Inside Epic Universe Opening Celebration With Harry Potter, NBC Stars

NBCUniversal lit up the skies above Orlando on Wednesday with fireworks, flames, water, and drones, in what it known as (in understated style) a “celebratory second” for the grand opening of its latest multi-billion greenback guess: Epic Universe.

However first, it needed to trot out Steven Spielberg.

The visionary director was not in attendance (although his voice did growth by means of the park), however as a “good good friend and inventive guide” to Common’s experiences enterprise, to cite Common Experiences chairman Mark Woodbury, his presence was felt, notably within the land primarily based on the The best way to Prepare Your Dragon franchise, which is from Spielberg’s Dreamworks.

“In every of us, lies a want to discover new worlds seeking adventures, pleasure, discovery and even to face our fears,” Spielberg’s voice mentioned, as a Bellagio-esque fountain elegantly shot water excessive into the sky. “By way of wonderful tales and unforgettable characters, we’re launched to unimaginable worlds we solely dare think about, and within the course of we discovery the hero in ourselves. Common Epic Universe has introduced these worlds to life.”

The theme park, which formally opened to the general public Thursday (it has been internet hosting paid previews for a pair months), boasts 4 immersive themed lands surrounding a central inexperienced space known as Celestial Park. The best way to Prepare Your Dragon’s Isle of Berk is one, as is a 3rd Harry Potter world with the Ministry of Magic, set in a Nineteen Twenties Paris setting; Tremendous Nintendo World, primarily based on the online game large’s legendary IP (together with, for the primary time, a Donkey Kong Nation part); and “Darkish Universe,” primarily based on Common’s steady of iconic monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy.

Guests to every land cross by means of a portal earlier than getting into the heavily-themed areas stuffed with retailers, eating places, rides, characters and points of interest.

“It’s taken us in all probability a decade to be at this second,” mentioned Brian Roberts, the chairman and CEO of Comcast, chatting with reporters just a few hours earlier than the opening celebration. “It’s astonishing, the coordination of that workforce to come back out of Beijing [where the company had just built a theme park] in the course of COVID and do that right here, the place there’s by no means been one thing fairly prefer it on the planet. It’s a proud second.”

On the opening celebration Wednesday, Comcast executives together with Roberts, Woodbury, Mike Cavanagh and Donna Langley joined executives from associate firms like Warner Bros. Discovery and Nintendo (Mario creator and online game legend Shigeru Miyamoto was there), in addition to star expertise just like the solid of the upcoming live-action The best way to Prepare Your Dragon Gerard Butler (Stoick the Huge), Mason Thames (Hiccup) and Nico Parker; Harry Potter franchise stars like James & Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick) and others like WWE star Cody Rhodes, Saturday Night time Stay star Bowen Yang, who had been alongside for the journey.

The corporate turned it into an leisure occasion, streaming the proceedings reside on its social and digital platforms.

Epic Universe is NBCUniversal’s largest guess but on reside experiences, a multi-billion greenback push right into a facet of the leisure enterprise that has excessive prices, however can ship outsized returns, not solely in income, however in what one high experiences govt describes because the “tender energy” of getting into an immersive world.

The park has been years within the making, as Roberts famous. First introduced publicly in 2019, the park had been in improvement for years earlier than then.

“Our new park represents the single-largest funding Comcast NBCUniversal has made in its theme park enterprise and in Florida total,” Roberts mentioned on the time. “It displays the super pleasure now we have for the way forward for our theme park enterprise and for our complete firm’s future in Florida.”

The park’s function in Florida’s bigger economic system was underscored by the presence of Governor Ron DeSantis, who was noticed strolling by means of the park Wednesday night.

Whereas Disney has lengthy been the dominant pressure in theme parks and reside experiences, Comcast has responded just like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, quietly studying how you can make the most of the experiential enterprise it acquired with NBCUniversal in 2011.

Epic Universe is the fruits of these learnings. The unique Common Studios Orlando mimicked a Hollywood backlot, with soundstages and pretend New York streets. Islands of Journey created themed areas primarily based on characters from Marvel comics (in a deal that pre-dated Disney’s acquisition of the comedian firm), Jurassic Park and Dr. Seuss.

Roberts famous that after they acquired NBCU, “the theme parks weren’t doing nice in that second,” nonetheless reeling from the worldwide monetary disaster just a few years earlier. The corporate had begun to unload parcels of land that it owned. After which it struck gold with Harry Potter.

Common’s Harry Potter lands modified the course of the corporate’s experiences enterprise, and led to the creation of Epic. The corporate recreated Hogsmeade in Island of Journey, transporting guests to Hogwarts fortress with immersive retailers, eating places and rides. It subsequently constructed Diagon Alley in Common Studios, recreating one other a part of the Harry Potter universe.

The response to the Harry Potter lands surpassed the corporate’s expectations, sparking Epic Universe and its 4 totally immersive lands in addition to Celestial Park, the central land that’s half space-age and half greek mythology. In truth, Common has created a completely mythology and backstory to Celestial Park, together with characters and story arcs that guests might be able to uncover throughout their go to.

“It began with the concept, how can we proceed to develop our Orlando enterprise, and the conclusion that so as to try this, we wanted one other park to garner every week’s trip, to make this a vacation spot of selection for individuals on their Orlando trip journeys,” Woodbury says.

New theme parks don’t open fairly often, and Epic Universe is the most important new park to open within the U.S. since Disney’s California Journey again in 2001. The hype is actual, however as all the time with experiential worlds, the actual problem will come years down the road, guaranteeing that the locations turn out to be the must-visit that Woodbury envisions. The characters, IP and worlds are in some ways the important thing to that puzzle, because the grand finale to the opening celebration underscored.

Because the fountain present continued and the fireworks illuminated the sky above the Grand Helios Resort adjoining to the park, a swarm of drones spelled out the phrase “Epic” above Celestial Park. Lastly, the “Common Studios Fanfare” performed, because the drones fashioned a semicircle above the resort, mimicking in some methods the acquainted spinning globe that opens each Common movie.

And because the Fanfare ended, the lights darkened, and the corporate ready for Epic Universe’s first actual take a look at: Opening the doorways to its paying company in search of the “adventures” that Spielberg promised.