‘Harry Potter’ Abu Dhabi Lands To Feature ‘Interactive Experiences’

Diagon Alley looks set to come to Abu Dhabi. (Photo by Sheri Lowen/Universal Orlando Resort via Getty Images)

Getty Images

The Harry Potter theme park lands in Abu Dhabi are expected to be packed with technical wizardry as one of the designers involved with the project has revealed that interactive experiences will be set into the scenery.

Earlier this week Warner Bros., which produced all eight Potter films, announced that lands based on the legendary locales of Hogwarts Castle, Diagon Alley and the Forbidden Forest will be coming to its theme park in Abu Dhabi as this author previously revealed for Forbes.com.

My report forecast that the flagship ride in the lands is expected to be themed to the enchanted flying Ford Anglia car which stars in some of the most thrilling action scenes of the Potter franchise. Testimony to this, the car had a starring role in the announcement video for the expansion to Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi. Its action credentials aren’t the only reason it was chosen.

Abu Dhabi’s Potter lands will be the first inside a theme park with the Warner Bros. brand above the door so expectations are running high. Although there are six other Potter lands scattered around the world, they are all operated by Universal as Warner licensed the theme park rights to it in 2007.

Universal’s Potter lands have won a string of awards for their spellbinding theming and immersion. The rides inside them are based on many of the most exhilarating scenes from the Potter films with the ones featuring the Ford Anglia being a notable omission. Making it the star of the Abu Dhabi attraction is therefore a logical way to differentiate it from its counterparts at Universal. There is good reason why they are so immersive.

Three ‘Harry Potter’ lands are coming to Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.

MSM

As I explained in Abu Dhabi newspaper The National, Universal’s contract with Warner Bros. commits it to maintaining the Potter lands “at a first class, world class level for destination theme parks unsurpassed in quality by any other destination theme park worldwide”. Hitting these lofty standards should be a walk in the park for Warner Bros. World.

It is run by specialist leisure manager Miral which, in just the past 15 years, has made a name for itself as the world’s leading theme park operator alongside Universal and Disney. At the heart of its magic formula is an unrelenting quest for quality. As its trailblazing boss Mohamed Al Zaabi explained to this author, Miral always ensures that the “next experience will be better than the previous one. That’s what we do always at Miral. We keep pushing the bar.”

This approach even extends to the video announcing the lands which showed outstanding attention to detail. The Ford Anglia wasn’t just seen soaring through the sky but flying above Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island theme park hub. It was the product of Miral’s marketing masterminds Badr Bourji, Khaled Attallah, Max Mayer and Jamie Chegwin who combine the highest level of agency expertise with experience at the world’s leading attractions. They worked hand-in-hand with Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter marketing supremos Ariel Ortega and Pete Yoder to create an enchanting campaign.

Thanks to this commitment to quality, Warner Bros. World recently became the first attraction in the Middle East to win the Liseberg Applause Award – the themed entertainment industry’s equivalent of top honors at the Oscars. The trick up its sleeve is that the park is indoors. This is primarily to shield guests from Abu Dhabi’s intense heat but it also allows it to be decorated with much more elaborate scenery than outdoor parks, like the ones in Universal’s portfolio, as it isn’t open to the elements. It means that the exteriors of the rides in Warner Bros. World are often just as detailed as the interiors of their counterparts at Universal.

The magic touch this should give the Potter lands has already been noted by theme park fans. “With the intense level of detail that WB World already has in abundance I genuinely think this will be the best looking Harry Potter space in the world,” says Sean Evans, a professional roller coaster rider who runs the renowned attractions website Lift Hills and Thrills. Expert industry analyst Tracy Kahaner added that the new lands seem set to create a “truly spellbinding experience for fans.”

