As Epic Universe gets closer to opening day – May 22, 2025 – construction workers are putting finishing touches on the new theme park in Orlando, Florida, such as special effects and guest amenities. Aerial photographer Bioreconstruction took photos in both categories during a flight on November 15, 2024 over the Epic Universe construction site.

(New to Epic Universe? Check out our beginner’s guide.)

See you in the fog

The same tool can be used for different moods in a theme park, and Universal will use steam/mist for different, completely different thematic purposes in Epic Universe.

Anyone who has ever been to Halloween Horror Nights knows that fog can add a touch of mystery to a themed environment. This will be the case in Epic Universe’s Dark Universe, where fog not only rises from a fountain in the village square, but also pours out of chimneys, adding to the credibility of Darkmoor as a living community.

Across the park, in How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk, Universal uses fog not for the purpose of foreshadowing, but to give the sprawling Hiccup’s Wing Gliders roller coaster an accent of exhilaration, drama and majesty as the trains go under driving under a bridge during a show scene later in the ride.