If there is a modern movie franchise more fitting for a high-speed thrill attraction at a major theme park than The Fast and the Furious, I can't imagine what it is. Yet, though there are 10 movies (and a spinoff), no such attraction exists. All we have is The Fast and the Furious: Supercharged, which is neither fast nor furious. But that's going to change. A state-of-the-art Fast and Furious roller coaster is coming to Universal Studios Hollywood, and it has the perfect name. The only frustrating thing is that we're two years away from riding it.
Get ready for Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. Today Universal Studios Hollywood officially gave the long talked about Fast & Furious coaster a name and dated it for a 2026 opening. While two years is certainly longer to wait than I'm going to want to, based on the description of the coaster, it's not surprising the attraction, which was officially announced last year, is still two years away, because it will likely take a lot of hard work to make it as incredible as it sounds like it will be.
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift Is A Roller Coaster I Can't Wait To Ride
As attraction names go, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is perfect. Universal Studios Hollywood isn't just a name. The park is attached to the Universal Pictures lot in the heart of Hollywood. While many theme park attractions are designed to make you feel like you've been transported elsewhere, this one is designed to give you a Fast & Furious experience right where you already are, making Hollywood itself part of the experience.
If theme park attractions are designed to make you feel like you're inside the movie, Hollywood Drift sounds perfectly designed. The Fast & Furious franchise needs to have its own roller coaster; no other theme park attraction is fast enough to give you that feeling. Add in the fact the ride vehicles will "drift" and you have another element that should make this new ride stand out from the pack.
For as long as the Fast & Furious coaster has been rumored, the attraction has been an exciting prospect. The loading platform is being constructed in Universal Hollywood's upper lot, and unconfirmed reports have indicated that the coaster will loop around the massive staircase/escalator that connects the upper and lower lot. However it works, it's a creative use of an area of the park that is otherwise largely useless.
Hollywood Drift Is Something Entirely New For Universal Studios
The attraction promises technology and innovation not previously used in a roller coaster before. Ride vehicles will be modeled after iconic cars from the Fast & Furious film franchise, and individual cars will be capable of full 360-degree rotation, giving riders the feeling of drifting in a high-performance car.
One interesting item of note is that the coaster will make use of "sound reduction technology." This will be Universal Hollywood's first outdoor coaster, and one of the reasons the park likely hasn't had one before is because of the park's location. It's in the middle of a city and adjacent to a working film studio; thus, the noise from traditional coasters made them impossible previously. Technology appears to have come a long way, allowing the park to finally bring a large-scale outdoor coaster to Universal Studios Hollywood.
This new sound reduction, plus the fact that the attraction is being built into the side of a hill is probably the reason that Hollywood Drift is still two years away. Assuming the coaster opens in the spring of 2026, it will be almost three years from start to completion, which is a long time for a single attraction, even one this big, but the technology involved likely is going to make this one a slower process in order to get it right.
Based on everything we know about Fast & Furious 11, the next film has been rumored to start shooting early next year. If that happens Hollywood Drift may be opening alongside the next major entry in the film franchise. I can't think of a better way to promote the new coaster. 2026 can't come soon enough.
