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The Purge Is Not in Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights 35 Lineup, but Lady Liberty Is Roaming the Fortnitemares Scare Zone
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The Purge Is Not in Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights 35 Lineup, but Lady Liberty Is Roaming the Fortnitemares Scare Zone

Michael Travels
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Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights 35 lineup does not include The Purge. No house, no scare zone, no street experience. And yet there is a Lady Liberty from The Purge walking around the Fortnite scare zone.

WDW News Today spotted her while photographing the event's scare zones and street experiences, in a report published the morning of Tuesday, September 1. Its description: "Roaming in this area is Lady Liberty from The Purge, apparently teasing a crossover between the franchise and game coming soon."

That last part is the outlet's read, not an announcement. Universal has not announced a Fortnite crossover with The Purge, and the character is not in the event's press materials.

A scareactor in a skull mask and a tall green skeleton-printed banana figure standing on a raised platform behind railings, above an orange FORTNITEMARES sign on a patched metal wall, with a dark loot llama pinata at left

A scareactor and a costumed Fortnite figure on the platform above the FORTNITEMARES sign. Photo: WDW News Today

Universal's own announcement left the roster vague

When Universal opened the gates on August 28, its press release ran through all 10 haunted houses and 4 scare zones for Orlando, plus the roaming frights out on the streets. The word Purge does not appear anywhere in it.

What the release does say about the Fortnite zone is open ended. The release promises the Battle Bus and characters drawn from the game, along with "a few new additions exclusive to Halloween Horror Nights". Lady Liberty appears to be one of those additions.

Only Hollywood got a Purge attraction

The odd part is that The Purge is not absent from Halloween Horror Nights as a whole this year, just from Orlando. Universal's own Discover Universal blog lists the Universal Studios Hollywood lineup, and under Entertainment it includes a returning stunt show: "The Purge: Dangerous Waters returns to Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights." The blog calls it a fiery stunt spectacular, and Universal's own August 10 Hollywood release bills it as a stunt show returning to the WaterWorld venue. It is not a haunted house, and Hollywood does not have a Purge house either.

Hollywood is not trading one for the other, either. It has its own FORTNITEMARES scare zone, announced alongside Orlando's in July, plus the Purge stunt show. Orlando has the scare zone and one costumed Purge character inside it. Hollywood's event does not open until September 3, so nobody has seen yet whether its version of the zone has her too.

The front of a black school bus lettered BATTLE BUS in red above the windshield, with a large pale funnel on the grille, orange ducting, and purple lit windows, palm trees behind

The Battle Bus parked outside Animal Actors on Location! Photo: WDW News Today

What else is in the zone

FORTNITEMARES sits in the Central Park area, beside the Orlando park's own Hollywood section at Universal Studios Florida. Per WDWNT's walkthrough, the scareactors include Skull Trooper, Hollowhead and the Curdle Scream Leader, plus assorted strange alien creatures.

Tendrils in purple and orange climb the entrance trusses toward the FORTNITEMARES sign. Improvised forts sit along the path, cobbled together from planks, crates, straw bales and carved pumpkins, a nod to the game's building mechanic, and a life size llama pinata stands among them. After dark the trees flicker with lightning effects and the lighting pulses green.

The biggest piece is still the Battle Bus, parked outside Animal Actors on Location! and dressed with gravestones and cartoonish machinery, with purple light glowing out from inside it.

A large loot llama pinata lit in blue and pink standing beside stacked wooden crates, a carved jack-o-lantern, a retro television showing a grinning mouth, and straw bales

The llama pinata among the crates and straw bales. Photo: WDW News Today

If the Lady Liberty sighting really is a tease, the timing would make sense: Universal's own July announcement calls Fortnitemares "the game's signature Halloween event", an in-game happening Fortnite runs every fall. For now, she is a Purge character standing in a Fortnite scare zone, and she does not appear in any of Universal's announcements for the event.

Sources

Image credits: featured key art, Universal. In-park photography, WDW News Today.

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Universal Studios Florida Animal Actors on Location! Halloween Horror Nights 35

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