In the above video, Ellen DeGeneres gets a sneak peek at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a new addition to the Universal Orlando theme park that’s set to open on June 18th. This new attraction has been in development ever since May 31, 2007, when Universal announced that it had acquired the rights to representing the franchise from Warner Brothers and J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series.
The attraction will feature “dueling inverted roller coasters,” which sounds completely crazy and dangerous, so, awesome; a tour through Hogwarts; various in-story shops like Ollivander’s and Honeydukes and much much more. As you can see from the video, a great deal of loving attention has been applied to the environs, making sure that the look and feel of the place is just right. Parents, expect to walk out of The Wizarding World with magically empty wallets.
Ellen takes to the experience with her usual antics, guiding her two younger charges along, making quips and getting the two boys to explain various aspects of the Harry Potter experience to her. To be honest, while it all has a very nice aesthetic to it, I wasn’t exactly blown away by what the video showed. But that hardly matters; I’m not the target audience. There will be something magical for fans of the series in simply seeing their favorite world brought to reality. Will this new park do well? You can bet your snitch on it.
