Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #746, New ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ TV Documentary Blows Us Away
Cold Open
Micah: They’re taking the time to be able to really add some things that make sense. Maybe there should be a coffee shop on Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
Andrew: Yeah, Mrs. Weasley needs a pick-me-up after taking those kids to the platform.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: She’s going to go for a drink after dropping those kids off.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Maybe there’s a bar there too.
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Welcome to MuggleCast, your weekly ride into the world of Harry Potter. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: I’m Micah.
Laura Tee: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: And we’re your Harry Potter friends, talking about the books and the movies, and this week, we’re reacting to the brand new Finding Harry documentary, which is our second major look at the forthcoming Harry Potter TV show. They only announced this about… probably less than a week ago, right? Half-hour documentary. Premiered on HBO Max first; it’s going to be airing on HBO tonight. Overall thoughts?
Laura: I’m excited. This really feels so much closer to what I originally imagined when I was reading the books before the movies came out. And no shade to the movies – the movies did a really good job as well – but there’s so much less screen time, so they couldn’t spend the time needed to get the amount of detail that we’re getting in the TV show now. I’m really, really excited, and I actually felt respected as a fan…
Eric: Oooh.
Laura: … because it’s very clear that they’re trying to do this story justice, but they’re also trying to do the world justice, and it’s clearly very important to them that they get it right for the fans.
Andrew: That was reassuring.
Micah: Yeah, that’s one of the things that I took away from the documentary, was that this is going to be a series that is created by fans for fans. It’s a little bit reminiscent of Hogwarts Legacy, to be honest, when we were hearing about who was going to be working on the actual creation and production of the game. And there’s a lot of legacy here too; we see it throughout the course of the documentary. There’s a lot of really great moments in the credits, where now it’s becoming a generational thing to work on the Harry Potter films, now the Harry Potter TV show, and I think that’s just a really nice touch.
Eric: Yeah, definitely loved the way the documentary focused on the creative teams, the various creative teams, from costumes to casting, to production, set, creature effects… really just showcased how many people it takes to mount a show this big, and also, as you said, the level of detail. Loved that. And there was even that guy who painted the first Quidditch box, or his dad did, and now he’s painting the new one. That’s cool.
Andrew and Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: I did come away from this documentary feeling more assured about the effort and the thought that is being put into this series, and how they are very intentionally trying to do things better than the movies, I think. I think we’re going to come out of this just really blown away, and I think it’s going to be very interesting to watch the movies after being spoiled by this TV show for seven plus seasons.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: You know? It’s going to be a whole different wizarding world, it feels like.
Eric: I agree, and to be clear, the movies did not at all lack detail.
Andrew: No, no.
Eric: But you couldn’t see the detail that was put into most of the…
Laura: Right.
Eric: Honestly, this is why the Studio Tour has been so successful for 16 years. The costume design, the set design, everything that they built, even the animatronics and creatures, were amazing. But in the movie, they get a minute of screen time tops, and you can’t appreciate them the way that we’re going to get to in eight hours, so that feels good.
Finding Harry Documentary Reaction
Andrew: So we’re going to go in chronological order here. We took some notes. We’re going to kind of fly by the seat of our pants; this just was released on HBO Max a little over an hour ago, so here we go. Like I think, Eric, you mentioned, the documentary primarily focused on the sets and the costumes and the casting of the trio. It was narrated by Nick Frost, who plays Hagrid. I didn’t realize that until the very end, where you actually see him…
Laura: Me neither.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Oh, when he was there? Yeah, it was Nick Frost.
Andrew: But it does open with John Lithgow, who plays Dumbledore, saying that this series is going to “let the story breathe.” And that stood out to me, because weren’t we saying that on the show last week or a couple weeks ago? That this show is going to let the series breathe?
Laura: Yep.
Eric: Well, it’s confirmed.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: And he goes further; Lithgow says, “We’re going to go down all the rabbit holes and show things happening in the wings that we don’t see.” And this makes it sound like an intentional deep dive, essentially, into those moments. So I felt very, as Laura said quite nicely, respected as a fan.
Micah: And not just any rabbit holes; wonderful rabbit holes.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Oh, did he say that? “Wonderful rabbit holes”?
