Warner Bros. World Yas Island will expand with a Harry Potter and DC Comics area

With almost a wave of a magic wand, developer Miral and Warner Bros. Discovery have sealed a strategic alliance set to transform Warner Bros. World Yas Island. Opened in 2018, this vast indoor theme park will host by 2029 three new areas dedicated to the world of J.K. Rowling, spread over approximately 63,000 m².

If Diagon Alley and Hogwarts School are already the success of rival Universal parks in Florida or Beijing, the Emirati site offers a major world first: the life-size reproduction of the Forbidden Forest. Designed exclusively for Abu Dhabi, these attractions will also be accompanied by two new features dedicated to the DC Comics team, bringing the expansion of the complex to more than 50% of its current surface area.

These attractions will be designed exclusively for the site, with no equivalent anywhere else in the world. A major singularity, when we know that the exploitation of the license has until now fallen to its great rival, Universal, the sole holder of the rights to the work of J.K. Rowling since the opening of the first parks dedicated to the wizard, in Florida, in 2010. An exception which has also intrigued professionals in the sector since 2018.

Diagon Alley focuses on the magic of everyday wizarding life, between shops and lively facades, when Hogwarts establishes itself as the totem setting of the saga. The Forbidden Forest promises a darker experience, populated by fantastic creatures, faithful to one of the most mysterious places imagined by the British author.

Twenty-five years after Harry Potter's first steps in this fantastic universe, the studio is closing the loop by providing its own park with a sanctuary to suit it.

The announcement is part of an even larger project, which also plans two attractions around the DC universe. In total, the surface area of ​​the park must increase by more than half.

For Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of Miral, this announcement “marks a major step in the continued development of Yas Island”. An enthusiasm shared by Simon Robinson, President of Global Experiences & Studio Operations at Warner Bros. Discovery, which sees it as “a major step forward” in the group’s strategy of building destinations around its most powerful licenses.

The stakes are high for Yas Island, where Ferrari World, Yas Waterworld and SeaWorld already attract millions of visitors each year. In any case, experience speaks for the wizard, since the opening of the very first zone of its kind, in Florida in 2010, resulted in a jump in attendance of almost 30% from the first year, according to sector figures. Enough to transform, in the long term, the island of Yas into a real rival of the great world capitals of entertainment.