(8/24/2024) The Universal FanFest special event now confirmed to only be at the Hollywood park in 2025, but this does not mean that Orlando is to be left out entirely. With the origin of the event plans centered around being added to the Orlando resort, which is going to be busy enough in 2025 with the launch of Epic Universe, I believe we will see the special event added to the Orlando resort a year or two later if it is a success in Hollywood.
(1/27/2024) With the return of the Ghostbusters IP to the silver screen, it appears that Universal has also taken a keen interest in bringing the franchise back into the theme parks. Long time guests of Universal Studios Florida will fondly remember that Ghostbusters was a Day-1 attraction for the theme park when it first opened in 1990 with the Ghostbusters Spooktacular live action special effects show. The former attraction space was later remodeled into the Twister attraction for many years and has now become the Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon, many guests have been wanting to see the Ghostbusters brought back to the park in one form or another. In fact, back when Universal was development a theme park for Dubai, that unrealized park’s New York area would have featured a Ghostbusters themed interactive dark ride. (Fun fact: the land would have also featured a copy of the Incredible Hulk coaster, but with a Men In Black theme instead, with the launch tunnel propped up on a giant crashed UFO…)
Back to the subject at hand, it according to an article posted by GhostbustersNews.com it seems Universal has purchased the pieces of a 1959 Cadillac from a classic vehicle collector with the goal of creating a new ECTO-1 star vehicle. The vehicle was previously cut in half for display, with the front half already having been shipped to Orlando and the back half to arrive soon. The vehicle pieces in question are not the exact “Miller-Meteor” model of car used for the original ECTO-1 in the movie, but should be similar enough to allow for Universal to custom create their own version of ECTO-1 for the theme park.
The better question is… just what does Universal have planned that they would need a new ECTO-1? While the parks have always had a collection of movie-replica star-vehicles on display, they were typically limited to vehicles attached to the IPs of current attractions, with the exception of a few Back to the Future themed vehicles that remain on display. While it would be nice to see a new Ghostbusters themed attraction in the theme parks, there are no short-term plans to do so from what I’m told. Maybe long-term, but they’ve got to get Epic Universe up and running first.
So what else could this be for? Lets just back several months to a story I posted about Universal planning a new Pop-Culture Celebration Fan-Fest event for the resort. The idea was to create another annual celebration event to fit into the calendar between Mardi Gras and the Summer season, taking inspiration from the “Universal Cool Japan” events. Instead of video game and manga themed attraction, Universal Orlando would revisit popular icons and IPs from their own past attractions slate such as Beetlejuice, Jaws, Back to the Future… and yes… Ghostbusters. One such element that was rumored for this very event would see Ghostbusters face-characters introduced to roam sections of the park with an ECTO-1 replica.
It definitely sounds like something fun is in the works!
(9/16/2023) Consider this a long term rumor about a concept that was in development by Universal to create another popular festival style event at Universal Studios Florida to take place sometime in the late spring following the Mardi Gras event until the start of the Summer season in June.
Currently the Universal Orlando resort has a pretty stacked slate of projects to fill their calendars. Following the busy summer season they’ve got Halloween Horror nights taking over all of September and October, the annual Christmas holiday events in both parks running from mid November through to New Years, followed by Mardi Gras in early to mid spring. According to the long term rumors from Screamscape sources, the parks may be looking to fill that last gap between Spring Break and Summer, and the early inspiration for this may have come from Japan.
Over the past several years Universal Studios Japan has put on a series of successful events featuring temporary attractions and displays throughout the park under the “Universal Cool Japan” event banner. The event celebrates an ever changing slate of Japanese Pop Culture icons including live action monsters like Godzilla, popular anime characters, Japanese video game series worlds and characters, and even the occasional musical performer. Universal Cool Japan blends a bit of digital fantasy and the wacky worlds of anime with a touch of Kaijui and horror influence to create a mega event all of their own that has developed a strong following.
According to my sources, Universal Orlando is looking to create their own such event that could premier as early as Late Spring 2024, but will do so by creating one made up entirely of American themed pop-culture themes, including some rumored throwbacks to Universal’s own film and theme park history. The popularity of the annual Tribute Stores in the park over the past few years has served as a test of sorts to determine things that really are popular with Universal guests.
While I don’t know everything that Universal has up their sleeve for this proposed event, the idea is to bring back some interesting iconic characters and themes, not only from Universal’s back catalog, but some themes that were once popular parts of the early Universal Orlando experience. Early concepts talked about bringing some characters back to the park for live performances, such as Bettlejuice’s Graveyard Revue on a stage, or to have the Ghostbusters roaming the park in Ecto 1. Anyone else remember the live street performance where the Ghostbusters would chase down Bettlejuice who in return would possess them and make them dance to songs like “Day-O”? How would you feel about the chance to experience a return of Back To The Future: The Ride? Just not inside the original attraction building (The Simpsons) but instead a temporary setup using the simulator bays of Race Through New York? Want to experience the terror of Jaws in a new throw-back attraction? While Universal can’t bring back the old Amity Island area, I’ve heard it has been pitched to re-program the Fast & Furious immersive tunnel scene to create a virtual shark attack sequence.
The end result is to create a special event that is a fun throwback to celebrate popular characters and film characters from the past that once had a tie to Universal Studios theme parks in one way or another. This could also result in the displaying of a lot of classic vehicles from Universal attractions making appearances for guest photos, which is something Universal has always done well with long-term displays of vehicles like the BTTF Delorean, Jurassic Park jeeps, the Blues Brothers squad car, Mystery Machine and more. I’ve already mentioned Ecto 1, but what about some fun 80’s Universal throwback vehicles like KITT or the A-Team van or a little Miami Vice vs Fast X? It’s all for fun… but with Universal Creative being heavily focused on finishing up the Epic Universe theme park by 2025, it sounds like Universal’s live entertainment creatives may be ready to try something new and fresh in the near future.
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