Eric: Well, I think there were hints, and I think that we can guess at some more of them as the documentary goes on. The thing that shook me right off the bat with Nick Frost was “Haytch-B-O.” Apparently in Britain, they say “Haytch-B-O,” and I think this is something we need to adopt, because we were so excited that they’re calling it Philosopher’s Stone, that we too should British-ify our saying of “Haytch-B-O.”
Andrew: I didn’t… I missed that. I’ll have to check.
Eric: We’ve got to get used to it.
Andrew: John Lithgow also did confirm eight episodes for Season 1, which I think was expected, but it’s nice to hear that on air. Watch, they’ll be like, “You know what, guys? We have too much footage. We’re actually going to do ten episodes.”
Eric: Right.
Andrew: [laughs] That would be kind of cool.
Laura: “Oh, darn.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Not surprising that they’d have ten episodes worth of footage.
Andrew: Yeah. Oh, I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get multiple documentaries. Clearly, this one… this one was actually 27 minutes, including the credits. I’m sure they were filming documentary-type material nonstop throughout the season, and maybe we’re going to get another mini-doc or two in the lead-up to the show being released.
Eric: That’s another thing that overall is heartening to me, because I always wanted this from the films. I always wanted… they released that Film Wizardry book, and there was another one called Page to Screen, which are very extensive; they have photos of set designs and other things like that. But what I always would have wanted is this type of documentary, even for those films. And I think that what this proves, the fact they released this eight months before the TV show is even out – and they’re already, to your point, Andrew, filming these kinds of interview type things – shows that they not only have found what the show is, but they’ve been rolling for months and months and months, and they have everything figured out, and they’re recording. The cameras are on everybody.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. I mean, this is all monetizable, marketable material they can use, so I’m not surprised.
Eric: I just hope it doesn’t get put in a vault.
Andrew: RachelPuff, who’s listening live, also reminds us, “HBO does typically release extra content after each episode of their large shows, like those little behind-the-scenes things.”
Eric: Oh, yeah. What was that, Andrew? “Haytch-B-O” does that too?
Andrew: [laughs] I am not doing that.
Eric: I’m trying to make it happen!
Andrew: So the documentary does start with the casting information. We see the audition tapes for the trio. There were 40,000 auditions… was that just for Harry? Or was that…?
Laura: That’s what I took away, was that it was just for Harry.
Andrew: Okay.
Laura: But it was moving really quickly, and I was trying to pay attention while taking notes. [laughs]
Eric: It’s kind of hard.
Andrew: Yeah, I know. I had to go back and turn on the closed captioning and confirm things. There was one stat that blew my mind, but we’ll get to it in a little bit. I had to turn on the closed captioning to confirm I was hearing her correctly.
Micah: I hope it didn’t ruffle your feathers too much, Andrew.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: That is exactly what I’m alluding to.
Micah: [laughs] I loved this, though, just to show how they did go all across the UK to take these audition tapes from young kids, because they mentioned that Alistair was from Manchester; Arabella was from London; Dominic, Glasgow; so yeah, it was just really cool to… and these are things – kind of building off of what Eric was saying earlier – we never really got the opportunity till I don’t think after the films were fully released to see audition tapes from Dan, Emma, or Rupert. We’re getting this now before Philosopher’s Stone even debuts on HBO.
Andrew: Yeah. One interesting note about casting Arabella Stanton as Hermione: The casting directors say they tested her in a scene in which she talks to her parents about Ron and Harry, so that’s cool. We’re going to be getting Hermione’s parents pretty early.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Eric: And not only that, but thinking about when that would occur. After she met Ron and Harry, but before the end of the first year that they’re filming, means it’s probably over Christmas break when Hermione goes home.
Micah: Are we going skiing in France?
Eric: Maybe!
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah, well, so the whole idea that they wrote a scene… maybe Hermione is trying to figure out about Nicolas Flamel over break, too, but just crazy to think about.