Themed entertainment titan TAIT is the creative consultant on the Potter expansion which makes sense as its Thinkwell division worked on Warner Bros. World and two other Yas Island theme parks – Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi. Founded in 2001 by former Universal Studios park designers who didn’t want to relocate when the company moved its creative team from the west coast to Orlando, Thinkwell went on to develop some of the industry’s most immersive and engaging attractions. It has designed attractions for Universal Studios Singapore and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Hollywood but perhaps its best-known work is on the wildly-successful behind the scenes Harry Potter tours on the outskirts of London and Tokyo.

Thinkwell previously worked on the ‘Harry Potter’ tour at Leavesden Studios in England. (photo by Andrew Aitchison / In pictures via Getty Images)

In Pictures via Getty Images

Visitors to the tours get to step inside the actual Great Hall set that was used in the movies and peer inside Harry’s dormitory in Hogwarts Castle. There’s even a full-size recreation of the spooky Diagon Alley with models of towering colorful characters embedded in the wonky buildings. Just like on an actual movie set, instructions are scrawled on the reverse of the façades showing how they fit together.

The original movie props are within touching distance including costumes, wigs and, of course, wands. Rows and rows of them. Every item is meticulously tagged with details of the film it was used in, the character it was used by and even the fictional materials it is meant to be made of.

All of the props and scenery are either originals or built from the original blueprints to give guests the same breathtaking experience that the actors had on the sets. It blurs the boundary between fantasy and reality in dramatic fashion which is exactly what Warner Bros. World needs to cast a powerful spell. This bold intention will be clearly visible from the outside of the park as a huge new Warner Bros. logo is expected to be built as a beacon for it.

Bringing the Potter expansion to life takes more than the wave of a magic wand and design work took place way back in 2024. One of the concept designers who worked on the project was Kat Chang, a 20-year design veteran who has worked for many of the biggest brands in entertainment. At Walt Disney Imagineering she was the lead interior designer for Shanghai Disneyland’s acclaimed Soaring Over the Horizon ride and went on to become the lead location designer on Disney’s Monsters At Work streaming series.

After that she switched to Thinkwell where she says she “designed attractions, retail, and dining environments for the upcoming Harry Potter land in Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.” She adds that in the role she also “provided concept design for interactive experiences in each environment.” Of course the plans could have changed since then but that seems unlikely. Interactivity is a key part of the experience at the other Potter lands so it would be logical for Abu Dhabi to upgrade it rather than remove it.

At Universal’s parks, aspiring wizards can buy wands which trigger effects in the scenery when they are waved in different ways. The movement, and the effects, mirror the spells seen on screen in the Potter films. Making the movement of the Silencio spell at a noisy animatronic bird stops it squawking while the Incendio spell makes real-looking flames flare up in lanterns and Aguamenti makes water flow from a fountain. The latest wands even have haptic and light feedback so fans can feel what it’s like to be an actual wizard.

Universal’s system is proprietary so it isn’t likely that Abu Dhabi will implement it. However, an alternative seems all but certain, especially as SeaWorld Abu Dhabi and even the Yas Waterworld water park were both developed with integrated games which act like treasure hunts as they encourage guests to find all the effects in the scenery. That is in safe hands in the Potter land as Chang was also involved with what is widely accepted to be Disney’s most beloved modern theme park ride.

Mystic Manor is one of the most beloved modern Disney rides. (Photo by Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Called Mystic Manor, it is a modern version of Disney’s classic Haunted Mansion ride and immerses guests in chaos when a magical music box is unexpectedly opened by a cute monkey bringing a spooky museum to life. The ride uses every trick in the designers’ spell books including elaborate animatronics, projection mapping and pin-sharp screens seamlessly set into the scenery.

The ride is hidden inside a mysterious Victorian mansion dotted with domes, towers and dormer windows. It would fit right in in the pages of a Potter novel which bodes well for the Abu Dhabi lands. They are due to be confirmed in an announcement by Warner Bros. World tomorrow with the opening believed to be several years down the line so there is still time for the park to work even more of its magic.