What Could Have Been / Universal Studios

An island themed around Batman instead of the Marvel Superheroes at Islands of Adventure.

General

• Halloween Horror Nights

• Universal Orlando Resort's expansion plan in the 1990's was originally supposed to have the resort consist of two areas. The second area would sit down the road from the main resort, and would consist of a country club, golf course, another CityWalk district and an unknown theme park(s). Unfortunately, before the second area could begin construction, the September 11 attacks and the economic recession that followed it caused major financial losses at Universal, forcing them to sell off the patch of land that would have been slated for the area. Fast forward to the 2010s, and with NBCUniversal under the new corporate heads at Comcast, most of the land was bought back and the area would serve as the grounds for what would ultimately be Universal's third park, Universal's Epic Universe.
• Alongside the development of Universal Studios Florida, Universal also had their eyes on building a park in Europe, developing two competing concepts for a park in either London or Paris. Ultimately neither proposal went through for different reasons.
  • The London park would've been built on the Rainham Marshes, a former Ministry of Defence firing range that at the time was a mix of marshland and some industrial and waste disposal properties. The plan for Universal Studios London was that alongside the park, it would also feature a Studio Tour as well as production facilities that could be used by local companies, including the BBC who were keen on the idea. The UK government also heavily supported the project as a way to attract visitors away from Paris and the future Euro Disneyland. The main opposition to the park came from environmentalist and conservationist groups, who were not only concerned about the park being built over sensitive marshland but also raised alarms about the risk of waste contamination from the land's past use. It was those environmental factors that ultimately doomed the park, as Universal were unwilling to take on the cost of developing an adjacent nature reserve alongside the already heightened construction costs of turning Rainham Marshes into land suitable for a large resort, and so they opted to turn their attention to Paris instead. Today, the Rainham Marshes are a fully protected RSPB nature reserve.
  • Universal's Parisian park was known as Universal's HollywoodLand, and in comparison to the London proposal was smaller in scale, being more along the level of a Universal Studios Japan in terms of content. Universal got as far as purchasing land near Melun, a town on the southeastern outskirts of Paris' metropolitan area, for the project. When Euro Disneyland began facing its highly-publicised headwinds during its development, Universal decided against trying to directly compete as closely, and this ultimately led to Universal purchasing shares in Port Aventura in Catalonia instead in 1997.
• Universal had tried to build a theme park in South Korea for a long time, but after repeated delays, the project was cancelled in the mid '2010s.
• A Universal Studios park had been in development for the Dubailand complex and managed to get very far along in development, to the point that much of the construction site had been laid out and the Universal archway for it was built. However, the entire project was suddenly put on hold due to the major recession that had hit Dubai. After many years of silence regarding the park, Universal officially announced its cancellation in 2016.
• A rather unique mostly-indoor Universal Studios park was being developed for Moscow, but was later scrapped for reasons unknown.

