I’m back with today’s installment of why Disney is not concerned about Epic Universe and why I agree with them.
First and foremost, Disney, such as NBC Universal did with Epic Universe, would not haphazardly announce any significant projects, such as a new park, in an investor call. They would want to make a spectacle out of it, and in this game, spectacle wins. That is why it’s unlikely to see any proper response to the new park until after it opens to take the oxygen out of the room., especially a fifth gate.
Now, with the pleasantries aside, let me explain. People don’t seem to realize that when Iger says that the company isn’t concerned about Epic, it is because they weren’t caught with their pants down. Epic Universe was by far very much telegraphed since they owned all that property before Vivendi sold it when they were fiscally hurting and when the park was on one of its many close calls of bankruptcy in 2003.
So, this move was entirely telegraphed. The end game for Universal is to buy back all the land so they can own I-Drive. I recall having these discussions at Bayside Diner before a media event two years before Epic Universe was announced. A little fun bonus fact: Epic Universe was originally called Universal’s Fantastic Worlds, with Universal’s Epic Universe being planned for the overarching property moniker, but as we are all aware, Warner Bros. at the time sued them to prohibit the name. Mind you as well; we did see a Fantastic Worlds logo in 2018 on a slide that said “Universal Orlando Resort - The Next Step,” with their plans that were leaked nearly nine months before the official announcement on August 1st, 2019 – with the name originally being trademarked in June of 2018.
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So, the Walt Disney Company and many of the industry insiders had known about Epic Universe over a year before Universal had even announced it and what was expected. And I can assure you that Disney has been planning their rebuttals for years. Has anyone ever wondered why they had started gaging guests' interest with the blue sky concepts at D23? Or why do we have yet to present a blue sky concept in this setting that was not specifically for Orlando? Disney is playing the long game, and they have the benefit of doing it all in a clandestine nature since they won’t have to acquire land for it.
Now, I am sure someone will say that I am hitting the copium hard, but that isn’t the case. Nobody flipped out to this scale when Universal announced Volcano Bay, but suddenly, a new theme park came into Orlando, and now it’s a problem. Disney’s bread and butter down here is Magic Kingdom, which will very likely expand with the Beyond Frontierland concept because the park has an issue with insufficient capacity. Animal Kingdom is also still a half-day park, and Pandora didn’t alleviate that concern, nor does it have nightly entertainment. So, they plan to fix these two before moving to a fifth gate.
Moving forward to Universal Orlando, by 2027, Universal Studios Florida should look like the middle of Epcot with the amount of walls. The attractions on the short list of being removed soon are Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It, Fast and the Furious: Supercharged, The Simpsons Ride (and all of Springfield), and Men in Black: Alien Attack. Simpson’s contract is rapidly approaching its close by 2027, and the Ride system is original to the park as it hasn’t changed in 30+ years. It’s expected that when The Simpsons closes, Springfield/Fast Food Blvd to the arena that they now use for Nightmare Fuel at Halloween Horror Nights will be finally redone, including Men in Black. Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It is expected to close as early as Q1 of 2025 due to many factors, including the sheer cost of money they've sunk into the ride. El Toro Ryan discusses about the issues with the ride here.
Fast and the Furious: Supercharged, its closure I don’t immediately have a timetable for, but it anticipated that Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It would be replaced with a new rollercoaster that would possibly be Fast in the Furious themed. There have been talks of replacing the current Fast in the Furious building with a Rollercoaster à la Penguin Trek at SeaWorld Orlando. Universal still has the Lost Continent in Islands of Adventure, which badly needs to be redone and has been abandoned. They also made a poor attempt at removing Poseidon’s Fury signage; they only covered up Poseidon’s Fury but never covered up the tagline “Escape from the Lost City.” This does not go into other general improvements they need to make, which will be happening down the line.
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Overall, in the short term, Disney will feel an effect that will be guaranteed, and they have lost some Cast for Universal already, but that is to be expected as it looks good on a resume that you helped open a new theme park. Disney is well underway with its plans to provide a rebuttal for Epic Universe beyond what has been teased. If anything, the true unexpected thing from all of this is SeaWorld trying to throw their hat into the ring with both forthcoming hotels, one of which is taking out parking for their employees. That said, if we go back to 2023 comments about Walt Disney World adding 13,000 new jobs for Walt Disney World, as I have previously stated, Universal’s workforce is about 28,000 people. So he’ll need to do a lot of expansion to hit that 13,000-person goal.
Lastly, It also doesn’t help that Universal Creative & Walt Disney Imagineering are very much the same in terms of who they employ for a project. The best way I can describe it is with this joke: These two are so inbred they make a family tree in Alabama blush.
