The Dark Universe is dead, long live the Epic Universe. Movie fans definitely weren’t interested in seeing a bunch of famous actors resurrect Universal’s old monster characters and tying them together into a Marvel-style cinematic universe, but perhaps they’ll be more interested in a physical embodiment of the cinematic universe concept, possibly one with roller coasters and no involvement from Johnny Depp whatsoever? We’re talking about a Universal-branded theme park in Orlando, Florida, within spitting distance of another company’s big branded theme park, complete with hotels and restaurants and big, expensive attractions. If that sounds wild, Universal Studios has actually been doing it for nearly three decades at the Universal Studios Florida theme park, but now it’s doing that exact thing again with a new park called Epic Universe.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the Epic Universe park will be built just down the road from the existing Universal Orlando Resort. It’s currently under construction, so we don’t know too much, but it’ll apparently be an “entirely new level of experience that forever changes theme park entertainment”—which is a statement that’s so hyperbolic that it’s gotta be true. You can see concept art of the park up above, and there are rumors that some of those sections branching off from the main hub will feature attractions related to Fantastic Beasts and Nintendo (which has been working with Universal to develop theme park attractions for years and will open Japan’s Super Nintendo World in 2020).