Universal Studios Florida

• The park was supposed to be identical to Universal Studios Hollywood, with the park placing an emphasis on the production backlot and having a tram tour as the main attraction. When the announcement of Disney-MGM Studios came with the Backlot Tour being mentioned as the main attraction, the entire project was retooled into placing emphasis on the theme park itself instead of the studio side, out of fear of Universal being accused of ripping off Disney's idea. In the end, this turned out to be a good thing for Universal, considering that the idea of making Central Florida into a "Hollywood East" never quite took off the way people were hoping.
• Earthquake: The Big One was first envisioned to be a trolley ride through a crumbling San Francisco, but with both financial and technical limitations, the decision was made to duplicate the same Earthquake subway scene from the Hollywood Studio Tour. The only remnant of the original plan was the trolley house design of the attraction's entrance.
• Back to the Future: The Ride:
  • The original concept consisted of nothing more than Doc Brown flying guests through different time periods. Back to the Future creators Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale found this too insubstantial a concept for a ride inspired by the movies.
  • Universal considered having Doc Brown's Evil Twin brother, also portrayed by Christopher Lloyd, as the antagonist. When they brought Peyton Reed^* Later known as the director of Bring It On and Ant-Man, among others and Mark Cowen to help rewrite the script, the duo suggested that bringing back Biff Tannen as an antagonist would strengthen the connection to the movies.
  • An early draft of the ride had the 2015 sequence being set in the air highways, along with there being a 1885 sequence where the riders just narrowly dodge getting hit by a train.
• A ride based off of Casper the Friendly Ghost was first considered in the mid-90's, but dropped after the 1995 film failed to meet Universal's expectations. Such a ride was later again considered, this time for the Toon Lagoon section of Islands of Adventure, but again failed to make it past the drawing boards. With Universal later owning Casper, however, things could be set back into motion.
• A roller coaster based off of Apollo 13 was in development (yes, really) in the '90s, slated for the area Men in Black: Alien Attack now resides in. It was scrapped due to the budget for it ballooning out of control.
• After the Apollo 13 concept fell through, Universal looked at doing a thrill ride based around the works of Stephen King, but was unable to get the license from him. Interestingly, Disney also wanted to make a Stephen King thrill ride for Disney-MGM Studios around the same time, but they too were met with rejection.
• Yet another roller coaster concept that was developed in the '90s involved guests going into a studio dedicated to the disaster genre and being put right into the middle of a disaster movie shoot by a manic film director (that Universal considered getting Jim Carrey to play). Although the concept of it being a roller coaster was scrapped, the whole idea of the ride was later retooled a decade later into the Disaster! attraction, but with the manic director being played by Christopher Walken instead of Carrey.
• Jurassic Park River Adventure was originally planned to be built at the area where Men in Black: Alien Attack stands now. However, Steven Spielberg came in and successfully encouraged Universal to do something more elaborate for the franchise, resulting in the fully themed island area now at Islands of Adventure.
• At one point in the mid-1990s, there were plans by Universal to build attractions based off the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon video game franchises, due to their then-ownership of said franchises. It is said that Sony Computer Entertainment (who published the games for the PlayStation console) shot the plans down in objection, so they instead came up with a meet-and-greet experience for the Crash Bandicoot character. The franchises are now under the ownership of Activision, who currently have no plans to license rides based off either franchise.
• Men in Black: Alien Attack:
  • Pushing the red button was originally going to make the vehicles go into hyperspeed (similar to the first movie), with the effect being pulled off via projection tunnels and wind. The idea was abandoned when the designers felt there was no way to convincingly make the vehicles feel like they're going fast. The space it was meant for was made into the scanner scene instead.
  • The ride's facade would've been a replica of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel exterior from the film.
  • Before the World's Fair concept was decided upon, there were several alternate ideas thrown around for what the MIB headquarters would be disguised as, such as a Florida orange juice factory tour and the Orlando International Airport.
  • A MIB-themed restaurant was meant to accompany the ride before getting slashed from the budget. On the attraction's exterior, note how the store's entrance is an "M" and the restrooms' entrance is an "I", but there's no "B". The restaurant's entrance was meant to be that "B".
  • "The Universe and You" attraction was at one point going to be called "It's a Small Universe After All".
  • The "Immigration Room" section of the queue line was going to feature more audio-animatronics until it was decided that the money would be better spent on the ride itself.
  • Higher-ups wanted to use the same vehicles that The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man use, but dropped this idea after testing it and finding it too hard to hit targets.