Laura: Yeah. And what I love about this in particular… they were talking about the character descriptions they were going for when looking for the main three, and specifically, Hermione was described as being an only child and lacking a filter because of it, and that is such a true statement about Hermione’s character. So the fact that they were that intentional with thinking about, “Who are these characters really at their core? What are the character traits that we want to see embedded in these auditions so that we can make sure we’re bringing the characters to life?” I thought that was really, really cool. And I thought it was super cute that when they were talking about the audition tape of Arabella talking about Harry and Ron to her parents, that she, I guess, started giggling a little bit and had these little snorts…
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: … that they were like, “That really shows Hermione’s playfulness underneath everything else.” And yeah, so I just thought that was so cool. It’s just the little things. And it’s not just about focusing so much on Hermione being a know-it-all; that’s definitely a big part of her character, but that’s not the only part of her character.
Andrew: So they focused a lot on the details that we’re going to get in this series, and man, is it impressive. One of the things that jumped out to me: the Chocolate Frogs. Did you see those? They’re not chocolate; they’re green! [laughs]
Eric: They’re green! Maybe they’re chocolate on the inside, but I don’t want to bite into that! That looks like it’s going to be alive. How can you tell them apart?
Micah: Well, Eric, these are those leftovers that…
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Andrew: No, they’re not. That’s an insult to these new ones.
Eric: Oh, that we found at the New York store. You’re right, Micah. Oh my God, the expiry date was a year prior.
Andrew: It doesn’t look like chocolate, but I think that’s cool. I think they’re going… I love that they’re going in such a different direction from what we saw in the movies.
Eric: Yes, that’s something so simple. They could have kept it just a chocolate-coated frog, like you get chocolate bunnies this weekend, everybody. They’re going to be on sale starting tomorrow. But yeah, just do something different.
Andrew: The animatronics were one of the biggest, best surprises, I think, in this documentary. There’s a lot of animatronics, it looks like, which is always a welcome inclusion, because for a while – I’m not talking about Harry Potter specifically – but for a while, there was this trend, I think, in Star Wars world, where a lot of it was CGI instead of animatronics, like they did back in the ’70s and the ’80s and what you see at the theme parks, and people missed those animatronics. There was a sense of authenticity that came with those, and they’re fun to see. I mean, it reminds me of going into Chuck E. Cheese as a kid and watching Chuck E. move around like this. [laughs]
Eric: He was very cool. Yeah, he’s held up, too.
Andrew: And they’ve gotten way better.
Eric: Well, I mean, that’s the thing, is the CGI ages the least well over animatronics or puppets or any of the other effects. So if they can do something that is CGI-lite, and at the same time, bring in these artisans who are clearly at the top of their game, creating real amazing… the creatures that we saw in this documentary. Just unbelievable levels of creativity and artistry.
Andrew: So one of the designers said that they are putting 36,000 feathers in each owl.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: I backed up and double checked that and looked at the closed captioning. 36,000 feathers! How is that possible? [laughs]
Eric: I’m googling how many feathers are on a real owl.
Laura: I mean, I was going to say, somebody… ChatGPT, how many feathers do real owls have? Because…
Eric: Nope, nope, yeah, most owls – now, this is AI overview – have between 9 and 10,000 feathers. The most ever found was 12,000. So that’s a lie! That’s an exaggeration.
Laura: Oh, damn.
Eric: Even if they’re doing 10,000 feathers, and they have eight owls, that’s insane.
Andrew: Yeah. And these are normal-sized owls, in case anybody’s wondering. If you see them in the documentary, you’ll… they’re supposed to just be normal everyday owls. So that was impressive.
Micah: Well, the person who said this is Sophie Rechtberger, and I just love the fact that her title is CFX HOD, which I’m assuming is Head of Development for Hair, Fur, and Feathers.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: So I don’t know if you really want to challenge her on this, Andrew.
Eric: Okay, all right, I retract my challenge.
Andrew: I’m not doubting her.
Eric: I’m just going to take her word for it. There’s 36,000 feathers, and they all look great.
Andrew: We also saw Scabbers. They did an animatronic… actually, two animatronics.
Eric: Because one…
Andrew: One of them bites a hand and just hangs on, presumably, Ron’s hand. Did you make a noise, Micah? Were you not impressed or something?
Micah: No, I was.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Eric: Doesn’t he bite Goyle in the chapter…?
Andrew: Oh, Goyle. Okay.
Eric: Ron… it’s actually what gets Malfoy to go away the first time they ever have to get Malfoy to go away.
Andrew: Ah, cool. Okay, good catch. We saw the… Dungbong?
Eric and Laura: Dugbog.
