Theme park operator Miral has teamed up with Warner Bros. Discovery to add a Harry Potter-themed area to its Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi location.
The new Potter landscape will be one of the park’s only areas inspired by a live-action franchise—other themed sections include Dynamite Gulch and Cartoon Junction (Looney Tunes), Gotham City and Metropolis (DC) and Bedrock (Hanna-Barbera). And significantly, it will also be the first large-scale attraction based on J.K. Rowling’s franchise to operate outside of Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida theme parks.
Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi is one of three amusement parks located on Yas Island. At 1.65 million square feet and boasting 29 attractions, Guinness World Records named it the world’s largest indoor theme park in 2019.
To date, the Harry Potter books have sold more than 600 million copies in 80-plus languages and more than 200 countries worldwide and the IP spans eight blockbuster films and nuermous spinoffs.
The Harry Potter launch comes amid a raft of theme-park related announcements as the industry continues its recovery from pandemic shutdowns. Most recently, NBCUniversal’s reported the biggest category growth in its Q3 came from its theme parks segment, which was up 42% to US$2.1 billion.