Funworld Goes Inside Universal Epic Universe

Transporting audiences to other worlds and weaving fantasy adventures filled with magic, horror, romance, and heroic journeys stands as Universal Studios’ legacy. Since 1912, Universal’s storytelling has transported audiences from enchanted realms to kingdoms far away,, blending myth with imagination and infusing cutting-edge technology.

In the mid-1960s, that special brand of storytelling leaped off the silver screen and formed tangible worlds that inspire wonder, shape culture, spark fandoms, and remind us of how dreams can feel real.

From the opening of the Hollywood studio tour in 1964 and Universal Studios Florida in 1990, to the debut of the immersive Islands of Adventure theme park in 1999 and the tropical villages found at Universal Volcano Bay water theme park in 2017, Universal’s latest take on a theme park—one that transports guests through portals to imaginative worlds—lives up to its name: Epic. Six decades of expert design and storytelling have led to Universal Epic Universe at Universal Orlando Resort.

Funworld received an all-access pass to take readers behind-the-scenes and share how Universal Destinations & Experiences crafted the attractions, retail, and food and beverage that defines its next adventure.

1. Storytelling and Placemaking of a Celestial Apex

Upon arrival to Universal Epic Universe, guests immediately step through the Kronos—a sparkling, kinetic beacon and towering edifice situated as the park’s central gate and entrance portal.

Inscribed at the top of the Kronos’ portal are the words “Beyond this gate find gardens green and epic worlds to fill your dreams.” This first portal transports guests to Celestial Park, the park’s central hub. In a “world between worlds,” guests encounter a vista of gently cascading lagoons and vast green spaces of manicured gardens, a buffet of flora.

“I tell people that Celestial Park is a little bit of the sorbet between your courses. I like to think that this is the place where you can kind of decompress from the different worlds and reset your palate before you go into the next one,” Adam Rivest, vice president of creative management for Universal Creative tells Funworld. The Kronos, positioned at the front of the park, and the Universal Helios Grand Hotel, located at the rear, serve as bookends for

 Celestial Park—iconic landmarks framing the entire space—anchoring the guest experience while guiding visitors through portals to Epic’s four additional worlds. Shopping, dining, and entertainment complement a visit.

The buildings and statuary found throughout Celestial Park evoke the grandeur of the great world’s fairs held in American cities over a century ago. Meanwhile, the blending of Beaux-Arts, neoclassical, classical revival, and Art Nouveau architecture inspire thoughts of timeless prosperity, as seen in the unique structures, Constellation Carousel, and Stardust Racers roller coaster.

2. Responsibilities and Animation Adaptations

Universal Epic Universe’s How to Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk world is a love letter to DreamWorks’ beloved dragon saga, scaled and translated into the physical realm. It’s a rugged Viking village where humans and dragons coexist.

“When you take an IP, it’s a big responsibility, especially an IP that is as loved as the How To Train Your Dragon films are,” says executive producer Katy Pacitti. She emphasizes the delicate balancing act necessary for practicality—staying true to an IP, while ensuring the best guest experience. “You want to fulfill guest expectations—and luckily for us—the film team left us with this beautiful design,” Pacitti says, describing the process of bringing the Isle of Berk from the films into the physical realm, where guests can experience it with all five senses.

Another result of bringing the Isle of Berk into the real world is the introduction of shopping and retail into a setting that is void of such elements in the fictional narrative. Pacitti explains that while DreamWorks knew shops would be an alteration, her duty was to add windows—since shops need windows—and she did it in a way that enhances the land while staying true to the fiction as much as possible. “It is just sort of about realizing things and being a little bit forgiving, because you actually have to, you have to create a real world, and people have to practically operate the world, and guests have to be able to come through the world,” she explains.

3. The Wizardry and Spellbinding Details

Scott Verble, executive producer for Universal Creative, emphasizes the extraordinary detail found throughout The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic and it comes with high expectations. “The amount of detail that is baked into all of these buildings and experiences ... it just all has story at heart—and that level of detail the guests have come to know and love from the Wizard.”

The latest Potter world recreates full‑scale Paris, not relying on forced perspective, to immerse guests in the 1920s Parisian wizarding shopping district of Place Cachée. Verble

 tells Funworld that every shop entrance features custom mosaics, adding layers of authenticity.

Innovation shines within the Le Cirque Arcanus show, the first fully immersive indoor live performance in the Wizarding World. Verble explains, “The heart of the story takes guests on a very unexpected journey that I cannot wait for them to see.” This mix of artistry, technology, and storytelling ensures the Ministry of Magic feels both fanciful and real.

