Here’s a Trailer for the New Universal Theme Parks Docuseries Epic Ride

A funny thing about theme parks: you’ll write about it for years as it’s being developed and built, and then once it opens there’s not always that much to write about. Take Epic Universe, Universal’s fantastic new park that opened back in May. I think I first wrote about this thing back in 2018, maybe 2017, checking in regularly over the years that followed—and since covering the grand opening back in May I don’t know if I’ve written a word about it. There hasn’t been any major changes to the park since it opened, and probably won’t be for a while still. When you’re always having to write about what’s next and what’s coming soon you don’t always get a chance to just sit with a thing and properly appreciate or understand its place in the world.

(There’s always time to rank things, at least.)

Well, here’s a reason to write about Epic Universe again. Peacock, the streaming site that’s part of the same Comcast / NBC Universal corporate edifice as Epic Universe, starts running Epic Ride: The Story of Universal Theme Parks—a three-part documentary on the company’s history, with a particular focus on the new theme park—later this month. The official trailer was released this morning, and leans hard on Epic Universe. Yeah, it’s a hype piece, but the series itself will no doubt have a good amount of construction footage and backstage info that, if not exactly news, will at least be of interest to theme park fans. The trailer’s heavy on the big name celebrities that pop up as talking heads—Steven Spielberg, patron saint of Universal theme parks, and filmmaker of some repute, gets the first word, of course—but I’m sure reps from Universal Creative will be on hand to discuss their work. Given how guarded the major theme park companies are about their creative processes, any information they decide to release is gladly gobbled up by voracious theme park fans, and Epic Ride will no doubt be full of interesting tidbits.