Epic Universe Dark Universe Expansion: What Could Universal Build Next?

Permits filed with Orange County, Florida, show that Universal Epic Universe is looking to quickly expand ride capacity after its 2025 debut. Universal has filed two building permits for large attraction buildings in Wizarding World: Ministry of Magic and Dark Universe. These permits give us the early ability to see the scope of plans in these worlds.

While the Ministry of Magic expansion permit is for a larger – and likely more ambitious – building, it’s the permit for a structure inside Darkmoor Village that really has me thinking. Darkmoor is my favorite land in the entire park. I care about this monster-terrorized village a little more than is reasonable for a grown adult, so forgive me if this gets a bit indulgent.

I want to be upfront again: I have zero inside knowledge here. No sources, no leaked plans, nothing. What I’m doing instead is trying to imagine what’s realistic within the actual constraints under which Universal Creative is working. This includes considerations like the size of the lot, a reasonable sense of budget, and what their broader goals for Epic seem to be right now. Treat everything below as informed daydreaming.

So, what’s coming to Darkmoor? Let’s speculate!

The expansion plot and permit filing

It all started with a construction permit filing that calls for a roughly 71,500-square-foot building inside Dark Universe. Building 1570’s entrance will be tucked between Monsters Unchained and the Burning Blade Tavern. For scale, 71,500 square feet is close to the footprint of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios, comfortably big enough for a real attraction. No churro stand here!

Here’s an interesting observation, though. The entire expansion pad set aside in Darkmoor looks to be around 140,000 square feet, roughly double the size of the permitted building itself, and an oddly shaped parcel at that.

The difference in size between the expansion pad and the permitted building is interesting. It tells us the building isn’t meant to fill the whole plot. What I don’t anticipate seeing is a hybrid ride that ping-pongs guests between indoor and outdoor scenes. Central Florida afternoon storms are too reliable an inconvenience, and a park that’s already short on covered, rain-proof headliners desperately needs this one to be fully enclosed. The extra acreage is far more likely to be earmarked for queue, landscaping, or even a future attraction than for an indoor-outdoor hybrid ride.

This isn’t the first thing ever planned for this plot of land, either. Epic Universe concept art from 2019 showed a large enclosed building in this exact spot that simply never got built for opening day. There was also a large amphitheater stage show that was connected to the land that is located at least partially where the Curse of the Werewolf was eventually built. Whatever ends up in the existing expansion plot, it’s been through its fair share of changes!

Could a show fill it instead?

At 71,500 square feet, there’s definitely enough room here for an indoor stage show on the scale of The Untrainable Dragon or Le Cirque Arcanus, both of which measure around 35,000 square feet. So a returning version of the theater concept from that early artwork isn’t impossible, either.

But I have a hard time believing that’s the plan. Stage shows are wonderful, especially the technological marvels already built in Epic Universe. But they don’t pull crowds into a land the way a new ride does, and that’s exactly the problem Universal needs to solve in Dark Universe right now. Crowds just don’t go to Darkmoor. There needs to be a ride that entices people away from Super Nintendo World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic.

On top of that, if the building were purely a show, it’s roughly double the square footage needed. The only way that math makes sense to me is if Universal is planning to bundle the show with something else in the same building, like a small secondary attraction, maybe an indoor flat ride. Otherwise, a simple return of the canceled show from the original concept art seems unlikely to me.

Could it still be the Gill-Man?

The Creature from the Black Lagoon has been the fan-favorite theory for this spot since before Epic Universe even opened, and there’s real logic to it. He’s had a presence in Darkmoor’s theming from day one, a water-based ride would fill the “family-friendly, no big height requirement” gap Dark Universe currently has. He’s also the classic Monster most conspicuously missing a big wow moment in Monster’s Unchained. Just waving his arms at us pales in comparison to chasing us through multiple screens and animatronics, as the Wolfman does, or delivering the ride’s thesis before emerging from the ceiling to take us out, as the Mummy has the honor of doing.

But I have questions about him carrying a solo attraction. Would a Creature-only ride actually pull in the crowds this land needs? A water ride, however well done, isn’t going to be a huge draw to the land unless Universal builds something with real scale. And after some guests found Monsters Unchained’s big scares a bit much, do we really need another possibly scary and thrill-heavy ride in a land that already has one? I keep coming back to: if the goal is broader appeal, is Gill-Man on his own really the answer?

Following the money: has Bride taken over?

Here’s a thing that’s hard to ignore: the Bride of Frankenstein has become one of the breakout stars of Darkmoor. Apparently, her merch is outselling the merch for all other monsters. She’s also part of a fantastic meet-and-greet in the land. And, unlike nearly every other Universal classic monster, she doesn’t appear anywhere inside Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment.

That’s a strange gap for a character generating this much merchandise and photo-op demand. If sales data inside Universal is leaning as hard toward Bride as the retail evidence suggests, it wouldn’t shock me if this new ride shifts focus toward her. Maybe alongside the Invisible Man, who’s similarly a strong roaming character in Darkmoor but absent from the manor’s headlining ride. Between the two of them, that’s a lot of popular, ride-less characters just sitting there waiting for a story. So what could that story and ride be?

