How Thierry Coup changed theme parks forever, from Disneyland to Epic Universe, Spider-Man to Harry Potter | Exclusive interview
Thierry Coup is the creative force behind your favorite Universal theme park attractions, from The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Islands of Adventure all the way through the two best rides at Epic Universe. We spoke with Coup for 90 minutes about all of it.
Like many works of art, there is no singular artist responsible for the creation of a theme park attraction; teams of many hands collaborate to tell the story. Still, Thierry Coup is arguably the most influential artistic voice of the modern theme park genre.
Thierry Coup’s résumé reads as a list of dream jobs for artists in the themed entertainment industry. At Universal Creative, he started as a creative director and ultimately retired as chief creative officer and senior vice president. During two separate stints with Walt Disney Imagineering, he was a production designer and a creative director.
Today, Coup is busy with JOCOUP Creative, a company he founded in 2023 with Johanna Atilano, his wife, who he met while creating Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, a showstopper of a dark ride at the new Universal Epic Universe theme park in Orlando.
Photo provided by Johanna Atilano
Coup’s artsy current job title, “Chief Experiential Futurist,” is self-aware of its own hyperbole, but genuine all the same. Coup is sincere in his life’s mission: “We create those moments in theme parks, in concerts, in rides and shows that people will remember forever,” he said toward the end of our conversation. “We create these emotional moments in our world, and that’s what I live for.”
Photo by Blake Taylor
Creating a symphony with Spider-Man
“I always say that Disney taught me how to walk in the [theme park] business,” Coup reflects. “Then Universal gave me the wings to allow me to fly and bring my imagination to higher levels.”
Universal didn’t just give Thierry Coup the wings to fly — it gave him a web to swing. In the mid-’90s as Universal Orlando prepped to open its second theme park, Universal Islands of Adventure, Coup was the creative director for what would become the park’s blockbuster hit ride: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.
Photo courtesy of Universal
“We had a very small team on that,” Coup says. “I think maybe that’s partly why it got built: because nobody really was there to stop it.” During his Disney days, Coup was one of 2,000 imagineers. In contrast, the Universal Creative team in the early days of Islands of Adventure was comprised of only 25 people. “We were so young and fearless on that project, and there were so few of us, that nothing could stop us. We were willing to do anything it took — to reinvent the rules.”
Indeed, Coup literally invented new technology for the Spider-Man ride, which involves a vehicle moving while riders watch 3D media on screens. From a technical standpoint, Coup and his team had to account for how the media would maintain 3D imagery if the viewer was in motion. “We were told many times by experts, rightfully so, ‘No, this doesn’t work,’’’ Coup says. Without the benefit of modern computer technology available these days, he used his kitchen table to map out the entire Spider-Man attraction’s movements, down to a 30th of a second. (Despite having such an artistic career, Coup earned his degree in mathematics and engineering.)
“I almost composed it like you’d compose a symphony — thinking about the highs and the lows, the pacing through it, the impactful moments, the crescendos, and then the finale — very much like a piece of music.”
And a symphony it is. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man possesses a rhythm to its story; its narrative beat propels the rider through and above the streets of New York alongside an animated version of Spider-Man as he thwarts a cadre of classic villains. The action never stops, nor does the wow factor of the ride’s effects.
Photo provided by Johanna Atilano
“We knew we had something special,” Coup says, “but a lot of people did not believe in it until they actually got into the ride vehicle when we were testing and realized, ‘Oh, my God, this is actually working.’”
Over a quarter-century later, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man holds up as one of Universal’s all-time greats.
‘Together, we’re creating new worlds’: Film beginnings and Disney years
Thierry Coup began his entertainment career living in a 1964 Ford Galaxy, which he jokingly calls “a two-bedroom car.” Coup immigrated to the U.S. from France in the early ‘80s, at age 21, working first as a sculptor and then as a set designer on films and commercials in Hollywood, such as “Gremlins” (1984), “Back to the Future” (1985), “Dick Tracy” (1990), and “Total Recall” (1990).
A colleague from the “Total Recall” set-design crew recommended Coup to Walt Disney Imagineering, the division of The Walt Disney Company responsible for creating theme parks. Disney was impressed, and offered Coup a job — but he had no idea what Imagineering was. Although he was hesitant to step away from his film gigs, he accepted.
“After two months, I fell in love with the industry,” Coup reflects on his beginnings at Imagineering. “There was this feeling of, ‘Together, we’re creating new worlds,’ knowing that these worlds were going to live on for so many years, for decades.”
As a production designer, Coup’s first Disney project was scrapped: a “New Tomorrowland” for Disneyland, a re-do of the park’s classic futuristic area that would have infused more aliens into the aesthetic.
His other Disney work saw the light of day, including Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland; The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios); Disney’s Animal Kingdom; and Mysterious Island for Tokyo DisneySea.
Photo by Blake Taylor
Lightning strikes with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
If Thierry Coup’s career is a study in entertainment eliciting emotions, then among the most emotional moments crafted by Coup and company was delivering the thrill of seeing Hogwarts Castle in person. For the generation who grew up on the “Harry Potter” books and films, the 2010 grand opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — a subsection of Universal Islands of Adventure — was a new form of wish fulfillment. Here was not just a one-off ride, but a full environment to step into. It was tactile. It felt lived in. Some visitors cry when they see Hogwarts for the first time.
