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Orange County Mayor: Epic Universal Park With Super Nintendo World Delayed to 2025 Opening

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings stated to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper on Wednesday that, according to Universal Studios, its Epic Universal theme park is scheduled to open in early 2025. Epic Universal is slated to include Super Nintendo World.

The new park was initially scheduled to open in 2023 before construction delays took place due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Construction crews are now restarting work at the park.

Universal Orlando purchased a 400-acre lot across the street from the main Universal Orlando Resort park in 2018. It had also planned a Pokémon part of the Universal Orland Resort theme park's KidZone area.

The effort is part of the larger planned Nintendo-themed initiative that Universal is adding to its theme parks.

Universal Studios Japan postponed the planned opening date of its Super Nintendo World area due to the new state of emergency declaration for Osaka prefecture on January 13. The new theme park area was planned to open on February 4.

Universal Studios Japan stated it will reveal the new official opening date after the state of emergency is lifted. Osaka prefecture lifted its state of emergency on March 1.

The park had originally planned to open the area in late July 2020, in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but delayed the opening to prevent crowding, as a countermeasure against COVID-19. (The Olympics event itself has been delayed until this year also.)

Universal Studios Japan as a whole closed last year from February 29 through June 19.

Source: Orlando Sentinel (Gabrielle Russon) via Crunchyroll