Kongstruction: Skull Island Announced, Jurassic Park Arch Removed

Well, it looks like the monkey is out of the bag. For months, we’ve been mentioning the movement on Project 340, or as we like to call it, Kongstruction. Universal’s officially unannounced construction in the expansion pad behind Jurassic Park‘s Thunder Falls Terrace at Islands of Adventure recently required the removal of an iconic Jurassic Park archway.

The rumors we’ve reported regarding King Kong returning to Universal Orlando in a new attraction located in that plot have prompted some readers to question why the resort would revive a character with no major pop culture presence since Peter Jackson’s 2005 film. As if in response, Legendary Pictures announced at Comic-Con that Skull Island, an original prequel to the Kong mythos, would be released by Universal Pictures on November 4, 2016.

Universal already has a theme park partnership with Legendary, which also produced the new Godzilla film. That makes a 2016 attraction tied to a big-screen King Kong reboot seem like a synergistic no-brainer. But we don’t expect any formal announcements of Universal’s next expansion phase until after this year’s Halloween Horror Nights opens, at the earliest.

In the meantime, here are photos from recent weeks depicting the rapid transformation of the border between Toon Lagoon and Jurassic Park. Most notably, the Jurassic Park stone entryway arch has been removed entirely. We’ve heard it will eventually be rebuilt closer to the Thunder Falls restaurant.

Keep checking back, and follow us on Twitter (@touringplans) for further #Kongstruction updates, as well as the latest on everything new around Universal Orlando.