Photos by Blake Taylor
Pair that intense emotional connection with the opportunity to spend money on wands, Butterbeer, school robes, and the like, and it’s easy to see why “Potter” was a no-brainer for Universal — only it wasn’t.
“‘Potter’ came at a very interesting time in Universal’s life because the economy was not doing well. The parks were not doing well,” Coup says.
Coup and a team of artists pitched a budget-friendly version of the project, but it didn’t meet the standards of Warner Bros., which held the “Potter” film license and would be collaborating with Universal on the attractions. The choice was Universal’s to make: either increase the budget to make the project better, or don’t make it at all.
As Coup explains, “I think Universal decided, ‘You know what? It’s a gamble, but at the same time, Harry Potter is a proven IP [intellectual property] already.’’ So gamble it did.
Working together with the team from the “Potter” films, including production designer Stuart Craig, Universal Creative defined a new playbook for modern theme parks. The headliner was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a high-tech ride inside Hogwarts Castle.
Photo by Blake Taylor
“It was incredible,” Coup says. “It definitely set a new standard where we normally wouldn’t have put details, like up in the ceiling of the [Defense Against the] Dark Arts classroom, or in places where you think, ‘Well, just turn the lights off up there and nobody will be looking.’ There are details all the way to the fine grain of the wood up there. Then the aging. It’s all there.”
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade opened on June 18, 2010. The investment paid off; the attendance numbers for Islands of Adventure say so. In 2009, 4.6 million guests visited the park. In 2010, attendance jumped to 5.9 million; in 2011, to 7.7 million.
Coup says, “Many of my friends at Disney thanked us and said, ‘Thank you for doing this because it sets the bar higher for all of us to now keep up with this level of quality.’”
Photo by Attractions Magazine
Universal had only just begun its “Potter” era. After Hogsmeade opened at Islands of Adventure in 2010, Diagon Alley followed next door at Universal Studios Florida in 2014 and Ministry of Magic just debuted at the new Epic Universe park in May 2025. Coup oversaw all of them.
Photo by Blake Taylor
Photo by Matt Roseboom
‘We’re putting the park back in theme park.’
“We’re putting the park back in theme park.” You may have heard this phrase in promotional videos for Universal Epic Universe, which opened May 22, 2025, in Orlando. It’s not just a buzzy tagline; this was the thesis of Epic Universe from the beginning.
Thierry Coup formed the impetus of what would become Epic Universe while visiting Europa-Park, a theme park in Germany, alongside Mark Woodbury. (At the time, Woodbury was chief creative officer of Universal Creative. Today, he’s chairman and CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences.) Coup and Woodbury knew Universal Orlando needed another theme park if it wanted to market itself as a week-long experience for guests.
Photo courtesy of Europa-Park
“Europa-Park was really a place that was very inspiring to us,” Coup says, “because of the mix of real park, real nature, and beautifully landscaped areas, and then you turn around the corner, and you’ve got an incredible roller coaster with adrenaline-pumping experiences.” They also liked how a hotel was attached to the park. “We said, ‘This feels really good. We should bring the park back into theme parks because that is something we haven’t done, and it’s missing.’ That vibe was so powerful, so pleasant.”
Photo by Matt Roseboom
From the tranquility of Epic Universe’s focal area — which came to be Celestial Park — the idea of portals “were very established early on” as a storytelling device to transport visitors to other realms, each based on different IP.
“We selected huge IPs, great IPs,” Coup says, “that could relate to families and anyone at different levels, of course.” The final selections: Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe (based on Universal Classic Monsters), The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, and How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.
Photos by Blake Taylor
Photo provided by Johanna Atilano
‘Emotion is the goal’
After three decades in theme parks, Thierry Coup didn’t anticipate ABBA altering the course of his career.
In 2022 — while in London to direct Dame Imelda Staunton for her role as Dolores Umbridge in Epic Universe’s Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry — Coup attended “ABBA Voyage,” a live concert where all the band members are digital.
“I had no expectations. Somebody dragged me there,” Coup says. But what he saw changed his life. “I said, “Oh, my God. I’m witnessing something that is the future of entertainment.’ … I looked at Johanna and I said, ‘I think that’s what I want to do now.’ I mean literally, like a spark, the light went up, and I just felt completely transformed, and like this is what I want to do.”
The timing was fortuitous. Just before the trip, Universal had offered Coup retirement, a legal formality from parent company Comcast, and had given him three weeks to consider the offer. Coup had no intention of taking it, but changed his mind. With Epic Universe fully designed and already being built, Coup realized he wanted “to do something new and different.”
Following his retirement from Universal in March 2023, Coup and Atilano formed JOCOUP Creative, their first project being a collaboration with “ABBA Voyage” makers Pophouse Entertainment to create a digital concert experience for KISS.
“I do what I love, and I do it with my wife now, and we are absolutely ecstatic — so excited — about what the future offers,” Coup says. “We’ve done some exercises for clients that really look at the future and look at, ‘What is the attraction of the future? What is the theme park of the future? How can we maximize on this technology to really deliver great experiences?’”
At the same time, though, Coup is very much aware technology is only one part of the equation.
“I always say, and I think most of us in the industry [say it too], ‘Technology is only the tool. Emotion is the goal.’ … The suspense of this belief is such a magical thing. We’re so gifted to have that: where we want to believe and we want to put ourselves in those worlds and let someone carry us through that. That’s what keeps me passionate every day. I’m a dreamer. I daydream all the time, and I will not stop.”
Photo by Blake Taylor
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