Come Aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise (Doc Brown's Time Machine, Harry Potter's Broom and More) at Universal Studios' FanFest Nights
Temporary new attractions themed to Star Trek, Back to the Future, Dungeons & Dragons, One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen will be presented along with enhancements to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Super Nintendo World. Themed environments, limited-time food and merch and costumed characters will enhance the suspension of disbelief and allow you to immerse yourself into your favorite movie, comic or fantasy world for a few hours. Universal has had wild success with their series of after-dark makeovers during Halloween and down the road at Disneyland, nights themed to Star Wars and vintage Disney Channel shows like Phineas and Ferb have sold out in recent years.
Jim Henson's Creature Shop is readying the giant toothy cyclops Xanathar for his appearance at Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep. A baby dragon and the serpentine bird Occamy will dine on three-course meals at Three Broomsticks restaurants and enjoy the light show in Harry Potter's village as Doc Brown sends Marty back in time when lightning strikes the clock tower (and guests dine on Outatime cookies with edible flames) in a supercharged Hill Valley Courthouse Square, the actual location where Back to the Future was filmed four decades ago.
Fans of One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen will fulfill quests and fight curses while dining on items like 'Luffy's Meat on a Bone' (which we think is probably just the regular ribs served at Cocina Mexicana).The most immersive environment built for this 13-night showcase might be the NCC-1701-D Enterprise set at the heart of Star Trek: Red Alert. Fans queueing up at the Starfleet Museum are caught in interstellar mayhem when the ship is attacked and ensigns have to rush tour groups through sick bay, engineering and finally onto the glorious, full-sized bridge of Captain Picard's Enterprise. The 1980s set was recreated for the final season of Star Trek: Picard and was loaned to Universal (along with one of Jean-Luc's tunics) for this brief excursion.
Los Angeles was invited to visit the set with producer Stephen Siercks, Senior Director of Entertainment Production at the park, who converted the onetime Walking Dead space into this new walkthrough attraction. We loved that it was story-driven and you weren't just being chased by the Borg. We loved that the team spent three years digging through the Paramount archives to match colors and sounds perfectly to the show, and that they are encouraging visitors to dress up. We really loved the clever replicator trick that we were asked not to give away.
The scale of the rooms seems to shift a bit as you pass through them (was that a tiny warp core or a giant popcorn bucket?) but I've never been aboard a Galaxy-class starship so who am I to say?
Fans lost their mind when the original crew of the Next Generation reunited on Picard so we can only imagine similar euphoria when they can step aboard the storied ship themselves. Their glee might be enhanced by an ambitious food and beverage program that includes not only Romulan Ale and Klingon bloodwine but Andorian Red Bat Sandwiches and Tribble Truffles. All that and Earl Grey, hot. Sign me up. Engage!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
11 minutes ago
- USA Today
Inside Universal's year-round haunted house opening soon in Las Vegas
Universal Horror Unleashed is set to open in Las Vegas on August 14, followed by a second location in Chicago in 2027. Walking through Universal Horror Unleashed's scarecrow-themed haunted house should have been a piece of cake. After all, I was raised in Iowa – I'm no stranger to corn fields. But, while walking through the haunted house's dark maze, pushing past the stalks of corn blocking my path, I could just barely make out the shape of something lurking around the corner, ready to leap from the shadows. I debated turning around. Then, I heard a scream and decided rejoining the monsters lurking in the dark farmhouse behind me wasn't a better alternative. As soon as I took a step forward, a scarecrow lurched at me and made me jump, his clawed hand and ghastly mask illuminated by the flashing lights overhead. "Scarecrow: The Reaping' is just one of four haunted houses available at Universal Horror Unleashed, a new experience located at the Area15 entertainment district just off the Las Vegas Strip. While the space won't open to the public until August 14, USA TODAY was able to take a sneak peek at the event space in early August. Here's what horror fans can expect. One attraction, four haunted houses There are four haunted house options scattered across the attraction, which is made to resemble an abandoned production warehouse: Universal added special touches to fully immerse its guests in each scene. The restaurant inside the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' haunted house smells like barbecue, while the woods inside "Blumhouse's The Exorcist: Believer" smell like a real forest. In 'Scarecrow: The Reaping," guests push their way through a corn field and get blasted by wind from a dust storm, while ropes hanging from the Hunchback's bell tower block guests' path inside "Universal Monsters." There are even water effects in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" house, meant to mimic splattering blood during a particularly gruesome reenactment. 