A good theme park consists of 6 main components: theming, customer service, capacity, IP utilization, technology, and merch/food. The perfect combination of all six lead to successful theme parks that people flock to. However, when a park is lacking in multiple components it leads to online sham (Six Flags). Even within a park if all 6 elements are not found, it is very distracting. Look at conversations on this site regarding attractions/areas to be replaced most of the lands being replaced don't have the criteria stated here. The weakest areas in certain Universal Parks currently are suffering for not meeting multiple of these criteria (Toon Lagoon, Lost Continent).
At the earning call, Universal mentioned across the board that content licensing was down. For a entertainment based company trying to sell franchises and brands, it is not a good thing. This leads me to believe Universal will double down more so on content they own vs outside properties. Boosting licensing is one of the big things that is why WB and Disney are such juggernauts in influence and recognition. There are five ways to fix that. Have the park only be Universal IPs, buy the properties or companies that own the IPs they want to use in the upcoming park, trade property rights (Has happened before), wait for them to become public domain, ot take the loss and give money to another company to use their IP for a certain amount of time before renewal.
Another thing mentioned during the conference call was the creation of this gate would potentially change a 2-3 day vacation to a full week. The usage of just the word "gate" instead of having that statement be gates really makes think there will be a level of depth to this park unseen in the other Universal stateside parks. It seems Comcast/NBCUniversal higher ups outside the park chain want to go really big. It was stated that UC and the parks got budget increases lately yet we haven't observed any of the money and where it is going. Lastly, with the name Fantastic Worlds, it suggests higher immersions and sizes of areas than simply a land.
With that, I will go into what I think IP wise will go into the upcoming park and why.
Nintendo World
I fully believe Universal will create an entire area dedicated solely for Nintendo and the land will be similar to the original Nintendo plans where all the IPs were in Kidzone. I expect all the 8 major IPs to be represented (Mario + DK, Zelda, Kirby, Animal Crossing, Metroid, Pikmin, Splatoon, Pokémon) . The key reason here is actually Nintendo's own statements that release that keep mentioning that it's their goal to increase sales and awareness of IPs.
If they solely just do the most popular properties, they aren't doing any marketing to benefit the brands that need it more. It would make their entire plan and justification for using theme parks as marketing to begin with somewhat moot. This also ties into the rumors that came about of how Universal is now doing a Nintendo Only park and how Alicia mentioned that Pikmin presence was in the plans for Nintendo.
As for number of attractions and what I expect to see...I don't know. I do expect Mario Kart, DK mine cart, Yoshi Island, and the playgrounds. I also expect if they do an all encompassing land, a potential Smash Bros attraction of some sort.
Physical I expect a hybrid indoor outdoor land will also be what Nintendo World will become with certain IPs if they get attractions such as Animal Crossing, Metroid, and Kirby taking place indoors to take advantage of atmospherics. Pokémon I also suspect will be a substantial area.
Nintendo in general is an easy fit to create a good theme park land in regards to nearly every IP they own. Every IP they own is deep with world building, well themed and crafted, and abundant in food and merch opportunities.
Dreamworks World
I believe this is another guaranteed world that will be similar to Nintendo as a full encompassing land featuring Dreamworks flagship IPs. I think we will see Berk, Valley of Peace, Troll Forest, Far Far Away, Madasgascar, and potentially Voltron. The reason for potentially Voltron is the fact that its been one of Dreamworks best selling IPs in terms of merch and has a large vocal fandom. All of these IPs with the exception of Voltron and HTTYD are featured in the Dreamworks Theatre pre-show attraction at USH so it would make most sense if they are going to make a land, they would use all those areas in some regards.
The diversity within the IPs leads to something for everyone and each IP can bring something different to the table in terms of thrills/rides/level of attraction. I think the most prominent will be Far Far Away, Berk, and Valley of Peace lend themselves to big outdoor areas which as we may see Madagascar, Voltron, and Troll Forest in the form of indoor lands as a way to control the environment and lighting. If Voltron does come, I expect it just to be a very small area with the attraction being a reskin of Space Fantasy in USJ. I also expect Madgascar to also not be a huge area as well.
