Universal EPIC Universe Plans Memorial Day Weekend 2025 Opening, Creating New Rivalry with Disney World

Oct 15, 2024 in "Universal Orlando Resort"

Gallery / 16 Photos
Universal Epic Universe concept art

See all 16

Posted: Tuesday October 15, 2024 11:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

According to our sources, Universal EPIC Universe is now projected to officially open on Memorial Day Weekend 2025.

Although no official opening or preview dates have been announced, the highly anticipated theme park, which will be Universal Orlando Resort's largest expansion to date, is expected to begin offering previews in the months leading up to the late May 2025 grand opening.

Universal Epic Universe - Front Gate

The preview period is anticipated to last for a couple of months, providing guests with a first look at select attractions and areas of the new park. While details on which specific lands will be included in these early previews remain under wraps, it's clear that Universal aims to build excitement ahead of the Memorial Day launch.

Universal Epic Universe – Bird’s-Eye View map

EPIC Universe is set to bring intense competition to Walt Disney World as Universal continues to expand its offerings in the Orlando theme park landscape. With lands including Super Nintendo World, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, How to Train Your Dragon, and Dark Universe, EPIC Universe is expected to deliver immersive experiences that rival Disney's established parks. This new addition will challenge Disney's position as the dominant theme park destination in Orlando, with Universal aiming to capture more of the region's tourism market, especially amongst families with teens.

WWOHP World Overview

Stay tuned for more updates as the opening of EPIC Universe approaches.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

ToTBellHop6 minutes ago

It’s popular because of the characters. Thats why they took a medieval land and rethemed it to a medieval-looking Wizarding town and castle set in the 1990s and came up with a nonsensical story to transport us from 1920s Paris to 1990s MoM. Where’s the drama or suspense in a 1920s Quidditch World Cup? They barely show Quidditch in the films because the games are long and mostly boring unless Dementors attack. They don’t even show an actual game in the Quidditch World Cup sequence in Goblet of Fire. 1920s isn’t much better. Can’t have Grindlewald attack because that didn’t happen. Also, no one cares about Grindlewald. That’s why they abandoned Fantastic Beasts. I’m not sure what they’ll do. It’s clear setting the land in Paris was a mistake which led to a major pivot on the headliner ride, Harry Potter lore and Wizarding rules be damned.

WDWFREAK5320 minutes ago

Agreed. The Great Dining Hall would need to be almost set up like a dinner show. Maybe they could do each meal to a different show and then change the show up for Halloween and Christmas.

Jon81uk38 minutes ago

Quidditch World Cup. That’s going to be the sort of environment that won’t look that different between 1920s and 1990s anyway. All the quidditch stuff is just wooden stands and similar anyway as most wizarding stuff is oldey-timey anyway so looks pretty timeless. Even on Forbidden Journey, other than Harry Potter what actually places you into the 1990s?

ToTBellHop1 hour ago

Where does a broom from 1920s Wizarding Paris fly? They can’t really use the Time Turner and Floo Network trick to send us somewhere we actually want to go again or people will REALLY wonder why they set the land in 1920s Paris to begin with.

Jon81uk3 hours ago

Yes a boat ride or similar omnimover into Newt's suitcase would have been great and better than the show. By making it a gentle ride with different creatures it wouldn't overlap with Hagrids magical creatures too much either. Could even keep the Circus show but just make it an actual circus show without the magic creatures or just remove the Newt stuff from that show. Knightbus would probably turn out somewhere between the Fast and Furious bus and Jimmy Fallon but you are racing through London instead of New York. In fact could they repurpose F&F into being part of London and a Knightbus ride? In a way I'm glad they didn't go down the Hogwarts great hall dining idea because I'm not sure it would be delivered exactly right. Needs to be done as an actual banquet with everyone served at once type thing to make it feel right, just having food served in the room would be a bit off.

BrianLo9 hours ago

I understand the broader point that they conceptually abandoned a broom early on for Forbidden Journey. Though it is a flying quidditch bench, it's not a broom. I really don't think a new broom ride as alluded to in the patent would make for a redundant experience at all to Forbidden Journey. I don't equate ET and Forbidden Journey as redundant; this ride seems more like ET with Tron positioning than FJ as I am imaging it. I'd love a boat ride in Newt's suitcase, but perhaps even more so that is really already the point of the show. Flying over Wizarding Paris in a Tron/FOP posture with progressive sets still sounds impressive and reasonably novel to me. The very last concept they haven't gone for yet would be a Knight Bus experience in the Studios and a proper Hogwarts dining hall for Islands.

TalkToEthan18 hours ago

A Universal broom redundancy would factor more than Disney trains reused among the parks. The only real place for the broom is Potter—-one franchise with in 3 dedicated lands. One broom ride is enough and 2 would be monotonous. ‘Trains’ is a much broader vehicle motif to work with……….. from the slow paced, horizontally traveling, playfully chaotic cartoon (Runaway Rail) to serious and ominous fast moving thrills moving up and around a mountain(Everest). As guests we’re not bored with reusing trains because the contexts are so very different.

lazyboy97o19 hours ago

There isn’t much out there about specifics. It was an idea for roughly the same location as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey before they secured the rights to Harry Potter. The basic idea of a monsters robocoaster ride was fulfilled with Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment.

ToTBellHop20 hours ago

I think we would feel differently if Disney had two train rides based upon the same films. I’m also not sure Wizarding Paris is the best conduit. I don’t particularly care to fly a broom over the Champs-Élysées.

Disgruntled Walt20 hours ago

Sorry, what is that?

Andrew C20 hours ago

Not really. I am just talking about my personal preference to see something different.

LSLS20 hours ago

At the end of the day, does it really matter if you have two broom rides at the resort? WDW has at least like 5 that are trains and it's never really even crossed my mind cause the rides are for the most part different enough.

lazyboy97o22 hours ago

It would make sense. They had also been working on the Van Helsing robocoaster ride for roughly the same spot.

DKampy22 hours ago

A Boom ride seams as it would be among the logical first thoughts when it came to Harry Potter….. capacity wise I think it could be difficult…. I think a Flight of Passage style ride could work…. But I am sure Disney is the ownership on those patents