MuggleCast 265 Transcript
Show Intro
[“Hedwig’s Theme” plays]
Andrew: Because we have a fire-breathing dragon to talk about for the first time in a long while, this is MuggleCast Episode 265 for May 8th, 2013.
[Show music begins]
Andrew: This week’s podcast is brought to you by Audible.com, the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction, and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast.
[Show music continues]
Andrew: Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 265. I know what everybody is thinking: How could you have fired Micah as the newsman? No.
Micah: That’s a great question.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: How could you fire Micah as the newsman?
Andrew: And if you did that, why is he still here?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: I’m going to ask that question every episode. Every remaining episode. No, the real question is, why are we back only after a week and a half? That’s shocking! [laughs]
Eric: What?
Andrew: Are we back…
Micah: Must be something that happened in the news. [laughs] But I wouldn’t know what that is because I’ve been fired.
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
News: Universal Orlando Announces The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley
Andrew: Well, we found out that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley is officially happening. Universal announced it on Wednesday morning, in line with the predictions it seems. I know MuggleNet had a prediction that the announcement would happen in four to six weeks, and then there was another rumor that said something similar. But I think this actually happened earlier than both of those. So maybe Universal just got really excited or they couldn’t keep the secret any longer. [laughs] They realized, oh, this thing is like half built now and we still haven’t announced it.
Eric: [laughs] Yup.
Andrew: Because they’re actually working on a Transformers ride down there that hasn’t opened up yet, so people thought it would be after Transformers. But anyway, we got the announcement. And I have to say, it was a little… what they announced was not surprising because we’ve known basically everything that they have announced for so long. We knew about Gringotts, we knew about the Hogwarts Express connecting the two lands, we knew there would be Diagon Alley in the London area. There was one big surprise that we’ll talk about a little bit later, but JK Rowling commented on today’s story, of course. She said:
“I’m so pleased that ‘The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’ has proved so popular to date, and I’m sure that the attention to detail in creating the new Diagon Alley area will make this an even better experience.”
Than Hogsmeade already is, I assume she means. What were you guys’ initial reactions to this new land?
[Prolonged silence]
Eric: Micah?
Micah: Clearly it’s left Eric and I both speechless.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Which is saying something for Eric. But I actually didn’t see this until about an hour or two ago, and the concept art to me is really great. I like the overall shot and the fact that you can see Hogwarts in the background.
Andrew: Yeah, isn’t it beautiful?
Micah: It’s iconic in a way, and if this is really how it’s going to pan out… I don’t really think the mountains are there.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: I think that’s a little bit of an embellishment. But overall I think…
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: …that this new Diagon Alley area is really going to be something that people are going to enjoy. And I think it really rejuvenates the old Universal Studios. It gives people something to go and see, and I think that’s probably more so than anything else – with no disrespect to Harry Potter – what Universal was looking for. They needed something to breathe life into this old park, and they’ve gotten it, and that’s no pun intended, and I want to know how they expect to have a fire-breathing dragon in 90 degree heat, in the middle of Orlando.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: That’s a good point. Okay, so I was going to save that, but I guess we’ll talk about it now. In the concept art, you see this fire-breathing dragon on top of Gringotts. And this morning, I think everybody was in agreement that, “Oh, they just added that for embellishment to make the concept art come to life more.” But it turns out, Universal has confirmed that there’s actually going to be this dragon on… not a real dragon of course, but a dragon on top of Gringotts and it will breathe fire. How cool…
Eric: So where did we hear that it’s going to breathe fire?
Andrew: This was a theme park Twitter account, a reputable theme park Twitter account. They said they got in touch with Universal, and they confirmed that that thing is actually happening. [laughs]
Eric: Because I can see it breathing steam, or in the case of, as Micah mentioned, the heat and the sun, if it would breathe mist even, like kind of hot but kind of refreshing mist out of its nose. Then I can see that coming. But fire? Yeah, I just don’t know if that’s a good idea.
Andrew: Well, I think there’s two things that make it okay. For one, the dragon is really high up, so you may not feel the fire much. But also, it’s not like the dragon is going to be constantly spewing fire for 18 hours a day. I bet it’ll be maybe every 10 minutes and he’ll breathe fire for maybe 15 seconds.
Micah: You’ve got to put a quarter in his back, so you’ve got to climb…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: …all the way to the top and drop some change in there, and then he’ll breathe fire.
Eric: Do you think there will be a riding the dragon, like riding a bull, the wild crazy bull ride?
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: It could be.
Eric: [laughs] I think, though…
Micah: A few too many Butterbeers and you never know what can happen.
