backlot

“Hill Valley,” says Siercks, referring to the fictional town of “Back to the Future,” will allow guests to step off a tram and hang out in a working backlot.

Epic Universe represents an evolution of Universal’s parks, which first became a major tourist destination in Hollywood, where the backlot studio tour gradually evolved over the decades to include Disney-inspired, theme park-like attractions.

As a legendary New York City set on Fox Studios’ backlot aged, a new one was needed.

It’s reminiscent of the new urbanism of the Disney-created Celebration or Seaside, Fla., where “The Truman Show” was filmed, or, indeed, a Hollywood backlot, with its old-fashioned “town square” recognizable from myriad movies and TV shows.

All of the sets, many of which involved massive backlot builds, were constructed simultaneously using nearly 1,000 construction workers.