A narrated dark ride through Darkmoor’s history

One version I keep circling back to is a trackless or omnimover-style dark ride where the Invisible Man narrates the history and struggle of Darkmoor as guests move through a series of scenes, with a Bride animatronic appearing at key moments along the way. Since he’s invisible, he’s a natural fit as an unseen storyteller. There would be no costume or figure needed, just his voice guiding you through the land’s backstory. It’d be a great way to finally explain the Bride and Invisible Man’s place in Darkmoor’s larger story.

It also fits the more atmospheric, lower-intensity tone a more family-friendly ride would need. My only hesitation is scale. A ride like this typically leans more on story than spectacle, and I’m not totally convinced an omnimover would be a big enough draw on its own to be what Universal needs it to be.

Expanding into a rocking-boat hybrid

This is where things get more interesting to me, because it’s the one idea that actually combines the Gill-Man and the Bride into a single, more ambitious ride. And it happens to use a genuinely innovative ride system that may be a draw for guests.

Dollywood is currently building NightFlight Expedition on a Mack Rides “Rocking Boat” system, which features amphibious ride vehicles that switch between a calm floating mode and a suspended “flying” mode with big screen projections. That ride is reportedly over five minutes long and sits on a footprint of right around 50,000 square feet. A larger, more ambitious version, with a bigger, better-themed indoor queue, could fill Building 1570 quite comfortably.

Picture it! Guests drifting on a boat through Darkmoor’s swamps and catacombs when the Gill-Man causes trouble. The Bride swoops in on a flying contraption she’s swiped from Victoria’s lab and lifts the boat to safety. It ties both characters together, delivers a genuine “wow” moment with the boat-to-flight transition, and stays family-focused with just a small scary thrill.

It wouldn’t technically be the first installation of this ride system in the U.S. That distinction goes to Dollywood, but it’s such a new system, and Dollywood is a small enough regional park, that the overwhelming majority of Epic Universe’s guests would likely never have experienced it before. That alone would make it a big differentiator for the park.

The catch is capacity. Dollywood’s system is rated at around 1,200 riders per hour, which is a fine number for a regional park but might genuinely struggle to keep up in a park as busy as Epic Universe. Even so, this is the option I’d personally most like to see.

But let’s keep going, because there are a couple of other ideas worth considering, too.

A moving-theater ride, à la Danse Macabre at Efteling

Danse Macabre, which opened at Efteling in the Netherlands in 2024, runs on Intamin’s “Dynamic Motion Stage,” a seated ride where guests sit in six choir-stall-style pods arranged on an 18-meter turntable. The whole platform spins, tilts, and rises and falls together. Each individual pod can also rotate on its own, so the room feels like it’s dancing around you as a ghostly orchestra performance plays out. It’s genuinely one-of-a-kind as nothing like it exists in the United States… yet.

Here’s the part that makes me think this fits the building so well. The entire Danse Macabre show building at Efteling is only about 15,000 square feet. Even bumping that up to 20,000 – 25,000 square feet to account for a fully indoor queue, there’s enough room to fit two of these systems side by side in a 71,500-square-foot building. Each system is rated around 1,250 riders per hour, so running two in parallel could make this a legitimate second high-capacity, weather-proof people-eater for the land.

The obvious creative direction, similar to what Efteling already built, would be something like a haunted Phantom of the Opera performance, with the Bride taking a starring operatic turn. But that might land a little too close to copying Efteling’s own concept, and the Phantom is already performing for Victoria in Monsters Unchained, anyway. I’d love to see Universal push further.

Given the extra room in the building beyond just the ride systems themselves, they could build out large physical sets around the theater, with the seating almost acting like an inverted Carousel of Progress. Instead of the theater rotating past scenes facing inward, the pods themselves spin and rotate between large physical sets built around them, meaning guests look outward toward the story. The Bride, or even the Invisible Man, could narrate the whole thing, walking guests through Darkmoor’s history as the room dances around them and spins them from scene to scene and moment to moment. It’s ambitious, but genuinely something nobody’s done before!

Or, the slower route: an expanded Na’vi River Journey

Given how quickly Universal likely wants this to open, I’d be remiss not to also mention the simplest option: a slow, scenic boat ride in the vein of Na’vi River Journey. Guests would glide through Darkmoor’s catacombs with Bride animatronics, Invisible Man narration, and atmospheric lighting instead of any big mechanical system. Na’vi River Journey sits on roughly 35,000 square feet, so an expanded version with a longer ride path and a larger indoor queue could still fit comfortably inside this building. It wouldn’t be the flashiest option here, but if speed to opening is really the top priority, it might be the most realistic one.

We just don’t know yet

At the end of the day, only Universal Creative really knows what is happening in this expansion plot to build out the story of my beloved Darkmoor. Answers will begin to come from future permit filings, especially ones that name a ride manufacturer, since that’s usually the moment speculation turns into something closer to certainty. Until then, these are just a few of the possibilities rattling around in my head for the land I care about most in this entire park.

I hope you enjoyed this run through the speculative Darkmoor catacombs with me. Be sure to watch out for Dracula’s brides on the way out, and I’ll see you for more armchair imagineering soon!

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