Universal’s Epic Universe Announces Its Opening Date
The Epic Universe is almost here. Universal’s new theme park, which consists of several “worlds” based on various properties Universal either owns or licenses, has released a new trailer that reveals the park’s opening date: May 22, 2025. Universal Epic Universe will be made up of Super Nintendo World, based on Nintendo video games; The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, based on J.K. Rowling’s fantasy novel series; How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, based on the DreamWorks animated films; and Dark Universe, based on the classic Universal Monsters. Tickets and packages for the Epic Universe will go on sale on October 22, 2024, which is this coming Tuesday. You can see the Epic Universe opening date announcement video below:
There is some bad news about Epic Universe, however, and it comes courtesy of That Park Place. Universal Orlando annual passholders will not have access to Epic Universe the way they do to the other three Universal parks: Universal Studios, Universal Islands of Adventure, and Universal Volcano Bay. Annual passholders have access to either two or all three of those parks depending on the tier; a 2-park annual pass grants access to Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure; a 3-park annual pass includes Universal Volcano Bay. But in an email sent to passholders, Universal told them that they’ll have an opportunity to buy advanced single-day tickets to Epic Universe rather than have access to it by purchasing a theoretical 4-park annual pass, which is what many passholders expected. The email does say that passholders will have “soft opening opportunities” that will be revealed “in the coming months,” but it doesn’t sound like those will include a season pass tier. And who knows? Maybe they’ll introduce one somewhere down the line. But for now, season passholders won’t have the benefits they probably thought they would.
Epic Universe’s opening makes a lot of sense. May 22, 2025, is the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, which officially kicks off the summer season (as opposed to the actual start of summer, which is June 21; we’re talking vacation time here, when the beaches open and the grills fire up). That’s the perfect weekend for the grand opening of a highly anticipated theme park. I can’t imagine how difficult it will be to get tickets; it’s wise of Universal to start selling them now, if only to get people locked in for the weeks after Memorial Day weekend when they can’t get in for the park’s debut. And let’s be real: this thing is gonna be huge. While Disney’s new attractions (and substitutes for old, beloved attractions) seem to be met with derision from a large contingent of parkgoers, there appears to be almost – forgive me – universal excitement for Epic Universe. And that’s almost a given, with franchises as adored as Harry Potter and Nintendo. (I’d like to believe the Universal Monsters are still on that level, but in the face of the Wizarding World, I may be kidding myself on that score.) This was an exceptionally smart move on Universal’s part, and if you look at the videos they made detailing the development of each of the Epic Universe “worlds,” you can see the care put into this park. Something tells me they’re going to rule the theme park roost during the summer of 2025.
Let us know what you think of Universal’s Epic Universe and whether or not you’ll be trying to get advanced tickets in the comments, and be sure to check out Park Hoppin’ for theme park news, reviews, livestreams, and more fun stuff!
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