Epic Universe construction update: Isle of Berk, a master class in theme park kinetics
Construction photos from Epic Universe show how all the attractions of How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk will connect. Let’s dive into the theme park theory behind this design choice.
From high in the sky, bioreconstruct captured another round of aerial photos of Universal Epic Universe construction on Oct. 4 & 11, 2024. The new theme park will open in 2025 at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. (New to Epic Universe? Check out our beginner’s guide.) In today’s update, we’ll focus on How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.
Isle of Berk refresher
How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk is one of the five worlds under construction at Epic Universe. (The others are Celestial Park, Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.)
Isle of Berk will contain three rides (the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders roller coaster, the Dragon Racer’s Rally spinning flat ride, and the Fyre Drill boat battle ride), an indoor show (“The Untrainable Dragon”), two quick-service restaurants (Mead Hall and Spit Fyre Grill), a play area (Viking Training Camp), character greetings with Toothless, shops, and even flying dragons overhead.
Isle of Berk is based on DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” movies. The opening of Epic Universe ties in nicely with the summer 2025 release of the live-action “How to Train Your Dragon” film in theaters, though the theme park land will be rooted in the animated version. Specifically, Isle of Berk will take place in between the events of 2014’s “How to Train Your Dragon 2” and 2019’s “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.”
For more details about the attractions and stories of Isle of Berk, see our previous general overview and deep dive. The remainder of today’s update will focus on aerial photography at the Isle of Berk construction site.
Isle of Berk, kinetics, and theme park theory
Isle of Berk is 15.5 acres, making it the second-largest of Epic Universe’s five worlds (the biggest is Celestial Park, the central hub). Universal Creative is utilizing this acreage to interconnect Berk’s attractions and experiences among one another. We don’t just mean narratively; everything is physically codependent.
This interconnectedness indicates purposeful design, and performs several functions for the guest. For starters, there will be a lot of kinetics (visual movement) throughout Berk. Rides, water, and people will be constantly in motion from nearly every viewpoint — making Berk both visually appealing and alive with energy.
In these ways, Isle of Berk’s theme park theory (the study of theme park design as an art form with something to say) echoes that of Disneyland ’59, the 1959 expansion project at the original Disney theme park which introduced Matterhorn Bobsleds; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; and the Monorail and interconnected these new attractions with the existing Autopia and Skyway rides. The result was a force of theme park kinetics that remains today (sans the Skyway).
These same principles are at work within How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk at Epic Universe, as seen in the construction photos below. As an example of Berk’s interconnected kinetics, the water from the lagoon that will greet guests upon entry seeps into the ride path of the Fyre Drill boat ride. (Speaking of, construction workers recently mounted colorful canopies over Fyre Drill’s queue area.)
Furthermore, the seating area for the Spit Fyre Grill dining location directly overlooks Fyre Drill, ensuring that diners see movement in their periphery at all times.
As another example of kinetics, the roller coaster track of Hiccup’s Wing Gliders traverses through nearly the entire land, from pedestrian courtyards to the queues of other attractions.
The track even maneuvers its way atop Berk’s waterways and adjacent to the homes of some of Berk’s citizens.
The details of Isle of Berk’s set design
Speaking of these pieces of set design, artisans have been hard at work detailing the ornamentation of various fixtures throughout the Isle of Berk construction site, particularly over the thresholds of doorways.
Upon the exterior of the theater for “The Untrainable Dragon,” a fixture depicts an Isle of Berk twist on the classic Muses of Comedy and Tragedy.
bioreconstruct noticed new details upon the Dragon Racer’s Rally spinning flat ride, which is also now surrounded by white pole framing (and again, peep the coaster track).
Viking Training Camp
Construction workers are making fast progress on Viking Training Camp, the play area within Isle of Berk.
The photo below, which bioreconstruct captured just a week after the pictures above, how even more progress, particularly in “wood carvings” of dragons along the elevated platforms of the playground. (Once more, we again should admire the positioning of the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders coaster track. It will truly immerse the entire land in movement.)
More Epic Universe construction photos from October 2024:
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