Eric: That’s true. That’s very true. This reminds me of The Mummy… well, maybe The Mummy Returns ride, which is probably going to be very, very close to where they put Diagon Alley, if I’m remembering correctly, in the regular Universal Studios Park in Florida. But that ride, the reason I bring it up is because there’s a wall of flames that always happens every time you ride that ride. It probably happens a 100,000 times a day, or week, or month. And… so flames… I mean, yeah, it may just be… it’ll look really cool as a Harry Potter dragon, but I guess flames, fire, is just easier to create than we give it credit for.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Like, people in the future who are lost on desert islands and have to rub sticks together for fire will be so jealous because the Wizarding World [laughs] is going to do it from this dragon for nothing a hundred times a day.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s going to be an awesome photo-op. I mean, think about standing below that thing when it’s spewing fire. That’s a permanent profile picture, if you ask me, on Facebook.
Eric: Agreed.
Andrew: Totally going to… at least three months. [laughs]
Micah: It’s almost as cool as sitting on the Iron Throne.
Andrew: [laughs] You’re right.
Eric: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but see…
Andrew: I love that this is the fire piece… oh, sorry, the center piece of Diagon Alley. It’s going to be not just Gringotts, but Universal really upped the ante and they put the dragon on top. That’s going to be such a cool photo-op.
Eric: I do agree, but I worry about the attention being focused on one central area. Even in the Wizarding World theme park as it is, it’s true you do have Hogsmeade and then the Hogwarts area, but basically Forbidden Journey is where the line starts, you know? And I feel like there will be people with Gringotts and the dragon. People will want to ride the ride and then other people will want the photo-ops.
Andrew: Mmm.
Eric: But it will be very crowded.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. It is… I feel like there’s going to be two major kind of photo-ops here. Of course there’s going to be Gringotts and the dragon, but then also at the front of this new Diagon Alley land – which is London, essentially – you have the Knight Bus out front, and then you’ve just got the row of buildings on the outside including King’s Cross where the Hogwarts Express is going to be inside when it pulls up. So, yeah, I could see… I mean, I think from the perspective we’re looking at it in the concept art, Gringotts looks bigger than it actually may be.
Eric: Mhm.
Andrew: But time will tell. It’s going to be cool seeing that from a distance too as you walk closer and closer to the Wizarding World of Diagon Alley.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: I mean, because the Simpsons ride is right across the way in that little lake. [laughs] You’re going to be staring at the dragon after you walk out of the Simpsons ride.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Now, I’m more curious about the overall layout of this. So if I’m looking at the concept art right now, is it that you would come out of King’s Cross station all the way on that left hand side sort of where those two arches are and then walk around?
Andrew: Huh, that’s a good question.
Micah: Because I think most people would – and I don’t know if this is also going to be included in this – want to go through the Leaky Cauldron to get to Diagon Alley.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: Has there been any thought about that? Is the Leaky Cauldron somewhere in that set of buildings that sort of opens up into Diagon Alley with Gringotts all the way at the end there?
Eric: Talk about a bottleneck if that were the case. [laughs]
Andrew: Exactly. Because I’m thinking about the Three Broomsticks at the Wizarding World right now and having people constantly funneling through that to get in sounds like it would be annoying.
Micah: A logistical nightmare.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: That is a good question though because, of course, there is that iconic moment in Sorcerer’s Stone. Hagrid…
Eric: Tapping the bricks.
Andrew: Right! They’ve got to have something like that, right? But then you have to think, well, how are they going to have a brick wall and then the brick wall… I would love to see them do a brick wall that magically opens somehow.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: But imagine the waits. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, I have no idea just how. And looking at the concept art… I understand Diagon Alley is supposed to be a little bit – what’s the word – claustrophobic, but theme parks typically… correct me if I’m wrong, but they’re better when they’re open. They’re better when there’s a lot of room to move around.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And I really worry about lines and all of that other stuff impeding on the fun of this new park. Because the themes are going to be great. If there’s special meals that British Muggles have that for some reason aren’t at the other park, it’ll be great. Gringotts ride, a lot of fun, no doubt. Nobody is questioning that, but I do question the size and the space and the time to walk around in this new park.
Andrew: I feel like this was a concern with the first Wizarding World Orlando as well, and their excuse was, “Well, in the books and movies everything is very cramped.” Which – and you rightfully point out – that just doesn’t work in the real world [laughs] when there’s thousands of tourists.
Eric: No, there’s a park… and the Islands of Adventure park is small, or it’s equal… I want to say it’s actually equally sized to the regular park. I could be a little wrong. But the first three or four months to maybe even eight months, depending on the day or holidays when kids were off school, there was a line for Forbidden Journey or for the Hogsmeade area of Islands of Adventure that stretched all the way around Islands of Adventure. They can’t pull that [censored]…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: …forgive my French – with the new park. You just can’t because eventually you’re going to get people with tickets to both parks that are in line for the Hogwarts Express, to go to Hogsmeade, and they’re going to be waiting in Hogsmeade.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Because the line is going to be so long all the way from Diagon Alley.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: I can’t understand this. And with Hollywood, when that opens, you already said there’s not a lot of space. So they should come up with a design that works for large open areas, I think.
