Rumors are abound that the Dragon Challenge roller coaster located in Universal Orlando Resort's The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade may be shutting down forever.
This may be partly do to lessening interest over the years, coupled with incidents on the ride that resulted in passenger injuries. Another suggestion is that the ride will completely be torn down and replaced with a future attraction in the Wizarding World, and one tied to the new
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film series.
Quote:
Remember back when we first learned that Hulk was going to be torn down and rebuilt, we learned soon after that once Hulk was done there was a good chance that the two Dueling Dragons / Dragon Challenge inverted coasters would likely be next. Welll..... about that... according to the latest rumors... that may no longer be the case.
Like Hulk, it seems Universal has determined that the world famous dueling inverted coasters will soon reach the end of their projected lifespan. Unlike Hulk however, it seems that they may have changed their mind about just what to do about it. Several courses of action were apparently considered beyond just rebuilding exact copies of the Fire and Ice dragon layouts... including the idea of altering the new layout to be merged into one seriously extended length coaster, as well as scrapping the entire ride concept in order to reuse the large footprint it sits on to build other new concept attractions going forward.
While I am hoping to god that my sources are wrong on this one, the story being leaked says that before too long Universal Orlando may simply opt for the later option, and retire the Dragons forever and build another unknown new Harry Potter themed attraction instead.
Please note that nothing regarding the Dragon Challenge has been confirmed by Universal Parks & Resorts. However, Warner Bros. did announce years ago that there would be theme park additions for
Fantastic Beasts in the coming years, though no word yet on what, when, or where those adjustments will be made to Universal's parks in Orlando, Hollywood, and/or Japan.