Andrew: Dugbog. Just Dugbog. Okay.
Micah: Yeah, take the N’s away.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Dugbog. I thought…
Micah: It’s like “Haytch-B-O.”
Andrew: [laughs] I thought it was a typo in our doc.
Micah: Hogwarts Legacy.
Andrew: In Hogwarts Legacy?
Micah: You definitely have Avada Kedavra‘d a few of them.
Andrew: Oh, right.
Eric: I don’t have that spell, you guys.
Micah: Oh, you don’t?
Andrew: Suuure.
Eric: No, no. Eleanor Rigby would never, okay?
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: That was my Hufflepuff character. But Dugbogs are in swamps everywhere around in the Scottish area that you’re in.
Andrew: They weren’t seen in the movies, so that’s something new coming over to the TV show.
Eric: Well, they talked about having to have bits that pop off of them, so the students, I guess, were probably going to get some kind of magical creatures lesson, or some scene where they happened to be plucking, because the guy who was walking us through it did that, took the parts off.
Laura: I also love how they had Flobberworms, and they looked so disgusting, but so good.
Eric: Euuuughh.
Laura: But this was another thing that I thought was such a nice touch, because if you’re a book reader, you know that Flobberworms are not introduced until, what, Book 3 or 4?
Eric: I think that’s right.
Micah: And whoever was speaking at that time I think mentioned that they didn’t tell the students or the actors that they were going to be handling Flobberworms…
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Micah: … and the fact that when you pick them up, they’re disgusting and nasty.
Eric: Oh, the slime.
Micah: So I bet they got a pretty natural reaction from at least the trio.
Eric: Well, and as to where they’ll fit in the overall year of the story, I think the Fire Crabs in particular were shown in Diagon Alley, so it’ll be… whether Magical Menagerie or something, but imagine that as something eye-catching for Harry to see when he and Hagrid are walking by.
Laura: Right.
Andrew and Micah: Yeah.
Eric: I’m going to need a whole episode in Diagon Alley, you guys. I know we joked about “Whole episode on the train,” but come on.
Andrew: It looks really cool. Got our first look at Gringotts, too. The exterior, at least. It’ll be very cool to see the inside of that place. There was a comment; they said, “There’s a ton going into this for the diehards, so we’re going to land it with them.” I thought that was cool. Even though you could argue that this series is probably to introduce Harry Potter to a new generation of people, they are still serving the diehards. Like Laura said, we’re feeling respected as fans. Respect us. We’re the danger.
Laura: Yeah. Well… [laughs] Okay, Heisenberg.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: But what I also love about it, though, is that it feels… the designs and the environment do feel distinct, but when I think about all of the investments that have been made in things like the theme park, it’s going to be pretty easy for them, I think, to retrofit some of that to update it to look like the feel of the TV show if they decide they want to do that.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Laura: Because it’s not so drastically different that they would have to tear everything down and start over. I think they could give Islands of Adventure and everything else Harry Potter a bit of a facelift to update it for the times, so I think that’ll be really nice.
Eric: Yeah, even just updating the signage of other shops to match what’s in the show. Be an easy way to do that.
Andrew: Janet McTeer, who plays McGonagall, called the Great Hall her favorite set, which I thought was cool. She says, “It felt like walking into a cathedral.” And that Great Hall set really does look like something special.
Laura: Yeah, it does. Are they using the same set but just updated for the show?
Andrew: I don’t think so.
Laura: Okay.
Andrew: No, it looks bigger to me. I noticed staircases on one side? Did you all notice that?
Micah: Well, that would be very much like Hogwarts Legacy.
Laura: Kind of like Hogwarts Legacy, yeah.
Andrew: Oh, there were… yeah, you’re right. Or even like a church, honestly. Like those upper levels for additional seating and whatnot.
Eric: The loft. Yeah, the choir loft.
Andrew: “The loft.” [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, that’s what it’s called.
Micah: Well, didn’t it…? It took you up, and then you could eventually get up to the belfry where the chimes were for the school. Am I remembering that correctly from the video game?
Laura: You are.
Eric: I think that’s right.
Andrew: That is right, yeah.
