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Credit: Edited by Inside the MagicUniversal’s theme park division has been expanding at an unprecedented rate. Now, a new expansion is being reported for the United Kingdom, leaving the park to be a real threat to Disney.
At the moment, there are three known expansions happening within the realm of Universal’s parks and experiences team. Universal’s Epic Universe will be opening as part of Universal Orlando Florida in 2025, Universal Kids Resort will be coming to Texas, and Universal Horror Unleashed will bring the fears of Halloween Horror Nights to Las Vegas patrons year round as a new section of AREA15 is being developed.
While those announcements and the speedy progress in which the company is making to turn them into reality is enough to satisfy any theme park aficionado, Orlando Park Stop has just published an extensive report that predicts Universal’s next expansion: Universal Great Britain. While this is not yet confirmed news by Universal, Orlando Park Stop’s evidence does make an exciting and very convincing case that will have Universal fans ready to plan a trip to Great Britain, specifically Bedford, England where a plot of land has been purchased.
So, let’s look at the evidence:
Domain Name Purchased
As the publication noted, “Narrowing down the possible location for the company’s next big theme park, it does appear that they have registered the domains “universalstudiosgreatbritain.com” and “universalgreatbritain.com.” These domains, along with their “.co.uk” counterparts, appear to have been registered by NBCUniversal, and using the same registrar as other Universal parks’ website domains.”
If Universal had no thought or desire to great a theme park in the United Kingdom, it would be highly unlikely that they would purchase the domain of Universal Studio Great Britain. The domains were very recently purchased, as of September 2023, which is just after they acquired the new land.
Coincidence? We think not.
New Land Purchased
As we stated, the land that was purchased was in Bedford, England. As noted on an SEC report that Orlando Park Stop discovered, “the company disclosed that $271 million were spent, “associated with the acquisition of land for potential theme park expansion opportunities.”
Additionally, Comcast acquired a construction company called Cloud Wing UK Limited just last year. The purchase of Cloud Wing is also reported to have come with 240 acre section of a parcel of land in Bedford, England — the land it titled “Kempston Hardwick New Settlement”.
The publication noted that there is more land that did come with Cloud Wing, and that, “In total, it seems as though the company has acquired around 500 acres (or 200 hectares) of total land in Bedford, England.” The land is only a mere 46 miles north of London, which is a highly visited tourist area, making it a decent location and a good spot for a 2-day visit during any vacation.
The mayor of Bedford even recently spoke of their new roadway infrastructure, stating it places Bedford at the “center of the universe”. The wording here seems too on the nose to not have been a foreshadowed hint of what is to come.
Inside the Magic reached out to Bedford’s mayor Tom Wootton for comment, but have not heard back at the time of this article’s publishing.
Opening Timeline
Orlando Park Stop reported that a possible opening timeline for the resort could be 2030, a mere five years after Epic Universe.
The park would likely be sculpted like Universal Studios Beijing, the newest Universal theme park, that features a lot of indoor attractions to mitigate weather concerns.
Considering how many visitors Orlando gets from the United Kingdom already, the location certainly has a call and desire for a theme park expansion. Travel Weekly reported on how U.K. travel into Orlando was a major player in the recovery of Orlando tourism, “International visitor numbers recovered to 75% of pre-pandemic totals, reaching 4.9 million in 2022. More than 860,700 came from Canada, the top international destination, followed by 809,000 from the UK.” Many U.K. visitors come to Orlando to enjoy Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort, and due to the distance of travel and costs, often stay for two weeks.
Orlando Park Stop also noted that, “There is also a rumor that this new park is being designed to not open with any cloned attractions from the Universal Orlando Resort. It is assumed this consideration is being made so as to not cannibalize the company’s overseas travel market. Instead, this park may debut with new attractions not found in Orlando to attract its own visitors from other markets, as well as UK locals.”
So, this means we may see new developments of Jurassic World attractions, as well as other DreamWorks creations. This may be the perfect moment for Universal to also further expand upon their Nintendo developments with Zelda and Pokémon attractions.
The publication continued, “Rumors for possible outside intellectual properties the company may be attempting to acquire for this park include James Bond, Paddington Bear, and The Lord of the Rings.” It would also not surprise us too much to see another expansion into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, as it would be quite fitting.
UPDATE:
Universal has since confirmed the land purchase. Alicia Stella Nova Resort reported, “Universal has confirmed the land purchase! “We recently acquired land in Bedford [Borough] and are at the early stages of exploring its feasibility for a potential park and resort at this site.”
Universal has confirmed the land purchase!
“We recently acquired land in Bedford [Borough] and are at the early stages of exploring its feasibility for a potential park and resort at this site.”
— Alicia Stella Nova Resort (@AliciaStella) December 19, 2023
Would you visit Universal Great Britain if it were to come to fruition?