HHN Rumor: What’s going on inside the old Terminator building?

Posted on by danryan25

Terminator 2: 3D performed its very last show in late 2017, and since then a lot of construction noise has been heard from inside the old building and lots of rumors of what the new possible attraction could be have littered the online forums, but no concrete evidence or news from Universal has come forward to say exactly what new addition to the park is coming within this massive piece of park realty.

The only official word we had from Universal Orlando was that it will feature “an all-new live action experience based on a high-energy Universal franchise” and that it should hope to open sometime in 2019. However, since its been nearly two years and no further word has come forward as to what it could be it got us wondering, what’s going on in there?

As you can see from the below, the theater is huge!

Our first port of call was the local building permits office to see what permits have been registered and how far progressed they are.  From these public accessible documents it would show the following select items of work have occurred:

  • A complete new layout within the theater (but likely not the pre-show and queue areas).  According to our pal Alicia Stella who did a walk around recently, it would appear the old theater’s stage has been made larger.  The revised layout also extends to the basement where the old gun toting terminators would spring from, they and the large flanking screens for the 3D portion of the show were all removed in early 2018.
  • The building has been completely stripped.  We know this as many of the props and signage from the old show have been popping up in Williams of Hollywood but also by the fact that the permits indicate a great deal of structural alterations and reapplications of masonry (all of which up until the very last few weeks were approved by the city inspectors).
  • A new catwalk system has been installed.  This addition, along with the larger stage would suggest some kind of stunt show or something that uses 3D (hence the need to regularly get up into the high ceilings on a regular basis).
  • The lengthy amount of time the project work has taken is possibly due to the sheer amount of renovation that is happening, from new CCTV to new roofing, from new insulation to a massively upgraded fire protections. Universal is swifting bringing this 1990s building right up to the current building codes.
  • The project is refered to internally as “Project 126”.

To see more of Alicia’s walking tour click here.

Orlando Business Journals also confirms the construction rehab work here.

A new rumor:

We’ve had a few people write into HHNU HQ saying that they believe the new show could be themed to Universal Monsters or at least, have something to do with the, and that it might possibly debut sometime within HHN’s run.  Now this could just be highly speculative!  But take a look at this tweet, again, from our pal Bio:

And this photo from Alicia:

IMG_0802
Photo courtsey of orlandoparkstop.com

It got us thinking here at HHNU HQ that there could be something here, as if the show exit doors from the old Terminator building remain the same (they are still there and are untouched as above) this would indicate that whatever the new show is it will offload the guests from the show straight into the new Universal Monsters themed store.

So the question is: Why would Universal drop a lot of cash highly re-theming the old Terminator store when the attraction inside the old Terminator show space is rumored to be Jason Bourne?

That doesn’t make any sense as the theming would be all wrong!!

Unless, the show that is being built in there is someting to do with the Universal Monsters.  This also satisfies the criteria that IT IS a Universal owned property and due to the level of building permits signed off it COULD open by the end of 2019, right when HHN kicks off.

So there you have it.  What we know to be FACT and what we know to be just RUMOR.  And remember these rumors are just that, rumors!  And nothing is official until Universal confirms it!

What would you like to see in this building?  Let us know in the comments!