Go Inside the Inspirations for Everything Inside Universal Studios Hollywood's Fan Fest Nights
Fan Fest Nights is now open for the spring, so find out how they've made it as authentic as possible.
Grab your favorite cosplay outfits because the Universal Fan Fest Nights event is now happening on select nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.
The first of its kind separately ticketed event uses the footprint of the theme park and the Universal Studios backlot to welcome fans to experience bespoke curated immersive experiences featuring Back to the Future, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Super Nintendo World, Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons, and the anime worlds of One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen.
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Universal Fan Fest Nights is a limited time special engagement that runs April 25 - 27; May 2 - 4, 9 - 11 and 16 - 18, 2025. There are a variety of ticket options.
To give guests some insight into what they will see and experience during the event, NBC Insider spoke exclusively to Stephen Siercks, the Senior Director of Entertainment Production at Universal Studios Hollywood, about how they worked with their theme parks partners from around the globe to create this Los Angeles only attraction.
The two pillars behind Universal Studios Fan Fest Nights
Siercks said the two foundational pillars that he and his team used as their North Star in developing this first Fan Fest Nights was always thinking "fan first" and "authenticity" to drive every experience.
"You can't get better than our lineup with Star Trek and Back to the Future representing sci-fi, with Dungeons and Dragons and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter representing fantasy, and Super Nintendo World representing gaming," he said of how each major genre is represented. "And then we're really excited to also debut anime as a new opportunity for us, taking some of the inspiration and support from our Universal Studios Japan partners who develop a yearly seasonal event called Cool Japan which celebrates anime. Being able to tap into those resources and that knowledge base to bring both One Piece and Jujitsu Kaisan to life for this first year as well."
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With very different experiences developed to best cater to their fandom's interests, Siercks walked us through how they created each genre-centric area.
Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley
With "fan first" and "authenticity" top of mind, Siercks said they looked right at their own backyard (or backlot) to create Back to Future: Destination Hill Valley.
"We're able to bring our guests to the place where the film was made 40 years ago and do a celebratory recreation of Hill Valley," he explained of there areas where director Robert Zemeckis filmed in 1985. "We bring it back to 1955, let our guests off the tram and allow them to explore it. We are able to populate the space with characters and environments with different performance elements to celebrate the brand, but essentially allow our guests to walk in the footsteps of Marty McFly, as he did for the first time in 1955 when he first experienced Hill Valley in Courthouse Square."
And that includes a big set piece from Back to the Future, the prom that is pivotal to Marty's parents falling in love.
"You can't celebrate [the movie] without celebrating the Enchantment Under the Sea prom, so we're assuming that the prom is spilling out into Hill Valley and into Courthouse Square. We'll have the full setup with the band on stage. And Marty McFly is going to get up and rock out on guitar every once in a while," he said.
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Siercks said they turned to their Universal Pictures archival team to add props and materials from the production too.
"We're able to tap into some of the resources around us, whether it's through Universal Pictures and the great partnership we have with them, or the Universal Studios Hollywood side of things. A notable example is that for the last few years, we've been able to display Biff's car on our backlot studio tour, and we're able to leverage that car as part of the Courthouse Square experience as well."
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter get new lights and magic
With two huge fandom areas already in Universal Studios Hollywood, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Super Nintendo World, Siercks said their goal was to offer something "new, different and unique" in both permanent lands just for Fan Fest Nights.
"For The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we're really excited to debut the projection mapping show that first debuted out in Universal Orlando, 'Hogwarts Always,' as part of Fan Fest Nights," he said. "And then also bringing magical creatures to the land to populate the town proper. That was first developed by Universal Studios Japan that we're excited to bring to Universal Studios Hollywood now with the Niffler and the baby dragon, and then also to introducing a brand new magical creature, the Occamy, that is exclusive to Fan Fest Nights."
It's also Butterbeer Season 2025 in the area, so be sure to partake in everything special to eat, drink and purchase around that sweet treat.
Super Nintendo World: Yoshi Celebration
If you love the dinosaur Yoshi from the Super Mario video game series, then head to Super Nintendo World where Fan Fest Nights is all about the fan favorite character.
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"We're excited to be able to debut Yoshi as a meet and greet character for Fan Fest Nights," Siercks said of their partnership with Nintendo and Universal Studios Hollywood that made it possible to celebrate Yoshi as part of Fan Fest Nights. "In addition to the opportunity to meet the traditional green Yoshi out in the land, we've also developed a scavenger hunt activity that allows our guests to find eggs that have been hidden throughout the land. If you find all five eggs, you get the unique and exclusive opportunity to also meet with multi-colored Yoshi."
Star Trek: Red Alert and Dungeons and Dragons: Secrets of Water Deep
Two massive walkthrough, story-driven experiences were also created for fans: Star Trek: Red Alert and Dungeons and Dragons: Secrets of Water Deep. Unlike Halloween Horror Nights haunted houses which are created for visitors to be scared through them quickly, Siercks said they created these with the intention for fans to slow down and be participants in a big story.
"We wanted to elevate and innovate the way in which guests experience these walkthroughs," he explained. "We developed what we're calling a "story-based, pulsed attraction." For both of those attractions, you're separated into smaller groups, and you experience the entire attraction in those small groups. What that allows us to do is that you actually get time in each of these show scenes to be able to take in the characters, the storyline and the environments. And that dwell time really increases the inmersion and the opportunity for us to further the storytelling in a way that we're really excited about."
Anime: One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen
"We're really excited to be debut two types of experiences with anime for Fan Fest Nights," Siercks said of their very first anime creations for the Hollywood theme park. "The first one is our Fan Zone Concept, which is very similar to a Halloween Horror Nights Scare Zone where we take over a street with characters and an environment. We're celebrating One Piece on the streets of Universal Studios Hollywood with this fan Zone Concept, and that's really allowing our guests to experience it how they would like to experience it, whether it's soaking up the environments or meeting all the characters on the streets. It's also tied to some really incredible food and beverage offerings."
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Siercks continued, "With Jujutsu Kaisen, we're taking some content that was previously developed for Universal Studios Japan and bringing it to Universal Studios Hollywood as more of a media based attraction. It's edge-of-your-seat excitement and energy, but a very different type of application and opportunity to celebrate the anime."
Check out all of these great areas for yourself. Tickets for Universal Fan Fest Nights are now on sale. Click here to purchase tickets
