The new permits, which were filed on June 1 by Universal Orlando, call for three new elements to the park including a North Station, South Station, and Connector. I’m assuming that the station would start in Universal and travel through the parks into Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Sources at Hypable.com think that the North Station would house the Hogwarts Express in Universal and South would host it in Islands of Adventure. I couldn’t agree more.

Park Rumors posted these permits that were requested from the park:

Universal Orlando has only confirmed that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was expanding, but they have been tight-lipped about what the actual expansion entails. It makes me wonder why they are being so quiet about it. All I know, I plan to go back once the expansion has taken place, and maybe even before then. Thanks goes out to Hypable!

This is in fact earlier than the already announced new park at Universal Hollywood. Weasley twins actors James and Oliver Phelps were in Japan to assist with the big announcement. You can see photos and and a brief video of that below, thanks to Snitchseeker.

We will bring you all the news on this in the coming years, and we also hope a Harry Potter park will arrive in Europe some day too! You can read the full press release at the bottom of this page.

HOGWARTS IS COMING TO JAPAN!Global Expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Set for Universal Studios Japan – Slated to Open in Late 2014Osaka, Japan (May 10, 2012) – Universal Studios Japan, in partnership with Warner Bros. and Universal Parks & Resorts, will announce later today that they will be bringing The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Japan, marking the global expansion of this wildly popular themed entertainment experience that started at Universal Orlando Resort nearly two years ago.

The announcement will be made by Glenn Gumpel, President and CEO, Universal Studios Japan; Brad Globe, President, Warner Bros. Consumer Products; and Michael Silver, President, Global Business Development, Universal Parks & Resorts; as well as James and Oliver Phelps, who played the roles of Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter film series, who will be the guests of honor for the announcement. The Governor of Osaka Ichiro Matsui is expected to be on-hand.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan is the result of the creative teamwork and efforts by Universal Studios Japan in conjunction with Warner Bros., which produced and distributed the Harry Potter films, and Universal Parks & Resorts, which oversees Universal Studios theme parks, hotels and resorts throughout the world. It will be as magnificent and as impressive as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort. Just as in Orlando, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan will faithfully and authentically bring to life the stories created by J.K. Rowling in her books and captured on screen in Warner Bros.’ films.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando brought significant increases in tourism, jobs and economic benefit to the entire central Florida economy. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan is also expected to make a significant impact on tourism in both the Osaka/Kansai region and the entire country, creating thousands of new jobs and bringing economic benefits throughout Japan for decades to come.

“I was delighted to experience and enjoy the attention to detail, creativity and superb craft that went into the first Wizarding World in Orlando. I am equally delighted that the same level of expertise and enjoyment will translate to the new park in Japan,” said J.K. Rowling.

“Harry Potter, the most wonderful and amazing story of our time, is coming to Universal Studios Japan. USJ is thrilled to be chosen to make the Harry Potter experience come alive for the people of Japan. USJ is committed to being the world’s best Theme Park and by bringing this brilliant story to Japan and creating a fantastic experience is yet another validation of that commitment,” said Glenn Gumpel, President and CEO of USJ Co., Ltd. “USJ will recreate to the highest level of authenticity, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, created by Universal Studios in Orlando, which has been enjoyed and cherished by millions and millions of Universal Orlando’s guests. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – USJ’s commitment to bring the world’s best to life.”

The themed area itself will be a fully immersive environment for the entire family that brings the stories of Harry Potter to life and is faithful to the visual landscape of the films, including a majestic Hogwarts castle which will serve as the centerpiece of the land.

“Harry Potter continues to captivate generations of fans around the world and we are delighted to announce this partnership with Universal Studios Japan that will allow us to bring the magic of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Asia,” said Brad Globe, President, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter allows fans to step into the magical world created in the books and witnessed in the films. We think this is the perfectly timed next step in bringing the magical world of Harry Potter to life for even more fans.”

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan will be similar to the spectacularly themed land at Universal Orlando Resort and will include Hogwarts castle, Hogsmeade and multiple themed attractions. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan will be created with the same commitment to authenticity and the same high level of talent and resources, including the creative leadership of Stuart Craig, Production Designer for the entire Harry Potter film series.

