The Potterheads are going to harry us by pottering into celebration territory now that their hero is all set to reunite with his friends after two decades! It’s been 20 years since the first Harry Potter film hit the screens, folks, so stand by for the fireworks.
Fan who still look for platform number 9 and ¾ at any railway station – you know, the secret one between platforms 9 and 10 – and have long ago chosen which house they belong to: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin – are looking forward to more magic when the cast returns.
‘Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts’ is expected to abracadabra onto our TV sets on the first day of the new year. The year 2022 is going to start with a bang! Everyone who was anyone in the famous film franchise will be there: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs… With them will be Chris Columbus, director of two of the films.
Former headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Severus Snape, aka the Half-Blood Prince and the Potions Master, will, alas, not be there. Actor Alan Rickman, who gave life to Snape with his deep voice and back story, is no more. Of course, all Harry Potter cast members have been getting along with their lives even if we, their fans, haven’t. Pansy Parkinson or Scarlet Byrne just announced her pregnancy with Hugh Hefner’s son.
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Daniel Radcliffe is now in his early thirties, surprisingly ageing along with us. We are as anxious as any old nosy aunty to see him ‘settled’ into marriage. Emma Watson has found it hard to break from the slightly nerdy, highly intelligent image the series gave her. She was able, therefore, to be a different type of Beauty in the new Beauty and the Beast film. The creator of these characters and the writer of these books, J.K. Rowling, though is expected to don the invisibility cloak and not appear in the reunion for reasons of wokery.
Just like Friends: The Reunion, this after-party is also all set to play with our psyche. Will we demystify a trick, follow another star, fall deeper in love with the series? We will know soon. Fans still want Ross and Rachel to play house-house, though many felt she should have married the character played by Bruce Willis. But what if Ross had married the young student portrayed by Willis’s daughter in the series? Ross would be Rachel’s son-in-law. Are we ready for that?
Harry was happily married to Ginny when we last saw them. But didn’t many of us want him for Hermione Granger? All our repressed expectations and hopes while watching the fantasy series will now swim to the fore of our mind and wreak sweet havoc.
The reunion is set to be shot at the Warner Bros Studio Tour London, where the films had been shot. For all the diehard Potterheads pointing right now at the TV and saying: ‘Accio’, we have news: Your wand still works.
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