Photos: New details revealed for Harry Potter ride at Epic Universe

The beginning of September is a magical time for Harry Potter fans. As they celebrated going “Back to Hogwarts” earlier this week, Warner Bros. treated them to juicy details about the new Wizarding World ride opening at Universal Orlando next year.

When Epic Universe opens in 2025, it’ll bring another unique Wizarding World to Universal Orlando’s parks. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — The Ministry of Magic showcases both 1920s Paris, as seen in the Fantastic Beasts films, and the 1990s era of Harry Potter and the British Ministry of Magic.

The anchor attraction for the new land will be Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, an indoor immersive thrill ride through the Ministry alongside Harry, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Artist renderings and video teases show the new ride blending and expanding all the best elements of other beloved Wizarding World rides — Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Escape from Gringotts and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure.

In a video shared by Warner Bros., ride creatives take us through key elements of the attraction, including the immersive queue that uses the “Metro-Floo” network to take us from Paris to the soaring atrium of the British Ministry. The iconic Ministry atrium is built to scale, including flying memos overhead, the Fountain of Magical Brethren statue and the enchanted weather ceiling.

Once inside, the rest of the queue is an interactive journey through various Ministry offices, including Umbridge’s pink and gold office, where her former house elf Higgeldy is packing up her stuff. Easter eggs abound in the queue, including Harry and Ron’s Auror training equipment in the locker rooms and a tribute to fallen heroes in the Aurors’ Headquarters. There are even rooms of portraits of past Ministers interacting with one another.

As you make your way to the courtroom for Umbridge’s trial, you’ll explore the Ministry Archives and the Department of Magical Creatures, encountering scenes from the films and new ones created just for the ride.

On the attraction, you’ll encounter characters like Yaxley, MacNair, the Carrows and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Warner Bros. also revealed that Dame Imelda Staunton will reprise her role as Dolores Umbridge in the Battle at the Ministry ride. The video showed snippets of her performing alongside a Death Eater during the attraction’s production.

Set after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Battle at the Ministry lets fans be a part of the trial of Dolores Umbridge for crimes against the Wizarding World. The Battle at the Ministry is also so far the only ride announced for the new Wizarding World in Epic Universe. The rest of the land is themed to the characters and locales of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, specifically the magical Paris seen in The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe park will open next year with five themed lands, including the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The others are Super Nintendo World, The Isle of Berk: How to Train Your Dragon, Dark Universe and Celestial Park.