Call it Harry Potter and the zombie apocalypse.
Next month, the Universal Studios theme park here will unveil a large Potter-themed expansion intended to attract families, a demographic that has traditionally been owned by nearby Disneyland. But Universal Sunday threw some surprise red meat at its teenage fan base: “The Walking Dead” is also going to set up permanent residency at the park.
An expansive haunted house, built with the creative team behind the AMC horror drama “The Walking Dead,” will be located across the entry plaza from the new Hogsmeade, Universal said. A promotional video for the undead attraction, set to open this summer, showed a building in flames and zombies clawing at theme park visitors through holes in a chain-link fence.
“We’re trying to be crossgenerational,” Larry Kurzweil, president of Universal Studios Hollywood, said in a phone interview. “This is going to be a once-anywhere, immersive attraction that takes it truly over the top.”
Fans of the hit series (and the comic books on which it is based) have had opportunities to participate in simulated “Walking Dead” invasions before. The Universal parks have previously offered temporary “Walking Dead”-themed mazes during their Halloween festivals. And in 2012, there was a “Walking Dead” experience at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
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