Attractions Expert Q&A: Rik Athorne oversees Wētā Workshop’s creative and design studio that creates location-based experiences and games

Born in Canada, Rik grew up in the UK, where he worked as a producer and director in television, then joined Wētā Workshop in 2007 as Head of Design. Rik also supports Wētā Workshop’s location-based experiences division, overseeing the creative direction, vision development, and project design for creative experiences, including themed attractions, immersive art installations, cultural experiences, and narrative-driven destinations.

What theme park souvenir might we be surprised to find on your shelf, and what’s its story?

I am sitting here with Rooster, who is two and a half. She is a CavaDoodle, a cross between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Poodle. We’ve got a dog policy here at Wētā Workshop, where we’re allowed to bring our dogs in, and we’ve currently got about 36 or 37 that come to work every day. It’s part of our culture, and what’s quite lovely about this place. Plus, we have dog awards—the Woof Awards—that come around annually. There are several categories like Best Look Alike, Waggiest Tail, and Best Singer.

As far as a souvenir, what’s most memorable to me is one I picked up for my eldest child when I went to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Dumbledore’s Wand. I brought it back to my son because we were reading Harry Potter at the time. And I think having this wand, connected to an incredible wizarding story that’s connected to an incredible theme park, just became this very magical, literal Horcrux to myself and to my eldest boy, so that when you’re touching Dumbledore’s wand, it represents this idea into a magical world. We’re currently reading Order of the Phoenix, so it’s taken a few years to get through everything, and I quite like the idea that we have Dumbledore’s wand in our house on my son’s shelf that connects us to this whole imaginative world.

What theme park or attraction have you always wanted to visit but have never been to? 

The place I would love to see that I haven’t had the opportunity to go to yet is probably the Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan because I really enjoy the imaginative world that Hayao Miyazaki and his team have created.

I’d love to experience a bit more of the core of what I envision that studio is. I don’t know too much about it, but lots of people I know have visited and said it’s just wonderful. So that’s on my bucket list of where I want to go.

Was there a theme park or attraction that made you want to be in this industry and how did it inspire you?

I would say it wasn’t a theme park or an attraction that inspired me to be in the creative industries—I feel like I was just destined to become part of them.

I was born in Canada but grew up in the UK, so I never had the opportunity to go to one of the amazing theme parks that had been created there. But I have a very early memory of seeing E.T. the Extraterrestrial, and from then on, E.T. sort of pointed his magical finger at me. I feel like I was touched by the Spielbergian magic, and that moment of fascination entered my younger self.

From that moment on, I was always connected to these stories. And it was E.T. that pointed me towards storytelling, film, imagination, and eventually all the Spielberg movies. And then Disney came into my life. I wanted to go to Disney parks, but I was always inspired by Spielberg, so E.T. sort of got me connected to the creative industries.

As a child, I always wanted to go to a theme park. So, the idea of imagining going to these immersive worlds became some of the fuel of my imagination and desire to create and be within these sorts of experiences, working on creative projects with creative people. And that became part of my own DNA of wanting to tell immersive stories.

I always wanted to go to Disney World throughout my entire childhood, but because we lived in the UK, Disney World was nowhere nearby. I got very excited when Euro Disney [Now Disneyland Paris] was starting to be built, but we never got to go to Euro Disney as we had left the UK by then. And so, it took me quite a while – I was in my early 30s by the time I got to Disney World for the first time. And I was literally my childlike self as a 30-year-old.

What was your favorite ride or attraction as a child, and why?

I wouldn’t say I had a favorite ride from a theme park because I always just imagined going on the rides, and I wanted to try all of them. But the ride that was my particular favorite was from when we used to go on holiday, and there was a little motorized go-kart racecourse near where we stayed.

I loved riding on those go-karts, racing my dad and my brothers, for the thrill and excitement of getting into this old go-kart with an engine behind me and a helmet that was too big that bobbled around on my head and driving as fast as I could to try to overtake everyone. I loved that, and the only thing I wanted to do on my holidays was to go on these go-karts and drive really fast. The idea of immersing myself in that sort of experience was what I really looked forward to.

Was there a ride, attraction, or character that frightened you as a child?

I was never frightened by or scared of a ride or an attraction. Having had the opportunity to go to many theme parks now, I’ve been on quite a few roller coasters, including the ones at Universal and SeaWorld, and I must admit I was slightly intimidated by some of those incredible engineering feats that take you up to the top, then drop you down to the bottom and swirl you around and around. But I was more excited by the thrill than intimidated by it. 

Growing up, Darth Vader was the character that was a bit scary for me. Rides didn’t scare me, but Darth Vader did.

What is the oddest or coolest job you’ve had in your career?

Honestly, the coolest job I’ve had in my career is the one that I’ve had here at Wētā Workshop for the past 18 years since I came to New Zealand. I’ve been lucky to find a place that’s so creative with talented people, be part of that team, and work on many incredible projects.

We go off and explore new areas to push boundaries creatively across TV, gaming, location-based experiences, immersive installations, and so on. And my job right now is the most enjoyable one I’ve ever had, which has been part of the goal. Being part of the creative process was what I always wanted to do, and I guess I’m kind of doing it.

I’m looking forward to continuing to explore our creative future as the world of the experience economy continues to grow and more creativity and tools are available to us. I get to work with the next generation of creatives and colleagues with big imaginations, and hopefully, the job never ceases to be exciting.

Since I’ve been at Wētā Workshop, I’ve run our creative and design studio, where we incubated our location-based experience studio and our game studio, and we continue to try to find new ways to create our own destiny or work with others, helping them on their projects. That’s essentially why my job exists: helping find what’s next for Wētā Workshop, where we can play and create and who we can collaborate with.

