i just read a post from attractions magazine about the many references to zelda around the park( and even more interesting, the lack of Luigi's mansion references) The luigi's mansion rumor is as old as time, and with little evidence(that i know of,) its kind of silly to assume that's still the idea. what if luigi's mansion went to IoA, where all you really need is a big mansion with a ride, perhaps a show towards the back of the land, it would be perfect in lost continent! and considering how massive zelda franchise is, it would be a perfect fit in epic! ( i mean, its better than wicked by far) i can just imagine walking around the highly themed land, finding koroks and battling monsters in the 4 corners of the land(any zelda fan can guess what the 4 corners are) and a really cool ride in the castle or possibly a roller coaster through the whole land. anyways, what do you guys think?
yes, this is obviously far in the future, but i feel like people would enjoy zelda in epic so much more, and besides, you said there's so much to improve, why don't you just do it all at the same time? there are plenty of other good ideas for ioa, i just feel like zelda would be best for epic expansion.
I do not see why people want Zelda in IOA- a castles- and- dragons style fantasy next to Harry Potter! It's more or less the same land twice! And while I could see it in EU, no way Luigi's mansion comes to Florida - not since monsters unchained came out. Two big, spooky mansions in the same theme park chain is too many big spooky mansions.
Universal knows that they need to balance the types of IPs that they use in their parks. This is why I believe lost continent's replaced will be a revival of an 80's or 90's franchise - maybe even bringing back Jaws or back to the future.
Would make perfect sense in Lost Continent. Universal better start filling in all these unused spaces after Epic opens. Sinbad, Poseidon, Fear Factor, Stunt Show building.
I get they are building a new park right now, but it's time to get hectic and spend some money. Disney literally provided the capital for the new park with the Hulu buyout. It's not like they are hurting for cash.
i know it Makes sense, but you cant deny the evidence, there are so many zelda references that it would be a perfect fit in case they ever do decide to switch, or if they planned it all along... just sayin...
Epic is a brand new park opening in a couple months. There are already additional attractions planned to open in three or four years to expand the existing portals, which are all intended to open before a new portal is added. If those aren't enough to sustain the park for ten to fifteen years before an entire new IP portal is required, the choices of what to feature in the park were poor, and I don't think Universal wants to wait that long to move on Zelda. Also, "many references to Zelda around the park" is likely an exaggeration...there are a couple in the Nintendo store, but everything else being called a reference is misattribution of something actually referring to Berk (including the commonly cited Hero parking section).
Studios got Villain-Con two years ago, DreamWorks Land last year, and has three projects in active development at the moment (Fear Factor replacement, Rip, Ride, Rockit replacement, and Simpsons replacement). If none of those three projects are Zelda (which, per my intel, they are not), I think they've got enough going on to not need it within that park.
Islands has not added a new attraction since VelociCoaster opened in 2021, and the only project they have in the pipeline is whatever they're doing to the Lost Continent. This is the only place at the resort Zelda makes sense at the moment, as it is a big enough project site to add a full immersive land and is also appropriately timed for an addition of that scale. Something else that supports doing Zelda here instead of Epic is that if there's a significant overlap in the audience between Mario and Zelda, the lands need to be in separate parks to get an extra day out of those visitors.
The last thing Epic needs right now is a new project. The parks already saw an Osbourne effect with the build up to Epic, don’t want to give people a new reason to delay coming to see it.
Harry Potter seems quite happy being in 2/3 parks, I don’t see a problem with it being in IOA. The visual style of Zelda is very bright and open compared to the dark gothic enclosed Harry potter style, so the idea they’d basically be the same thing confused me.
aj hummel educate me, how big is lost continent anyways, walking through it i always thought it was miniscule.
epicuniversefan, based on some approximations using Google Earth, the entirety of Lost Continent is a little over 7 acres of space. The show building for Poseidon's Fury is roughly 47,000 sq. ft., and the theater occupies about 27,000 sq. ft. The area likely feels smaller than it actually is because it's a single linear path with very little along it.
For comparison, the entirety of Japan's Super Nintendo World (which is nearly identical to the one at Epic Universe) is only about 5.5 acres. A large portion of that (nearly a third) is taken up by the 72,000 sq. ft. show building for Mario Kart, so the area available to walk around in is considerably smaller, and while there is a ton to do the space doesn't feel as large as more open areas of theme parks.
including dk? WOW i did not know how big it was, yeah Zelda's our best bet, but i hope they dont just do a reskin like you are all talking about.
I have seen many of the same rumors, and it would be a natural transition given the Super Nintendo World contains mini-lands themed to Mario and Donkey Kong - a third mini-land in the same portal theme to Zelda would be clearly work well. However, I still feel that Zelda would be better utilized in IOA as a replacement for Lost Continent. From a design and cost perspective, there are some design cues in the remnants of Lost Continent that could be efficiently converted to Zelda. Companies are always looking for efficiencies in new projects, and reutilization of existing structures and designs would make for a relatively smooth transition in IOA. However, the ultimate decision would come down to what attractions are being planned for a potential Zelda land. If those attraction simply don't fit into either the still-standing Sinbad theater or Poseiden's Fury building, than Universal would be losing that cost-efficiency, and utilizing the "blank slate" of the expansion pads that already exist at Epic would make more financial sense.
As TH often cites, Universal needs to make sure their existing parks are not cannibalized by Epic if the resort is to grow. They can't just have a new park that pulls guests almost exclusively from IOA and USF. Even if guests are being forced to visit USF/IOA in order to visit Epic, they are not growing their audience. Epic needs to stand on its own 2 feet, and the legacy parks need to continue to draw their own crowds, which means UC needs to do more than some new coats of paint. We already know that they're replacing RRR with something new, but as of yet, nothing has been officially announced for IOA. Most would agree that IOA has an attraction lineup that is very solid, but it has some glaring warts and areas that could use some serious TLC including the aforementioned Lost Continent in addition to the Toon Lagoon Theater. I would also say that while Universal does a great job keeping Seuss Landing bright and colorful (they reportedly do a full repaint of the land every 2-3 years to keep things vivid), the attractions are falling behind when compared to the current standards for family attractions. Then there's the elephant in the room that is Marvel, which Disney could buy back at any time if the ever met Universal's sky-high asking price. Also, let's not forget that even after Universal replaces RRR, they will have another day of reckoning coming when their Simpsons licensing ends and still have another vacant theater, which is where Ministry of Magic was long rumored, but now part of Epic.
There's something to be said about making sure your shiny new toy continues to sparkle, but I would not anticipate anything new in Epic until at least 2030 simply because USF and IOA will need some TLC before Epic.