Universal Studios will open its newest park, Epic Universe, on May 22. The location will include more attractions from the worlds of “Harry Potter,” Nintendo, “How to Train Your Dragon,” the Dark Universe and Celestial Park.
Beth Novak, is a professor and program director for the U.S.: Storytelling, Technology, and Digital Media in Theme Parks course. Novak discussed what the park will look like.
“They are repeating ‘Harry Potter,’ which is, of course, their big sell,” Novak said. “But you know the other monsters and ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ seems like it’s going to be very popular. And of course, Nintendo Land is already open, both in California and Osaka, and they have been very popular.”
Novak also discussed the Dark Universe section of the park, which includes the intellectual property of Universal Studios’ monsters neglected due to lack of interest.
“They had tried to reboot those movies a handful of years ago … And so putting that into the theme park I think is a really interesting way of still using that IP,” Novak said.
She said despite the struggles the studio had with these characters, the section of the theme park looks immersive and interesting.
Although the park opens to the public May 22, early access tickets are available for select visitors. Some visitors have been posting about their adventures on platforms such as TikTok.
Novak explained the future availability of the park.
“In order to go initially, you have to buy a three-day pass,” Novak said. “You can’t just go for one day. And then after it’s been open for a little bit, then you can buy passes that are multi-day passes to that park and the other Universal parks.”
Novak said the park is also expensive to visit.
“If you want to do something like buy an Express Pass so you don’t have to wait in the long, long lines, those are shockingly expensive right now,” Novak said. “So they’re really trying to leverage that intellectual property and people being really excited to go see it with some high prices.”
Express passes, which give access between parks, range in price from $59-$154.99.
Epic Universe is about 15 minutes south from the original Universal Studios in Florida. It contains about 750 acres of land, which is greater than the two chunks of land in the northern part combined
The park will also be the first Universal Park to adopt a traditional wheel-and-spoke design the first Disney Park popularized. The design features a center that acts like a wheel with spokes where segments of the park veer off. For Universal, four of the parks will be completely independent from each other with only Celestial Park to connect them.
Universal initially revealed this plan in 2019 but was forced to delay the project due to the pandemic. Work on the project started March 3, 2021.
NBC posted a TikTok to promote the park during media day. The videos feature influencers and news station staff going around the park and trying everything out.
“I’ve been following the announcements pretty closely, mostly because I teach Storytelling in Theme Parks and we look at the immersive nature of theme parks and how they design stories,” Novak said. “It looks very immersive from what I have seen so far.”
TikTok users such as Jete and Taya Rae posted videos sharing their excitement for the park.
All of the reviews have been positive, but the Isle of Berk has emerged as the most popular. The location features Hiccup and Toothless, the two main characters of “How to Train Your Dragon.”
The actor who plays Hiccup in this park does not disappoint fans. The early access attendees have been active on TikTok with their appreciation for the realism of the character.
“He sounds exactly like Hiccup,” one TikTok user wrote in Carter Kench’s video showcasing the Hiccup actor.
Videos of Astrid, another lead in the franchise, and her dragon have emerged as well. People have posted videos about them crying when they see the dragons and Berk for the first time.
Novak said she will be taking OU students in her class to the park in the fall. The class always attends Universal Studios for around 8 days.
“I’m really excited for Nintendo Land because I haven’t actually seen it in person,” Novak said.
With the massive media coverage and positive reviews, Epic Universe is looking to become an incredibly popular travel destination. Novak and other enthusiasts will be the final judges when it opens to the public.
