Wizarding World at Epic Universe: Clues from ‘Fantastic Beasts’ films

Universal Epic Universe will open at Universal Orlando Resort by summer 2025, and though Universal has yet to formally announce a Harry Potter-themed land for the new park, aerial construction photos clearly show a Wizarding World area.

While the specific attractions within remain under wraps, the outdoor portion of the land will depict Place Cachée, a district of Paris, France, as seen in the 2018 film “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

Let’s take a look at construction photos shared with us by bioreconstruct, captured Jan. 26, 2024, and compare the park’s progress to its cinematic inspirations from the “Fantastic Beasts” and “Harry Potter” films.

Welcome to Epic Universe

As guests enter Epic Universe (from the bottom center of the photo below), they’ll step into a central plaza, from which they can explore the park’s four lands. Visitors will head to the northeast portal (from the perspective of entering the park, at least) to access The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Other lands are clearly themed to Nintendo, Universal Classic Monsters, and “How to Train Your Dragon,” though Universal has only officially announced Nintendo.

Looking closer, The Wizarding World (top right of photo below) will be flanked on one side by an onsite hotel.

The land contains a series of alleyways and a massive show building, housing a to-be-announced attraction.

The Lore of Place Cachée, Epic Universe’s Wizarding World

2018’s “The Crimes of Grindelwald” takes place in the 1920s, existing in the same universe of Harry Potter, but decades before Harry’s birth. The movie was the second installment in the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” film series.

The Epic Universe version of Place Cachée bears striking resemblance to the “Crimes of Grindelwald” film sets constructed on the backlot of Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the U.K. In researching the creation of those sets, we can gain a deeper understanding of what might be coming to Epic Universe.

Author Signe Bergstrom described Place Cachée in detail in “The Archive of Magic — The Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” an official Wizarding World tome.

Bergstrom wrote that Place Cachée is a Parisian district located “a shift away from the non-wizard world, where everything — from the storefronts and their window displays to their wondrous products and customers — conveys a sense of the magical.”

In the film, a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) summons magical creatures expert Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to Paris. Dumbledore needs Newt’s help in tracking down Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), an evil wizard with a plan to eradicate Muggles.

Newt accordingly travels to Paris, arriving in Place Cachée, where much of the story’s remaining events unfold. It is this same wizarding community that guests will step into at Epic Universe.

Wizarding Paris Uncovered from Behind Scaffolding

Epic Universe construction teams recently removed scaffolding on many of the façades lining the streets of Place Cachée.

The designs closely mirror those of their film counterparts in “The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

Some scaffolding remains in a few places.

Entrance to the French Ministry of Magic?

Some of the structures within Epic Universe’s Wizarding World appear nearly identical to important places in the story of “The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

The structure pictured below, recently uncovered from scaffolding, looks similar to the one in the film found near the entrance to Le Ministère de Affaires Magiques de la France, otherwise known at the French Ministry of Magic. In the movie, wizards and witches access the French Ministry by standing in the middle of this plaza.

The Epic Universe structure isn’t quite a 1:1 match to the building in the movie, but the resemblance is there.

A Classic Theme Park Trick

Several tall towers appear in the distance behind Place Cachée in the movie. Looking at infrastructure currently being built, these same towers seem to be part of Epic Universe’s Wizarding World.

In the photo below, the land’s entrance is in the upper left corner. Take a look at the structures toward the bottom center.

These seem to be the beginnings of the towers seen in the film. Note, though, that they are positioned outside of the land proper. This likely means guests will always see the structures at a distance. Designers may use visual tricks to manipulate the size of the towers or their distance from guests. Disney Imagineers employed a similar design when positioning the Eiffel Tower at Epcot.

Switching vantage points, the land’s entrance is at the bottom center of the photo below. The towers standing backstage are at the top center of the image, behind the narrow alley in the center.

Upon first arriving in Place Cachée, guests’ far-off viewpoint of the towers might look similar to the screenshot below of Grindelwald stepping foot into the area.

Venturing deeper into the land, the structures may look something like the viewpoint below.

The Magic of Possibility

With Universal keeping plans for Epic Universe under wraps for now, we can only imagine the ways The Wizarding World will come to life in the park. “The Crimes of Grindelwald” provides a few atmospheric ideas ripe for theme park adaptation.

By nightfall, Circus Arcanus takes over the streets of Place Cachée. Points of fire shaped like magical creatures look fairly similar to what us Muggles are able to create with drones.

Newt uses a spell that shows him the footsteps of those who passed through Place Cachée before him. Theme park designers often carry a story into every inch of an area, including the ground. The pavement in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has a few stray droid tracks. The walkways of Pandora – The World of Avatar glow with bioluminescence at night. Could Epic Universe feature something like Newt’s spell (and maybe a Niffler, if we’re lucky)?

The storefronts of Place Cachée in the film are covered with fascinating magical products. A thorough selection of merchandise was specially created for Universal’s previous Wizarding World projects.

Meanwhile, various props and artifacts not necessarily for sale are also visible in the movie, providing small glimpses into the lives and personality of the district’s residents.

A key plot point in “The Crimes of Grindelwald” involves Paris being covered in flowing, drape-like enchantments, a signal from Grindelwald. With the Dark Arts and Death Eaters being seasonally featured in other Wizarding World lands, could Grindelwald’s spell show up at Epic Universe in some fashion in the future?

Traveling to Wizarding France from Muggle Orlando

In “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” witches and wizards access wizarding France from its Muggle counterpart by visiting the statue pictured below.

At Epic Universe, guests will enter wizarding France from a portal connected to the park’s central plaza, as will be the case for every land in Epic Universe. Atop the portal is a golden sculpture of a hand raising a wand to the sky.

Just behind the portal, artists have started to install a mural.

Looking closer, the hand atop the portal is holding the Elder Wand. As regaled in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the Elder Wand is all-powerful. Take a look at the detail of the sculpture in these photos from December 2023 and compare it to the Elder Wand from the films.

Various characters possess the Elder Wand throughout the story timeline of both the “Harry Potter” and “Fantastic Beasts” series. In the end, Harry claims and destroys it. During the events of “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” the Elder Wand belongs to the titular villain.

More Epic Universe

Construction is progressing rapidly elsewhere throughout Epic Universe, including the area themed to “How to Train Your Dragon,” pictured below.

Construction teams recently installed a safety net around a portion of a roller coaster track in the “How to Train Your Dragon” land. The net’s shape emulates a dragon’s scales.

Crews at Super Nintendo World are hard at work building Mushroom Kingdom and Donkey Kong Country.

Workers recently installed flowers and vines onto the ongoing temple wall near the Donkey Kong roller coaster.

Lastly, teams continue to add greenery and theming details to the land based on Universal Classic Monsters.

More Wizarding World

While you wait for Epic Universe’s 2025 arrival, take a look at our previous coverage from the milestone grand openings of Hogsmeade in 2010 and Diagon Alley in 2014: