Universal announces new theme park 'experiences' with Pokemon

This was a known secret when we visited Universal Studios Japan (Osaka) in Oct. 2023. It's replacing their old Spiderman attraction, which is roughly the Mummy is in the NYC area of USF in Orlando.

Total sidebar...many fans were so sad it was closing. Lots of "last days of Spiderman!" buttons and signs.

Pokemon is reportedly the highest grossing media franchise of all time, so it’s not surprising that one of the major players want a piece of that pie. What is surprising is how long it’s taken to get here.

Pokémon and Universal Studios Japan's partnership was announced back in 2021. I can personally attest to the very elaborate parades with floats and costumed characters plus stage shows they have for Pokémon in Osaka. It's pretty wild. This is just their first attraction.

Whats not surprising is that Pokémon & Nintendo are conservative, and waited to make sure Universal was a good fit. They're Japanese after all.

My personal theory is that Mario went first for Nintendo...then Donkey Kong, Zelda, and then Pokémon in that order. I still personally believe each of the 3x UOR parks will get some Nintendo IP in each, like the Harry Potter approach, to get guests to parkhop more.

As a reminder, Zelda video game Director Anouma and Producer Miyamota were both spotted touring Epic Universe during construction. Why Epic? Unless Zelda is coming to Epic in the next ~5-10 years. That video has since been scrubbed by Universal for reasons. Curious.

https://zeldauniverse.net/2024/01/31/fans-spot-aonuma-with-miyamoto-at-universal-studios-japan-construction-site/

Interesting that it ended up being Pokemon instead of Zelda, as that seemed like the cheaper retheme to pull off. I'm sure it'll be great and super successful. I pray Mythos survives this transition in some form. Maybe retheme it visually to Legendary Pokemon?

@Jeffrey H - I would agree that Zelda is probably more easily ported into a theme park attraction, but Pokemon is by far the more recognizable IP. My concern is that the application of Pokemon as a land would devolve into a completely A/R experience akin to Pokemon Go!. Sure, it would be cool to have enhanced places where you can play the popular game, complete with "trainer" guests cos-playing in real-life themed arenas, but unless Universal can figure out how to reconfigure the experience so that non-participants can watch the battles without staring at their phone, it will fail to gain a wide enough appeal to be a successful theme park land. If Universal is developing a ride associated with Pokemon, it will be interesting to see what type of system they choose, because I think many have been disappointed with what Universal developed for Mario Cart, which fails to deliver the speed and intensity of a real-life race. Personally, I think a version of Intamin's Dome-theater system (Hypershpere-360 at Sea World Abu Dhabi) might be a perfect match here, especially given the space available in the Lost Continent and the size of the existing Poseidon's Fury building.

IMHO, Pokemon is a no-brainer for Universal, especially if it came along with (or was an easy negotiation to extend from) the licensing agreements they signed with Nintendo. While the IP has gone through a few ebbs and flows in popularity over the past decade, this is probably one of the most popular (and long lasting) IPs in the world that has not been used in a major theme park - even LotR.

@Russell - I agree that Pokemon is a no-brainer in terms of profitability and brand recognition. I also think the franchise has a lot of multi-generational appeal. I personally hope that the headliner attraction is something like playing a scaled-up version of Pokemon Snap.

I was thinking "Pokemon Snap" also. Large animatronics, with the interactive element of taking pictures. Absolute no brainer. Exciting times and can't wait to see this

Id love to see Universal 's first trackless dark ride here. Does the loss of Spiderman in USJ mean that Disney can use Marvel in Tokyo?

To clarify, while USJ and Pokemon have been working together for years, as mentioned in the story, this is about the announcement of a new set of experiences that will debut in Japan and then be brought to other Universal theme parks around the world.

Now, why Universal won't just come out and say "It's Pokemon Land!" is a fair topic for discussion. But this is the company that has preferred to wait until rides are about ready for testing before announcing them. I suppose this is a positive step to announce something before vertical construction now.

@Robert, it's either going in the old Spiderman attraction space or possibly the old Terminator space in their version of NYC.

My guess? They don't want to change all of NYC into a Pokémon area. So not a full land. Yet.

But Pokémon in the city works great - look at the 2019 Detective Pikachu film that was set primarily in the very urban, Ryme City. A few reskins and the USJ's NYC sets would totally work.

There has been work going on for this project in Japan since Spider-Man closed in early 2024, and from reports I'm seeing it sounds like work walls just appeared throughout a decent chunk of the New York area. Speculation is the main attraction will be an interactive dark ride featuring physical sets, then there will be a smaller secondary attraction that uses AR/VR tech and special effects to simulate Pokemon battles. There are also apparently rights restrictions regarding what Universal can and cannot use, which makes it sound like they can't recreate specific environments from the main series games and instead have to use it more as a character-driven concept, which might explain why it's more of an overlay on New York than an immersive themed area. If what I've heard is accurate, the target is to debut it next year in Japan and in 2029 in Florida (which would feature the same attractions but a different overall design for the land).

As for why Pokemon and not Zelda at IOA, the implication I got was that Universal is ready to move forward on Pokemon but not quite ready on Zelda, so since Lost Continent is the available project site they're doing it there. If they decide to do a full Zelda land, it could potentially take Pokemon's previous spot as a Springfield replacement, but it's also possible they might downsize it to just a single attraction added on to Super Nintendo World.