Additional Verbolten: Forbidden Turn Details Surface

Note: This article expands on our previous reporting regarding Verbolten: Forbidden Turn from back in January. This write-up assumes knowledge of all of the details shared in that piece. If you don’t know about the planned animatronics, the massive, three dimensional tree, the fog machine, the building exit tunnel updates, etc., please read that previous article before continuing below.

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Progress Update

Since Verbolten closed following the conclusion of Christmas Town 2025, there really has not been much visible, exterior work worth mentioning. We’ve seen some theming removed from the station, we’ve seen construction walls go up around the ride’s entry area, and we’ve seen some silt fencing installed around the future site of the outdoor scene prior to Launch 1. Aside from unremarkable, preparatory-type work though, visible progress has been incredibly limited.

The lack of visible progress isn’t particularly surprising or alarming though, for the record. The vast majority of the work expected as part of the Forbidden Turn overhaul is slated to take place in the attraction’s event building—entirely hidden from our prying eyes. That said, earlier this month, we did get a glimpse inside the now-largely-gutted Verbolten event building thanks to some almost-certainly-illicitly-shot/shared footage from a contractor on the project.

Outside the show building, the only notable, entirely-new, ground-up construction we anticipate as part of this project is the addition of that previously-mentioned outdoor billboard scene. Given that a silt fence (pictured below) has now appeared on-site, I would expect work to pickup on this aspect of the overhaul pretty soon.

The remainder of the work we’re expecting is isolated to retheming and redecorating within the coaster’s entry area, queue, and station. As stated previously, some prop work has been removed from the station and, as of this week, some paneling has also been stripped off the station’s back wall.

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New Documentation

As you can see, the visible work thus far isn’t anything to write home about—what does justify another article though is a very exciting, new set of documents we’ve obtained for the project. As we outlined in our previous article, we are already very optimistic about this renovation—the details exposed in that previous piece alone were plenty enough to satiate us. That said, per the new plans we’ve reviewed, there’s still even more worth being incredibly excited about.

First off, lets look at the entry area, queue, and station. I’m not going to speak much on these plans as, beyond the animatronic covered in the previous article, there’s not a ton of particularly noteworthy information here. A few minor structural modifications here, some aesthetic tweaks there, some sort of new screen in the load area, a large new ride sign location on the ride’s entry tower, some new prop locations in the station—just a lot of small odds and ends that you can dive into if you’re curious.

What I do want to spend some time on though is that new outdoor scene prior to the first launch. We previously knew the scene would feature a large billboard, some slighting, and some sort of moving element. These new plans take things to an entirely different level though.

According to these new documents, the first scene, in addition to the details uncovered previously, is also slated to include what looks to be a huge, snaking, tentacle-style tree root that emerges from the ground, wraps itself around a long, new piece of false coaster track that the root has “bent” out of the way, and then proceeds to climbs up into the new billboard’s structure. Some incredible views of this first scene are included in the plans below.

This huge three-dimensional root statue, this long segment of fake track “bent” away from the actual ride course, the billboard, the lighting, and whatever that rotating element referenced in the first set of documents turns out to be should all come together to make an incredibly impressive-looking introductory scene for Verbolten: Forbidden Turn. This level of outdoor thematic work being invested into an existing coaster is truly stunning to see—it’s very reminiscent of the new Loch Ness Monster statue down in the Rhine River, but on an even dramatically more impressive scale—absolutely incredible to see.

Before we get into Verbolten’s event building, there’s a long-criticized aspect of the existing coaster that’s slated to be fixed with this overhaul as well. In our first piece, we shared that, in addition to a fog machine, it appeared some theming was being added to the “floating” bridge facade at the entry to the Launch 1 tunnel. The latest documents still suggest the same updated look, but they provide another exciting tidbit too: It turns out that the facade will actually be extended well below its current height—continuing almost all the way to ground level. Plans reflecting this change can be found below.

Moving into the event building, we’ve already covered the bulk of what’s expected—namely the giant tree structure, all of the new 3D leaf/branch set pieces, the animatronic at the drop track, the dramatically overhauled lighting, etc. There are still some newly revealed odds-and-ends to touch on here though.

