Theme Park Shark previously reported on a new event in the making for Universal Studios Hollywood, planned to hit the parks in Spring of 2025. This event, which aims to pay homage to the fan experience that lives at the very core of Universal’s theme park patrons, has been organized by the creative team that brings Universal Hollywood the unparalleled Halloween Horror Night experience, and is set to run on select nights from Friday, April 25th to Sunday, May 18th.
Back in August, Universal announced that beloved properties like Back to the Future, Star Trek, and Dungeons & Dragons would be featured at this event, culminating in the ultimate fan experience with exclusive foods, merch, photo ops, and interactive experiences that can’t be found anywhere else. A separately-ticketed event that billed itself as a celebration of sci-fi, fantasy, gaming, and anime, this event stands to be something of an in-park convention with its own Universal twist!
Recently, in addition to the three intensely popular IPs that Universal has already announced, we now know that Universal will be offering even more fan experiences for two popular animes, with One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen joining the debut lineup of this monumental new event.
One Piece, which had its 25th anniversary last year and has had a staggering run of over a thousand episodes, 5 OVAs, 13 TV specials, and 15 movies in addition to the hit live-action Netflix series that debuted last year, follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his band of Straw Hat Pirates in their search for the mythical One Piece – the sum of all the treasure amassed by famed Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, which will prove once and for all that Luffy is destined to be the next Pirate King.
When One Piece’s live action adaptation debuted on Netflix’s streaming service, it quickly became the most-viewed piece of media on the platform in the second half of 2023, garnering an incredible 72 million views and 541.9 million viewing hours, with more than half of those taking place within the first two weeks of the show’s release. though there has not been a concrete release date for season two of this pop culture sensation, it is expected to release sometime in 2025.
Jujutsu Kaisen, another wildly popular Japanese manga and anime, following the story of a high school student who accidentally becomes host to a powerful curse, and transfers to Tokyo Jujutsu High School, and organization that helps fight such curses. Jujutsi Kaisen is a relatively recent anime, having debuted its first of two current seasons in 2020, but its manga started in 2018 as part of Shueisha’s weekly Shōnen Jump in March of 2018, and its final chapter, chapter 271, was published in issue 44 of the magazine late September of 2024.
In addition to these new IPs being featured at FanFest Nights, Universal has also announced that exciting new offerings related to the previously announced Star Trek inclusion will be available at this groundbreaking new event, including the U.S.S. Enterprise-D from Start Trek: The Next Generation, as well as importing the original screen-used bridge set piece featured in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard.
In addition to the themed experiences, themed foods, and exclusive merchandise debuting with this event, guests will also have access to select Universal Studios Hollywood attractions during the event, including Jurassic World: The Ride, Super Nintendo World, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Transformers: The Ride 3-D, Revenge of the Mummy, and The Simpsons Ride.
While Universal Studios Hollywood has not yet announced pricing on this exciting new event, Theme Park Shark will report on any new updated on this exciting opportunity, including new offerings, released information about food, beverages, and merchandise exclusive to this event, ticket prices, and more!
In the meantime, fans can check out Theme Park Shark’s twitter coverage of the Universal FanFest Nights booth at LA Comic Con over the weekend, for photos prepping guests for the hype of this awesome new event!
