Halloween Horror Nights 35 Has a Beer Wagon Named for the Icon Whose Debut Was Canceled After 9/11, Plus a Hellraiser Food Truck
Universal has named a Halloween Horror Nights beer wagon after an icon whose headlining debut it had to scrap.
A blood-splattered trailer reading "Edgar Schmidt's Draft Wagon" has appeared at Universal Studios Florida, parked between World Expo and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. WDW News Today published photos of it on Wednesday, August 5, along with the rest of the food and street buildout for Halloween Horror Nights 35, which begins August 28.
Edgar Schmidt's Draft Wagon, with its bank of six taps visible on the side. Image credit: WDW News Today.
WDW News Today identifies the icon behind the name as Eddie Schmidt, who was lined up to headline Halloween Horror Nights XI before his debut was canceled in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The outlet notes he has surfaced in HHN houses and experiences in the years since, and that his backstory casts him as Jack the Clown's brother. Jack is one of the two icons anchoring this year's event, alongside Dr. Oddfellow.
Death Eaters get a stage inside Diagon Alley
There is also something new in the Wizarding World. WDW News Today reports that Death Eaters will roam Diagon Alley, and that a low platform dressed with crate and barrel props has gone up for them behind Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. The Death Eaters are not an official Halloween Horror Nights scare zone. Universal's own 2026 calendar files the roaming Death Eaters under Dark Arts, a separate fall offering in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and says more details will be shared at a later time.
The chained-off performance platform and its crate and barrel dressing, set against the wall behind Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Image credit: WDW News Today.
The Hellraiser truck, and where the food is going
Outside Springfield, U.S.A., Doc Brown's time-traveling train has a Hellraiser themed food truck parked in front of it. The truck is wrapped in black and red, with Pinhead's face filling the side panel.
The Hellraiser food truck outside Springfield, U.S.A. Image credit: WDW News Today.
The rest of the food layout, as photographed:
- Creepy Concoctions & Frozen Beverages has taken over the Transformers: The Ride 3-D extended queue, dressed in orange and green signage. It will pour frozen slushies in alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions, alongside liqueur, beer, wine and soft drinks.
- Jack's Circus Surplus and Oddfellow's Menagerie are a pair of booths themed to the two icons. The first resembles stacks of crates; the second is a carnival wagon.
- Several Fanta branded booths are spread across the park: one in World Expo near Men in Black: Alien Attack, one in New York facing the Beat Builders set, and one beside the Universal Music Plaza.
- Several booths line Gramercy Park, among them one carrying a silhouette and a target. A separate booth carries a flaming facade and a devil face, which WDW News Today suggests may tie it to the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness house.
- Two more booths on the list: WSQK, drawn from Stranger Things, and Meetz Meats.
Oddfellow's Menagerie, still shuttered, with a Pardon Our Dust sign for Halloween Horror Nights 35 propped in front of it. Image credit: WDW News Today.
Both icons headline elsewhere in the event too, in a haunted house called Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control and a scare zone called Infernal Carnival of Nightmares.
Street work is still going up
Club Horror is back as a street experience in San Francisco. Per WDW News Today, the DJ stage and the performer platforms picked up Club Horror wraps within the last few days, and jack-o'-lanterns now hang from trusses above each platform.
Over in Downtown Clowntown, the New York area zone starring Art the Clown and the Killer Klowns from Outer Space, one platform picked up green arched elements on the front of its cage and a new marquee reading "Midway of the Bizarre."
Sources
- WDW News Today, "Eddie Schmidt Beer Cart, 'Hellraiser' Food Truck, Death Eaters Stage Arrive for Halloween Horror Nights 35" (August 5, 2026)
- Universal Orlando Resort press release, 2026 event dates, covering the August 28 Halloween Horror Nights 35 start and the Dark Arts fall lineup
Image credits: All photos by WDW News Today.
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