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Butterbeer Toast at Universal LA Tomorrow, Rumors of Universal Florida Wizarding World Expansion

Tomorrow, at Universal Studios Los Angeles, executives will be on hand to make a very special annoucement:

Universal announced the event, stating in an email that it would be "hosting a Butterbeer toast to celebrate a very special announcement." People close to the matter but not authorized to discuss the event beforehand confirmed it would be the unveiling of plans to duplicate the massively successful Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction from Universal Studios Orlando at the L.A. theme park.

Top executives from Warner Bros., which made the "Potter" films and controls licensing rights to author J.K. Rowling's books about the boy wizard, will be in attendance along with those from Universal. They will include the leaders of both companies: Warner Chairman Barry Meyer and Universal President Ron Meyer (no relation).

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The attraction isn't expected to open at Universal's Los Angeles location — right next to its film and television studio in Universal City — until 2015 at the earliest.

In addition to this news, ScreamScape is reporting on rumors of expansion plans for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Orlando:

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. 

You can read more here.

Thanks very much to Hagiographer13 and Christina for sending us these articles!