The world's next Harry Potter land is moving one step closer to opening.
The next Harry Potter land will have three rides and be located at the Theme Park Insider Award-winning Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi on Yas Island. Owner Miral announced the land back in 2022, but all we've heard about the project since then is crickets.
However, Miral is now requesting proposals from builders to start construction of the land. Dubai-based MEED is reporting that Miral has extended until next week the submission deadline for the contract. See Miral moves Harry Potter theme park bid deadline.
According to MEED's reporting on the bid documents, the nearly nine-acre expansion to the Warner Bros. theme park will include three rides as well as retail and food and beverage locations. The construction contract is estimated to be worth between two to three billion Emirati Dirham, which is between $545 million to $816 million in US dollars.
This will be the first Harry Potter theme park land built outside a Universal-owned theme park. As a result, it will not use any of the ride designs or media created by Universal, such as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. MEED has reported that Egis is overseeing the design of the project, though it did not report what firms are participating in the creative design work for the land and its attractions.
Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi was the world's largest indoor theme park when it opened in 2018. It includes five lands themed to Warner Bros.' animated IP, including DC Comics and Looney Tunes. The Potter land will be the park's first themed to a live-action franchise.
Potter, of course, is not the only new theme park project under development on Yas Island. In May, Miral announced that it will build Disney Abu Dhabi - Disney's seventh theme park resort - at the resort. Yas Island also is home to SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2023, and Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, where Miral has teased an expansion, as well.
Update: A sign posted at the construction site says that Tait is the creative consultant on the Potter project. Tait is the company that acquired Thinkwell, the creative firm that led the design of Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.
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Three rides would suggest to me that there will be at least one, maybe two lightly-themed flat rides. I can’t imagine three headliners going to one land like this.
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I wouldn’t want to be the designer responsible for that. You’re not only being compared to the source material, but some of the world’s best theme park lands. I’d only take it if I was told I had an unlimited budget.