So, my job as Head of Creative Leadership is sitting on the senior leadership team, helping champion our creative excellence within the company, but also keeping a focus on the essence and the spirit of who and what we are, of what it is that we do, whilst respecting the legacy of where the workshop has come from and looking to the future of where we’re going.

Wētā Workshop has several different divisions working across the creative and entertainment industries—TV, film, and immersive experiences. We have a consumer products division, a game studio and a media team creating content. We also have our own tourism experiences in Wellington and Auckland.

What ride or attraction do you think everyone needs to experience and why?

I absolutely do believe there is an attraction that everybody should come and see at some point: You need to make your way down to New Zealand and have an incredible time. Explore the North Island and the South Island and all the wonderful people, food, scenery, and incredible dreamlike vistas you’ll find here.

It’s just an amazing place. It’s why I’ve been here for so long. We also have our own experience up in Auckland called Wētā Workshop Unleashed—a fantastical film effects experience that takes visitors on a 90-minute journey that demystifies the creative process of what it’s like to work on a sci-fi movie, a horror movie, and a fantasy movie.

And through that, we explore how to create characters, work with directors, and have a lot of interactive fun along the way. The goal is to unleash the creativity of visitors and utilize their own imaginations in the world. I’d love to see people coming down here, seeing, experiencing, and unleashing a little bit. Just go to the airport, get on a plane, have some dinner, fall asleep, and you’ll wake up 12 hours later in Auckland.

If you were tasked with creating a new theme park food, what would it be?

It’s a simple answer—everything tastes better with ice cream. We have a little idea down here that we’re hoping to share with the world someday. Our hope is to create New Zealand’s most supernatural export in the form of supernatural ice cream. So, a theme park supernatural ice cream experience is one of our aspirations. Ice cream that is made by the supernatural world. It is extra special. Possibly even extraterrestrial.

You’re a walk-around character for a day; who do you choose?

I’ve got a couple of kids now, and they are really enjoying Bluey, so if I were to be a character from Bluey, I’d probably be Bluey’s dad, making a bunch of silly dad jokes but having a great time with his kids.

What types of attractions would you like to see more of and why?

We’re in an exciting time within the entertainment industry with the emphasis on storytelling, the new technologies available, and the way we operate experiences. And that all points towards having shared experiences in places that have been curated in an incredible way to create those moments for visitors and guests.

I’m excited about where the experience economy is going, where the boundaries are getting pushed for more experiences for more people, helping to create a little more fun in everybody’s lives.

I think more towns, more cities, and more villages can have new creative experiences for people to go and immerse themselves in. That could be from immersive art installations and galleries to small attractions and other experiences outside of theme parks. Across the board, the scope and scale of where these experiences can go dovetail into what the tourism industry can offer, from the local vineyard immersive experience to the local farm experience, the local adventure park experience, and the local art gallery experience. I think what I’d like to see is just more experiences everywhere.

That all connects as these destinations where you can go and curate these incredible experiences that become part of your own narrative as your own memory. We’re in an exciting time for experienced entrepreneurs to do more, think more, and create for others to come and enjoy.

One of the shared values we might be seeing coming out now is this idea of connecting again, spending time with each other, and sharing. I look back at the last 20 years of how everyone’s been sharing their stories online and on social media. And that’s actually the lessons we’ve learned—that we as humans enjoy sharing.

So let’s enjoy sharing time with each other, and let’s do that by having experiences. And that gives us, as creators and operators, a responsibility to help create some of those moments for people to come together and have shared experiences.

Were there any challenges or surprises in your career?

The only surprise is how fortunate I feel to have the opportunity to work within the creative field across all the different types of projects I get involved in. Though I guess it’s not really a surprise, because that’s what I wanted to do, but it’s certainly a privilege.

Every project we work on starts off as a challenge, but that’s what motivates us every day because it is a creative challenge to go and design something that hasn’t been seen before or push a boundary where we haven’t gone before. So, the work itself is a creative challenge, but that’s the purpose of doing it.

That’s absolutely what gets me up in the morning because creating experiences and stories for immersive spaces is a worthy and meaningful endeavor. And after we see guests enjoy the experiences, hopefully, we get to do it all again.

Can you talk about what you are working on these days?

I can tell you what we’re excited about, not so much what we’re working on. We’re working on several different projects, but unfortunately, we can’t say too much about them because of confidentiality. But we are excited about doing more across film, TV, and gaming.

We have a game that we are releasing later this year, based on the Middle-earth world called Tales of the Shire. It’s set in a little village called Bywater, which is just down the road from Hobbiton. You get to live your best Hobbit life, decorate your own hobbit hole, curate your garden, grow your potatoes and carrots, take them to market, make friends, and partake in a second breakfast or even host a dinner party with your fellow hobbits. We’re very excited about that project coming up this year. It’s a wonderful industry to be in. And it’s great to be part of it in our own way from the other side of the Pacific.

You are going to your favorite theme park; which people (dead or alive) are you taking with you?

I’d be taking my family with me because I think the best experience you can have is to be with people who haven’t experienced those theme parks. And if I got to see the looks on my kids’ faces when they’re enjoying those intimidating, thrilling, imaginative rides or those awe-inspiring moments, that would be pretty cool to experience a theme park through their eyes.

Writer Kendall Wolf is a long-time consultant in the themed entertainment industry. She has worked with designers, producers, and fabricators to help developers create unique and successful projects around the world. In 2017, she introduced Merlin Entertainments to a development group in Sichuan province for the first Legoland park in China. Kendall continues to consult for the developer to open more themed resorts in China.