Islands of Adventure - Is The Legend of Zelda On The Way?

Plans... they are always changing, but the latest mega rumor for Universal comes from our friends at ThemeParkUniversity this week who claim that what's left of the Lost Continent at Islands of Adventure could be transformed into a new Zelda themed attraction area. This does make sense and even goes back much further to older rumors Screamscape once had when the whole Super Nintendo World saga first began, with the mainstream Nintendo family of characters expected to go into a land that would replace the kids area at Universal Studios Florida and rumors of a possible Zelda themed area being eyeballed as a future expansion for IOA.
Though at that time the location we had first heard of for it was something that could replace Toon Lagoon. Of course, there were all kinds of rumors about trying to put something new in Toon Lagoon at that time ranging from Zelda to a possible Tolkin / Middle Earth themed concept, as well as a Secret Life of Pets dark ride. That's just the fun part of theme park development... plans upon plans upon plans... and if an idea doesn't work out at the time, the plans are filed away so they can be brought back to life again in a new way if the opportunity presents itself. After all, long-time readers might recall that the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride concept was originally dreamed up to be a Van Helsing themed dark ride... before the movie bombed.
But this does all make sense, with a vast universe of IP properties available to use from Nintendo, it would only make sense that Universal spread them out amongst all their theme parks... including the next one on the horizon. After all, look how that strategy has worked out for them with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The biggest problem with this idea though is time... because the main Super Nintendo World themed attraction area will have to open first... either in the Studios or in the new planned park... leaving Zelda as a Phase 2 addition, which means it would likely be another 6-8 years before it gets built. That is a long time for the Sindbad theater to sit empty, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out and if things move around yet again.