March 31, 2026, 6:19 PM ·
Today I was supposed to be in Abu Dhabi, bringing you the news about the next big theme park attractions coming to the Middle East.The first-ever IAAPA Expo Middle East was supposed to be happening this week in Abu Dhabi. But IAAPA canceled this year’s event after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran and then Iran responded, raining missile and drone debris across the region. With airlines canceling flights and governments advising against travel, there was no way for IAAPA and its exhibitors to stage the event.So instead of reporting on official announcements from attraction developers, I instead will tell you what I expected to be writing about this week, and how I see these plans evolving.The top story I expected to bring you would have detailed plans for two new attractions at Warner Bros. World on Yas Island: a new DC Comics-themed roller coaster for the park’s Metropolis land, as well as an all-new Harry Potter-themed land for the indoor theme park.Miral announced years ago that it would develop a Harry Potter land for Warner Bros. World, so that is, by itself, not news. And Miral has placed signs on the WBW property teasing the new DC coaster. The park has closed its Superman 360 theater attraction to make way for the new ride. That is not a loss that I will mourn. As I wrote in my most recent trip report from the park, “there were significant synchronization problems with the 3D projection on this, making it uncomfortable to watch.” Closing Superman 360 is an addition by subtraction, although inside sources tease that its Daily Planet facade and queue likely will be used for the new coaster.The DC coaster will be the park’s third, following the Intamin suspended family coaster Fast and Furry-ous and the spinning coaster Tom and Jerry Swiss Cheese Spin. Miral has two coasters on Yas Island that have placed in our Theme Park Insider top 50: Flying Aces at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and Manta at SeaWorld Abu Dhabi. Both of those are Intamin creations. Another Intamin at that level would provide a welcome addition to Warner Bros. World.That coaster has not yet gone vertical, but Miral has begun site preparation on a former surface parking lot just outside the park’s entrance. Behind that, foundation work continues on the new Harry Potter land.This land will bring The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to life in a theme park for the first time outside of a Universal park. However, Warner Bros. operates Harry Potter studio tour attractions in the United Kingdom and Japan, and the creative team at TAIT, whose Thinkwell developed those attractions as well as the Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi park, is working on this new land.In addition to the Warner Bros. World attractions, Miral executives have said that the company plans a new, record-breaking roller coaster at Ferrari World. That park’s Formula Rossa lost its world speed coaster crown three months ago to the new Falcons Flight at Six Flags Qiddiya City. This week could have brought official word about the Hogwarts-themed attractions that the new Harry Potter land will offer, as well as perhaps timelines and design concept art for the new coasters. However, all that news will have to wait until all parties involved are comfortable that people are ready to hear such announcements, given the current situation.Yas Island will be the site of the next Disney theme park, which Disney and Miral executives announced last May. But Miral and its state backers in the UAE have learned from others’ experience in announcing major attractions. If you do not offer other compelling new attractions in the meantime, fans simply will wait to visit until the Big New Thing opens. The new coasters and Harry Potter land were intended to entice more fans to visit Yas Island while Disney was being designed and built. However, it’s not the lure of a Disney park years in the future that is dissuading visits to the Emirate at the moment.With phone alerts of missile warnings now ubiquitous across the UAE, flight schedules disrupted and airfares rising around the world, pretty much no one is planning a trip to Abu Dhabi right now. So there is no sense in wasting a PR opportunity by announcing anything this week, or probably for a while.However, I am hearing no expressions of doubt from sources in the region that these projects will not go ahead at some point. So long as Abu Dhabi has the financial resources to pay for these attraction, Miral’s IP and development partners have no incentive to back away. Only an existential threat to the Emirates would cause leadership to abandon its commitment to building its tourism economy.So for now, it’s time for something that until now has been pretty much unheard of in Abu Dhabi – a rain check. Plans for theme park attractions mean nothing when attacks are injuring and killing people across the region. Only when that stops and people are ready to think about such entertainment again will we get the news we were supposed to report this week.
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