'We realize that we can't reach out and actually grab the guests,' said show director Nate Stevenson. 'But we need to reach out and touch the guests in every other sense that we possibly can.' More than just haunted houses The horror isn't over once you escape the haunted houses. Guests can also explore four immersive areas staged between the houses with their own themes, like '80s slasher flicks and classic Universal monsters. Here, original characters like a menacing set of twins and a bug monster are available to chat with guests or give them a fright. 'Our guests can approach these characters, and they'll actually tell you about their story and who they are and they'll interact with you,' Stevenson said, as a vampire queen and mad doctor lingered nearby, adding that it's 'very much immersive theater.' (I made the mistake of asking Stevenson a question about the characters in front of one and got called out for it. 'I'm right here!' said one of the spooky twins, looking like she was ready to tear my head off.) Jack's Alley Bar, another themed area in the warehouse, features a 15-minute show starring Jack the Clown and his sidekick, Chance. Two 'victims' are brought to a stage to perform in Jack's game show, 'Stay or Slay.' (Spoiler: the contestants' dancing and hula-hoop performances were impressive, but did little to win the killer clowns' sympathy.) And in the middle of it all sits The Boiler bar, an enormous machine where guests can take a break to drink craft cocktails. 'The Boiler bar definitely has a spirit of its own, so bear with us. Sometimes he gets a little upset,' said Kim Scott, general manager of Universal Horror Unleashed, as the machine let off steam with a roar in the background. Universal's Las Vegas horror experience: What to expect. Dining options at Universal Horror Unleashed Universal Horror Unleashed offers several dining options to guests who have worked up an appetite from any horror-induced adrenaline rush. Fast-casual stops like Rough Cuts offer themed dishes like Parts of Pieces, a spicy sausage sandwich. There's also a sit-down tapas bar, Premiere House, decorated with movie props and decor representing more recent horror films from Blumhouse. At the latter, guests can dine on small plates inspired by the surrounding houses – including a Texas Chainsaw Flatbread shaped like a saw blade and 'Scarecrow: The Reaping'-inspired dessert called The Haybale, a pecan kataifi roll served on a shovel. Drink options include the Green Dread – a bright green gin concoction served from a beaker – and the Bloodsucker, a rum and blackberry liqueur drink served with a dollop of dark red jello meant to look like a glob of blood. TJ Mannarino, vice president of entertainment, art and design, said attractions would have turned up their noses at the idea of adding grotesque themes to food in the not-too-distant past. But as guests increasingly look for more immersive offerings, he said that's no longer the case. 'Now, people love that,' he said. 'That's another step in this new world.' Horror is no longer just for fall The day I visited was a 100-plus-degree day in the middle of a Las Vegas summer. Not exactly the backdrop that comes to mind when you think of the typical fall spooky season. But that's the point: The team behind Universal Horror Unleashed says horror fans don't disappear once the clock strikes midnight on October 31. Mannarino said that's why Universal's Horror Nights pushed back its opening date from mid-October to late August, and why horror movies and horror-adjacent shows like 'Stranger Things' have success with spring or summer releases. 'Horror has a place year-round now,' Stevenson said. 'People love this group experience. ... There's a lot of real horror in the world, and this offers an escape. It's a way to laugh at horror.' Tickets start at $69 for one-time entry to each house and $99 for unlimited access to houses, with a discount offered to Nevada residents. A second location in Chicago is set to open in 2027.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
‘Jurassic World Rebirth' 4K Blu-Ray Details Revealed—Including Hours Of Bonus Features
