Fans prepare for Universal Orlando announcement Tuesday
Universal Orlando Resort is announcing... something tomorrow, Tuesday, January 20.
The resort teased the announcement with a six-second social media video of a car speedometer and odometer. Accompanied by the sound of a revving engine, the speedometer needle moves toward 70 mph, while the odometer turns to 012026.
That's tomorrow's date (in US format). Universal's use of automobile imagery suggests that the announcement will be for something involving an IP that is associated with cars. And that 70 mph number? Well, 72 mph just happens to be the top speed of the Intamin-crafted Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster that Universal is opening this year at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Put all this together with observable fact that Universal Orlando is building what looks like a new Intamin roller coaster to replace the removed Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, and many fans are preparing for Orlando to announce its own Fast & Furious roller coaster tomorrow.
The Orlando coaster [Fast & Furious: Florida Drift?] could not be a duplicate of the Hollywood ride, as that track is sited on a steep hillside. With a flat site in Universal Studios Florida, the Orlando Fast & Furious coaster would need a different track layout, at least.
In Hollywood, Universal closed its Fast & Furious Supercharged encounter on the Studio Tour when it committed to the new coaster. Could the same happen in Orlando? Given the low guest scores and critical scorn that Supercharged has attracted, it's no secret that Universal is looking for an excuse to replace that attraction.
But Fast & Furious remains a popular and important franchise for Universal, so the company wants to keep that IP in its U.S. theme parks. The Hollywood solution of swapping a reworked tram tour encounter for a high-speed roller coaster seems like a win for the company and for fans.
We will see what happens tomorrow, when Universal announces whatever it is planning to announce.
Replies (5)
Honestly, I kinda hope they do. As a west-coast fan, I liked the idea of Hollywood having a F&F coaster to itself.
I understand Russell's point above but I would be stunned if this wasn't a F&F attraction. Although I like F&F, I hope it's something different. But the aesthetic and vibe of the teaser point towards F&F, as much as I too would've liked Ghostbusters. (As it would also mean Supercharhed could stay for a bit more... again great point by Russell.)
Regardless I'm eagerly anticipating the news tomorrow and the new ride.
FAMILY!
I was fully behind the rumor of a Ghostbusters coaster, but this teaser is really making me think it's the safer (and less exciting) Fast & Furious theme. Regardless of that, though, I'm really hoping Intamin has something wild up their sleeves in order to differentiate it from VelociCoaster, as I'm not sure simply adding rotating cars to the same style of layout (aka Hollywood Drift) is really enough to do that. Guessing we won't get most of the details until later, but still curious to see what is being unveiled in less than 24 hours.
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While some of the details here may suggest a F&F coaster, there are other Universal IPs that could also be hinted at...
1. FWIW, you can't see the precise number that the speedometer accelerates to with the top of the dial cut off (perhaps deliberately) or even if it's accelerated to top speed before the clip ends. The gauge goes straight up, which suggests it's going up to 70 MPH based on the scale that you can see, but that doesn't mean that's the coaster's top speed. The way the gauge is presented "conveniently" cuts off an important speed to a Universal IP - 88 MPH. The gauge doesn't match a DeLorean speedometer (DeLorean gauges showed speeds ending in "5" not "0"), but that could be deliberate to not tip off the IP too soon. Universal has hinted at reutilizing the BttF IP in its parks, but the expectation was that its first reemergence would be at the new UK park, though things may have changed since they initially announced that park.
2. Another potential coaster IP that could be represented by car-themed vehicles that also has been rumored for this space is Ghostbusters. Honestly,. this IP has the most natural fit in this location within USF in the New York backlot portion of the park. Ghostbusters is another underutilized internal IP in Universal parks, and the speedometer could merely represent the top speed of the coaster (or the perceived top speed), and not represent any other link to the IP. The fact that Universal has left many of the New York facades up while removing the RRR track would indicate they plan to use them as part of the new coaster.
3. Sure, F&F makes plenty of sense, but only one of the movies (Fate of the Furious - aka F&F8) actually takes place in New York City which appears to be the setting for the new coaster given that the New York facades have been maintained. I certainly don't think Universal would have any trouble grounding this coaster in New York or in the Fate of the Furious setting, but if this coaster were to be F&F themed, it would immediately spell the end of Supercharged. Yes, F&F - Supercharged has been one of the most reviled attractions at USF, but it would mandate that Universal either have a net zero increase in attractions with this new coaster (since Supercharged would close) or force Universal to spend a bunch more money to replace/retheme Supercharged in the next 2-3 years. While that's probably been on everyone's Bingo card for the past 5+ years, does Universal really want to spend more money to replace a serviceable people-eater of an attraction when there are so many other fish to fry. The expectation is that Universal is in the process of adding a BIG new attraction at Epic (next to Ministry of Magic), building on one of Epic's expansion pads (unknown what's the exact timeline for that work, but there is reportedly clearing and staging occurring), a retheme for Lost Continent, and the likely work needed to retheme Springfield when Universal loses the Simpsons license by 2028. That's a lot of MAJOR projects occurring over the next 2-3 years that are going to cost a lot of money after just spending who knows how many BILLIONS to build and open Epic, so unless Universal had already carved out budget to replace an attraction that will only be 8 years old this summer, I just don't see Universal being so quick to spend that kind of money right now, which could be deferred if this new coaster was themed to any another in-house IP that uses cars. It was easy for Universal to dump Supercharged in Hollywood, because it was just one part of the Studio Tram Tour and didn't require a discrete ride system like in Florida. I guess Universal could reskin the Supercharged ride system without having to gut the entire attraction, but it would still represent additional spend that wouldn't be necessary if they themed this coaster to something else and let Supercharge continue to run until the ride system reaches its end of life.
F&F does seem to be the logical IP here given what they're doing in Hollywood, but if this coaster already needs to have a unique layout because of the different terrain in Florida compared with Hollywood, why do they have to utilize the same IP? I think there's a chance Universal could announce something completely unexpected here.