Foodwise, this has a rich catalog of options to choose from ranging from African to some that is out of this world. The biggest merch sellers I expect would be Voltron, HTTYD, and Trolls.
Holiday World (Halloween, Xmas, Other Holidays)
Two big seasonal moneymakers for theme parks are Halloween and Christmas. Heck, people even pay nowadays just go to through Holiday light displays.
If you go through Universal's history, the companies they are partnered with, and the IPs they own, Horror is one of their bread and butter. Additionally, if you look at the Dreamworks side, Christmas is huge on that end. Making a land based on two of the biggest holidays with properties they own makes a lot of sense. It also helps that Dreamworks has a film focusing on all the characters of the holiday seasons despite its lack of popularity could be used. If this was to happen, it would likely be an all indoor world (Halloween Area would always be night, Winter Area so it could snow, Holiday Central can change seasonally)
1. Halloween Street (Universal Monsters, Addams Family, Scooby Doo, Munsters, Gremlins, Alfred Hitchcock, House with A Clock in Its Wall, Paranorman, Coraline)
2. WinterTown (Frosty, Rudolph, Santa and all other things Holiday Wise)
3. Holiday Plaza (Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Lunar New Year, etc)
Halloween Horror Nights is a big money maker for Universal but at the same time, they have rights to a lot of "spooky" IPs that don't receive any representation at all in the parks despite the fact they would benefit and probably increase content branding if they were present. They have so many properties that could use in regards to a Halloween based area. It makes lot of sense to leverage a family area that is year round with not so scary attractions. Universal has some rights to Scooby Doo, I'm not sure if its for themed attraction but they have rights for meet and greets. The big 3 I would expect to see for sure are Universal Monsters, Alfred Hitchcock, and the Munsters...these three are the ones that Universal has multiple projects and are trying to revive so for synergy as well as has the biggest benefit of being nostalgic and boosting content licensing.
Thanks to Universal's purchase of Dreamworks which included Rankin/Bass properties, almost all the iconic Holiday characters now are under their umbrella (only Jack Frost and Heat Meiser are not). Those that are not may fall under public domain which would allow them to make their own. From Frosty, Chris Kringle, Rudolph and associated characters, Universal now has full access.
Holiday Plaza is just an area where other holidays are represented with the plaza decorations changing for holiday with restaurants, shops, shows and meeting and greets based off all the other holidays.
FanWorld (Sci-Fi, Fantasy/Adventure, Animation)
Comcast and NBCUniversal has invested a lot in the past two-three years in Comic-Con, Esports, and other fandom based entities. I would not be surprised due to the proximity of the convention center if they made a world based off the things people go to conventions for.
Essentially Comic Con, Mega Con, Wonder Con, etc in theme park form. Celebration of all things nerdom, geekdom, fandom. The level of programming changes in the past twenty years has rapidly changed with Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure and animation moving way more into the mainstream than it was before and being heavily prevelant at these events. It would be wise to create a 4 section world highlighting those 4 main domains with certain IPs etc being represented.
Sci-Fi City is simple. I would assume Godzilla, Battlestar Galatica, superheroes and other science fiction based non Disney/FOX ip being used here.
Fantasy Valley/Adventure Grotto also quite simple as this can add in Fantastic Beasts (which I hope doesn't come), GoT, Jumanji, Princess Bride, etc. Anything magical/falling under adventure would go in this area
Animation Park: celebration of all animation ranging from all different types. Animation is simple, easily translates into theme park, and one of the only truly profitable field. They can take IPs from all over for this. Warner Bros, Sony Animation, Illumination, Dreamworks properties not used in other areas, anime, etc.
Park Hub/Entrance
With the introduction of Tapu Tapu, Virtual line, queueless lines, and Hogwarts express....I would assume the way this park will be set up possibly may be unusual. Normally in books and movies, you usually just don't walk into another world, there is a lot more things you have to do to get there. I wouldn't be surprised if UC decided to up the creativity and make it so you couldn't easily walk world to world but had to way to use alternative methods to get to each one.
As to the main weenie, i'm kinda at a loss. These are just my personal thoughts and reasonings.
