by Damian Giampietro
Wizards and witches of all ages can now come together to experience the realistic, jaw dropping Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Even muggles, which are non-magical folk in the novels and movie series, gathered to pay witness to a world that J.K. Rowling’s readers have only dreamed about.
The Harry Potter themed area will be officially opening April 7.
Hollywood is now the third location for a Wizarding World attraction created by Universal Studios, following the Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Japan.
From crooked chimneys and cobblestone roads to singing toads and delicious, frothy butterbeer, Universal aims to make the park an atmospheric taste of nostalgia for a land no one has truly been to.
“Visitors will be swept into a fully immersive themed land that brings the Harry Potter fiction and films to life with impeccable detail and precision,” said Universal Studios Hollywood in a press release.
Acting as a gateway to a world fans have followed since 1997, the park succeeds at staying true to the source material and making it a true hands-on experience like the use of interactive wands that allow spellcasters to act out gestures and say spells in order to make magic, like levitating objects, happen at multiple locations.
Universal has said that the park “will be faithful to the visual landscape of the fiction and films.”
The park consists of two separate, but equally entertaining areas, which bring the visions that readers have only imagined and moviegoers have wished to touch and be a part of to life.
The first being Hogsmeade, a small magical town filled with, but not limited to Zonko’s, a joke and trick emporium, Honeydukes, a sweets store, and Ollivander’s, a wand shop that gives visitors the option to let the wand choose their owner.
The second is Hogwarts, the school of witchcraft and wizardry, which is home to two rides: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff.
The Forbidden Journey brings its riders on a wild 3-D broomstick adventure while Flight of the Hippogriff is a family-friendly roller coaster that is based off an encounter with a magical beast that is half-eagle and half-horse.
Many other attractions, like pubs, food carts and shops, await all who enter this magical land.
For Rowling’s fans though, this theme park is just the start to some of the new additions that are coming to the world of Harry Potter.
Acting as a continuation to the original series, a stage play titled “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” will premiere in London this July while a printed version of the play’s script will be released shortly after.
A new film, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” which is based off a textbook students use at Hogwarts, will be released Dec. 16 and serves as a prologue to the original story.
If the new additions to the wizarding community are even half as good as the new theme park, Potterheads will surely be in for a treat this entire year.
