How Netflix House is bringing people back to malls with ‘Wednesday’ and ‘One Piece’ in Philadelphia
Netflix House, a first-of-its-kind, 100,000-square-foot attraction, is now open in a Philadelphia mall with “Wednesday” and “One Piece” experiences and big plans for the future.
By Ricky Brigante
In a world of emerging regional immersive entertainment offerings, this week Netflix debuts a new kind of versatile location that’s equal parts vibrant fun, a little spooky mystery-solving, and a whole lot of surprises.
What is Netflix House?
Netflix House is opening just outside Philadelphia at one of the country’s largest and most popular shopping and dining destinations, the King of Prussia Mall.
Fans of the show “Wednesday” can finally step into a recreation of Nevermore Academy and its surrounding grounds, with a remarkably brilliant introduction sequence that feels straight out of a theme park in all the best ways. Across secret passageways and interactive elements, greeted by in-character staff members, everyone who enters becomes part of this dark festival of twisted carnival games (collectible tokens provided upon entry), photo ops, and endless winding exploration.
There is also a “secret” mission in which you can text a phone number and the character Thing will text back and forth to you, assisting you with finding clues to help Wednesday solve a murder. It is absolutely the showstopper of Netflix House — but is just the beginning of what the new location will offer.
Its other star attraction is based on the popular “One Piece” series which dates back decades across the original anime series and more recently turned live-action show on Netflix. The hybrid story-driven escape-room type adventure turns every participant into a pirate, finding their way out of the brig while living out a narrative alongside familiar characters, and leaving everyone with a custom “wanted” poster on the way out. There is puzzle-solving along the way, but a gentle kind that helps nudge you along to ensure all sorts of players have a chance to make it through.
Many years in development
These two 30-60 minute attractions are just the start of the sprawling indoor exploratory experience that is Netflix House. The unique location has been many years in development, led by Greg Lombardo, VP of experiences at Netflix, who has been with the company for 6.5 years.
Lombardo’s career includes instrumental work on the “Simpsons” Springfield themed areas of Universal Studios’ theme parks among other Fox properties in Malaysian parks. But for Lombardo, the goal of Netflix House was rather unique.
“The whole notion of Netflix House was based on this idea that for over two decades fans have been welcoming us into their homes. So we thought it’s probably about time that we welcome them into ours,” stated Lombardo in a one-on-one interview during an early Netflix House preview.
“You have that rich variety of stories that are coming to life all around you” which he says are presented in easily digestible formats “whether you have 15 minutes or three hours.”
‘KPop Demon Hunters’ coming next?
Netflix House is like an ever-evolving venue for Netflix shows and movies to rotate.
While it’s launching in Philadelphia with the walkthrough main attractions highlighting “Wednesday” and “One Piece,” representatives say it could be as soon as six months away that an already in-development experience based on “KPop Demon Hunters” debuts. The intense popularity of that streaming movie caught Netflix by surprise and they’ve been reacting as quickly as possible to feature it throughout Netflix House, from merchandise to photo ops to sing-alongs in the large, high-tech experiential “Tudum” theater. But something more is promised to be on the way, though they are tight-lipped about what exactly that will be.
“You want to be able to change it out over the course of the year and also year after year to ensure fans of entertainment are always going to find something to do and love in Netflix House,” Lombardo emphasized.
100,000 square feet of Netflix
Wandering through the new location, which consumes roughly 100,000 square feet of the King of Prussia mall across two stories of a former Lord & Taylor department store, it’s not difficult to spot this future-proof strategy at play. The store’s merchandise can easily rotate out, while also retaining retail items that are Philadelphia-branded and exclusive to the city.
The restaurant’s menu is entirely developed and prepared in-house, allowing for different themed offerings to be presented. One area is currently devoted to flavored popcorns, but there are plans to swap that out for something else in the not too distant future. According to Lombardo, Netflix Bites amusingly positions its menu as “through the lens of a hangry fan” with everything being a “nod to some stories you love.” Some of those stories includes choosing between “red” and “yellow” light Squid Game curried chicken, with the colors indicating spicy and not-so-spicy versions. The restaurant’s Scoops Ahoy gelato brings some “Stranger Things” fun to the experience too. And themed drinks are available at the centerpiece bar, surprisingly swanky for its mall location.
A keen eye might notice that even the large “Wednesday” and “One Piece” props, sets, and environments seem to be deployed in a similar fashion as Netflix’s successful touring experiences in that they could be disassembled and moved around to other cities. It would not be surprising if the “Stranger Things” or “Squid Game” experiences that will launch in the Dallas location will eventually find their way over to Philadelphia, swapping out for the existing two main attractions.
All of this is by design, according to Lombardo, who recounted the history of how Netflix House began with the company’s touring experiences more than five years ago. During the pandemic, the design team converted their in-development “Stranger Things” experience into a drive-into adventure in Los Angeles to “give fans a moment of joy.” It was never intended to be in that format, but it was still loved by fans and sparked possibility. “Following that, coming out of the pandemic, we launched an in-person ‘Stranger Things’ experience,” he explained, “which has toured many cities around the world and is still out there on tour.”
