Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi will add three Harry Potter-themed lands – Diagon Alley, Hogwarts and the Forbidden Forest – as part of a major expansion on Yas Island.
Together covering about 63,000 square metres, they are targeted for completion in 2029, and will include rides created exclusively for Abu Dhabi, although individual attractions and other experiences have yet to be announced.
Each setting plays a distinct role in the books. Diagon Alley is where Harry first encounters the everyday world of wizarding shops, wands and Gringotts Bank.
Hogwarts is the school where much of the series takes place, while the Forbidden Forest is home to creatures including centaurs, giant spiders, unicorns and thestrals.
For Emirati Harry Potter fan and content creator Nasser Al Maskri, bringing those settings to Abu Dhabi has a particular significance.
“Harry Potter is the most prominent piece of my childhood because it crafted my love of storytelling and film from a very young age,” Al Maskri says. “Seeing that world come to life here in Abu Dhabi is a dream come true for us Potterheads in the UAE.”
While more details about the rides and experiences are still to come, the books offer plenty of clues as to what each land could include.
Diagon Alley
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Hagrid leads Harry through the Leaky Cauldron pub in London and taps a pattern on a brick wall. The entrance to Diagon Alley opens, revealing the shopping street where Harry buys supplies for his first year at Hogwarts.
Harry has grown up knowing almost nothing about the wizarding world. At Gringotts, he discovers the money his parents left him. At Ollivanders, he receives the wand he will carry through much of the series, while Hagrid buys him Hedwig, the snowy owl, who becomes his companion.
The street’s shops supply many of the details that make wizarding life distinct. Madam Malkin’s sells school robes, while Flourish and Blotts stocks the books pupils need for their lessons. Later in the series, Fred and George Weasley open Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, turning years of school mischief into a business.
Those shops give the Abu Dhabi land several obvious possibilities, including wand-choosing, school robes and wizarding supplies. The Leaky Cauldron, where Harry stays before his third year at Hogwarts, could also provide a setting for food and drink.
Below the street, the vaults of Gringotts are reached by carts that race through winding underground tunnels, a journey Harry first makes with Hagrid. Universal Orlando already uses the bank for its Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts attraction, while Abu Dhabi is promised its own exclusive rides.
Hogwarts
Hogwarts is where Harry becomes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, discovers his talent for Quidditch and begins building a life away from his Muggle relatives, the Dursleys.
The school is filled with details that recur throughout the seven books. Pupils sleep in dormitories reached through their house common rooms, share corridors with ghosts, and attend lessons in subjects including Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts.
The Great Hall is one of its most recognisable interiors. New arrivals are sorted into their houses before the assembled school, while pupils gather for meals beneath floating candles and a ceiling enchanted to reflect the sky outside.
Those rituals could translate easily into visitor experiences. The Sorting Hat offers one obvious way to assign guests to Hogwarts houses, while lessons and spellcasting could provide interactive elements.
Elsewhere, moving staircases, talking portraits and hidden entrances to the four house common rooms are among the details that make the castle itself worth exploring.
Quidditch offers another route. Harry joins the Gryffindor team in his first year as Seeker, the player responsible for catching the Golden Snitch. A potential ride inspired by the sport could use the speed, height and sudden changes of direction in a match played on broomsticks above the school grounds.
Forbidden Forest
The forest is close enough to Hogwarts for pupils to enter on foot, yet dangerous enough that they are generally forbidden to do so. Hagrid, the school’s gamekeeper, knows its inhabitants better than most, although his affection for alarming creatures can make him a poor judge of what Harry and his friends can safely handle.
In Philosopher’s Stone, Harry enters the woods during detention to help investigate attacks on unicorns. The centaur Firenze saves him from danger, revealing early on that the forest contains creatures with their own knowledge of what is happening beyond the school.
In Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ron take Hagrid’s advice to track the spiders. They meet Aragog, the giant spider he raised, and discover that his descendants are happy to eat visitors. Hagrid’s friendship with Aragog offers the boys little protection.
Those encounters make the forest a natural setting for a darker attraction. Its inhabitants also include unicorns and thestrals, giving designers plenty of mythical material.
The woodland already features in Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal Orlando. In Abu Dhabi, the Forbidden Forest will become a land in its own right, drawing on a setting that remains important from Harry’s first year through to his walk into the forest to face Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts.
The flying Ford Anglia
The blue car soaring above the park in the concept image above belongs to Arthur Weasley, Ron’s father. It also appears in the video accompanying the Yas Island announcement, which places the vehicle above Abu Dhabi.
Arthur is fascinated by non-magical inventions and has made several improvements to his Ford Anglia. It can fly, become invisible and fit considerably more people inside than its exterior would suggest. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron and his brothers Fred and George use it to rescue Harry from the Dursleys’ house.
Its best-known journey comes later in the book, when Harry and Ron find themselves unable to reach the platform for the Hogwarts Express. They fly the car to school instead, crashing into the Whomping Willow, which attacks the vehicle with its branches.
The battered Anglia then ejects the boys and their belongings and drives off into the Forbidden Forest. It returns when they are surrounded by Aragog’s descendants, carrying them to safety away from the spiders and back towards Hogwarts. That escape gives the car a direct connection to one of Abu Dhabi’s newly announced lands.
Its prominence in both the concept image and campaign video makes a dedicated attraction a strong possibility, perhaps inspired by the flight to Hogwarts or the escape through the woods.
Nothing involving the Ford Anglia has been confirmed, however, and details of the individual rides remain under wraps. But a roller coaster would certainly excite fans, as it would be the first in the world. For now, though, the Harry Potter faithful must wait for future reveals – or use a Revelio charm.
