Four years ago Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi rocked the entertainment industry when it announced that it was developing a Harry Potter land making it the first theme park outside Universal Studios to feature attractions based on the boy wizard. The plans have been under development since then and Potter has yet to make his presence felt in the park. Until now.
Warner Bros. World is run by specialist leisure operator Miral which is backed by the Abu Dhabi government and in just the past 15 years it has become the world’s leading theme park manager alongside Disney and Universal. As this report explained, this is largely thanks to its uncompromising quality standards and its insistence that each of its attractions outdoes its predecessors. Potter will be its biggest test by far.
Universal’s Potter lands at its resorts in Orlando, Hollywood, Beijing and Osaka are famous for their fastidious attention to detail. They are all home to movie-accurate recreations of the magical village of Hogsmeade which looks like a scene from a Christmas card. Its main street is lined with shops and restaurants in cottages which have sharply sloping roofs, carved wooden doors and ornate iron signs swinging above them. Artificial snow is piled up in their gutters, smoke seems to billow from the chimneys on the roofs and the windows of the cottages are filled with moving models of colorful creatures from the films.
The village stands in the shadow of Harry’s alma mater of Hogwarts or, as it’s formally known, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The giant grey turrets of the Gothic castle soar into the sky and seem even taller than they actually are thanks to an old movie-making trick called forced perspective where the proportions of objects are reduced the higher up they are. Hidden inside Hogwarts is a ride which uses every trick in its spell book to make fans feel like they are actually in the movies. Its seats are attached to a giant robot arm which glides along a roller coaster track to give guests the impression they are riding on a broomstick next to Harry and his pals.
Another of the lands features a full-size recreation of the Dickensian Diagon Alley with massive models of colorful characters embedded in the wonky buildings. At the end of the street is the imposing Gringotts bank with its colossal marble columns and gleaming chandeliers hanging down from a domed ceiling. It is actually the queue area for an innovative roller coaster that turns to face towering 3D screens giving riders the impression that they are being chased through the vaults of the bank. The latest Potter attraction is in Orlando’s new Epic Universe theme park and is set in an enchanted elevator – actually a ride car which rises and falls as it roves around. That’s just the start.
The spellbinding settings and cutting-edge attractions are complemented by bespoke merchandise which recreates the outlandish objects found in the films. There are maps, masks, hourglasses, furry books with eyes in their covers and, of course, wands – rows and rows of them. The authenticity of the items makes the setting seem even more immersive and it hasn’t been lost on Miral.
Attention to detail is crucial to Miral’s magic formula. Warner Bros. World is entirely indoors to shield guests from the heat which surges north of 110 degrees in summer. However, instead of being an anonymous box-shaped building, the sand-colored structure is designed to resemble the exterior of a sound stage where movies are made. Inside, the scenery is far more elaborate than in its outdoor counterparts as there is no danger of it getting bleached by the sun or blowing away. Many of the lands are as detailed as actual movie sets. Building facades don’t just look weathered and soot-stained, graffiti is scrawled on them and posters are peeling off them. Some of the windows are boarded up while others have curtains which are only partly closed.
No stone is even left unturned outside the park as the trees sprout up from the sidewalk through holes shaped like the Warner Bros. shield. The carpets in the neighboring Warner Bros. hotel feature a design formed from interlocking shields and this continues on the inside of the elevators where the shapes match in the middle of the closed doors to form a complete shield.
This thoroughness sets the scene for the new Potter land to be the most detailed in the world and its merchandise will be no exception. As this job listing reveals, just over a year ago Miral advertised for a ‘Retail Product & Graphic designer’ whose duties include “the design of multi category retail product to be developed and sold within the Harry Potter World expansion at Warner Brothers World Abu Dhabi.” The listing made it clear that this involved creating “designs for new products” and added that they must “align with the Harry Potter brand, attraction, and events” with the ultimate objective being “delivering best in class merchandise by designing product that enhances the guest experience.”
It suggests that the Potter land in Abu Dhabi will have custom products and although they haven’t surfaced yet, merchandise themed to the wizarding world has quietly started to make its way to Warner Bros. World. It is found in the Treasures of Hollywood store on the corner of the park’s central plaza.
The store is located near to the expected entrance to the new land and originally sold high-end collectibles such as signed animation cells from Warner Bros. productions. The Potter takeover of the store has debuted with little fanfare and the park’s map still describes it as selling “works from various DC Comics and Looney Tunes artists, as well as prop replicas, jewelry, watches and stationery products.”
In fact, you could easily walk by and miss it if it wasn’t for the standee sign outside saying “Harry Potter Wonders Await Inside.” The shop’s interior hasn’t changed a great deal since its stock was updated and there is good reason for that. In keeping with its period setting, it has a sparkling marble floor, cream columns and walls while the cabinets set into the wall are surrounded by geometric shapes which were popular in the 1930s. It looks like a room in Gringotts making it perfectly suited to the new stock.
A life-size broomstick stands in a cabinet at the entrance giving a taste of things to come. Plush owls are packed into the kind of old-fashioned leather cases which feature prominently in the Potter films while toys of the stars sit on shimmering circular brass shelves next to decorative magical artifacts such as candles and crystal balls. Fittingly the store attendants are dressed in dark flowing gowns making them look like Hogwarts students.
There are of course wands, with some of the most exclusive ones contained in glass cabinets surrounded by multi-colored glass potion bottles, magic books and test tubes. These decorations also adorn the top shelves in the store, out of visitors’ reach, while tee shirts, scarves and jerseys branded with the different Hogwarts factions fill the hangers below. The rest of the shelves sell everything from Potter themed water bottles and mugs to jewelry.
Aficionados should keep an eye on the store as it would be a logical platform to test the market with tailored products. Not only is it near to the upcoming Potter land, it is also just off the plaza which is currently the only place in the park that Potter can be found in an attraction. This comes during the park’s equivalent of a fireworks show when scenes of classic movies from Superman to the Lord of the Rings are beamed onto billboards above the buildings in the plaza and even onto its arched ceiling.
During the Harry Potter segment, projections magically turn the ceiling into a night sky before the villainous Dementors fly past the moon and onto the surrounding buildings. The projection-mapped images transform them into the walls of the Great Hall at Hogwarts complete with detailed brickwork and stained glass windows. There is much more to come.
As this report revealed, the Abu Dhabi Potter land is expected to be the only one worldwide with replicas of both Hogwarts Castle and Diagon Alley. Construction work on the expansion can be seen from the outside of the park and it is due to open over the coming years.
Ahead of this, Miral has appointed a head of marketing for Warner Bros. World & Harry Potter. Talented industry veteran Jamie Chegwin previously headed up the marketing for Warner Bros. World and the neighboring Yas Waterworld but in January last year switched his duties at the water park for responsibility of Potter.
Chegwin started his theme park career in 2012 working for industry giant Merlin where he rose through the ranks to become marketing manager of Thorpe Park in the United Kingdom. In October 2021 he took a more senior marketing position at the U.K.’s historic Warwick Castle before moving to Miral just over a year later. With the Potter land on the horizon he will soon have an opportunity to work even more of his magic.
Additional research by Chris Sylt