• A How to Train Your Dragon attraction was discussed, but scrapped due to failed negotiations between Universal and DreamWorks Animation. It was supposedly planned as a replacement for Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast, which was ultimately replaced with Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. Now that Universal owns DreamWorks, the property is rumored to be getting a fully-themed land at Epic Universe.
  • Around the same time in the early 2010s, Universal toyed with revamping their Kidzone area with DreamWorks as a whole. It would've included a Shrek meet and greet near the entrance, a Madagascar play area, a Rise of the Guardians flat ride, a Kung Fu Panda tracked ride, a How to Train Your Dragon mini-land, and most surprising of all, a Quick Service location based on Wallace & Gromit, which would've almost certainly involved further negotiations with Aardman. Similar to the aforementioned example, DreamWorks was now rumored to replace Kidzone, now having closed for good in January 2023. It was later confirmed to be true in July later that year.
• There was talk of a ride based off Star Trek being envisioned as a replacement for Shrek 4D at one point, but the plans were shelved after talks with CBS and Paramount collapsed. Universal did have the Star Trek attraction rights at one point, but they only used them for an interactive attraction in the early to mid 90's called The Screen Test Home Video Adventure, which gave guests the option to do a Star Trek-inspired film or a film based off the Universal Newsreels.
• Around 2012, Universal was considering replacing Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone with an Ice Age re-theme and got far enough for attraction ideas and concept art to be designed, but these plans were never built, possibly due to failed negotiations between Fox and Blue Sky Studios or never being pitched at all.
• In the summer of 2013, there was heavy consideration of closing down E.T. Adventure in favor of a The Smurfs replacement, entitled A Smurfs Celebration, based off the then-recent live action duology, but after the extreme negative feedback it got after it's reveal in a survey, it never came to be, likely due to people finding out what it was going to replace.
• Reportedly there were plans to revamp the Woody Woodpecker's KidZone section at Universal Studios Florida into an area based of Nickelodeon franchises, in order to make up for the closure of Nickelodeon Studios and Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast. The plans apparently went nowhere, however, and the only thing that may have came out of it was a Spongebob Squarepants-themed gift shop at a store formerly themed after Walter Lantz cartoons.
• Not long after Nintendo granted Universal the rights to develop theme park attractions, Universal again sought to revamp the KidZone through a re-theming to Pokémon, which was a way for Universal to keep Nintendo fans entertained as Super Nintendo World was under construction at Universal's Epic Universe miles away. This was shelved after Fast & Furious: Supercharged failed to impress. This was planned around the same time Universal was considering re-theming the Lost Continent area to The Legend of Zelda, which was also simultaneously shelved.
• The plot of Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem was originally going to involve Vector, the villain from the first movie, returning for revenge and attempting to kidnap the girls again, leading to him and Gru having a showdown in the middle of Gru's laboratory.
• During development of Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time, the attraction was at one point envisioned as an indoor rollercoaster and later as an interactive shooter ride. Both concepts would've put guests right in the middle of a battle in the post-apocalyptic Los Angeles landscape between Skynet and the surviving humans.
• The Mutha Nature trailer at the end of Disaster! was going to be available for people to buy a DVD of, but this fell through due to Universal not wanting to pay Dwayne Johnson royalties.
• Before Twister...Ride it Out in the New York area was slated for removal, Universal planned to revamp the ride and replace its suspenseful undertone with a more comedic style. Jimmy Fallon would replace Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as the ride hosts (yes, no kidding), breaking the ride away from its source material. It was later decided to make the new attraction its own thing, resulting in Race Through New York.
• The Hogwarts Express ride was going to have a "leg tickler" effect for the scene when the chocolate frogs get spilled. The effect was ultimately cut when the designers felt that it was too noticeable and too loud.
• Super Nintendo World was supposed to be built where the KidZone stands now. In fact around mid to late 2017, blueprints and permits were leaked with the complete layout of the land, and construction walls began to go up around KidZone. Then in early 2018 the walls were taken down around the land as around that same time Universal had just gotten the green light to build their third gate now known as Epic Universe and thus decided it would make more sense to save it for the new park. This initial pitch for the proto-Super Nintendo World was a bit more built out than what would eventually initially be built: Alongside the Super Mario and Donkey Kong areas, a The Legend of Zelda area themed around the Ocarina of Time version of Kokiri Forest and Hyrule Castle was suggested, along with a Kirby-themed children's play area and a "Pokémon Training Academy" within the retail space.
• A second attraction at Diagon Alley that was meant to go in the Fear Factor plot was scrapped altogether in early 2022. It was rumored to be a broomstick VR attraction. No reason has ever been given but rumors run the gamut from having issues getting permits to it being deemed too similar to the attractions at the Harry Potter store in New York (about which Universal had never been formally informed) to not wanting to crowd out the Epic Universe expansion to an across the board push away from VR attractions.