Experiences based on “Bridgerton,” “Money Heist (La Casa de Papel),” and “Squid Game” have “informed what is in Netflix House and how it comes to life.” Development of each franchise into an in-person experience is no easy task to exceed fans’ expectations. “Trying to figure out exactly what fans are going to love the most is a big part of the learning curve,” he continued. “For us, having those touring experiences, being able to achieve a fairly high level of guest satisfaction across the board market to market, gave us the confidence that we are ready to take this to the next step.”
From there, the team had to determine how to establish a permanent footprint for themselves in key cities while keeping an eye on maximizing flexibility of each new location. Lombardo said it all added up to what this new location concept has become: “It was all those experiences that led us to say: What is Netflix House? What is it made of? And, most importantly, how does it evolve over time to continue to be fresh and relevant for our fans?”
‘Younger people are coming back to the malls’
Lombardo is personally no stranger to the “Greater Philadelphia region” as he calls it, originally from Lancaster, Penn., himself, a former regular of the King of Prussia mall. He has genuine affinity for this spot and region.
They settled on King of Prussia to launch their first Netflix House, seeing malls as a great opportunity with “amazing foot traffic and a destination in and of itself already.” They want to tap into the mentality of the casual mall visitor who thinks, “hey I’m hungry, and I’m a fan of that show” or “I’m looking for a really unique gift for a friend or a loved one” — or even “I have hours to spend and I really want to immerse myself in a story.”
Partnering with Simon Property Group for King of Prussia Mall and Metropolitan Life Insurance management at the Dallas Galleria is helping propel the push for malls returning to the cultural zeitgeist in a new way, as hubs for new kinds of out-of-home experiences. It was recently announced another popular experiential social-gaming venue Level99 will be opening a new location at the King of Prussia mall in 2027, adding to the existing escape rooms already in place. “I think malls are ripe for reinvention,” said Lombardo. “A lot of the mall developers are beginning to realize this. If you look at new trend lines, it’s remarkable — a lot of younger people are coming back to the malls.”
Creating an attraction for a modern industry
The Netflix team looked to touch points across the industry to validate their assumptions with how popular Netflix House and hybrid location-based experiential venues can be at many scales. Their research included looking at AREA15 in Las Vegas, the city where Netflix also has launched their Netflix Bites restaurant concept at the MGM Grand – and announced Las Vegas as the future home to the third Netflix House location down the line.
All locations will be similarly free-to-enter, offering many photo ops and opportunities to shop, dine, and be entertained without ever paying admission at the door. Technology is used throughout the venue to make it seamless. Guests can scan QR codes and use kiosks to buy timed ticket entry to the main attractions, order food, and even retrieve golf balls from an automated machine at the mini-golf course.
To make it in this rapidly-evolving immersive industry, Lombardo insists it’s incredibly important to these new concepts that “you can’t be just one thing. You can’t just be an ‘immersive experience.’ People want to be entertainment across a multitude of dimensions. For us, being able to look at what’s been done well out there, what’s worked, what hasn’t. And then sometimes mashing things up in a way that does work and combining things like an escape room with a narrative storytelling device or a more theatrical element or bookend. We’re always keen to figure out what’s the next way to piece this together in an experience that will just be wildly entertaining for people and new. All of those things that have come before us have informed this.”
Netflix House certainly has variety to offer. The location’s sprawling store features original and unique merchandise spanning all of Netflix’s most popular properties from “Bridgerton” to the newly-released “Frankenstein.” Its “Tudum” theater will host a rotation of events over time, including celebrity appearances and signings. There is also the compact 9-hole, high-tech mini golf course where every hole features a different Netflix show, including “Is it Cake?” and “Love is Blind.” Full-body VR experiences of “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game” are also available.
Surprise photo ops are located throughout the massive location, including the iconic Byers’ couch and Eddie Munson’ guitar from “Stranger Things,” a larger-than-life Thing from “Wednesday,” a life-sized “Squid Games” stairwell complete with larger-than-life surveillance cameras watching your every move, and an interactive “Bridgerton” throne that makes you feel like royalty when you sit down.
Employees are part of the story
The final piece of the puzzle for the team was to ensure the staff is trained with not only excellent hospitality, but a chance to inject some entertaining flair into every guests’ visit. “From the beginning, we’ve leaned into ‘immersive’ with these experiences we’ve developed so far […] and live is such an important piece of it,” added Lombardo. “Getting the right balance of live and technology. I love technology, but it’s got to serve a purpose. I think the best technology fades away and becomes invisible when it’s deployed properly. And I think there’s no substituting a live one-on-one personal encounter with that human being in an experience to complete that journey. For us, it’s always really important.”
Lombardo concluded, “Everyone at Netflix House who’s working here, their job is to deliver a great welcome and then a great end to your day, start to finish.”
Netflix representatives were hesitant to divulge capacities for each of the experiences, though lines will undoubtedly form for the main experiences while allowing guests to freely roam the rest.
Netflix House tickets
Prices for the main one-hour experiences start at $39 and rise as high as $65 on the weekends. Timed tickets are available in advance and seem likely to sell out during peak hours. They expect each main experience will be available in Philadelphia for at least six to 12 months, but only time will tell how popular and long-lasting each will be.
Netflix House Philadelphia officially opens Nov. 12, 2025, with the Dallas location not far behind, opening Dec. 11, 2025.
More information can be found at netflix.com/house
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