Micah: The other thing I really liked that Janet McTeer had to say was that if she was having a really rough day, all she had to do was close her eyes, take a deep breath, and open them back up and recognize that she was at Hogwarts. And I thought that was a really nice… I’m paraphrasing, but I thought that was really nice.
[Ad break]
Andrew: Also, I thought the most interesting part of the documentary were these comments from production designer Mara LePere-Schloop. She said,
“In the initial conversations with Mark and Francesca about the core values of our show, there was this kind of inherent desire to be rooted in naturalism. Also, in this idea at the core of Harry Potter, nature is the root of magic, and so magical realism, rooting things in principles that we find in nature and the phenomenon of the natural world. If we could harness those things, that’s what magic is. These ideas of naturalisms being this core principle within the wizarding world is something that we’re integrating a lot into our sets. We have to bring the natural world to the sets, and to think that I’m at the helm of this, it really is incredible. This project is so exciting that there’s so much overlap and play between different departments to really capture these concepts and themes and express them on so many different levels. As we designed these practical and visual effects, we wanted there to be a deeply-rooted logic to what was happening. Even though magic is not logical, for us, it’s more of these consequences of magic that we’re interested in. For every expression of magic, we’re trying to do that critical analysis of, ‘How does this tie back into what we’re saying magic actually is?’ And we really wanted to celebrate it as a moment to do things a little bit differently.”
So I know that was a long quote, but we’re already getting hints of how this Hogwarts is rooted in nature. I think I pointed out last week that the Harry Potter logo has a tree root.
Eric: Ooh, yeah.
Andrew: Watching the trailer again after our trailer episode, I noticed there’s a tree in the Hogwarts entryway. Inside.
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: This Hogwarts is earthy and almost born out of the earth.
Eric: A lot more Hufflepuff. I appreciate that a lot.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: But yeah, I mean, in this documentary I saw the Great Hall doors when they’re walking through, and there’s branches everywhere, growing off of the main doors to the Great Hall. So that’s very impressive.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: I think you’re exactly right, and that’s a great thing you noticed about the logo.
Micah: I feel like there was some of that, too, in Diagon Alley. I’d have to go back and take a closer look, but it felt like roots were coming up through the cobblestones.
Andrew and Laura: Yes.
Laura: Very much so.
Andrew: Going by the storefronts.
Eric: There was a shot of those mushrooms that were burbling or whatever.
Laura: Yeah, for sure.
Micah: Mara also had another interesting comment, and it was actually in the preview for the documentary, where she said, “This is a designer’s dream, to play in a sandbox this big.” And again, it’s paying fan service, but I think it is really good to hear these types of things coming from the people who are working on the series.
Andrew: Absolutely. They talked about the costumes; that was a big focus of the documentary. They said it’s set in 1991, and the clothes are going to be from the ’90s, baby.
Micah: They came to me for all of Dudley’s wardrobe.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Did they?
Laura: They borrowed it from Micah’s closet. What I loved about this was they actually went out in search of real vintage ’90s clothing designs for the costuming.
Eric: Yep.
Laura: I also cringed a little bit when they said “vintage ’90s clothing.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: As someone who wore that stuff when I was a kid, but okay. But no, it was really cool. And they were really intentional about the materials that they used, right, Andrew?
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, British wool, and then Scottish materials too. I thought that was a really cool way to honor the country that the story is set in. They also said that for magical people, they wanted to present them in a way that feels somehow “a little bit other” in the costume designs. I thought that was a really thoughtful idea.
Eric: Yeah, and they had a rule of thumb while working, which is they said, “I just saw a magical person.”
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Eric: And it’s like, “What was that person wearing?”
Andrew: Out and about, when they were just traveling…
Eric: Out and about. Like, “What about that person clicked for you, ‘Oh, magical,’ and then let’s incorporate that into the magical people of the series.”
Micah: I’ll be honest; I mean, sometimes I think I see Dumbledore on the train.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Well, you should ask him sometime.
Eric: Next time, take a picture.
Micah: I will, yeah.
Andrew: Well, speaking of Dumbledore, they did discuss designing Dumbledore’s looks, and Dumbledore has these leaf print designs on several of his cloaks and gear, and with that leaf printing, they “wanted to create a sense of natural, immediate, unruly process. It’s the imperfection of those leaf prints that brings the beauty.” And then there was this other quote that “He’s a little bit of an Edwardian gentleman. We wanted to root him in reality.”
