With the official announcement made on March 14th, Universal has let the walkers out of the bag on their latest addition.  The Walking Dead is finding a permanent residence at Universal Studios Hollywood in a year-round, walkthrough attraction that aims to scare guests silly.  Host Chris Hardwick broke the news on AMC’s The Talking Dead, a follow-up companion show to The Walking Dead that features actors from the shows, commentary, and surprise guests.

Universal Studios Hollywood has, itself, been going through a multi-year transformation.  Beginning with Transformers The Ride 3D, the park upped the immersion next with Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, then Springfield U.S.A., Fast and Furious Supercharged, then finally The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Unfortunately, with these all of these additions came change, and the loss of the beloved Universal House of Horrors. Housed in a building near the front of the park referred to as Stage 13, the attraction frightened guests for over 7 years featuring scenes from Universal’s classic monster movies.

The show must go on and a new, state-of-the-art structure was built in its place.  The entrance to the park now resembles a Los Angeles city street, gleaming and idealized.  What Universal didn’t tell fans was that they had a scary little trick up their sleeve.  They fully understood the popularity and demand for a year-round, frightening walkthrough attraction.  They also understood that every year at the popular Halloween Horror Nights event, The Walking Dead was a tremendously popular experience.  While Universal was building storefronts and beautiful facades, they were also building The Walking Dead attraction in the same complex, on the same patch of ground where Stage 13 once stood.

After entering the park guests make a left at the brand new Starbucks and come upon this façade in progress.  Universal has extended the “Baker Street” theme here with some beautifully ornate detail work.

By way of elimination we can only surmise that this will in fact be the entrance to the brand new The Walking Dead attraction.  Obviously the first big hint is the poster announcing the arrival of said attraction.  The other indicator is that this is the last remaining patch of construction walls in the area.  Judging on the fact that Universal said the new walkthrough would take place here, that there is no other façade that could reasonably become an entrance to the walkthrough, well, there you go.

Looking at the building head on it’s easy to see that the façades barely shield the two story structure behind them.

Going outside of the park we see the back side of the brand new building.  Emergency exit doors lead to the freshly laid sidewalks and new landscaping.  This is definitely part of the new structure.  Below we can see the Globe Theatre building to the left.  It has not been touched nor has it been connected to the new structure.

There really isn’t much else to see until they remove the final construction walls.  The Walking Dead is set to open summer 2016, just after The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has gotten over its opening jitters, settling in for its first soCal summer crowds.

We will continue to update you with any pics or information from now through to opening day.  Below is the trailer for the new attraction.