Alright, I think I've finally come up with my official speculation for 2018.
FOR SURE PICKS:
It. Logical minds at Uni corporate were thinking "let's wait and see if this will be a hit" when this was announced. Then word got out it's only the first half, and logical minds again were thinking, "well, let's wait for the second half to do a maze on all of it." And then the movie was released, and now I'm sure they're kicking themselves harder than they ever have before, because this is the ONE thing people wanted to see this year and they dropped the freakin' ball extremely hard. This is literally the biggest horror movie ever, and they'll do it next year and for Chapter 2 in 2019, no doubt, and heck, maybe even another year after that for good measure because it'll be so popular.
Halloween. Universal release and a Blumhouse mega-hitter, it's a forsure bonafide box office grab and it'll rejuvenate the franchise. It's one of the Titans that were left out this year and I think Murdy knew this would be coming and that's why he left him off the bill so he could give Micheal a year off for when this baby is birthed. This is happening!
American Horror Story. There's quite a few seasons left over to get to. And unlike TWD, every season is a rolodex of completely new themes of horror they have to work with. This could be at the event for the rest of time, but it'll probably only be around for the next 2-3 years at the most. However, that still makes next year a given.
The Walking Dead - REMIX. The House of Horrors eventually got changed up and I don't see them keeping this maze exactly the same. I'm sure they're going to change SOMETHING about it in someway. A new theme entirely in the maze would be cool, just fit to TWD's locations, but I doubt that'll happen. Maybe it'll mix in Negan or whatever is currently happening, and it may change sometime throughout the year before HHN, but this can't last another year in it's current iteration untouched or it's going to be such a sore and empty spot.
STRONG HOPEFUL POSSIBILITIES:
Scream. It's being requested more than it has in the past and I believe that's because everyone is worn out of the usual killers they've seen over and over. Ghostface was only represented in a horrible, undercoated entry scarezone and a Terror Tram that had nothing to do with the franchise. As for the Weinstein controversy, I don't think that's how theme park rights work or has anything to do directly with them. And look, if they can have the stupid baby face masked killer in Happy Death Day show up for 1/3 of a maze, Murdy's excuse for Ghostface being a joke after Scary Movie is null.
The Conjuring Universe. Again, I don't think theme park rights deal directly with what's going on with the court case. The maze was being done and the case was underway long before that. I think something just dropped the ball somewhere behind the scenes of HHN, like AWIL, FVJ, and Wolfman in the past (which all didn't have court cases to deal with). And those all happened a year or two after they fell through. So I'm counting the Conjuring UNIVERSE in! Whether we'll see a Conjuring maze, I'm not 100% sure. But something based on Annabelle, The Nun, or the Crooked Man? Very strong likelihood, as this is actually the ONLY universe outside of Marvel that's been financial & critical successes.
WILD CARDS:
Slender Man. This is coming out next year, so this depends if Universal wants to take the risk on the movie if it'll be a hit or not. I have a feeling it will be though, as Slender Man has oddly gained urban legend popularity among today's kids.
Alice Cooper Trilogy ender. I absolutely hated the idea of Alice Cooper coming to Universal, but WTMN wasn't that bad, but GTH was awful. However, if Murdy returns, I think it's time he ends his trilogy, thus giving us the original maze we're all clamoring for. I'm open to it, as long as it's as decent as WTMN.
The Strangers 2. Will this be a hit or a direct to video bomb? I have a feeling Universal will sneak them into the theme park somehow, whether it's a scarezone (believe it or not, it's happened before in a dark corner of the park) or a spot on the Terror Tram (where they actually fit pretty nicely). I'm looking forward to their return.
Five Nights at Freddys. I have no idea what the hell this is other than it's a video game, and if video games are going to return, this could happen given that it happened at Fright Dome. Plus it has the name Freddy in it and might convince naive GP to come to the park for a Freddy maze, only to be disappointed with... whatever the hell this is.
THAT WOULD BE STUPID, BUT IT MAY HAPPEN:
Stranger Things. I'm seriously annoyed with how often this is suggested or thrown in the speculation bin. This show has VERY LITTLE maze value. I love the show to death (mostly the second season), but this just would not work. The Six Flags Mexico maze looked God awful and had no scares. They'd also have a hard time casting the main characters, which is the reason we all love the show, but on top of that, they'd probably have no business being in the maze anyway. Now, I can't say it won't happen because I've been surprised before by really stupid ideas that turned out to work (Alice Cooper) and others that did not work at all (Black Sabbath, This Is The End). And look, even with season 3 added in, I don't Netflix would do it. The show has a very hardcore fanbase and a "preview" maze would have potential spoilers that Netflix wouldn't want to share any details, especially if there's scary bits. Everyone just needs to let this one go, at least until 2019. PLEASE. Or we may be looking at one of the most requested and anticipated mazes... that fails miserably.
The Horrors of Blumhouse: Volume 2. This maze was just God awful and I hope it doesn't happen, but it scored really well. I'm hoping Blumhouse puts all their chickens in the Halloween/Michael Myers basket so they don't try this abomination again. BUT IF IT DOES, I would love to see Get Out, Ouija, Paranormal Activity, and/or maybe Sinister get one more try since it was the only saving grace of the Volume 1. Sure, Get Out and Paranormal have very little maze fodder, but if they're only doing a room or two, it'd be fairly easy to do and that's the only beautiful catch with an anthology maze -- something we usually wouldn't see because there's not enough content for a whole maze can be represented in small doses in maze form. I just hope if they try this again, they do something more uniformal, because Volume 1 had no flow and felt so disjointed from each property.
Trick 'r Treat. Okay, this wouldn't exactly be stupid, in fact it would be awesome, but we've heard Murdy's response even after Orlando used it for a scarezone (even Orlando couldn't pull the lever to make it a maze) -- he's waiting for the sequel, and I believe him. This isn't something we should be hopeful about, because it's not happening for another 2-3 years, when the director is done with Godzilla which isn't being released until 2019. Which means TrT won't be released until 2020. And it's very possible they'll want to see how it plays out financially, and we might not see it until 2021. We have a LONG time before this happens. BUT... what if?