It’s official! The new roller coaster replacing the now defunct Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit will be an east coast version of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift! This will become the resort’s tallest coaster when it opens at Universal Studios Florida in 2027, featuring a 170-foot vertical spike. Plus, Supercharged has been confirmed to be closing next year as well.

Let’s go over details from today’s announcement, as well as recent construction and staged track sighted on site, in today’s news update. See the video version of this story below for additional visuals.

Officially closing back in August 2025, not only has Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit been completely demolished in the time since, but construction is well under way for its replacement.

Coaster footings have been installed throughout much of the new ride’s layout, and just this month steel starting going up for the maintenance building.

Universal Orlando has officially announced what attraction will be replacing the former ride, confirming what many expected. Despite many fans holding out hope for either a Back to the Future or Ghostbusters coaster, the new ride will in fact be based on the Fast & Furious franchise.

Universal says:

“Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will put guests in the driver seat of the high-speed thrills of Universal Pictures’ Fast & Furious universe like never before.”

“Riders will experience the exhilarating sensation of 360-degree drifting as they speed through jaw-dropping maneuvers – including a 170-foot vertical “spike” that will send riders nearly 17 stories in the air over the outskirts of Universal CityWalk.”

Official image of coaster car for Universal Studios Hollywood

At 170 feet, Hollywood Drift will become the tallest roller coaster at Universal Orlando, beating the former Rip Ride Rockit by three feet. That ride’s vertical lift hill was 167 feet tall.

Get ready for high-speed, high-octane thrills on the new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster, coming 2027 to Universal Orlando Resort. @TheFastSaga pic.twitter.com/AwCtr3cACj

— Universal Orlando Resort (@UniversalORL) January 20, 2026

The official announcement only saw the ride’s logo revealed, with no renderings or other imagery.

Despite the name remaining the same for this new Orlando version as the Hollywood iteration, opening this year, these two rides will offer extremely different track layouts.

As part of the announcement, Universal has confirmed that Fast & Furious Supercharged will be closing next year in 2027. However, they have not yet revealed what will be replacing it, or when.

This is similar to what happened when Hollywood announced their new coaster, which saw the closure of the Supercharged portion of the tram tour.

First pieces of track arrived, Photo: @bioreconstruct

It seems as though some of the track for the new coaster was spotted staged across the street from Epic Universe.

First discovered by Midway Mayhem, who has posted a video on their channel, most of these first pieces of track appear silver in color and may be for sections inside of the maintenance building.

The main track is expected to be blue in color, which should help not only differentiate it from the west coast iteration of the ride, which is made up of black track, but also from VelociCoaster at Islands of Adventure next door.

The manufacturer for the new coaster appears to be Intamin, which had long been rumored for this project. Recent official documents filed with Orange County show Intamin as the contractor for this project specifically.

Visualization of how spike may appear by Amusement Insider

Checking in on recent construction progress via aerial and on-the-ground photography from Bioreconstruct we can catch a glimpse of how fast steel has been going up for the maintenance building.

Photo: @bioreconstruct

Located backstage behind the sound stages, this future structure already has footings inside for multiple coaster maintenance spurs.

Photo: @bioreconstruct

A more recent ground-level photo below shows how roofing slats have been added to the top of the maintenance structure’s steel framing.

Photo: @bioreconstruct

Coaster footings leading to the station building have taken shape now.

Area for future coaster station building, Photo: @bioreconstruct

According to permit images, the new coaster’s station building will be built here, directly behind the New York area of the park, and right beside the building for Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Future location of coaster station, Photo: @bioreconstruct

Jumping to the CityWalk side of the upcoming Fast & Furious coaster, work on footings has expanded with new foundations being added.

These islands of foundations appear to contain yet even more footings that still need to be poured.

Photo: @bioreconstruct

This area will be home to the attraction’s 170-foot tall vertical spike.

The dug out area, seen circled in the photo below, contains conduit and connections running underground. It will be the future site of a small utility building according to planning documents.

Photo: @bioreconstruct

The next area to get coaster footings will be the skinny section of the footprint between the theme park and the sound stages.

Photo: @bioreconstruct

Drilling can be seen happening near the Music Plaza Stage now to prepare for these new footings to be installed.

Photo: @bioreconstruct

Inside the park, the work walls around the end of the New York street have been painted black.

Work walls beginning to be repainted, Photo: @bioreconstruct

Exact dates or even times of the year for the opening of the new coaster, or the closure of Supercharged, were not announced as part of today’s reveal. Universal Orlando only says 2027.

Universal Studios Hollywood will see their version of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift open first this year, which has been testing continuously in recent weeks.

Official concept art for Hollywood Drift at Universal Studios Hollywood

Stay tuned to the site or subscribe to the YouTube channel for continuing coverage of this project, as well as permit information and rumors for the Supercharged replacement.

Subscribe to the news feed or enter your email address below to never miss an update. Official Images: Universal Orlando Resort & Universal Studios Hollywood | Original Photos: Alicia Stella | Aerial Photos: @bioreconstruct | Other Images as Captioned

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