Micah: In due time, though, more of this will become available to us in terms of what this layout is going to look like. I’m sure you’re going to have multiple Hogwarts Express so that there’s always going to be one, at least, going to Hogsmeade, and then one going to Diagon Alley. I don’t think that it’s only going to be one track.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: If they did that, that’s going to bottleneck a lot of people – to your point, Eric – but I think as we learn more about what the landscape is going to look like and just how big this is going to be, I think it’ll put people at ease. And to what you were talking about before, didn’t a lot of that happen when the park first opened? So the expectation would be that you’re going to have long lines no matter what. So once that goes over time, like we’ve seen with what exists already in Orlando, the lines are going to get shorter and they’re going to be more manageable for people throughout the course of the day.
Andrew: Yeah. I think that’s right. Imagine five, ten years from now when it dies down a little bit. Of course, these parks will be…
Micah: Five, ten years? Oh, man.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: These parks will be popular. And of course, Harry Potter will be popular for a long time, but after this initial summer it’ll be much more bearable. And summertime in general is always so busy for the Wizarding World, or for theme parks, because that’s when tourists like to go.
We’re going to continue talking about today’s exciting Wizarding World announcement in just a moment, but first it is time to remind you that today’s episode is brought to you by Audible.com. Audible is the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including audio versions of many New York Times Bestsellers. For listeners of MuggleCast, Audible is offering you a free audiobook to give you a chance to try out their service. I have a timely recommendation for you this week: The Great Gatsby. It is about to be released in theaters. You can get it for absolutely free by visiting AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. Now that it’s summertime, we’re all going to be spending more time out and about, enjoying the warm weather. And maybe you’re walking around, maybe you don’t want to carry a book around. Maybe when you’re walking the dog or just going on a walk or run, or sitting out at the beach, closing your eyes, sitting by the lake, by the creek, by the river, all you’ve got to do is pop in your earbuds and listen to a book rather than actually reading it. Very, very great service, especially now, for summertime, when people are spending more time outdoors just relaxing. Visit AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast to get an audiobook – perhaps The Great Gatsby [laughs] narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal, I love that he narrated this one – for absolutely free. AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. We thank Audible for their support of the show.
So now back on to the Wizarding World news, I was just thinking about how what if the Hogwarts Express breaks down.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Because then, what if it’s down and it’s down for the entire day? Then people have to walk from one park to the other, and…
Micah: God forbid!
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Well, yeah. But…
Micah: I know, but the point is the experience. Say you’re there for one day and that’s all you get.
Andrew: And you bought the two-park ticket under the assumption…
Micah: I understand that. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. But if you guys think about the layout of Universal Orlando Resort, to get from one park to the other is kind of a hassle because both of these lands are buried in the back of each of these parks. So you’ve got to walk through the park again, walk out, walk through City Walk, then back to the other park. It is kind of a pain. [laughs]
Eric: That’s not a bad point because if you…
Andrew: And I feel like you… when the park first opens, you’re going to be able to walk faster from one park to the other than you will to wait in line for the train [laughs] because that line is going to be long.
Eric: Oh, but the train is the experience. It’s the experience, Andrew.
Andrew: I know. What were you going to say, Eric?
Eric: I’m just wondering if there’s going to be a walking path or something.
Andrew: That would be nice.
Eric: [laughs] Maybe the “stay fit, healthy” walking path in between the two Harry Potter parks in case the rides break down or something like that. Because if you already have both passes… and maybe they can call it something fun, like “Dobby’s Route” or something.
Andrew: [laughs] Dobby’s Route.
Eric: I have no idea.
Micah: Are you saying that he can’t take the Hogwarts Express?
Eric: Well, when he… ideally, when he sealed the barrier, Ron and Harry were faced with the prospect that they would have to walk to Hogwarts, so there you go.
Micah: So Andrew, I know before you brought up how the outside of Diagon Alley is really dressed up to look like London. The Knight Bus is there, that’s going to be a photo op. There’s also a fountain there that’s located in Piccadilly Circus. I saw on the article on Hypable.
Andrew: Yeah, the Eros Fountain. It’s right… at least in the concept art, it’s right next to the Knight Bus. So they’re doing authentic London sights right there on the waterfront. These buildings that you see on the waterfront, as well, are straight out of London. At least a couple of them are.
Micah: So what does that say, though? They put the Eros Fountain – Eros being Cupid – next to the Knight Bus…
Andrew: [laughs] Love it.
