The Fast and the Furious has become a massive franchise covering eight films and has even more to come. However, if you want to get closer to the action, Universal Studios is about to put people in the driver's seat. Today, Universal Studios in Orlando officially announced - Supercharged, a brand new attraction set to debut at the theme park in the spring of 2018. The experience promises to put guests in the middle of the action of the Fast and Furious movies.
The attraction is built inside what is designed to look like the underground headquarters of the Fast and Furious family. Scenes from the films will play around you as you move through locations familiar from the series and get to check out the Family Room as well as Tej's War Room, complete with an appearance by Tej (Ludacris) himself. The ride setup involves Tej inviting the guests to a special race after party on a special party bus, however, once on the bus, Dom informs everybody that Owen Shaw is on the way, leading to the party bus getting involved in its own Fast and Furious action.
The ride consists of a pair of screens on either side of the ride vehicle, which display the events the guests are now embroiled in. The party bus them becomes a motion simulator, giving the riders the experience of being involved in the sort of fast-paced action you'd expect from the Fast and Furious franchise.
The Orlando version is similar to an existing version of the ride which is found at Universal Studios Hollywood, but this new version is different in a couple of key ways. The ride in California is actually part of the Studio Backlot Tour. The fact that the trams themselves are part of the ride explains the need for the "party bus" concept here. In Orlando, as this concept art shows, the ride will be a separate stand-alone attraction.
In addition, both Ludacris (Tej) and Jordana Brewster (Mia), who were not part of the ride in California, will be part of it in Orlando. While the announcement from Universal Studios makes it clear that Tej will be part of the pre-ride setup, it's not clear if the ride portion of the experience will also include the new characters, or if it will be identical to the California version of the ride.
Along with the announcement comes a new behind the scenes video that includes some comments from Ludacris and Jordana Brewster. Fast & Furious - Supercharged in Orlando will act as a sort of return to the franchise for Brewster, who did not appear in the last entry in the film. Technically, since Luke Evans is involved, and plays the villain, the events of the ride (if they were canon) would take place around Fast and Furious 6 when both Mia and Brian were still involved with the rest of the team.
It's great that fans of the Fast and Furious on the east coast will get a chance to check out Fast & Furious - Supercharged. Any visitors to Florida who are familiar with the California version will likely have enough reason to check it out again, thanks to the new material. As somebody who has experienced Supercharged on the west coast, it will be worth checking out when it hits Orlando this spring.
