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Warner Bros Studio Tour Announces Forbidden Forest Expansion

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Forbidden Forest Warner Bros Studio Tour Harry Potter

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a new permanent expansion: the Forbidden Forest.

Opening to the public on 31st March,  entrance to the Forbidden Forest will be included in the ticket price.

Guests brave enough to defy Professor Dumbledore’s orders and venture into the Fobidden Forest, will be met at the entrance by one of Rubeus Hagrid’s original costumes.

From there visitors will be able to explore the forest set, walking beneath the roots of 19 enormous trees each with a diameter of over 12 feet.  A special feature of the tour will be allowing visitors to control the weather using genuine filmmakers’ techniques.

The Forbidden Forest is home to many magical creatures including Hippogriffs and Acromantula.  Visitors will meet a full size model of Buckbeak which appeared in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  Arachnophobes beware, Aragog the giant spider lurks deep in the forest with his spiderlings.

The Forbidden Forest has been designed and built by many of the crew members who worked on the Harry Potter film series including Oscar® and BAFTA winning Production Designer Stuart Craig, Construction Manager Paul Hayes, BAFTA winning Creature and Makeup Effects Designer Nick Dudman and BAFTA winning Special Effects Supervisor John Richardson.

Commenting on the new expansion, Sarah Roots, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Tours commented, “We are so excited to launch the Forbidden Forest expansion of the Studio Tour, especially on the fifth anniversary of our grand opening. It’s great to be working with so many of the original filmmakers who know so much about the wizarding world. There will be an opportunity to take control of the weather and discover the techniques used to create a realistic forest within a film. We can’t wait to let visitors step into this mysterious set and discover all this amazing detail for themselves.”

The Forbidden Forest is full of mysterious, fascinating and sometimes threatening forces

Stuart Craig, Production Designer on all eight Harry Potter films, added, “Over the course of the eight films, the Forbidden Forest has played a key role and I think it’s an exciting addition to the Studio Tour. The Forbidden Forest is full of mysterious, fascinating and sometimes threatening forces. It represents the great unknown compared to the comfort and safety of Hogwarts and the Gryffindor Common Room which makes it so interesting and important to the development of the story.”

Image: Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter

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Rachel Reed

Rachel Read

Rachel is co-founder and FD of blooloop. She has a degree in engineering from Cambridge University, is a Chartered Accountant and has a certificate in Sustainability Leadership and Corporate Responsibility from London Business School. Rachel oversees our news, events and sustainability.

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