Legacy

There's no reason to believe its changed...

Even if your dates were right, correlation does not equal causality. EDIT - By your logic, Winter's Night should have been popular because it had a Weeping Angel...

In a nutshell, someone in Management doesn't think icons are necessary at all. The general sense from Marketing is that Jack is the only icon worth a damn. Maybe there will be a Terra Cruentes house, but I'd be flabbergasted if there's more than that.

Easy... All the zones have been announced, they've announced the "theme" for this year (the past), and none of the houses are tagged as "icon" houses. There's no second show to feature an icon, and I've been TOLD by numerous sources there's no icon. In regards to future icons, there looking at using one for 30. Jack. They're interested in using Jack.

Yep. The post cards mention a lot of stuff that appears (in some capacity) in the house. Maybe not the things you'd expect, but still, the story hits on a lot of house beats. And don't expect some big recreation of a Parisian landmark as the façade. They may be cute and throw up a skyline cutout behind the actual façade, but this house could almost take place anywhere.

They also didn't have three houses entering and exiting in that area when they put the hoard there...

Not by design. Universal strives to have houses and zones locked in as far out as possible. They have to be so they could put out bids for construction. They don't expect changes, but they adjust when they have to or think it's fortuitous (Like Shrek) Individual houses exceed seven figures in construction/decor costs. They don't just sit around on developing them.

I assume you're referring to IT? From my understanding of the timeline, Universal lost the rights to that in December or January. Just because Hollywood fans still BELIEVED they were getting, that doesn't mean they were. Hollywood isn't getting an original house. The write-up itself says "South Street," which confirms what I was told (and is the highlighted area the map). In regards to why that zone got moved, there are two likely reasons: 1) They want the sightlines between Central Park and San Fran "clear" for the lagoon show, and/or 2) They wanted to leave the area around their newest attraction clear. I know F&F was a failure, but decisions about where zones will be located is made between December and February. So a decision was made with optimistic expectations.

And we’re not even finished!

Well... I everything I'm hearing still points to no second stage show. That actor list is for barkers, street/house performers, or vignette stuff.

Nope. Not a chance.

The only three of those that would ever show up at HHN already have. That's not exactly a loss.

Management wasn’t interested.

Ouiji... Unfriended...

Well, the facade is a drive-in movie screen. I'm pretty sure you're getting it.

Literally. And it CAN be. Arguably should be.

Not really aliens...

Sprung 2.

UPDATED WITH SOLUTION

I had heard. I'm having a hard enough time convincing people that an icon isn't happening this year. I'm not going to start diving in to the backstage politics against icons anymore.

It's not a video store. And there doesn't appear to be an icon at all this year. I've been told "No icon," none of the houses indicate "icon," and the site doesn't hint at "icon." I expect the originals to all have their VHSs by the end of August, if they're getting them.

Two days... Then five days... Then 24 days...

Everything points to this house being entirely original. It'll be heavily inspired though.

I blame Scott Baio.