“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is an entirely new level of themed entertainment that brings the stories of Harry Potter to life in incredible ways. It will forever change tourism, not only in Kansai but throughout Japan. We are thrilled to be bringing one of the most powerful themed entertainment experiences of our time to Universal Studios Japan, marking the global expansion of this incredible phenomenon, and we are confident that guests will want to return again and again to fully experience all that this fantastic environment will have to offer,” said Michael Silver, President, Global Business Development, Universal Parks & Resorts.

In June 2010, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort opened and became an instant, unprecedented hit. Since then, Warner Bros. and Universal Parks & Resorts announced that the themed area would be coming to Universal Studios Hollywood, and also that the Orlando location would be significantly expanded. No specific details on either of these plans have yet been announced.

The pictures below show what could be the new designs for Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. They include five new buildings, with the largest one being possibly slated for Gringotts with an indoor ride. Nothing has been confirmed (or denied) by Warner Bros., but as new developments become available we will let you know.

As we found out at the end of last year, not only is there a second HP theme park to be built in Hollywood, there are also set to be some exciting new developments at the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Orlando.

We’ve posted a bit of information regarding this on the site over the last few weeks and months, but we’ve slightly neglected you of all the details. So here is everything that is known or rumoured so far. The information comes via Hypable.com and their sources Screamscape.com, InsideTheMagic.net and BehindTheThrills.com, who have all been following this closely.

The rumours started in December when Universal announced that they will be closing their classic Jaws ride, and people speculated that this area would be filled by a Harry Potter expansion.

Universal Orlando announced this morning their classic Jaws attraction and its surrounding Amity area will close permanently on Jan. 2, 2011 “to make room for an exciting, NEW, experience” – and rumors point to more Harry Potter attractions moving in to the area.

Jaws has been a staple of the Universal Studios park for 20 years and Universal promises they won’t forget it, with a “couple things planned to ensure we always remember and honor it.” But for its replacement, they are staying silent at the moment, promising only a “new, innovative & amazing experience” to come.

This seemed strange however, because this Jaws area is in a completely separate part of Universal to Islands of Adventure, the park where the existing Wizarding World is located.

Nevertheless, later news backed up these rumours. Screamscape reported the following, giving the exciting news that the new area will be home to the London section of Harry’s world (including Diagon Alley), and that a Hogwarts Express ride could connect fans between the two areas!

If my various sources are correct, the Amity / Jaws area will be replaced by the proposed Phase 2 expansion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Now, before you flip out… lets go over it all, because for starters this really isn’t going to be the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at all. Instead, from what I’ve been able to gather, the new land to be build in Universal Studios Florida will actually represent the “London” side of the PotterVerse… including an entrance to the infamous Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley, as seen in the movies, is home to infamous locations such as The Leaky Cauldron, Gringott’s Wizarding Bank and the true Ollivanders wand shop location, as seen in the films. The London location is also said to be home to King’s Cross station, where students would board the Hogwarts Express train from Platform 9 ¾.

Many of these locations have been mentioned in the rumored development plans for Phase 2 of the Wizarding World for months now, including an innovative indoor dark coaster ride said to take place inside Gringott’s Wizarding Bank. It’s no secret that the Wizarding World has been popular…so much so that it needed to be expanded to spread out the crowds, and come up with a way to provide new locations for guests to buy Butterbeer, Ollivanders wands and more. But it seems that Universal Creative really decided to try a new idea… and think really outside the box this time. Literally… because this new expansion is going to allow for guests in both parks to get a taste of the PotterVerse… but to get the ENTIRE experience, you’d going to have to have a 2-park ticket.

Speaking of having access to both parks… connecting the dots is said to be a true recreation of the Hogwarts Express, allowing guests with two park passes (and Universal Resort guests) to recreate the true journey from the Muggle world of London and actually board travel to the train station and board the train for a trip over to Hogwarts and the rest of the Wizarding World at Islands of Adventure.

Now if all that wasn’t enough, I’ve heard some rumors about another possible new attraction likely to go into this Phase 2 project, that may attempt to take advantage of the new 3D projection tunnel technology Universal created for King Kong 3D 360 at the Hollywood park earlier this year. I don’t know if this may be put to use during your train ride on the Hogwarts Express, or if this will be an entirely separate ride experience. (One source suggested it could be a trip on the 3-decker Knight Bus, but I’ve heard that this isn’t likely to happen).

Screamscape later followed this up, debunking the Knight Bus rumours, but providing more substantial evidence about a big Gringotts ride to be built in place of Jaws!