Universal Studios Hollywood

• In February 2000, Universal submitted plans for a live-action stage show called Harry Potter and the Magic Talisman. A draft had already been written, but J. K. Rowling rejected the plans as being underwhelming. Universal would try again to win Rowling over with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter a decade later, to massive success.
• The initial announcement for Transformers: The Ride stated that the ride would contain animatronics. However, this turned out not to be.
• The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash! was supposed to be built at the lower lot, but moved upper lot so that the space could be used for Hollywood's version of Super Nintendo World.

Islands of Adventure

• The site where Islands of Adventure stands now was slated for a shopping mall. It was canceled before Universal Studios Florida opened next to the site after the then-mayor of Orlando felt that entertainment would be a more viable concept.
• During Islands of Adventure's conception, it was first thought of as a "Cartoon World,"^note Concept art here◊ which would have featured attractions and rides themed after Looney Tunes, DC Comics characters and Dr. Seuss characters. While Universal was able to move forward with the Dr. Seuss themed-land, the former two concepts were rejected after Warner Bros. refused to license the characters to Universal (likely to keep their relationship with Six Flags afloat, in which was purchased by the Warner Bros. company in 1990, despite Six Flags not operating any parks in Florida). In addition, the massive success of Jurassic Park pressured Universal's research and development team to develop and entire land based off the film, which brought the "Cartoon World" concept to its coffin. The DC Comics concept would later be transformed to a Marvel Comics land that went through.
  • At one point, the DC Comics land was to be themed entirely after Batman, being a replica of Gotham City. The land would have featured a Batmobile ride, a funhouse run by The Joker, a Batman stunt show, a roller coaster with trains modeled after the Batwing, a tower drop ride featuring the Riddler, and a teacup ride featuring Mr. Freeze. The fourth, fifth and sixth concepts were revisited and themed after the Hulk, Dr. Doom and the X-Men respectively once Universal jumped ship to Marvel.
• After the Looney Tunes idea had fallen apart, many different ideas for what cartoons to have represented at Toon Lagoon were tossed around. Such ideas included a holiday stage show based around Peanuts, attractions for Casper the Friendly Ghost, Mr. Magoo (both now owned outright by Universal), and various Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and even attractions based around the "Big Five" Nicktoons of the time (The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rugrats, Doug, Rocko's Modern Life, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters) were considered (the latter likely because Nickelodeon Studios was already there). Ultimately, it was decided the area would be based around King Features Syndicate comic strips and Jay Ward cartoons.
• A Rocky and Bullwinkle water coaster was meant to accompany Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, but was slashed from the budget.
• Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls would've started off with two log vehicles attached to each other, only for that to change in the climax when Snidely would lower a sawblade in front of the vehicles and split them right down the middle. At the end of the ride, the separated vehicles would unload at two separate stations, and then secretly reattach before returning to the loading area. This idea made it pretty far into development, as evidenced by the fact that there's two separate tracks on the main drop of the ride as well as two separate unloading docks.
• Very early plans called for the Sweethaven area around Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges to be larger, and feature a large-scale Popeye dinner show that would've been similar to the Hoop-De-Doo Revue at Walt Disney World.
• A Van Helsing ride was under development, but the underperformance of the film ultimately proved to be its undoing. The space it was slated for later became the site for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (which uses the same KUKA Arm technology the Van Helsing ride was originally planned to).
• Early◊ concept art◊ for the Hogsmeade section of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure revealed a more cheaper take of the original plans, with the most notable difference being the retention of the Enchanted Oak Tavern, which would have only been slightly refurbished and re-themed into a Harry Potter atmosphere. Universal soon realized this wasn't going to be enough to appease fans, and decided to remove the Tavern entirely and give the entire area a near-exact replica of Hogsmeade.
• A replica of the Forbidden Forest as well as a ride in Arthur Weasley's Flying Ford Anglia were planned for Hogsmeade, but cut due to lack of space and/or budget. The Forbidden Forest replica was eventually integrated into Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and a replica of the Flying Ford Anglia was made for the queue of Dragon Challenge (formerly Dueling Dragons). That coaster would finally be replaced with Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, which is set in the Forbidden Forest and even includes a brief indoor dark ride segment.
• Skull Island: Reign of Kong was planned to be built in the space where Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey now takes up, rather than the space between Toon Lagoon and Jurassic Park.
• There were plans to make a rather elaborate ride based on the CGI Illumination Entertainment film of The Lorax, but the film's mixed reception and objections from the Seuss family led Universal to shelve the project.
• There is concept art depicting a playground next to the Cat in the Hat attraction known as "The Noisarium". Why it didn't come to be is unknown.
• A Grinch roller coaster through Mt. Crumpit was one of the many concepts for Seuss Landing that ultimately never came to be.
• It's been alleged that the idea for CityWalk's Toothsome Chocolate Emporium restaurant was born of out of Universal's failure to acquire the license for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and make it into a themed land that would've replaced the Lost Continent.
• A Jeep Safari ride and a Helicopter tour simulator were in the plans for Jurassic Park, but were cut due to budget.
• Marvel Superhero Island was going to feature a dark ride shooter themed around the X-Men, but was also a victim of budgeting. The dark ride shooter concept would later become Men in Black: Alien Attack over at the other park.
• After the X-Men ride was cut, a stunt show themed around either the X-Men or The Avengers was planned to be built in its place, but too fell to budgeting. A more cheaper stage show was ultimately built for Toon Lagoon.
• Plans also called for there to be a "Villains' Club" restaurant, which ultimately became the "Kingpin's Arcade".
• The Incredible Hulk roller coaster was actually planned to center around the Silver Surfer. The idea fell apart quickly when the creative team realized that they would need a chrome color for the coaster, which wouldn't do so well in the Florida sunlight.
• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was going to feature an appearance by Voldemort and a scene involving the giant chess pieces, but both were slashed from the budget. Voldemort and Bellatrix would both appear in Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
• During the conceptualization of Super Nintendo World at what could become Universal's Epic Universe, Universal planned to re-theme the Lost Continent area into a land based off The Legend of Zelda, which would've opened while Epic Universe was still under construction. Like the Pokémon re-theme of the KidZone as mentioned above, it was shelved when Fast & Furious: Supercharged bombed.