4. Frightfully Honoring Intellectual Properties

The Dark Universe realm celebrates Universal’s century‑long legacy of monsters, all in one world. Executive Producer Chris Frisella felt deep responsibility to get the story right. “What an honor … to work with these characters, these IPs that in the Universal family are approaching 100 years old.”

To unify the previous standalone stories of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Mummy, the creative team built the village of Darkmoor, a place where mad scientists and monsters coexist. This setting allows for both faithful representation and new storytelling opportunities sautéed in lore.

Haggard-looking, mature, yet healthy trees were planted among the village’s old-world, timber-frame and stone buildings—each with crooked rooftops—and cobblestone streets, and lantern-lit pathways. Elements of a sinister laboratory are found outside and inside a gothic mansion towering over the world while housing its marque attraction, Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment.

Frisella stresses the importance of respect. “You have to be careful and respectful of those original stories. We want to make sure that we treat them respectfully, represent them correctly, and then we can kind of launch the storytelling.”

5. Scoring Points Tangibly

In stark contrast to Dark Universe, the neighboring Super Nintendo World offers guests a vibrant, interactive environment where play and immersion are inseparable.

Susan Cummings, executive producer of Super Nintendo World worked closely with designers, engineers, and Nintendo itself, calling her creative oversight as the “the icing on the cake.”

The creative team’s partnership with Nintendo proved long and deeply collaborative. “They’ve been with us every step of the way,” Cummings says.

This close relationship ensures that the material world authentically captures the imaginative video game world of Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach in the park’s Mushroom Kingdom realm, while Donkey Kong’s home in the tropical Donkey King Island adapts gameplay into a real‑world attraction.

Crafting Immersive Wonders

Designing an attraction with the scale and sophistication of Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry required an extraordinary amount of collaboration. For Universal Creative’s Anisha Vyas Burgos, who served as assistant director of projects, the process was both technically demanding and deeply rewarding. “It’s such a big culmination of so many years of hard work,” she says.

The attraction’s design required contributions from nearly every discipline within Universal Creative—from engineers and architects to scenic artists, technologists, and storytellers. “Not one set piece, not one area of the ride, is one specific discipline,” Vyas Burgos explains. “There’s probably 10 to 15 different disciplines all working together in each of these areas to bring it to life. The collaboration that the team has shown, I think, is evident in how immersive and unique these environments are.”

That sense of cohesion was particularly important for an attraction rooted in two distinct settings: the Ministry of Magic set indoors and rooted in 1990s London, and the outdoor wizarding world set in 1920s Paris (guests travel between space and time via the Métro-Floo Network).

Translating those environments into physical spaces required artistic interpretation and technical precision. “We perfected magical architecture,” she says. Inside, hundreds of thousands of colored tiles—green, purple, pink, black, and red—help create that layered sense of history for the interiors. Each hue and texture serves a purpose within the visual storytelling.

While the craftsmanship is visible throughout, much of the innovation lies behind the scenes. Vyas Burgos says she and her team needed to become experts in disciplines far outside their comfort zones. “There’s a lot of different engineering principles that I’ve learned more about than I ever wanted to—and a lot of design principles, too,” she notes. “Bringing this to life was such a collaboration among architecture, creative design, and creative intent. To build something at this scale—in and of itself—is challenging, and there’s a lot we’ve learned.”

For Gary Blumenstein, senior director of creative direction, the project’s foundation was always the story. “We knew we had to tell a lot of big stories—epic stories, so to speak. When it came to the Ministry, the story of the attraction had to live up to what you’re experiencing as you get clued into this lobby,” Blumenstein says. His team looked for narrative spaces that expanded on what audiences already knew, finding opportunities to imagine moments that could exist within the Harry Potter universe while standing on their own.

Designing a world of magic within the constraints of real-world architecture presented constant challenges. “You’re dealing with an IP that is all about magic, and we have real-world things we have to deal with,” Blumenstein says. “It’s overcoming all of that and still keeping you in the immersive attention to detail—that’s the stuff we overcome on a daily basis.”

The result, according to Vyas Burgos, is an experience that leaves guests wondering how it was achieved. “One of my favorite scenes is where there’s a Death Eater battle right in front of you,” she says. “It is so layered with technology, and it’s so fluid and so beautiful. I love that people say, ‘How did they do that?’”

For the teams behind Battle at the Ministry, that question is the ultimate measure of success—proof that design, story, and innovation can merge so seamlessly that the magic feels real.

Across Universal Epic Universe, food and beverage design is a storytelling medium.

