As good as the Harry Potter movies are, I might be a bigger fan of the Harry Potter theme parks. The rides are great, the wand shop is fun, and as a lover (or at least regretful consumer) of all things movie tie-in food related, I’m a huge fan of butterbeer and the other unique Wizard World treats.
So far, Universal has built Harry Potter areas at their Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando parks, and today they confirmed that their upcoming third park in Florida, Epic Universe, will include a new Harry Potter area — along with sections devoted to Nintendo and Super Mario, How to Train your Dragon, and the Dark Universe, which is essentially the home to the Universal Monsters like Frankenstein and Dracula (and was briefly the name of an infamously disastrous cinematic universe, so bless Universal for keeping this monicker around in some form).
Although Universal didn’t include a ton of details about the new Harry Potter area they did reveal that it is called “Ministry of Magic,” and that it will recreate “a different era of the wizarding world in an all-new land that blends 1920s wizarding Paris from Warner Bros. Pictures’ Fantastic Beasts films with the iconic British Ministry of Magic from the Harry Potter series.”
The video below gives you a good sense of the overall space, and includes effusive comments from Universal executives — and even Steven Spielberg.
Full details about the attractions in the movie related areas will come later (look, they gotta keep the hype going for this new place somehow), but they have already revealed the rides in the central hub area of Epic Universe, which is dubbed “Celestial Park.” This video takes you on a virtual tour of what’s planned.
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It’s tough to get a sense of what the other areas of the park will include from these clips, but I gotta say … a theme park based on the Universal Monsters (excuse me, the Dark Universe) does sound really fun.
Universal’s Epic Universe will open in Florida 2025.
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