Welcome to part two of our behind-the-scenes preview of Universal Fan Fest Nights! Here, we’ll take a look at Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep, but if you missed part one where we dove into the details of Star Trek: Red Alert, you can also check out that article here. Once again, there will be spoilers ahead.
Located in Soundstage 15 on the Lower Lot of the theme park, Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeepsimilarly aims to provide guests with a truly epic immersive walk-through experience as they are transported into the fantastic world of D&D. With the story anchored in the Sword Coast in the town of Waterdeep, guests will get the opportunity to join the Harpers – a heroic spy network – to help foil a plot by the legendary beholder Xanathar and save all of Waterdeep.
Unfortunately, photos were not allowed during our behind-the-scenes tour, but we received a few pictures courtesy of Universal Studios Hollywood.
Notably, for an idea of the scale and scope of this experience, while Halloween Horror Nights houses generally take up about 50-60% of the space inside Soundstage 15, Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep takes up the entire soundstage to have adequate space to be able to take guests through numerous larger-than-life environments that effectively immerse them in the story.
For example, we can attest that in his spacious lair, the massive puppet of Xanathar created through Universal Studios Hollywood’s collaboration with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop – a world-renowned innovator in puppetry, animatronics, and digital animation for over 40 years – is intricately detailed and undoubtedly eye-catching, which has us excited for what it will look like in action. Guests can also expect to spot numerous fully automated animated figures that add a further element of life to the experience, such as the Mimic.
Like in Star Trek: Red Alert, guests will be split into smaller groups – each of the four representing a different type of power that will be relevant to the story later on – as they enter the preshow room of the experience and the story begins. One key difference though is that rather than thrusting guests straight into the world of Dungeons & Dragons from the start, the preshow takes a creative approach that honors the history of the roleplaying game itself.
Guests will find themselves in a generic-looking room celebrating the game of Dungeons & Dragons – filled with a variety of props that avid fans will instantly recognize – before they are cleverly whisked from the real world into the fantasy world of the game when someone who looks like a dungeon master arrives and explains who you are, what you’re doing, and why you’re there in an authentically Dungeons & Dragons fashion.
As described by Stephen Siercks, “As the lights go down, you start seeing symbols and projections and then everything goes black. When the lights turn back on, the walls around you have disappeared and now you’re in the Curious Past. It’s going to be a really fun moment of playing the game to then being a character in it – something that any D&D fan has wanted to experience.”
The quest-style adventure kicks off with guests being introduced to their clear mission: as newly recruited members of the Harpers, they must help regain control of the Dragon Staff for the town of Waterdeep after Xanathar the Beholder has stolen it. Like in Star Trek: Red Alert, numerous characters portrayed by live performers will help advance the plot, but unique to Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep is that two adventurer characters will remain side-by-side with guests throughout the remainder of the experience, offering guests the unique opportunity to get to know those characters quite a bit more than may be expected from a walkthrough experience.
We’ll hold back from detailing the specifics of each scene to avoid spoiling the story, but for a clearer idea of what to expect, Siercks emphasized that this experience was crafted in a way so that “every room feels and works a little differently: the ‘The Quest Unveiled’ scene is more presentational, the next has the action in the middle, the next is in the round, and so on – so we’re really playing with all the space throughout the attraction as well.”
Guests will have the chance to feel truly immersed in the story while traversing through marketplaces, escaping from a dragon, stepping through portals, navigating a series of plot twists like in any good Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and even working alongside characters to solve puzzles. Like in Star Trek: Red Alert, a variety of special effects – including disappearing walls, projections, and other lighting effects – will be used to help sell the fantasy elements of the story and make each plot point feel truly believable in the moment.
Given that Universal Fan Fest Nights aims to be a fan-first and authentic event, attention to detail was clearly prioritized in the making of this experience as well. Dungeons & Dragons fans will instantly notice that the set dressing is rich from beginning to end with clever easter eggs developed through Universal Studios Hollywood’s collaborations with the Wizards of the Coast team and the Hasbro team.
Still, like for Star Trek: Red Alert, plenty of care was put into ensuring that even those unfamiliar with the source material will find the immersive environments captivating and the story easily digestible with a clear conflict and resolution, making Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep another promising experience soon to be unveiled at Universal Fan Fest Nights.
We want to sincerely thank Universal Studios Hollywood and its Senior Director of Entertainment Production, Stephen Siercks, for inviting us out for this behind-the-scenes sneak peek at two of the exciting new walk-through experiences that will be featured at Universal Fan Fest Nights.
Tickets are now on sale for the inaugural event, which will take place on the following dates: April 25-27; May 2-4; 9-11; and 15-18, 2025.
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