Epic Adventure
by Jill Duff-Hoppes
For the past three decades, Dan Johnson has enjoyed a successful career as an actor at local theme parks, on cruise ships, and in films and television shows. This year, his career has grown to one of epic proportions. Literally.
Dan, 53, is proud to be among the Central Florida performers who have put their blood, sweat, and tears into opening Orlando’s newest theme park, Universal Epic Universe. Epic, which opened to the public on May 22, features crowd-pleasing attractions from blockbuster franchises such as How to Train Your Dragon, Harry Potter, and Nintendo.
An alumnus of Lake Mary High School, Dan plays a Village Viking at Epic’s How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk realm. Dan’s character, Wobble Wartknuckle, interacts with Toothless, the franchise’s beloved Night Fury dragon, and the Night Lights, the three adorable offspring of Toothless. Helping to launch a theme park has been a longtime dream of Dan’s.
“I’ve worked at all three major theme parks here over the last 30 years, but I’d never gotten a chance to open one,” he says. “A lot of my friends opened Disney’s Animal Kingdom [in 1998]; a lot of my friends opened Universal’s Islands of Adventure [in 1999]. I’ve always wanted to open a theme park, and this was finally my chance.”
Tears for Fears
When it was time for Dan to develop his character for Epic, he put a great deal of thought into the Viking’s backstory. He decided that Wobble works as a cobbler, is madly in love with the village mystic, and is plagued by a rather inconvenient fear.
“Wobble suffers from dragon phobia,” says Dan. “I’m afraid of all dragons, so I play that up when I’m with Toothless. Every time he roars, it scares me.”
Since opening day, the park’s How to Train Your Dragon realm has had no shortage of superfans reveling in the opportunity to meet the franchise’s stars, namely Toothless and Hiccup, the young Viking who wants to befriend dragons, not slay them. The experience is an emotional one for many of those guests.
“People have been crying over the Night Lights and crying over Toothless and crying at how detailed the whole land is,” says Dan. “They’re really invested in it and attached to these stories and these characters.”
Change of Plan
Dan first realized how much he enjoyed performing when he played trombone in Rock Lake Middle School’s band. During his senior year at Lake Mary High, he did his first play and was immediately hooked on acting.
Even so, acting wasn’t Dan’s original career plan. He intended to become a history teacher like his father, Richard Johnson, who taught at Lake Mary when Dan was a student there. Dan attended the University of Central Florida, where he initially majored in history before switching to theater – thinking he’d become a drama instructor instead of a history teacher. His father even helped him land a part-time job as an assistant drama teacher at Lake Mary, but ultimately, Dan realized he simply didn’t have a passion for teaching.
At the time, Dan was also working part time at Walt Disney World, and when he was offered a full-time gig in the park’s Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, he jumped at the opportunity. Dan went on to perform in many other shows at Disney and on Disney Cruise Lines, and he has performed at SeaWorld Orlando, too. In recent years, Dan has been a full-time actor at Universal Studios, where he has performed in the Blues Brothers Show as Jake and in the Horror Make-Up Show, among others.
He has also appeared in TV shows such as The Walking Dead and films including the Academy Award-winning The Eyes of Tammy Faye. A self-described Trekkie, he is also a William Shatner impersonator. Years ago, Dan considered becoming a notary public and moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, where the plan would have been to perform weddings as Captain Kirk from Star Trek.
“I would have made a fortune,” he says with a laugh.
Although Dan’s plans to be a high-school teacher or wacky wedding officiant didn’t pan out, he’s doing what he has loved since his school days – performing and entertaining audiences.
“I’ve learned to just do what makes you happy,” he says.