The rumors are true. What every Harry Potter fan has been hoping for is going to come true. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando is going to expand. The announcement was made yesterday by Warner Bros. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Barry Meyer who said:
“The announcement of our partnership with Universal to bring The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Hollywood and expand what already exists in Orlando is probably the best holiday gift we could give to the legions of Harry Potter fans worldwide.”
Now of course the speculation will be about what will be included in the expanded Harry Potter theme park. No specifics have been announced but it seems likely that Wizarding World will expand out into The Lost Continent area. This has always been a slightly awkward area of Islands of Adventure with no major attractions. Since Wizarding World opened it has just seemed like The Lost Continent is in area that guests walk through and almost completely ignore whilst hurrying to get to Hogwarts. It is often like a ghost town.
If they do use this area to expand Wizarding World this would of course mean construction in the area. This would probably have little impact since most of the area to the right as you approach Wizarding World could be boarded off. The interesting question is what would they do with the successful restaurant Mythos. This is considered one of the best full service restaurants in any Orlando theme park so is Universal going to sacrifice this for Harry Potter? If they replaced it with a full service Harry Potter restaurant then surely this would be even more of an attraction for guests?
Another area where they could expand is into the Jurassic Park themed area and perhaps demolish the Jurassic Park Discovery Center. This is one of the least popular attractions in the park and it does take up quite a large area. But the position of this doesn’t seem to make quite so much sense as The Lost Continent.
Perhaps though we are limited our expansion rumors to the wrong park. Perhaps Wizarding World will extend to the Universal Studios park as well as the Islands of Adventure location.
There was another very important announcement from Universal Orlando last week that the Jaws ride will be closing in January. Is this in some way linked to the expansion of Wizarding World. There are some rumors that plans include a representation of Harry Potter’s London and even Platform 9 3/4 itself. This would then be linked to the Islands of Adventure part of the park with guests being able to take a ride on the Howarts Express. Looking at the layout of the parks this is very possible.
The linking of the parks would make a lot of sense. The Universal Studios park has suffered as a result of the huge popularity of Wizarding World. The park seems so dated in comparison. It had started to seem strange to go from one park to the other – one has so much advanced technology and the other is stuck in the 90s. Attractions like Jaws, E.T and Terminator just aren’t that relevant any more. To have a Wizarding attraction in this part of the park would breathe new life into it. And of course bring huge amounts of visitors all of whom would need a 2 park ticket to visit both parts of the attraction. Great for more revenue.
What might the new attractions be in the expanded Wizarding World? The smart money seems to be on a Gringotts bank attraction. Certainly the scenes from the final Harry Potter movie make this seem like a perfect fit. The rumor is that the Poseidon’s Fury attraction would be converted to Gringotts.
Certainly there will be more shops in the expanded Wizarding World. Merchandise sales have been a huge success and of course are a big part of the financial success of the park so we can expect to have many more chances to part with our money with some Harry Potter themed shopping.
The possibilities are so exciting for the expansion of the park. Wizarding World is an amazing place already. It’s only limitation is it’s size and now we can look forward to even more exciting attractions. We will just have to wait and see what the Warner Brothers and Universal have in store for us.
What would you like to see in the expanded Wizarding World? Leave me a Comment below.
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Enjoyed reading this, very good stuff, thankyou . “All of our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.” by Walt Disney.