Halloween Horror Nights 30 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors (2021)

[HHN Maddux]

Spoiler

They’re still Fear’s servants. The house ends in Fear’s throne room with (the most commonly rumored story being) the icons being burned for eternity. They’re all still trapped in the lantern. They don’t escape. The story feels like a conclusion.

Spoiler

This could be their HHN Endgame. Wrap up the stories for the long-standing characters and start bringing in new ones.

 

[shiekra38]

I'm pretty sure they will continue to use Jack in the future

The other icons will probably sink back into HHN history

 

[Parkscope Joe]

These 2 posts are mutually exclusive. I never saw an official announcement which is why I posted what I did - doesn't mean it didn't happen, but I can't find any evidence of an official announcement. There seems to be some confusion about this obviously.

From UOR's YouTube...



It's "announced" as a sneak peak of a 2021 event house. So it's introduced but not "announced" on the main site.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

From UOR's YouTube...



It's "announced" as a sneak peak of a 2021 event house. So it's introduced but not "announced" on the main site.

Idk if it still is, but it was apart of the home page picture slide show. They wouldn't have put it there if they didn't want any to see it.

 

[BBPH]

Idk if it still is, but it was apart of the home page picture slide show. They wouldn't have put it there if they didn't want any to see it.

It is.

 

[Rikku]

I'm pretty sure they will continue to use Jack in the future

The other icons will probably sink back into HHN history

Jack I think will always come around here and there for something he just sells way to much; even if new creative wants to make their own icons they can't deny Jack. But I certainly don't hope it is the end for all the icons like I've said before hope we get more Bloody Mary even in doctor form in some event in the future; as well as more Chance and Lady Luck (I know odd choice but I for some reason want more, I am oddly attracted to her concept). As much as I love Caretaker, Director, Usher, and Storyteller they need some re-vamp like Jack and Chance did in 25/26 with new outfits and some sort of visual shake-up, they are just being rehased(to me) without bringing anything new to the table they need to be refreshed somehow. But I am conflicted ....it could be the end of the former icons??? But like previously stated they are such easy cash grabs like why would they hang them up? I mean I already talked about making them fresh but idk....

Also why do icons work as well as they do? I mean I love them! Even the less received Lady Luck .... is it just because they have "icon" status and they automatically just become awesome? Idk.... But it seems to work across the board because people buy their merch. Spoke on this before but I heard Chance's 26 merch didn't sell as well as Jack's 25 merch but it seemed like Chance's merch last year flew off the shelves....


Sorry if off topic if this should be moved to a merch topic or some misc icontopic section

 

[CoryLevy91]

Also why do icons work as well as they do? I mean I love them! Even the less received Lady Luck .... is it just because they have "icon" status and they automatically just become awesome? Idk.... But it seems to work across the board because people buy their merch. Spoke on this before but I heard Chance's 26 merch didn't sell as well as Jack's 25 merch but it seemed like Chance's merch last year flew off the shelves....

I mean they're all just basic horror genre tropes in one form or another. If you're a superfan of the event they're obviously just the 'lore' associated with the event itself so that's what you find once you start going down the HHN rabbit hole. They're not really pop culture icons by any means.

I'm not really sure how one would go about re-invigorating or revolutionizing the icons or the event itself. While it's been tinkered and played with in the past on occasion I think centering the entire event around a singular idea/theme/setting/story would be phenomenal though obviously you run into issues that it would be much harder to incorporate IPs into the event without shoehorning them in and you know they don't want to just throw away that sector of revenue.

 

[kingcooger]

I mean they're all just basic horror genre tropes in one form or another. If you're a superfan of the event they're obviously just the 'lore' associated with the event itself so that's what you find once you start going down the HHN rabbit hole. They're not really pop culture icons by any means.

I'm not really sure how one would go about re-invigorating or revolutionizing the icons or the event itself. While it's been tinkered and played with in the past on occasion I think centering the entire event around a singular idea/theme/setting/story would be phenomenal though obviously you run into issues that it would be much harder to incorporate IPs into the event without shoehorning them in and you know they don't want to just throw away that sector of revenue.

Here’s one way to invigorate them or at the very least make them pop culture Icons: Jason Blum Is Considering Making a Halloween Horror Nights Movie

Also, when it comes to movie houses not fitting the theme, I think The Usher and The Director make them work

As well, The Storyteller could also function

 

[Legacy]

Here’s one way to invigorate them or at the very least make them pop culture Icons: Jason Blum Is Considering Making a Halloween Horror Nights Movie

Also, when it comes to movie houses not fitting the theme, I think The Usher and The Director make them work

As well, The Storyteller could also function

If the movie gets made, it will likely center on the Hollywood event (since it would be made in Hollywood by people who frequent the Hollywood event) and won’t likely include the icons as anything more than easter eggs.

 

[GA-MBIT]

If the movie gets made, it will likely center on the Hollywood event (since it would be made in Hollywood by people who frequent the Hollywood event) and won’t likely include the icons as anything more than easter eggs.

Yeah, expect something like Hell Fest with a Jack animatronic as a 2 second cameo or something. They'd probably only want Horror Nights branding for name recognition, which is something the icons really don't have outside the hardcore Universal community.

 

[kingcooger]

Yeah, expect something like Hell Fest with a Jack animatronic as a 2 second cameo or something. They'd probably only want Horror Nights branding for name recognition, which is something the icons really don't have outside the hardcore Universal community.

