The universe of Harry Potter has expanded once again. Nearly 19 years after the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the “Boy Who Lived” is heading to Hollywood. On April 7, the third Wizarding World of Harry Potter will open at Universal Studios Hollywood. Like the theme parks in Orlando, Florida, and Osaka, Japan, the Los Angeles version takes visitors inside J. K. Rowling’s highly detailed world, from the streets of Hogsmeade to the halls of Hogwarts.
The magical surroundings were created by the same team who designed the Oscar-nominated sets, including production designer Stuart Craig and supervising art director Alan Gilmore. “It was almost like another movie,” says Gilmore of the design process, which was done in collaboration with Universal Creative. “We had no preconceived notions of what a theme park should be, so we approached it as taking the film sets and making them real. We wanted to create a story and a logic for everything.”
But designing a theme park that hosts thousands of people each day is quite different from creating a film set that will be used for a few months or even hours. “We have to design with real people in mind,” says Gilmore. “The sets needed to be beautiful from every angle. We wanted it to feel like a real town, except with the language of Harry Potter.” To achieve this sense of realness, the team focused on adding period architectural details and authentic (or at least authentic-looking) materials. “We’ve tried to eliminate the modern world and keep people fully contained,” Gilmore says.
Clever, well-hidden technology adds the fantastical aspects of the books and movies to the park. Many of the windows in Hogsmeade are equipped with “Wand Magic,” which lets visitors wave their wands to turn on a light or make a flower grow. “The magic has to be tangible,” says Gilmore. Visitors can also experience memorable spaces in Hogwarts as they queue for the 3-D HD ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, try out wands at Ollivanders, shop for chocolate frogs at Honeydukes, and visit Hagrid before embarking on the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster.
For Gilmore, the key to the park was mixing storytelling with authentic design for an immersive experience. “I love it when design works so well that people can travel to another place and believe they’re there.”'