Eric: The natural state of things is also very alchemical. The alchemical is about the physical properties, and so it makes perfect sense that Dumbledore would be a lot more tied to nature through his look than he was done previously.
Andrew: Yeah. In this area of the documentary, we also got to look at Dedalus Diggle, who we have seen through paparazzi photos interacting with Vernon, so it was just cool to get a little official look at him. Also noticed, we did see the bathroom where the troll attack occurs, I assume. The bathroom was in shambles, so I just figure that’s what…
Eric: Oh, yeah. I mean, sorry, guys. That was me.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I don’t know what we’re saying here, but yeah, that makes sense to me.
Andrew: John Lithgow did talk about his age again. He was like, “I’m 80 now; I’m going to be 88 when I’m done. I’m going to be growing up with these kids.” He’s talked about that quite a few times.
Eric: Yeah. Well, the closure of the doc was very special for an interview with Paapa as well, and they both talked about… I really actually appreciated how Paapa said how nice it was going to be to see these kids grow, and grow up. And the line I liked from Lithgow was, “They’re going to grow up with this, and I’m going to grow old with them.” So that felt very nice. But Lithgow looks great!
Andrew: He does. Sounds good.
Eric: He jokingly talked in the interview about how old he is, and he is already eight years older than Richard Harris was when Richard Harris passed, but he seems perfectly spry and happy to do it, so I’m thrilled.
Micah: Yeah, he seems very excited to be playing this role.
Andrew and Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: And there were a lot of great B-roll shots of them on the sets. I think we saw a lot of Great Hall shots, and it was fun seeing him in that role as Dumbledore.
Laura: Totally.
Andrew: Let’s see. What else? What else? Anything else y’all wanted to…? Somebody has a note here; you noticed wedding pictures of the Dursleys.
Eric: Yes.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Eric: This was something that we got to… so you know how in really any movie ever, if you look at photos that are supposed to be a married couple or a family, they’re almost every single time just poorly photoshopped photos of the actors – maybe even in costume, if you’re lucky – but they’re all just garbage? This time they went through the process, you can tell, of actually photographing, actually doing a whole shoot with Vernon and Petunia on their wedding day. And it looks like Vernon’s parents and Petunia’s parents are there, and there’s actually a strained look on Petunia’s mother’s face that one could even read deeper to say, “Oh, she thinks that Lily should be there and isn’t, and is consumed by it.” And Petunia looks a little less happy, but Vernon is smiling.
Laura: I would just point to the amount of detail we saw in the cupboard under the stairs as well.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Laura: There was a lot going on in there.
Micah: The Dustbuster.
Laura: Yeah, just a lot more props and decoration in there than we got to see in the movies, which makes sense; I mean, if Harry spent his childhood in there, he would have more up on the walls.
Andrew: Yeah. So overall, I’m really impressed with this documentary. I came away feeling better than I already did, and I was feeling pretty good about the show. Again, it’s really reassuring to see that these people who are working on this care. They’re really putting a lot of thought into it. And when you hear the everyday noise online about the show, it reminds you…
Eric: Well, for good reason.
Andrew: Well, with the author, yeah, but people…
Eric: But you can lose sight.
Andrew: Yeah, that there’s real people who care working on this show behind the scenes, and they’re doing quality work, it seems.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Eric: This is going to… I mean, I was blown away by the level of detail of everything that I saw here, and I thought, “What a great opportunity all of these people are having, again, artisans at the top of their craft, to be part of this journey for ten more years.” It’s absolutely wonderful to see the art that they will be creating.
Andrew and Micah: Yeah.
Micah: And I love the multi-generational aspect of it. I know it was talked about earlier, the fact that there was a father who worked on the first Quidditch box, and now his son is doing it. In the credits, there was a father and son duo that are now working together. I think the man mentioned that he met his wife while working on Harry Potter; now his son is working with him. And we just hear these stories about how blown away a lot of these other everyday people are now to be working on Harry Potter, having grown up with it. Paapa Essiedu mentions it even in his own interview about the day he came to set, and he walked in and there was the Hogwarts Express, and it just took him back to his days reading the Harry Potter books. So there’s a lot of nostalgia here, which is, I think, a good thing.
