Over the last decade, Meow Wolf has made waves with its creative and immersive art exhibits across the United States. The company first opened up the House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2026. Since then, four more locations have opened, with arguably the most popular and well-known being Omega Mart in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The company's next location will be in Los Angeles. Its opening is scheduled for late 2026 and will be in the HHLA Center in West LA. The exhibit even occupies part of a former Cinemark movie theater, which is fitting, given that the installation's theme begins with a trip to the cinema. Besides that movie and Hollywood theme, not much is known about what the experience will offer.
One unique element of the Los Angeles Meow Wolf location is its partnership with animation house Titmouse, known for its work on The Legend of Vox Machina, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and The Venture Bros.
At San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2026, The Direct sat down with Meow Wolf's Creative Director of Experience Design, Elizabeth Jarrett, alongside Titmouse President Chris Prynoski, and we discussed how this Los Angeles exhibit will differ from their previous five experiences.
Fans of Titmouse should check out The Direct's interviews with the cast of The Legend of Vox Machine Season 5, where we dove into the show's big bad, The Whispered One.
This Is What Makes Meow Wolf LA Different
They Wanted to "Elevate the Way That [They] Present the Story..."
- The Direct: "What really makes the L.A. location different and feel like a very distinct experience?"
Elizabeth Jarrett: With this exhibition, we really wanted to—All of our exhibitions have amazing stories in them. Really like deep, beautiful, sometimes like hauntingly beautiful stories in them, but we really wanted to try to elevate the way that we present the story in this exhibition, right? And make it a little bit more sort of throughout the experience, so that you didn't have to dig as hard to find it.
As part of that elevation of storytelling, the team began considering how to present media in different ways:
Jarrett: And so we started thinking about how we could present media in different ways... [like with] the spatialization and the way that media is used in this exhibition. So we're building our story around these more theatrical presentations of media that sort of take place while using 360 degrees of the space, right? They're not agnostic of the space. They are very much scenes that take place in the actual place you're standing in and utilize the entire space.
"We're trying to present character in a way that feels very present," she noted, adding how this Los Angeles experience "feels just different and bigger:"
Jarrett: And so we're not like thinking about traditional screens. We're trying to present character in a way that feels very present, and so that I would say is different than anything we've kind of done before. And yeah, I mean, it's just everything feels just different and bigger. I think it's going to be really special. We have, like I said, a through line of story, and we need a presence of character. And so this is kind of a way for us to do that, is to like have characters be in multiple locations. Have them feel present here, but also present in another exhibition, but like feel like they're living in the space and like breathing in the space and occupying that space with you.
Chris Prynoski jumped in to add that the Hollywood angel for LA will be neat, with the experience's entry point being a movie theater:
Chris Prynoski: Since it's L.A, you know, Hollywood, right? Movies. It's like what people know it for. So the accessible kind of entry point is a movie theater, which is cool. So you can get like that. What's going to happen after they go to the movie theater? Who can know?
How Titmouse's Animation Enhances Meow Wolf & What Audience Its New Show Will Aim For
Working on Animation for Meow Wolf Is a New Experience for Them.
- The Direct: "Can you talk a little bit about how what you do with Titmouse's animation helps with the connective tissue of Meow Wolf's stories in their installations?"
Chris Prynoski: It's interesting to work with experiential stuff. You know, we used to deliver something that goes on a flat screen, and you don't really control the environment in which it is like an experience. But working with Meow Wolf has been really fun because it's like this is going to start in the sheet, and then it's going to go like it's got to move up here, and then expand, and then it's got to go all around the walls, and then it's going to like slurp back in again, and then we have to try to figure out like how we're going to do that.
"There's a different temporal consideration that you have, where people actually have to move through the space," he explained:
Prynoski: It's like a creative exercise, right? But it's also like a technical one. So it's like what's going to be cool and what's going to be right for that space... And also, there's a different temporal consideration that you have, where people actually have to move through the space. You want them to experience it once or twice, and then move to the next room, so the next people can come in. So it's like, what's gonna like feel like okay? Look at this going like this. That means go this way, you know. So it's been interesting, and it's all new for us. That part of it, the creative part, like drawing cartoons and storytelling, we know that we like it being in a part of a thing that is a physical environment for us.
- The Direct: "And I want to ask about this newly announced animated show with Meow Wolf. I know there's not much you could say about the show, but just for people who you know watch like other animated shows, whether it be adults or whatever, can you kind of point to maybe one or two kind of examples of kind of the the area that this show might kind of play in in terms of themes and audience age?"
Chris Prynoski: I mean, you're trying to make a show that's going to appeal to a pretty broad demographic. Like it's not going to be like a very, very, very adult show or very, very young show. You're trying to make a show that—because Meow Wolf's audience is like that. You know, you would think it's like, oh, is it just like college stoners or something? No, but it's like everybody, like grandparents and kids, everybody loves them. It's kind of this weird intersection of like a theme park, a fun house, a park avenue, and people.
Expanding & Evolving Meow Wolf Locations in the Future
Can These Permanent Installations Grow?
- The Direct: Well, I'm curious about these locations: they're made, they're created, they're built, and then everyone loves them. But then years later, how do you hope to throughout all the locations, what is the kind of the goal in evolving them? And are there like plans?
Elizabeth Jarrett: I mean, I think there are opportunities for everything. We kind of announced we have talked about this sort of what we're doing beyond the walls, which is developing this sort of series with Titmouse. So that's really exciting. But in terms of our physical exhibitions, we're always wanting to figure out ways to bring people back, right? You know, you come, and you experience it, cool. But we want you to come back and like feel like you can engage in the world over and over again.
Jarrett pointed to initiatives like questing, which Meow Wolf is adding to its locations, and further app capabilities to evolve how audiences engage with the space:
Jarrett: So we have, yeah, we have like different initiatives like questing that we're building out, sort of working on our app capabilities, so that we can create more agency for the guests as they're moving through the space and actually feel like they're part of the world. So that's really exciting, and yeah, I mean, there's always opportunity for expansion. I think you know these spaces exist, but I think they should evolve as well, right? Yeah, over time.
