As a theme park writer, I spend as much time as I can inside them. But since I don’t actually live in Southern California or Orlando, I can’t visit them as much as I might like. For that reason, I also love to consume media about theme parks. I own countless books about theme parks and the people who made them, and I’ve seen more documentaries about them than I can count.
For this reason, I was really looking forward to next week. A new three-part series Epic Ride: The Story Of Universal Theme Parks, was set to debut on Monday for everybody with a Peacock subscription. The show was essentially Universal’s version of Disney+'s The Imagineering Story, a documentary that looked back at the history of the parks, and likely also gave us a glimpse into the future. Unfortunately, I (and everybody else waiting for this show) will now need to wait a bit longer.
Epic Ride’s Delay May Be Due To The Recent Tragedy, But Not Necessarily
Today, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Epic Ride has seen its debut pushed back nearly two months and will now release on Peacock on November 17. While no official reason has been given for the delay, it’s difficult not to see a connection between the postponement of a series meant to shine a light on Universal’s theme parks, and the fact that the press Universal’s newest park is currently getting is not as positive.
Last week a guest at Epic Universe was found unresponsive after riding the Stardust Racers roller coaster at Epic Universe, and he died at the hospital a short time later. The investigation into what happened is still ongoing, and while initial findings indicate that Stardust Racers was functioning properly and that Universal Team Members did their jobs properly, it’s difficult to argue that maybe right now isn’t the best time to go about celebrating Universal theme parks on television.
As easy as it is to make the connection between the tragedy and the delay (especially due to the last-minute nature of the announcement), something else may be at play. This is actually the second major delay for the series. It was initially announced for a late July release, before being pushed back to the September date.
Could Stardust Racers Closure Impact The Epic Ride Documentary
If the two things are connected, there may be more to the second delay than simply managing PR. It’s possible that the series may be getting re-edited in some small way following the incident. While a three-part documentary about the entire history of Universal theme parks will likely only spend a fraction of its runtime discussing all the attractions at Epic Universe, and an even smaller portion discussing Stardust Racers specifically, the series may need to hold off before deciding what it says about the attraction.
At this point, Stardust Racers is closed to the public, and there’s no indication when it might reopen. Even though the coaster doesn’t appear ot be at fault, it’s still possible that the coaster may need to go through some sort of refurbishment if it’s found that safety could be improved. If that happens, the coaster could be closed for the foreseeable future. And a result Universal may not want to say much about Stardust in the new show.
