On a recent episode of The Universal Joint with Jim Hill, Jim spoke at length about Universal’s wider strategy to cutback their use of external outside IPs and instead try to ensure that to, as far as reasonable practical, use their own Universal brands when trying to develop new attractions and additions to the parks.
Recent examples of this include: The Fast and the Furious Ride, Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon and the soon to be re-themed bakery at the entrance which according to Jim will be refurbished into a new Today styled quick bites eatery. And from what we’re hearing HHN will be no different.
Certain external centrepiece IPs are supposedly still in contention, especially those in partnership with Netflix but the wider haul of houses going forward are supposedly being sort to contain mostly NBC Universal properties.
This being said we thought we’d dive into their back catalogue and look at what possible franchises and films Universal has access to without much external permission making:
**Warning Speculation Ahead**
Universal Monsters
This maze appeared last year at HHN Hollywood and was a real home run for the event. Detailed environments were paired with excellent special effects and superb character design that ensured this was the best house at Hollywood last year. And if Blumhouse reignite the stalled Dark Universe franchise this could be very exciting.
Alfred Hitchcock
Apparently, most of his movies and TV shows were acquired by Universal prior to Hitch’s death. In the final third act of his life he spent his days on the backlot of Universal Hollywood where he planned and then shot many of latter classics. You can read more about that here.
Blumhouse
The Indy film studio that has turned small scale sleeper movies into box office gold, including no less than last year’s smash hit Halloween has been partnered with Universal for some time. This partnership has also seen Blumhouse provide varying degrees of great houses at Orlando and Hollywood for 2017 and 2018.
Jurassic World/Park
As hard as it may seem to turn this franchise into a house Universal have done it before! Read more about that house and scarezone here.
Child’s Play
Some say that Chucky gets used too much but did you see that scarezone last year? It was scary and hilarious, ergo we can always have more Chucky!
JAWS
Keep dreaming fanboys! 😉 (Though it is only one on this list that’s never had a house….)
Insidious
We’ve had a number of houses from this franchise before but there’s definitely more room to provide out-of-the-box ideas if they wanted, such as a house dedicated to the Lipstick Demon for example?
The Purge
We’ve had enough of The Purge right?
And that’s it for franchises, unless we’ve missed some? Let us know your thoughts and what possible Universal productions you’d like to see at HHN in the comments!
And remember, nothing is confirmed or fact until Universal confirms it, just RUMORS!
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