Harry Potter Abu Dhabi: Three Lands Are Coming

Harry Potter Abu Dhabi is officially expanding: Warner Bros. World Yas Island, Abu Dhabi is building three new themed lands — Diagon Alley, Hogwarts Castle and the Forbidden Forest. The official announcement also promises world-exclusive Harry Potter rides created specifically for the park.

Warner Bros made all eight Potter films and the three Fantastic Beasts spin-offs, but its own parks have never hosted a land based on them. The theme park rights went to Universal in 2007, and Universal has used them well. All but one of its seven parks has a Wizarding World of Harry Potter, starting with Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure in Orlando in 2010. Diagon Alley exists only at Universal Studios Florida, and the newest attraction, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, is in Orlando’s Epic Universe.

The standard these lands set is written into the licence. Universal’s agreement with Warner Bros requires its Potter lands to sit “at a first-class, world-class level for destination theme parks unsurpassed in quality by any other destination theme park worldwide”. The restrictions are just as strict: only products from the Potter stories can be sold, which is why the restaurants serve Butterbeer rather than Coca-Cola, and even guest-convenience items such as sun cream cannot carry manufacturer logos inside the themed area. Warner Bros approves every artwork, design, ride and architectural plan.

The Abu Dhabi agreement has not been made public, but the official announcement now confirms the three locations. Diagon Alley will recreate the wizarding street, Hogwarts Castle will bring the school of witchcraft and wizardry to Yas Island, and the Forbidden Forest will add the darker woodland setting. Warner Bros. World is entirely indoors, which shields guests from the summer heat while the new areas take shape.

What is confirmed for Harry Potter Abu Dhabi

Miral, which runs the park, is not waiting for the lands to open. A job advertisement last year for a retail product designer mentioned “the design of multi-category retail products to be developed and sold within the Harry Potter World expansion”, with the aim of “delivering best-in-class merchandise”. Potter products have already appeared in a repurposed shop in the park’s Treasures of Hollywood store, behind a standee promising “Harry Potter Wonders Await Inside”, as Forbes reported.

Site preparation began in summer last year, nearly three years after the expansion was first announced. The consultancy Entertainment + Culture Advisors said in May that the land is expected to open in 2029, though Miral has not confirmed a timeframe, per The National. There is reason for the wait. Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts told analysts in 2020 that “in some of our parks Harry Potter drove incremental attendance of about two million people”. Universal had seven parks to spread that across; Abu Dhabi would be concentrating it on one. The official Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi page describes it as “the Middle East’s first Harry Potter themed land” — one more addition to a Yas Island line-up already building a Sphere.