Halloween Horror Nights is in full swing at Common Studios Hollywood, however that’s not stopping the park from preparing for its subsequent large occasion. Earlier this 12 months, Common Studios Hollywood debuted Fan Fest Nights, an after-hours occasion related in idea to Halloween Horror Nights, however specializing in non-horror franchises. Fan Fest Nights is likely one of the greatest theme park experiences I’ve had this 12 months, with unimaginable points of interest involving all the things from Star Trek to Again to the Future to Dungeons & Dragons.
The primary announcement for Fan Fest Nights 2026 at Common Studios Hollywood is right here, and it could be essentially the most good idea for an expertise at Common Studios Hollywood you possibly can probably give you. What do you do for the theme park that has each the Scooby-Doo gang and Common Monsters? You convey them collectively, after all.
It’s the crossover occasion of the century. Scooby-Doo X Common Monsters is simply wonderful. I’ve no notes. That is good. I can’t wait to return to Fan Fest Nights. The unimaginable recognition of Darkish Universe on the new Epic Universe park in Orlando reveals that the traditional Common Monsters nonetheless draw followers, and Scooby-Doo is nearly as iconic at this level.
This specific expertise will happen someplace on the Common backlot. At this 12 months’s occasion, a Again to the Future expertise was set there, utilizing the precise Hill Valley set that’s a part of the enduring Common Studios Tour. The backlot can also be used throughout Halloween Horror Nights for the Terror Tram.
The setup will see friends board the identical trams used for the studio tour, which then drop friends off and permit them to stroll by means of the backlot set. One imagines Scooby-Doo X Common Monsters can have some kind of story that sees the Scooby Gang come up towards Dracula, the Bride of Frankenstein, and the like, in an expertise that may bear a resemblance to a Halloween Horror Nights Home, however will likely be so much sillier.
I really like this announcement for a few totally different causes. First, it’s simply a superb mixture of two totally different IP Common has entry to that brings them collectively in a approach that is sensible. Second, it’s simply one thing new. With this 12 months’s Fan Fest being the primary occasion, it was merely unattainable to know whether or not future occasions would reuse ideas in 12 months two. Whereas it’s nonetheless doable that a few of final 12 months’s experiences would possibly return, the truth that there will likely be one thing new means there’s a motive for these of us who went final 12 months to return.
It is going to be attention-grabbing to see if Scooby-Doo X Common Monsters is a walk-through attraction, just like the Terror Tram, or if will probably be extra of an occasion area, like Again to the Future was this 12 months. It gave friends the prospect to mingle with characters, purchase meals, take photos, and watch totally different parts of the film’s story happen in several vignette areas. It was a spotlight of Fan Fest Nights, so this new backlot expertise has a excessive bar to clear.
I attended Halloween Horror Nights for the primary time this 12 months, and I went to Fan Fest Nights, and between the 2, Fan Fest Nights is the one I am most excited to return to. Scooby-Doo X Common Monsters has me excited not just for the occasion itself, however all the opposite bulletins but to come back.