Laura: Yeah, the generational impact is real. I mean, I think somebody else on set design was talking about how she had been reading the books with her son, right? And that that was a big source of connection for them.
Andrew: And she was so moved by her son saying to her, “I want to go to a school like this,” that then she felt driven to find a school like this, and now get to create one. That’s pretty amazing. And these productions, they are giant families. You’re spending probably ten years together. Like John Lithgow said, you’re growing up together.
Eric: Absolutely, yeah. And it just seems like they’re absolutely sparing no expense too. This could have been, in some world, I guess, a cheaper… or money grab. That’s absolutely not what comes to mind at all watching this documentary. Even as of the trailer, you can tell that it’s not that.
Andrew: I think that is one of the big takeaways here. If you watch this, you will not feel like this series is just a money grab. It was definitely inspired by the financial potential, but… [laughs]
Laura: Of course.
Eric: I’m sure.
Laura: But they’re actually putting their money where their mouth is, and they’re not cheaping out on the production of this, which I appreciate. Also, I just want to highlight something Forty, who’s watching live with us, said: “Seeing all the artists working also felt like a good reminder that this is all much bigger than the author,” and I think that’s a great takeaway as well.
Micah: One other thing that I did want to mention; it was at the very end of the documentary, when you get the Nick Frost reveal that he’s been the one narrating the whole time. But the fact…
Eric: I knew, you guys! I know his voice! It’s him.
Micah: Well, for those of us who are less familiar.
Eric: Yes, yes, yes, yes. He looks a lot different without the Hagrid beard on.
Micah: He does. But the fact that basically Platform Nine and Three Quarters has been set up as almost like a train station within a train station; even though it’s only one platform, it has all these different cafes, and you get kind of that look out from the Hogwarts Express onto the platform. I just think everything is being reimagined; it’s not just Hogwarts or Hogsmeade. They’re taking the time to be able to really plus some things up, add some things that make sense. Like, yeah, maybe there should be a coffee shop on Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
Andrew: Yeah, Mrs. Weasley needs a pick-me-up after taking those kids to the platform.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: She’s going to go for a drink after dropping those kids off.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Maybe there’s a bar there too.
Micah: Especially Fred and George.
Andrew: I’m glad you bring up Platform Nine and Three Quarters, because was anybody else surprised that they actually built out a permanent Platform Nine and Three Quarters set? Because okay, I guess it appears in every book, or almost every book, but it’s… I don’t know. It doesn’t appear that often.
Micah: But it’s at the Studio Tour.
Andrew: Yeah. No, but this is a whole different one, right? This is a whole…
Micah: No, yeah. Well, I would… yeah, I think so. I think everything is different.
Andrew: I don’t know. Yeah, it just surprised me that they actually built out that whole set. Remember, the movies did not do that. That was all CGI! [laughs] At least for Deathly Hallows.
Eric: Yeah. Well, again, I just want to see them get the most use out of it. That’s going to be great to see. Usually when they build a whole set, as opposed to half a set, it’s because they need full camera angle creative control, the ability to do all sorts of stuff. Because yeah, why would you build a set that a train can actually go through? It’s crazy.
Andrew: I guess with the movies they didn’t know, like with Movie 1, if they truly were going to do seven, or even eight movies…
Laura: Of course, yeah.
Andrew: … so now I think this also just tells you they are fully… this is another stupid thing I see on social media. “Oh, this show’s going to bomb and it’s going to get canceled after two seasons.” Warner Bros. very much does not feel that way, and that’s why they’re building these sets out, because they’re going to be using them for the next ten years. And then there will be a second Studio Tour, dedicated to the TV show. [laughs]
Eric: Oh my God. I wonder if it’ll be across the street from the other. I wonder if you’ll have to buy a multi-Studio Tour pass to get to both of them.
Micah: I was going to say, can you get a Park Hopper pass? [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, Park Hopper pass for the Studio Tours.
Andrew: I think that’d be cool. [laughs]
Eric: And then you’ll be able to take the train between the two of them. Except when you get on the Hogwarts Express from the movie side, it’ll say 5972 on the front of it; when you get off on the TV show side, it’ll say 5977. The number changed on the train.
Andrew: Oh.
Laura: Good catch.
Micah: Did anybody expect maybe a little bit of another tease at the end of this documentary?