While on the subject of Phase 2 of the PotterVerse (London), as I had suspected, the rumors of the Knight Bus attraction were wrong. This doesn’t mean that we wont see the King Kong 3D 360º technology put to use somewhere… it just wont be themed as the Knight Bus. The ride focus seems to be entirely on the Gringott’s Wizarding Back dark ride / coaster concept, as they apparently have some really grand ideas for this project. What kind of ideas? Remember that uncovered technology patent Universal files a couple of years ago that would have a coaster car ride up onto a detachable piece of track that was hooked up to the top of a simulator style motion base platform able to tilt and rotate in any direction? The latest Screamscape rumor claims that we may see this new idea brought to life as part of the Gringott’s coaster ride.

They also note that another Ollivander’s wand shop is to be built in the new area and that it will be much larger than the hugely popular one in the current park. They reckon it will actually house three different shops, but will be disguised as one, which will deal with problem of overcrowding.

Later, ThemeParkInsider got hold of detailed concept plans for the Diagon Alley park, confirming the location and giving great detail about the Gringotts ride.

It looks like we can expect another elaborately themed walk-through queue tour, along the lines of what we got with Hogwarts Castle in the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

You can read much more about the ride here at the original source, and below are pictures allegedly showing sketched plans for the design of the ride’s carriages.

At the beginning of last month we began seeing physical evidence of these plans coming into fruition, firstly with a demolition permit linked to several people who have worked on the Harry Potter films in the past. The project has apparently been named “Project 722″ which may be a reference to page 722 of Deathly Hallows, where the Hogwarts Express is mentioned

Following this, some pictures surfaced showing the start of demolition of the Jaws attraction.

And finally, as we reported just under two weeks ago, sources say construction markings been spotted heading from the Jaws area down to the Wizarding World.

And that’s pretty much everything we know so far. We’ll bring you more news on these fantastic developments in the months ahead, as well as everything going on on the other side of the US with the construction of Wizarding World number 2 in Hollywood.

What you ask is south? The Wizarding World, that’s right. Rumors surfaced stating that the expansion will include a Hogwarts Express to join Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure (where Wizarding World is currently located).

From Screamscape:

According to one source demolition work in the old Jaws area has been going full steam ahead this week, as Amity will soon be nothing more than a giant muddy crater as the work crews are said to be moving quite fast on this. Elsewhere, sources tell us that a bunch of survey markings can now be found all along the main backstage road leading toward the Jaws/Amity area. No word yet on if they stretch all the way from Amity to the Wizarding World or IoA or not, but this sounds like the start of the Hogwarts Express to me. So far markings have been spotted in the area behind Soundstage 33 and down behind the Revenge of the Mummy attraction building.

Universal Studios confirmed the expansion in December, and since then numerous signs of expansion have been seen in Universal Studios which is separate from Islands of Adventure. The expansion is said to be a Diagon Alley type of land with the Hogwarts Express connecting the two parks. This same rumor stated that construction would begin in February. For now, I can only hope that if I go in March I can find out more.

Thanks to Screamscape and hypable.com!

-Railroad engineers have been on property extensively designing a track that would run backstage.

-You would be looking outside the train and seeing a video component as you went down the track. Whether that would be similar in technology to King Kong in Universal Florida remains to be seen.

-There is a roller coaster planned for the Jaws area.

-The individual was told to see Poseidon’s Fury [sic] for the last time soon as it was going away by February 1st.

All this seems to add fuel to the speculation that a Diagon Alley with a Gringott’s Wizarding Bank roller coaster would take over where Jaws left off. Additionally it is believed that a Hogwarts Express Train would connect from there to the current Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at Islands of Adventure.

Poseidon’s Fury is the area right outside the Hogwarts Express entrance of the Wizarding World and it could potentially be used to build the platform for the Hogwarts Express ride. Guests would board the Hogwarts Express and ride to the new area in Universal Studios where Jaws currently operates.

Universal Studios had in fact confirmed a few weeks ago that the Orlando expansion for Wizarding World of Harry Potter is in the works and the closure of Jaws (although they did not confirm if the closure was due to the Potter expansion). This Potterhead can only hope for that to be true.