At the Burning Blade Tavern, with its windmill set ablaze, the lore is as rich as the flavors. “The Burning Blade is kind of the lodge and the hangout for the monster hunters after a long day of hunting,” explains Josh Frank, beverage program manager at Universal Orlando Resort. Within the dark setting, Frank and his team developed an inventive beverage lineup that draws directly from the Universal Classic Monsters legacy. “We’ve built in a lot of deep cuts referencing specific movies,” he says. “The Pure of Heart—one who knows The Wolf Man may know that even one who is pure of heart may be stricken by the curse. We have our Mono Cane, the secret ingredient in The Invisible Man’s potion, which made him invisible—and also quite insane.”

The drinks themselves double as visual storytelling. “In the Lagunita, we actually try to build the visual of the Black Lagoon,” Frank says, describing the cocktail where “little bits of blackberry and lime pith come up and look like algae.” The result is a beverage program that satisfies both thematic and sensory expectations. “Even when we’re sourcing something from the outside world,” he adds, “we want something that looks like it could exist in this universe.”

Frank emphasizes that creativity doesn’t end with alcoholic options. “Mocktails are an important category as well,” he says. “We try to have at least one signature mocktail at every major venue.” He notes that glittery cocktails and edible pearlescent pigments are among the current industry trends. “There are a lot of things happening all at once right now in the beverage world,” he says, pointing to an environment where innovation and guest demand constantly evolve.

In Super Nintendo World, that same imaginative ethos drives the food program. Robert Martinez Jr., culinary director and executive chef at Universal Orlando Resort, says the F&B process took seven years of development. “To be able to go from the video games we’ve seen and played to get to create food is an amazing result,” he says. Items like the Super Mario Burger—complete with a mustache-shaped garnish and red Mario cap skewer—translate digital nostalgia into tangible, flavorful design. “It has these mushrooms inside this delicious sauce,” he adds.

That creativity is balanced with logistical discipline. “Product demand and product supply are challenges,” Martinez acknowledges. “Making sure we’ve picked products that are going to be here all the time for our guests has been key. It takes a lot of talented people to get to where we are today.”

His advice for aspiring culinary developers? “No idea is a bad idea. It might not make sense for what you’re creating in the moment, but it might make sense later on,” Martinez tells Funworld.

Meanwhile, in the Isle of Berk realm, research and development began with the source material itself. “The fun part is the beginning,” says Christopher Colón, executive sous chef, research & development at Universal Orlando Resort. “We get to watch the movies, hear the lore, pick out moments.”

That inspiration translated into a diverse menu with Viking-sized ambition. “We have something for everybody,” he shares.

Just as importantly, the menus reflect Universal’s commitment to inclusivity. “We have vegan and gluten-free options that are clearly marked and don’t require heavy modification,” Colón notes. “If it does, it’s a simple change—remove one item here, one there. We definitely have great options across the board.”

Across every land at Epic Universe, Universal’s food and beverage teams are proving that dining is not an afterthought—it’s an extension of the story itself.

Developing Merchandise Magic

Developing merchandise for five themed worlds is a process that requires close collaboration with creative partners and licensors. As Don Davis director of merchandise product development at Universal Orlando Resort explains, “Our biggest partner is really Universal Creative, because … we really want to understand what is the land, (and ask) what is the guest going to experience? And we really want to make sure that merchandise really tied back to that experience.” This philosophy ensures that every item feels authentic to the environment, such as the dragon Loungefly bag, which directly reflects a structure guests encounter in the Isle of Berk.

Similar to the teams constructing the park’s physical environments, the merchandise team understands that balancing creative ambition with brand integrity is a constant part of the journey. The process also involves DreamWorks, since “’Dragons is a DreamWorks property, so of course we do work with them as well to make sure clearly we’re respectful of the brand guidelines and get the approval,” says Davis.

The team’s focus was clear: “We just really wanted to get it right. We really want to make sure we took the product to a different level,” says Davis.

That same drive led to innovative items like the Toothless mask. Toothless, the fiction’s protagonist, is of a species of dragon known as the rarest, fastest, and most intelligent. “We

 knew we had to do something where we could bring Toothless to life, where you could actually become Toothless,” explains Davis. The result was a mask that lights up, makes sounds, and puts the character into the physical form in the most accurate way possible.

Product designers also created a backpack featuring wings, claws, and a tail—just another example of immersive products that allow guests to take home a piece of the character’s world. A plush toy sold inside an egg invites guests to participate in a ceremony with Epic’s team members where they “take a pledge, and you have to promise to kind of raise it in the Viking tradition,” says Davis. This ritual transforms a simple purchase into a memorable, interactive experience, deepening the connection between guests and the land.