Universal's Epic Universe, the first new theme park to open in Orlando in 25 years, threw open its gates (and portals) this week.
Epic Universe consists of five distinct worlds: Dark Universe, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic, How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World, and Celestial Park. The last sits in the centre of the other four and operates as a central hub from which visitors can journey through massive 'portal' structures into each of the heavily themed areas.
At first glance one of these worlds might seem out of place, especially if you haven't been paying attention to the meteoric rise of How To Train Your Dragon. The franchise's first entry flew into cinemas back in 2010 to modest box-office success and critical praise, both of which snowballed during the release of the original trilogy.
The series is based on Cressida Cowell's series of novels, although substantially expanded on and reworked by directors Dean DuBlois (Lilo & Stitch) and Chris Sanders (The Wild Robot).
Following the success of the trilogy, HTTYD made the transition to TV, as often is the case with successful children's media properties, and the hugely popular Dragons arm of the franchise now consists of three series, 22 seasons, and 223 episodes.
Along with its inclusion in Epic Universe, the series is also getting a live-action remake this year, which is already receiving rave reviews from preview screenings. The movie is out in June and stars Mason Thames and Nico Parker (The Last of Us).
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The combination of these two things looks set to move How To Train Your Dragon from beloved franchise into a whole new stratosphere – a well-deserved jump given the quality of the films themselves.
The original movie has the fairytale-like quality of all good children's fiction. It sets up an engaging and unique world while keeping a family-friendly story about friendship at its core. That latter part is particularly important since the bond between Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and the dragon Toothless becomes the load-bearing heart of the other two movies.
How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), the second and third films respectively, did what all great fantasy sequels should aim for – they moved and expanded the story in unexpected directions. The second film in particular elegantly introduced new characters and mysteries, fundamentally widening the scope of the film and its stakes without ever losing focus on our central pair.
Outside of the pure charm of its characters and world, How To Train Your Dragon's original trilogy is supported by some of Dreamworks' best traditional 3D animation in recent memory, along with a near-perfect score from John Powell.
The Isle of Berk at Epic Universe now means that fans of the movies, whether they grew up watching the original trilogy or are part of a new generation discovering How To Train Your Dragon thanks to the remake, can step right into Toothless's world.
The designers at Universal Orlando have perfectly captured and translated the smooth 3D art style of HTTYD into a physical space, while exceptionally realistic animatronics dotted around the world bring its unique dragon designs to life.
Like every good theme park, there's plenty of unusual food to eat and drink; with the Mac & Cheese Cone being a genuinely tasty viral highlight. Of course, the world wouldn't be complete without the rides themselves. The Isle of Berk's main attraction is 'Hiccup's Wing Glider' – a smooth all-ages rollercoaster with just enough thrills, launches, and narrative to keep the whole family engaged. It's perfectly paired with a live show, 'The Untrainable Dragon', which features a singularly exciting practical effect guaranteed to live on in the dreams of any child (or child at heart) who sees it.
John Powell's excellent score is also present throughout the area, and attentive fans will be able to pick out unique and interpolated versions of key themes from the franchise like 'Test Drive' and 'This is Berk'.
The Isle of Berk is just one of four worlds in Epic though, and there are plenty of other highlights. Epic's Super Nintendo World similarly captures the cartoonish smooth 3D animation of modern-era Super Mario games, and fans are sure to be blown away when they enter a warp pipe and emerge into the Mushroom Kingdom.
Epic's Super Nintendo World is similar to the one in Universal's Los Angeles park, which opened back in 2023, but larger in scale thanks to the addition of Donkey Kong Country – an area themed after the brand's iconic ape mascot.
Donkey Kong Country also brings the addition of a new ride, Mine Cart Madness, which is a relatively family-friendly coaster situated on a (seemingly) runaway mine cart.
This level of detail is present across all of Epic's other worlds. Dark Universe gives the Universal Monsters their time to shine in the form of a Bavarian town called Darkmoor (a new, shared fictional space) which brings together the legends of Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Dracula, and more for a distinctly gothic time despite the Florida heat.
The jewel in Darkmoor's crown is Monsters: Unchained, an immersive 'dark ride' constructed behind the facade of a huge castle. Monsters: Unchained is a breathtaking ride that combines all of the latest animatronic and simulator technology present across Universal Orlando's other parks to create a one-of-a-kind ride. You wander through the castle of Victoria Frankenstein, Victor's great-granddaughter, and learn how she is attempting to rehabilitate the family name by conquering the worst, most gruesome of creatures. Of course, like all good containment facility stories, things don't go to plan.
We won't spoil exactly what the ride consists of, but moments where huge animatronic creatures lunge towards your seat, before being seamlessly replaced by huge screens, are seriously impressive and make for a seriously good time.
The hub in Epic's hub-and-spoke layout is Celestial Park, an open green space with a bright carousel, fountains, dining options, and Universal Orlando Resort's newest luxury hotel, the sun-themed Helios. It's also home to Stardust Racers, which has successfully blasted its way into any respectable 'top rides at Universal Orlando' discussion.
The gimmick is this: Stardust Racers has two parallel tracks with two sets of rollercoaster cars running simultaneously, which means throughout the ride you'll see people in the other cars racing past you.
The real trick of the ride though comes from splitting your adrenaline-junkie group in two, with one side going in the green lane, and the other in the yellow, and blasting alongside each other 130 feet in the air at 62mph.
Stardust Racers is not the first ride to do this, but as the two cars tumble and corkscrew around each other high above the grounds of Epic it's hard to imagine a more fundamentally fun rollercoaster experience. The cars peel off and reconvene multiple times, and locking eyes with friends or strangers on the other track never loses its magic.
In this way, Stardust Racers is built to maximise the feeling that riding rollercoasters is a shared experience. When you board a car with 20 strangers and you scream and shout and grin at each other it's an undeniable bonding experience – even if only for 90 seconds. You probably won't ever see that person again, but in that moment of pure physical thrill, there's a connection, and Stardust Racers makes that idea a central part of its design.
Some rollercoasters feel like they're designed to scare you, others to give you a pure rush of adrenaline, but Stardust Racers feels like a love letter to the experience of being in a theme park – and this one is pretty Epic.
Typical cost: seven nights in Orlando with British Airways Holidays, including scheduled flights and room-only accommodation at the 3.5-star Universal Stella Nova Resort, starts from £829pp. Price also includes a Universal Orlando Resorts All Parks Ticket.
Ali is Hearst UK's deputy social strategy director. He has been covering TV and movies for more than six years, all while wrangling Digital Spy's social media and video channels - for which he received a PPA 30 Under 30 award. He specializes in writing about anime, LGBTQ+ representation, science fiction, and comic book adaptations. Recently he's begun collecting Star Wars interviews like Infinity Stones and has spoken with The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal, Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy and the creative team behind The Bad Batch. Dave Filoni, you're next.