Andrew: I kind of thought so too.
Eric: I thought when Nick Frost was getting on the train that he was going to sit down next to Warwick Davis.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That would’ve been kind of nice.
Eric: I really did, because that guy’s a big, big, big name actor, and we haven’t yet seen him as Flitwick or as himself doing interviews yet.
Andrew: Yeah, it is kind of interesting who they did focus on. They just had the Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore actors. Obviously, there’s way more people who could appear in documentaries like this. My prediction is there’s going to be another documentary or two. Of course, we haven’t heard from the kids yet either. But yeah, I was hoping for an Apple Keynote style “One more thing” at the end of the documentary, some sort of fun reveal. I don’t know what, but some surprise.
Eric: Peeves!
Andrew: Sure, Peeves.
Micah: Oh, that would have been fun. A nice little surprise at the end. But I mean, we did get the trailer, for those who didn’t see it, at the very beginning, but it’s not the same. I was hoping for a little bit more of a surprise.
Andrew: Oh. [laughs] They played the trailer before the documentary, you’re saying.
Micah: Yeah, did you not get that?
Andrew: I did, but I skipped it.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: You had already seen that.
Laura: I mean, we’ve already watched it how many times?
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, I needed to take notes for MuggleCast. I will say – we were talking about this before we started the show – the trailer is airing on TV, it feels like, nonstop. If you play anything on HBO Max right now, at least for me, I’m getting that Harry Potter trailer before…
Laura: Everything.
Andrew: … whatever show I’m watching. They’re promoting this hard already, and it is kind of surprising for a TV show to get promoted eight months in advance.
Micah: I agree.
Andrew: That’s crazy.
Micah: And I mentioned this to you before the show as well; I was watching the Final Four last night, which is on TNT, which is part of the Warner Media family, and they did a live read for Philosopher’s Stone during the game, like you would do a live read for anything else. So again, the fact that we’re getting promotion this early, and you’re getting a documentary this early – even though it’s only 30 minutes long – they are churning that marketing machine.
Andrew: It’s wild. I don’t know what to make of it just yet. What is the goal? To remind people…?
Micah: To mess up our recording schedule.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: We’re recording this on Easter Sunday!
Eric: Only the major holidays. Easter, Christmas…
Micah: Well, didn’t you have a theory about that, Andrew?
Andrew: Oh, I did. I wonder if, by releasing this documentary on a holiday weekend, that they’re kind of testing viewership numbers, what viewership numbers will be like for Harry Potter anything. That’s my guess. Because Easter Sunday?
Micah: Maybe. Because it’s going to slide into that probably 8:00 p.m. Eastern window on HBO, which is a pretty important window for them.
Eric: For when it’s airing tonight.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s prime time, baby. Sunday night. Well, and 8:00 p.m. is interesting because 9:00 p.m. is when Game of Thrones typically airs, or Succession or White Lotus. 8:00 p.m. says, “We want to air it a little earlier for the kids,” right?
Micah: Right, exactly. And I’m sure it’ll air at 8:30, and then it’ll start airing…
Andrew: 8:30? What are you talking about? The documentary?
Micah: I think they’ll air it back to back.
Andrew: Oh.
Micah: Like you can watch it at 8:00 and at 8:30…
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Micah: … and then it goes into rotation, where it’s on a thousand times over the course of the next month.
Andrew: Yeah, but what I’m talking about is when the TV show actually starts airing, they’ll probably run it at 8:00 p.m. on Sundays so the kids can watch, I think.
Micah: Yeah, I think that’s right.
Andrew: All right. Well, thanks, everybody, for tuning in to this special episode of MuggleCast, in which we’ve been covering the Finding Harry documentary. If you are watching this on YouTube, please be sure to press that follow button so you can get more coverage of the Harry Potter TV show as we continue to cover it for the next nine months and beyond. If you’re listening to this in your favorite podcast app, please press follow in there. We’re doing a chapter by chapter reread of the Harry Potter series right now, and when there’s big news like this documentary, we’re taking a break from Chapter by Chapter to discuss what has been released. And if the last week has been any indication, it looks like we’re going to be getting many more previews over the next nine months. Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Laura: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: See y’all next week. Bye.
Laura and Micah: Bye.