Warner Bros. and Universal executives, along with James and Oliver Phelps, today gathered in Hollywood to make their much anticipated announcement that a second Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park is to be built there in sunny southern California. You see pictures above and below from that event, and you can read more of what was said over on Hypable.com, who had press access for the announcement.

Here is the official press release, that also confirms the rumours that the existing Orlando park is to be expanded (more on that soon!).

Warner Bros. Entertainment and Universal Parks and Resorts today announced a partnership to bring The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – the enormously popular themed entertainment environment which debuted in Orlando in June 2010 – to Universal Studios Hollywood.

The two companies also announced their plans to significantly expand The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood will be as impressive as what has been created in Orlando – and is expected to transform tourism in Los Angeles for decades to come. It will be a fully immersive environment for the entire family that brings the stories of Harry Potter to life and is faithful to the visual landscape of the films, including a majestic Hogwarts castle to serve as the centerpiece of the themed environment. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood will be created with the same commitment to authenticity and the same level of talent and resources as its Orlando counterpart.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort opened in June 2010 and immediately captured global attention. It is a spectacularly themed land that includes Hogwarts castle, Hogsmeade and multiple themed attractions. Specific details of its expansion will be announced over time.

“The announcement of our partnership with Universal to bring The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Hollywood and expand what already exists in Orlando is probably the best holiday gift we could give to the legions of Harry Potter fans worldwide,” said Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. “Everyone involved with these projects is committed to continuing the enchantment of J.K. Rowling’s masterful books as they were brought to life on screen in our eight films and dedicated to extending the magic of the experience for generations of fans to come.”

“This is an incredible moment for Universal Studios and the millions of guests who visit our theme parks,” said Ron Meyer, President & COO, Universal Studios. “The Harry Potter stories are some of the most powerful of our time and we are honored to expand our Orlando experience and bring The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Hollywood, forever changing family tourism in Los Angeles.”

“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is an entirely new level of themed entertainment that brings the stories of Harry Potter to life in incredible ways,” said Tom Williams, Chairman and CEO, Universal Parks and Resorts. “We are thrilled to be able to share this experience with our guests in Hollywood. And we are thrilled to take what has been created in Orlando to even greater levels.”

See these picture plus a few more here in our galleries.

We’ll have much more news on this in the weeks, months and years to come!

The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and Variety have all released some information ahead of an official announcement which they say is coming soon. From the Wall Street Journal:

“NBCUniversal is planning to expand its Los Angeles theme park with a section devoted to the “Harry Potter” franchise, according to people familiar with the matter, hoping to repeat the success of a similar attraction at NBCU’s Orlando, Fla., resort.

The new “Harry Potter” addition in the Los Angeles park, Universal Studios Hollywood, will likely resemble the one in Florida, these people say, which includes a Hogwarts Castle, roller coasters, and several Potter-themed restaurants including the Hog’s Head tavern, which serves butterbeer, as in the books.”

This attraction is likely open some time after 2015. They also say more HP parks could eventually spring up all around the world:

“If the new section succeeds, more “Potter” attractions could open in other parts of the world where Universal has theme parks, including Japan, Singapore, and Spain, say people close to Universal.”

Interestingly, there is currently very little space at Universal Hollywood, and the budget is reported to be $200 million, which is less than the $265 million that was spent on the original Orlando one. This could mean the new park isn’t on as big a scale as the existing one.

Good news? Not brilliant, in my opinion…

While the news will likely bring immense happiness to anyone around the west coast of the USA, I personally have rather mixed feelings about this development.

My fear is that a second park in America will reduce the novelty of the experience. The Orlando park is THE place to go for Harry Potter fans worldwide. Having a second park, which by the sounds of it will be very similar to the first, may cheapen it and make it all less special.

For the moment I’d rather see them putting all their resources into developing and expanding the Orlando park, and maybe try to improve the accessibility and affordability for the whole of America. Then I’d like to see them build a new Potter park in another corner of the globe, like the UK, or maybe more feasibly near Disneyland Paris. It would also be good if they developed a park in Asia, which seems likely as Universal already has a site in Singapore.

This way, there would be a park close enough to every Harry Potter fan around the world, whilst still maintaining the integrity, the novelty, and the special magical experience which has made the Wizarding World in Orlando such a huge success. Each of these three theme parks could then be the “Holy Grail” for Harry Potter fans in each third of the globe.

But alas, it doesn’t seem like they’re doing it my way.