What does it take to build a Harry Potter land that is better than any other theme park in the world? For Warner Bros World Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, the answer may lie in a combination of meticulous detail, creative ambition and a level of control rarely seen in the theme park industry.
Although the massive expansion of Warner Bros World is still under construction, there is already promise that it will cast a powerful spell, as filings from Warner Bros suggest it will be unsurpassed by any land in any other theme park worldwide.
Site preparation work began in summer last year, nearly three years after it was first announced. There is good reason why the theme park is taking its time to get it right.
Warner Bros produced all eight films about the boy wizard along with the three Fantastic Beasts spin-offs, but its theme parks have never been home to lands based on them. That's because Warner Bros licensed the theme park rights to Universal in 2007, and it has made the most of them. All but one of Universal's seven parks is home to a so-called Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and they have become famous for their fastidious attention to detail.
The first of them opened in 2010 at Universal's Islands of Adventure park in Orlando and broke new ground with its movie-accurate recreation of the magical village of Hogsmeade.
Looking like a scene from a Christmas card, its main street is lined with shops and restaurants housed in cottages with sharply sloping roofs, carved wooden doors, and ornate iron signs swinging above them. Artificial snow is piled up in their gutters, smoke seems to billow from the chimneys on the roofs and the windows of the cottages are filled with moving models of colourful creatures from the films.
No stone has been left unturned. Food from the films is on offer while the shops sell bespoke merchandise which recreates the outlandish objects seen on the silver screen. There are maps, masks, hourglasses, furry books with eyes and, of course, wands – rows and rows of them.
The village stands in the shadow of Harry's alma mater, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The giant grey turrets of the Gothic castle soar into the sky and seem even taller than they actually are thanks to an old moviemaking trick called forced perspective, where the proportions of objects are reduced the higher up they are.
Hidden inside Hogwarts is a ride created to make fans feel as though they are actually in the films. Its seats are attached to a giant robot arm that glides along a rollercoaster track, giving the impression that they are riding on a broomstick next to Harry and co. It is joined by a rollercoaster with seats set into motorcycles and sidecars that at one point come to a standstill in the dark on a section of track, which then drops down on a giant lift.
The neighbouring Universal Studios Florida is the only park with a recreation of Diagon Alley, which has models of colossal characters embedded in its wonky buildings.
At the end of the street stands the imposing Gringotts bank, with its massive marble columns and gleaming chandeliers hanging from a domed ceiling. It is actually the queue area for an innovative rollercoaster that turns to face towering 3D screens, giving riders the impression they are being chased through the vaults of the bank.
The latest Potter attraction is Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry in Orlando's new Epic Universe theme park; the omnidirectional lift ride rises and falls as it roves around. The attractions and lands have won countless awards and are widely considered some of the best in the industry.
This might be because Universal's license agreement with Warner Bros states that the Harry Potter lands must be “at a first-class, world-class level for destination theme parks unsurpassed in quality by any other destination theme park worldwide”.
It also outlines the main conditions at the heart of Warner Bros's magic formula for ensuring their high standards. The only products that can be sold are ones from the Harry Potter stories; this means instead of Coca-Cola or Pepsi, the restaurants sell Harry's favourite tipple of Butterbeer, a non-alcoholic beverage flavoured like cream soda and butterscotch.
There are exceptions for “guest-convenience products”, such as sun cream, batteries and hand sanitiser, but even they can't have “advertising or promotional signage or other identification bearing the names or logos of the manufacturers ... within the themed area”. This restriction applies to any product that doesn't appear in the Potter franchise.
Universal isn't even allowed to use the logos or names of non-Harry Potter brands in advertising for the lands unless Warner Bros approves it, which is a general caveat for all these conditions. Warner Bros also has to approve any “artwork, design, logo, slogan, video element, audio element” as well as “any major concepts and plans for the themed area, rides, attractions and architectural designs”.
The Abu Dhabi agreement has not been made public, so it is not possible to know whether it contains the same conditions, but it is likely to be similar, as they are designed to protect Warner Bros.
However, Warner Bros World has a trick up its sleeve that Universal cannot match. Like the other parks on Yas Island, it is indoors, which shields guests from Abu Dhabi's seasonal heat but also enables the scenery to be more intricate than if it were outside, as there is no danger of it becoming damaged by wind, overgrown with foliage or faded in the sun.
The contents of the land haven't been announced, but it is rumoured to be the first one to feature both Hogwarts and Diagon Alley. What's for sure is that no expense is being spared, even on the merchandise.
This came to light in a Miral job advertisement last year for a retail product and graphic designer, whose duties include “the design of multi-category retail products to be developed and sold within the Harry Potter World expansion at Warner Brothers World Abu Dhabi.” It added that the objective was “delivering best-in-class merchandise”.
Potter products recently appeared in a repurposed shop in Warner Bros World, but it remains to be seen how long it will take for Miral to work its magic with the land itself.
In May, Entertainment + Culture Advisors, a consultancy working on the project, said in an advert that the land is expected to open in 2029, but Miral hasn't officially announced the timeframe. It has a lot to look forward to.
Talking to analysts in 2020, Brian Roberts, chief executive of Universal's owner Comcast, said that during the previous year “in some of our parks Harry Potter drove incremental attendance of about two million people.” That really is a magic touch.