Universal's Epic Universe

• Supposedly, one of the ideas tossed around for Epic Universe was a park dedicated almost entirely to video game franchises. It would've included rides based off an immeasurable number of franchises, from classic arcade games such as Pac-Man and Golden Axe, to modern franchises such as Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Gear, among others, and would've also been used for Nintendo franchises that wouldn't have been used for Super Nintendo World when it was being considered for USF due to lack of space and/or budget. Given that the demands would've almost certainly included technology that hadn't yet existed for theme parks (something Universal was already investing for Super Nintendo World) and would garner a huge bill for merely licensing the properties, it's no surprise that this idea never went forward.
• At one point, Universal executives wanted to use the name Fantastic Worlds for the park, presumably as a reference to the Fantastic Beasts franchise that is rumored to have a themed land there. Warner Bros. wasn't amused.
• The publicity concept art for Epic Universe featured a large outdoor amphitheatre in the Universal Horror section of the park. The construction plans submitted to the City of Orlando for their approval appeared to show that this had been turned into a smaller indoor theatre instead, before being scrapped altogether in favor of a tracked ride (currently believed to be a spinning coaster courtesy of Mack Rides, but subject to confirmation).
• In the hub area near the racing coasters, a quick-service burger restaurant (tentatively named "Meteor Burger") was present in both the concept art and the site plans, but was cut at the very last second before construction began for unknown reasons, leaving only its attached restrooms. Also cut was "Cassini", a sit-down Italian restaurant and bar located next to the hub's central fountain display between the Wizarding World and duelling coaster. The permit for this restaurant was submitted, but Universal never paid for it and allowed it to expire. It is believed that "The Oak & Star Tavern" was upgraded from a quick-service BBQ restaurant to a full-service restaurant and bar to make up for the loss of Cassini.
• In the Wizarding World area, a second attraction themed to the French Ministry of Magic was planned. This is believed to be a VR attraction that would simulate riding on broomsticks; for a look at how it would have worked, The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride at Lionsgate Entertainment World is a high-capacity VR attraction that sees guests riding on motorcycles, and whose ride system would likely have been similar to the French Ministry of Magic ride. This was cut from the land with the intent of building it at Universal Studios Florida as an expansion of Diagon Alley instead (replacing the Fear Factor Live stage), before being scrapped altogether.

