Universal Orlando Executive Reveals Vision for Future of Epic Universe Theme Park

Image: An aerial view of Epic Universe from  Helios Bar at Helios Hotel (Photo Credit: Eric Bowman)
Image: An aerial view of Epic Universe from Helios Bar at Helios Hotel (Photo Credit: Eric Bowman)
Eraine Wessler
by Eraine Wessler
Last updated: 5:00 PM ET, Sun May 24, 2026

Universal Orlando Resort’s Universal Epic Universe has barely celebrated its first anniversary, and its executives are already looking to the future, discussing how visitors may experience the property in new and better ways.

As told to USA Today, Universal Orlando’s EVP and General Manager Jeff Polk recently said that, “We will always be testing things to try to figure out what the best way is to leverage the experience for all guests. Over the next year and a half, we're going to experiment with a lot of things, to see what works, what doesn’t work.”

But Polk also explained that they’re not looking to move fast but instead go forward in a thoughtful manner.

“We’re not gonna do anything en masse, though, until we have a comfort level that what we’re doing is not upsetting the balance of the daytime guest experience and whatever these corporate or other activities might be,” he said.

Polk also said that Universal has learned over the first year that guests want to feel like they’re a part of the story, even inside it, experiencing it viscerally.

“What we’ve learned over the past year is that we can’t lean into that enough,” Polk said. 

Polk also spoke about whether annual passes will eventually come to Epic Universe, and he indicated that they would come somewhere down the line and not immediately.

“Knowing that passholders are certainly some of our most important guests, we always want to give them as much as we can, but … we’re also being mindful about the level of experience we could have, and we have lots of annual passholders,” Polk said.


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