Leaked plans for Universal’s Harry Potter expansion totally upstaged Disney’s Leap Year Day celebration announcement

Jim Hill

13 years ago

Upstage: (verb) To divert attention or praise from; force out
of the spotlight

This wasn't how The Walt Disney Company envisioned 2012
starting out.

After weeks of broadly hinting that the Mouse had something big
in the works for Leap Year, Disney's PR department thought that Twitter &
Facebook would be ablaze on New Year's Day with people talking about how they
planned on attending those 24-hour-long "One More Disney Day" parties which
will be held at Disneyland Park in California and WDW's Magic Kingdom on
February 29th.

But what happened instead? As January 1^st dawned,
all that the online community seems to be talking about were those Universal
Studios Florida expansion plans which got leaked to Theme Park Insider. Which
revealed how Universal Orlando officials planned on transforming this theme
park's Amity Island section (which – for the past 20+ years – had been home to USF's
"Jaws" ride) into an extension / satellite of Islands of Adventure's
super-popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The plan – as Robert Niles revealed in his December 31^st
article – reportedly calls for the backmost corner of Universal Studios Florida
to be transformed into that section of London which only wizards know about,
Diagon Alley. This new USF "land" will allegedly be home to a wide variety of
magically-themed shops & restaurants that have previously been mentioned in
J.K. Rowling's books / seen in the Warner Bros. films. With its centerpiece
attraction supposedly being a cutting-edge coaster which would then replicate
much of the fun & excitement moviegoers experienced as they watched Harry,
Ron and Hermione break into Bellatrix Lastrange's vault at Gringotts Wizarding
Bank in "The Deathly Hallows – Part II."

In short, what Universal Creative (i.e. the crew at
Universal Studios that actually designs all of the rides, shows and attractions
for their parks and resorts) and Warner Bros. Entertainment seem to be planning
to do here is take everything that made the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
such a huge success with Universal's Islands of Adventure visitors and then expanding
on all of those concepts. Giving USF Guests a chance to also immerse themselves
in the fantasy world that J.K. Rowling had created.

The star of Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place," Selena Gomez (red scarf, second from
left) and friends recently visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's
Islands of Adventure. Copyright Universal Studios. All rights reserved

So should we place any credence in what Robert reported? When
I reached out to Alyson Lundell (i.e. the Public Relations Manager for the
Universal Orlando Resort) on New Year's Day and asked if her office had
anything specific to say about the plans that Mr. Niles had leaked, Alyson simply
stated that " … we don't comment on speculation" and then wished me a Happy New
Year.

That said, it is worth noting here that – back on December 19th^d
– the Universal Orlando Resort filed a permit with the City of Orlando for
Project 722. Which calls for the " …
demolition of (a) single attraction with
several components." Which – obviously – is referring USF's "Jaws" ride which officially
closed on January 2^nd of this month.

Now as diehard Harry Potter fans will point out, if you
Google the phrase "Project 722" in combination with the name "Harry Potter,"
you'll then come up with some genuinely
intriguing search results. To be specific, that Steve Swain and a number of
other folks who have worked on the art direction of the "Harry Potter" films as
well as on Project Strongarm (which is the secret code name that Universal
Creative used for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter while that project was
still in development) are now working for the Universal Orlando Resort on
Project 722.

The "Flying Benches" which serve as your ride vehicle on "Harry Potter and the
Forbidden Journey" at Universal's Island of Adventure theme park.

"But why would Universal name this new
Harry-Potter-land-for-USF project '722'?," you ask. The code names that
Universal Creative uses for the rides, shows and attractions that it has in
development for Universal's theme parks typically have some sort of significance
when it comes to these individual projects. Take – for example -Project Strongarm, which refers to the KUKA robotic arm technology that moves those "flying
benches" which IOA's "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" attraction uses
at its ride vehicles.

So what's so significant about the number 722? If you open a
copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and then turn to Page 722,
you'll discover this exchange between the boy wizard and the former headmaster
of Hogwarts:

"Oh yes." Dumbledore smiled at (Harry). "We are in King's
Cross (Station), you say? I think that if you decided not to go back, you would
be able to … let's say … board a train."

Which brings us to the part of this alleged Universal Orlando
expansion plan which has Harry Potter fans most excited. That Universal
Creative supposedly plans on linking IOA's Wizarding World area with USF's
as-yet-unnamed Harry Potter "land" through a working version of the Hogwarts
Express. Which would then reportedly allow Universal Orlando visitors to travel
from Diagon Alley to Hogwarts Castle & Hogsmeade Village and back again via
steam train.

Now when you take into consideration that the absolute
earliest that any Universal Orlando guests will actually be able to visit USF's
new Diagon Alley area and/or climb aboard the Hogwarts Express and then travel over
to IOA's Wizarding World is 2014 … Well, you just have to feel for The Walt
Disney Company.

I mean, here they were, looking to use their "One More
Disney Day" 24-hour-long parties as a way to get people excited about those immersive
Wizarding-World-like "lands" which Disney
will be opening in 2012 (i.e. Carsland at Disney California Adventure
Park and Phase One of the Fantasyland expansion at WDW's Magic Kingdom). Only
to then have Universal effectively upstage their Leap Year Day celebrations
(which the Mouse's PR flaks had been teasing about & hinting at for weeks
now. As they urged Disneyana fans to tune in to "Dick Clark's New Year's
Rockin' Eve" so that they could then catch the official announcement) through an
artfully leaked set of plans for USF's Harry Potter expansion project.

Dick Clark celebrated 40 years of ringing in the New Year on the ABC Television Network
with the December 31st broadcast of "New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest."
Photo by Ida Mae Astute. Copyright American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved

You gotta admit that – strictly from a PR point view – that whoever
orchestrated this leak handled the whole thing with great finesse. Allowing
Universal to leap out ahead of Disney's Leap Year Day celebration announcement
(Niles posted his story on Theme Park insider at 4 p.m. ET. A full 8 hours before
the very first "One More Disney Day" commercial aired on ABC as part of that
Dick Clark New Year's Eve special). So that – as January 1, 2012 dawned – it
would be talk of Universal Studios Florida's new Harry Potter "land" that would be dominating online conversation,
rather than people talking up those 24-hour-long parties which will be held at
Disneyland Park and WDW's Magic Kingdom on February 29th.

Which – as I said at the start of today's story – isn't
exactly how The Walt Disney Company envisioned 2012 starting out.

Which is why the Mouse's marketing department might want to seriously
consider stepping up their game. Given that – now that Universal has Harry
Potter in its pocket – Disney can no longer claim to have cornered the market
when it comes to theme park magic.