After what JK got for WWoHP, the $$$$ signs were obviously in James Cameron's eyes. He quite rightly would have had huge financial demands for use of the IP, and the ball was in Disney's court. They needed a Harry Potter-killer.
Universal on the other hand are already sitting pretty with what they have. They probably wanted Avatar for one of their UOR parks, but were not prepared to pay the premium seeing as they were alreay paying the premium for a proven franchise in Potter.
I am excited for Disney. It is a huge development for them. Animal Kingdom was a half-day park, with virtually no good attractions (EE looks mega, but everything else looks pretty lame). Well, all that changes in 2016! Count me in for my first ever visit!
But what I am even more excited about is the probability that Universal will respond to this news by announcing WWoHP phase 2 to coincide with the opening of the Avatar development at Disney.
This is GREAT NEWS for all of us!
It could well be that Universal's plans for PHASE 2 will now become more expensive and grandiose than what they would have been, had Disney allowed them to rest on their laurels.
WWoHP is a cash cow, no doubt. And theme park companies are greedy animals, so an expansion to WWoHP was already a certainty at some stage. But I feared we would get slightly rethemed and halfbaked Sinbad/Poseidon attractions themed to books 5-7 in the HP universe.
I honestly don't think Universal can 'just' do that now. They simply have to respond properly to negate the short term advantage Disney will have from 2016 onwards. And that SHOULD mean physical interactive developments to the standard of Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade Village.
Members on this forum have said in the past that Diagon Alley won't fit into WWoHP, in which case Gringotts cannot be built (Gringotts is based in Diagon Alley in the books and films). But now I think simply adding a Shreiking Shack walkthrough attraction in place of Poseidon's Fury would leave a horrid taste in the mouth for most of us.
If that's all Universal Creative can muster in the next few years, then I know which resort I'll be at in 2016!
Great points! Disney may not be prepared to give the answer to the kiddies when they start asking, if they had gone with Smurfs.
I stand corrected!