While Jurassic World Rebirth might still be rumbling through the global cinema jungle like a rampage of T-Rexes, adding to a worldwide cinematic take that already exceeds three quarters of a billion dollars, Universal has already announced details of its blockbuster's home video release. Including a 4K Blu-ray release that promises many hours of bonus features and what looks set to be (on paper, anyway) formidable picture and sound quality. The Jurassic World Rebirth 4K Blu-ray is scheduled to arrive on September 9 - just over a month after the film debuts to own or rent on streaming platforms today (August 5). The film's 4K disc master will get a Dolby Atmos soundtrack (Universal seems to have moved on from its old practice of using DTS mixes on its Jurassic Park/World disc releases), while the video will be presented in 4K resolution, of course, with a Dolby Vision HDR transfer. This Dolby Vision master will, as ever, default to core HDR10, minus Dolby Vision's extra scene by scene image data, for people who don't own DV-capable 4K Blu-ray players or TVs. Universal's press information states that the two-hour 13-minute film is going to be mastered onto a 100Gb 4K Blu-ray disc rather than the 66Gb alternative. Hopefully Universal's claims here will prove more accurate than Disney's claims that its recent release of Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World would get a 100GB disc proved to be… The 100GB disc should give the picture quality more room to breathe, meaning less potential for compression artefacts and softness to creep in – as well as helping the discs accommodate the extremely healthy collection of extra features Universal has assembled to accompany the movie. There's literally hours of bonus stuff for film fans to get their teeth into. Starting with not one but two feature-length commentary tracks: One featuring director Gareth Edwards, production designer James Clyne and first assistant director Jack Ravenscroft, and one featuring director Edwards again, but this time joined by editor Jabez Olssen and visual effects supervisor David Vickery. The rest of the promised bonus features stack up as follows: — Related Reading 'The Quick And The Dead' To Get Special 30th Anniversary 4K Blu-ray Release 'Ballerina' 4K Blu-Ray Details Revealed—Including Multiple Steelbook Editions 'Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World' Finally Gets A 4K Blu-ray Release
Gizmodo
15 hours ago
- Gizmodo
‘Jurassic World Rebirth' Chomps Its Way Home This Week
The best thing about Jurassic World Rebirth is it sent the franchise back to basics. Figure out a story that necessitates a few characters ending up on an island populated by deadly dinosaurs and see what happens next. It's a formula that's worked in the past and worked again here, to the tune of well over $750 million and counting worldwide. However, if you missed the adventure in theaters or want to experience it again, you can do so at home this week. Universal just announced that Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, will be available to rent and own digitally starting Tuesday, August 5. That'll be followed by 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD releases on September 9. As one would expect from a major blockbuster like this, the filmmakers have pulled out all the stops in terms of special features. There's an alternate opening and two deleted scenes, both of which focus on dinosaurs (which is what we want to see, right? Not just actors chatting) an extended behind-the-scenes documentary, gag reel, two feature-length commentaries, and much more. Here's the rundown. Alternate Opening Deleted Scene: RAPTORS – Featuring Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, David Iacono, Luna Blaise, and Audrina Miranda Deleted Scene: MUTADON ATTACK – Featuring Scarlett Johansson, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, David Iacono, Rupert Friend, Luna Blaise, and Audrina Miranda Jurassic World Rebirth: Hatching a New Era Gag Reel Meet Dolores – Meet the animatronic Aquilops with an extraordinarily lifelike personality. Munched: Becoming Dino Food – Get a victim's firsthand view inside the frightening jaws of deadly dinosaurs that munch, chomp, and chew their way into creating unforgettable death sequences. A Day at Skywalker Sound – Actress Audrina Miranda guides a personal tour of Skywalker Sound in California to meet the audio editors, foley artists, and mixers who design the movie's wide array of sounds. Hunting for Easter Eggs – Find out where to look for cleverly hidden Easter eggs that pay homage to everything from the first Jurassic Park film to other Steven Spielberg classics. Feature Commentary #1 – Director Gareth Edwards, production designer James Clyne, first assistant Director Jack Ravenscroft Feature Commentary #2 – Director Gareth Edwards, editor Jabez Olssen, visual effects supervisor David Vickery A pretty solid selection of features to go along with the movie itself. Will you be picking it up? Let us know. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
