>>2832236
I havent seen Fantastic Beasts either and judging by its box office performance, not many people have. It's completely comprehensible without seeing the FB films, it's just weird. The whole land is weird.

Basically, the Ministry of Magic queue and ride were originally slated to be built at Studios adjacent to Diagon Alley where the FF stage now sits. Epic Universe gets approved internally and they want to expand Potter there. Around the same time, the FB movies are being developed by Warner Bros and the expectation is they will do well because they are Harry Potter. The first one does ok, and the later two just totally bomb. By the point that the franchise is failing, Universal has already pumped millions into design, architecture, and R&D for Wizarding Paris so it pretty much has to get built. However, as a compromise, they take the Ministry of Magic ride they were already designing for Studios and transplant it into Epic, completely fucking the timeline and IP the land is based on. The land is set in 1926 and the ride is set in 1991 with zero explanation at all as for how this is possible. The ministry of magic is also located in London which is explained by it being accessed via Metro Floo. The original ride that was supposed to accompany this area would have been located in the French ministry of magic (the entrance to it was built but nothing else), and it would have been the long-rumored broomstick VR attraction set in the Fantastic Beasts world.

It's just weird. Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are both overtly magical, being lands in the books that wizards can occupy openly and do magic without having to hide it from muggles. The Paris land is not this way and honestly if you didnt know it was Harry Potter, nothing about it really says "magic". It's just a very realistic romanticized version of paris with monsters in the windows if you look super close. It's universal's galaxy's edge.