First off, the modern (long-out-of-place) Volkswagen Beetle used as a prop outside of Verbolten’s station (above) is being relocated and will now be housed within the ride’s show building as yet another interior theming element. Plans call for the car to be raised off the building’s floor by a newly-fabricated mount which will make the car appear slightly upturned and much closer to passing riders. Plans showing the VW Beetle in its new home alongside plans for the new mounting hardware can be found below.

Also visible in the first image above is a huge, planned, 30 by 60 foot, printed fabric panel along the wall opposite of the building’s entry and exit tunnels. This should offer a great visual backdrop for both the upturned VW Beetle and the giant tree sculpture both as riders enter the building and as trains dive off of the mid-course brake run.

Another portion of the event building which is coming into far clearer focus with this latest plan set is the audio animatronic figure located at the coaster’s drop track. The plans we shared back in January revealed this figure’s existence but provided very little in the way of detail. These new plans not only reveal that it’s slated to be a full-body, humanoid, audio animatronic figure, they even offer a rough, 3D, wireframe rendering of the figure and its planned placement in the attraction—incredibly cool to see!

The wireframe figure in these plans is almost certainly a placeholder because, yes, it does looks like a giant baby in a dress wielding an over-sized pickaxe. My assumption is that this could be a stand-in for the seemingly-kindly, old, cloaked lady (turned antagonist…?) who appears in the Verbolten: Forbidden Turn promo video below.

Closing out the ride area changes we noted in these new documents, we have some additional color to add to the building exit tunnel alterations we noted in our January piece. The plans below show new, 3D, head-chopper-style theming elements installed in quick succession as trains exit the event building. I speculated that these were primarily to prevent light bleed into the building, but it looks as though they should add some real thematics to what was previously a pretty plain, industrial-feeling area of the coaster too.

The last thing I have to touch on with these new documents relates to the ride photos area. Much like I did with the queue, I am not going to highlight much here beyond to say that minor structure changes and aesthetic upgrades are planned. Much like we’ve seen Busch Gardens Williamsburg implement at other recent attractions (namely DarKoaster and Wolf’s Revenge), the ride photos area will be combined with a small post-ride gift shop featuring a little merch area alongside drink and ice cream coolers. Anyway, plans for the updated post-ride experience are included below.

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Conclusion

I said the following in the wrap-up of my first Forbidden Turn write-up:

I believe we’re looking at a tremendously exciting overhaul of Verbolten’s thematics and theatrics here. What has been proposed in these documents far exceeds anything we have seen Busch Gardens Williamsburg attempt since Curse of DarKastle all the way back in 2005. The number and scale of physical, three-dimensional set pieces slated for the building, the pair of animatronic figures, the addition of an entirely new outdoor scene in the lead-up to the event building, the addition of fog to the entry tunnel—there’s just so much to love here.

Every bit of that remains true now, but to an even more extreme degree. This project is insane—it’s industry-leading—it’s unlike anything I think we’ve ever seen before out of a regional theme park in the United States. The incredible amount of time, care, love, effort, and money going into an existing, nearly 15-year-old coaster is truly awe-inspiring—and for it to be happening at a United Parks property in the year 2026—it’s almost unbelievable. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is swinging for the fences here and, when this overhaul debuts later this season, I hope people are ready to flood the turnstiles to get their rides in on what looks like it will be one of the absolute best-themed, indoor/outdoor roller coaster experiences in the country.

I vividly remember publishing on the original scenic plans for Verbolten all the way back in 2011 and I still look through my files on the original build occasionally today. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that what is planned for Forbidden Turn far outpaces the original Verbolten scenic package in both scale and ambition. I loved Verbolten in its original form—don’t get me wrong—but this is a whole other beast entirely. Assuming these plans are realized as designed in the months ahead, there is absolutely no question in my mind that Verbolten in 2026 will be the best Verbolten we’ve ever seen—both better than Verbolten in its original 2012 state and vastly, infinitely superior to the significantly degraded Verbolten we’ve become accustomed to in more recent memory.

Oh, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg isn’t just a landlubber moonlighting as a flagship regional theme park again—the voyage really is fully underway. Right in the wake of Forbidden Turn, there’s another project—still largely shrouded in mystery—just barely visible on the horizon from the peak of the crow’s nest—a project you might say is equally difficult to fathom. We’ll have to discuss Project 2027 some other time though, huh? Stay tuned! 😉