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In a new interview with the Huffington Post, Universal’s Senior Vice President Thierry Coup talks about the Escape from Gringotts ride which is the main attraction in the Diagon Alley expansion at Universal Orlando. He gave a little background information for the ride:
“J.K. Rowling actually gave us a lot of creative leeway when it came to Escape from Gringotts. You see, the story that we wanted to tell with this Universal Orlando attraction kind of ran concurrently with the events which occurred during Deathly Hallows, ” Coup explained. “You see, our guests just happen to be at Gringotts Wizarding Bank opening a new account on the exact same day that Harry, Ron and Hermione are trying to break into Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault to retrieve a horcrux.”
Followed by information on Voldemort and Bellatrix’s appearance in the ride:
“Which I know is a departure from The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 movie. J.K. Rowling certainly didn’t mention Bellatrix and Voldemort being on scene this early as part of the Deathly Hallows book. But given that this action is happening away from where Harry, Ron & Hermione are … Well, J.K. actually gave us permission to include these scenes as part of our attraction because they could have possibly been going on while Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the Lestrange vault retrieving that horcux,” Thierry said.
He also discussed what fans can expect to see during the ride and 35 minute queue time, assuming that the ride is full to capacity, which will most likely be the case when the park opens later this year.
“Don’t get me wrong. Harry Potter fans really seem to love Forbidden Journey. But the one complaint which we kept getting from our guests about that Wizarding World attraction was that they weren’t getting enough time with their favorite characters. That — because Forbidden Journey is really kind of a Harry Potter highlight reel — we kept moving quickly from character to character, from place to place,” Coup continued. “Which is why — with Escape from Gringotts — we decided to confine this attraction to one specific place. Give our Guests lots of face time with some of the most famous characters from the Harry Potter world. Not to mention placing them right in the middle of one of the more exciting moments from both the books and the film series.”
That means facing down the 60-foot-long, fire-breathing Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon that bars the way to the Lestrange family vault. Which Hermione then sets free in a last-ditch effort to escape from all the goblins and Death Eaters who are hurling curses at them (and Universal Orlando theme park guests) in the caverns far below those polished marble floors high above in the lobby in Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
And speaking of Gringotts’ lobby … During the 35 minutes that Universal Orlando visitors will spend wandering through the highly themed queue of this new state-of-the-art thrill ride, they’ll eventually come face-to-face with a set of animatronic goblins.
He finished by telling us that this ride combines everything they haev learned from other rides they’ve created for the park and it will be the first ride of it’s kind.
“Every lesson that we’ve ever learned from building other attractions here at the Universal Orlando Resort — our award-winning The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Transformers: The Ride – 3D, even Forbidden Journey — has been applied to Escape from Gringotts. There’s never ever been a theme park attraction like this before. One that uses so much cutting-edge technology in the service of telling this one really great story,” Thierry concluded. “Which is why I can’t wait ’til late this summer when Universal Orlando guests get the chance to enter Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Which is when they’ll get the chance to join Harry, Ron and Hermione on the ultimate Harry Potter adventure.”
Filed Under: Universal Orlando Resort, Wizarding World of Harry Potter |