Universal Studios Japan

• The park was originally going to have Akira Kurosawa as a creative consultant.
• When the first details of Super Nintendo World came out, a map showed that the area would be built in the space used for the Universal Cool Japan events, rather than the parking lot next to Japan's version of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which was also built on a former parking space) that it ended up occupying.
• Universal was eager to build a version of Earthquake at Universal Studios Japan during that park's construction. Unfortunately, the country's notoriety of being home to multiple strong and devastating earthquakes over the years caused executives to fear a backlash. Universal instead went with a duplicate of the Hollywood Backdraft special effects show in its place.
• A second Japanese Universal park was planned to open in Okinawa, but it was later scrapped.

Universal Studios Singapore

• Madagascar: A Crate Adventure had early plans to feature a drop in a volcano-based finale and it was all actually built, but severe flaws in ride's infrastructure resulted in the drop having to be removed and the finale redesigned. The ride itself was at one point envisioned as a "Photo Safari" attraction, but was changed early in development.
• Before Disney bought out Marvel, the park was initially going to have a clone of Marvel Super Hero Island. It was scrapped due to failed negotiations between Marvel and Universal and later retooled into Sci-Fi City.
• The park was supposed to have an updated version of E.T. Adventure titled E.T.: The Ride Home, it was later scrapped and the space it was slated for became the site of Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase.

Universal Studios Beijing

• The park evolved quite a bit during its design phase. The original plan was for it to act as a "best of" park, with the facades for each ride deliberately meant to contrast with each other connected by a studio soundstage theme. The park evolved over time to what we have today, with a selection of immersive lands themed to specific IP's.
  • Fast & Furious: Supercharged was the first ride announced for this park, but the ride's poor reception in Florida resulted in it being cut. An earlier idea was that Transformers (2007) and The Fast and the Furious would share a single land together, named Heroes & Legends.
  • Revenge of the Mummy was also considered for this park, being given a mini-land themed to an Egyptian temple named Epic Adventures. This land would have also featured a family-friendly car ride based on Singapore's Treasure Hunters. It was ultimately decided to cut Epic Adventures and leave the space as a future expansion plot.
  • The area where Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness is to be constructed was originally meant for the park's version of Super Nintendo World, which was scrapped due to the Nintendo brand's historically poor appeal in China. A land themed after SpongeBob SquarePants (based off old plans for KidZone at Florida) was designed as a backup plan and it went pretty far with some ride designs and concept art made, but it too was scrapped before it could be green-lit for reasons unclear (some suggest Viacom had cold feet towards licensing a property to the notoriously pirate-friendly China, while another theory suggests Universal pulled the plug when test audiences were indifferent to the idea). The decision to scrap the land was made just as Universal was negotiating an acquisition of DreamWorks Animation, giving them the perfect franchise to market in the Chinese park.
    • Among the various attractions planned for the SpongeBob-themed land were an interactive play area for children modeled after Goo Lagoon, with a playground based upon the Flying Dutchman's ship adjacent to it, a Krusty Krab-themed restaurant, a kiddie ride themed after the Chum Bucket, a meet-and-greet area with SpongeBob and other characters outside the titular character's pineapple, and a carousel where guests could ride bubble creatures made by Patrick, who would ride with the guests. The main attraction would've been an indoor ride where guests would board boats and drive through Ms. Puff's Boating School, only for the boats to veer off-course and drive through various Bikini Bottom locations and characters. The ride would then take a venture outside before culminating in a climatic drop through Rock Bottom. The ride would've made extensive use of special water effects and animatronics had it been constructed. This video elaborates on how the land was envisioned.
• Jurassic World Adventure was first developed with using ride vehicles based on the film's Gyrospheres in mind, but technical considerations as well as a desire to extend the length of the ride meant that more traditional vehicles were chosen instead.

---