I was thinking more along the lines of The Funhouse Massacre with the icons being played by actual killers. No complicated mythology, the haunted houses can stick around, and the character designs would make the villains memorable

 

[CoryLevy91]

Here’s one way to invigorate them or at the very least make them pop culture Icons: Jason Blum Is Considering Making a Halloween Horror Nights Movie

Also, when it comes to movie houses not fitting the theme, I think The Usher and The Director make them work

As well, The Storyteller could also function

If I was somebody with pull at Universal, I would be pitching the hell out of an anthology series with the HHN branding. That way you can have your cake and eat it too by creating original content that would appeal to a broader audience while keeping open the possibility of showcasing an episode about Jack here or The Caretaker there (not to mention you can keep their stories leaner with a shorter run time instead of dilluting the characters with 90+ minutes of footage). Then to double down you could turn the most popular stories into houses at the actual event. They could create their own originals and turn them into IPs at the same time.

And yes, Usher and Director make it easy to tie in actual IPs but it would be neat to have every house be part of a larger story (though there's a huge logistical quandary with how you tell a story through multiple houses when that story would likely be consumed in a different order by the consumers).

 

[Legacy]

If I was somebody with pull at Universal, I would be pitching the hell out of an anthology series with the HHN branding. That way you can have your cake and eat it too by creating original content that would appeal to a broader audience while keeping open the possibility of showcasing an episode about Jack here or The Caretaker there (not to mention you can keep their stories leaner with a shorter run time instead of dilluting the characters with 90+ minutes of footage). Then to double down you could turn the most popular stories into houses at the actual event. They could create their own originals and turn them into IPs at the same time.

And yes, Usher and Director make it easy to tie in actual IPs but it would be neat to have every house be part of a larger story (though there's a huge logistical quandary with how you tell a story through multiple houses when that story would likely be consumed in a different order by the consumers).

The people who care don’t have that sort of pull.

 

[JJ591]

It's "announced" as a sneak peak of a 2021 event house. So it's introduced but not "announced" on the main site.

I like "introduced". We all know it's coming obviously. But I think still think it will get an official announcement at some point before fall.

 

[cenobyte]

While it's been tinkered and played with in the past on occasion I think centering the entire event around a singular idea/theme/setting/story would be phenomenal though obviously you run into issues that it would be much harder to incorporate IPs into the event without shoehorning them in and you know they don't want to just throw away that sector of revenue.

It's definitely doable, though. I don't play it, but the game Dead By Daylight came to mind, which incorporates IP's into the game pretty well from what I've seen. Heck, if I'm remembering correctly, the 2011 Thing house was incorporated (at least somewhat) into the Lady Luck narrative that year.

 

[CoryLevy91]

The people who care don’t have that sort of pull.

Obviously. Decision makers aren't known to always make the best decisions though.

It's definitely doable, though. I don't play it, but the game Dead By Daylight came to mind, which incorporates IP's into the game pretty well from what I've seen. Heck, if I'm remembering correctly, the 2011 Thing house was incorporated (at least somewhat) into the Lady Luck narrative that year.

It's absolutely doable, just saying in the scenario where every house would be connected in some fashion that it'd be nice for the creative team to not have to shoehorn those IPs in. They have and could do it but that's not my point.

 

[HHN Maddux]

It's definitely doable, though. I don't play it, but the game Dead By Daylight came to mind, which incorporates IP's into the game pretty well from what I've seen. Heck, if I'm remembering correctly, the 2011 Thing house was incorporated (at least somewhat) into the Lady Luck narrative that year.

Dead by Daylight could make for a great house. Imagine going through each killer's realm, and a giant Entity puppet at the end.

 

[Legacy]

Obviously. Decision makers aren't known to always make the best decisions though.

I’d argue an attempt to make characters that Universal intentionally created as easy to market, trope-based riffs would actively cheapen the characters in the broader public’s eyes. Jack, the most marketable and developed icon, is nothing more than an amalgamation of Pennywise and Freddy Krueger. Caretaker, the icon with the best story, is the Tall Man from Phantasm replacing Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw with some mourning daddy vibes thrown in. The Director is a movie-focused Jigsaw killer. Usher is a generic protective ghost along the lines of Mary Shaw. Storyteller, when you really think about it, is a non-sensical character that requires too many loopholes to really work as a film. The character that actually works best for a film, Luck, is the character Universal is least likely to touch because she flopped.

The icons work because of their connection to the event. If you start thinking about them as independent stories, and then start to view those stories in relation to stories that have already been told, their weaknesses as characters become glaring. A killer clown that acts like Freddy Kruger isn’t interesting (or unique) enough to make a marketable movie, and the HHN fandom isn’t enough to make an uninteresting movie marketable.

Never mind the organizational structure where the film studios talk to the parks far more than they listen. Because the characters designed for theme parks have to hit different requirements than characters created for film/TV.

Disney Studios, the most synergetic MFers on earth, haven’t used Figment beyond the parks since 1989 except for a short run comic. That’s because parks to media is an almost impossible pull. The only successful one (Pirates of the Caribbean) didn’t actually use any characters from the parks. Universal is smarter to leave the icons where they are.

 

[ultimateforce]

I feel like that is the best explanation as to why I didn't go to HHN when I was younger, because I felt Jack was such a dumb character I wasn't interested in the event at all. Now, as and old man and HHN super fan I can appreciate how generic Jack is because it works for theming a collection of haunted houses and general Halloween atmosphere.

The Director is the best icon character in my opinion because I feel like the backstory makes sense to me.

 

[Legacy]

The Director is the best icon character in my opinion because I feel like the backstory makes sense to me.

He’s Roman Polanski, only snuff films.