Micah: …which has beds.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: People are going to be shagging on the Knight Bus in front of Cupid.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: Yes. Micah, there will be rooms to rent on the… or shall I say beds for rent – by the hour, of course – on the triple-decker Knight Bus. Hell, I’d pay for that!
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: There’s also the London… a British phone booth, which would be a fun little photo op. If they’re smart, you can dial 6-2-4-4-2 and something fun happens.
Eric: Maybe it actually will take you underground for a moment. [laughs]
Andrew: But imagine the line for that!
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: I could see one of us going in there and start banging on the glass, “Why isn’t this going down? Why isn’t this going down?”
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: You know, the funny thing is, due to the seventh Harry Potter film, I’m going to be trying to flush myself in the toilets, too, in London.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: You let us know how that goes.
Andrew: Yeah.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And don’t shake our hands after you do that.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Yeah, and we’ll expect a full report. Let us know how…
Eric: I’ll be live blogging from the loos at the London end of the Muggle world… the wizarding world.
Andrew: Universal also confirmed today that you will need two park tickets to take the Hogwarts Express.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: Now, we kind of figured that would be. There were some people thinking, well, maybe if you have a one-park ticket you could just ride the train a round trip, but it makes sense that they’re not going to allow that. They’d better not because there’s going to be such long lines on both sides…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …of the park that they don’t want people taking two trips unless they wait in line again.
Eric: Well, I think the interesting thing because we’ve been going by the concept art where it shows I think the train on the countryside and all that, I think we have to kind of get out of that mindset because I think on one hand the train I think is going to all be indoors, really.
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Eric: And covered because they don’t have that countryside. So maybe that will mean the parks can be closer together, that they can make the other park so big that they’re really pretty much next door and then have this huge… I’m thinking an indoor enclosed area. So what I’m trying to say is maybe the ride actually won’t take that long, that the train won’t take that long to travel even though it may seem it does and maybe that’ll be quicker because in the concept art it appears that there’s this huge great distance but actually…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: …there doesn’t have to be considering it’s all going to be indoors.
Andrew: I would guess… there’s been some great leaked photos of the track. The track is elevated. It’s like ten feet off the ground.
Eric: Oh, no kidding.
Andrew: Yeah, because they have all this stuff behind Universal already. So they kind of got a… they don’t want to knock out the roads because they’re roads they use.
Eric: Mhm.
Andrew: So… I’ll show you guys the picture. But it’s one track and then in at least one area there’s kind of like an interchange thing where two trains can go around each other.
Eric: Ooh.
Andrew: So I think they’re going to have to leave the stations… this is a huge… I can’t even imagine all the planning that went into this. They’re going to have to…
Micah: Yeah, so this goes to what we were saying before about there being multiple trains.
Andrew: Yeah, I would guess there’s probably going to be two. Unless they have more of these interchanges. Then maybe they could switch… they could have even more trains.
Eric: Do you have the photo?
Andrew: Yeah, I’m going to send it to you right now. This photo I’m sending you guys, you can see the… I’m going to put it in the Google Doc. You can see the interchange point where it turns from one track to two. And that would also hint at how long the train is going to be. And it looks like it could fit maybe the Hogwarts Express and then two or three passenger cars.
Eric: [laughs] Oh, wow!
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Bless whoever is there taking these photos.
Andrew: I know.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Probably risking getting fired. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, wow.
Andrew: And if you hit those arrows, you can see there’s a couple of other good photos of the track. But it’s pretty high up the ground, maybe even higher than ten feet, maybe fifteen.
Eric: Yeah, easily. Yeah.
Andrew: But then you have to wonder, what’s this train going to look like? Because when people step on-board it has to look like the actual Hogwarts Express.
Eric: Yeah, well…
Andrew: And yet you need these virtual screens inside. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah. I mean, from the exterior, who knows? Couldn’t it look like anything? But then when you board it, it has to… yeah, that’s a good question. I don’t know.
Micah: Wow. And just the amount of planning that has to go into something like this is pretty crazy.
Andrew: It’s pretty awesome. And they’re definitely one-upping Disney with this. I mean, this whole dragon thing… I mean, this is a big “eff you” to Disney.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: They’ve always had dragons, but not one that is front-and-center, standing out… Disney is apparently working on this Avatar land” and they’re going to have a dragon flying around, but it’s… Universal just whips this out and it’s like, whoa.
Eric: Yeah. No, this will fuel the fire – no pun intended – for years to come, I think, between Disney and Universal. But I’m… the thing is, I guess talking about Universal Florida, I do feel a little bit bad that there aren’t other real attractions inside this park. And let me just be clear, there doesn’t seem to be anything new going on that isn’t Harry Potter. Of course you did bring up the Transformers ride.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: We’ll see how that is. But I may have mentioned it, it may have been on the last MuggleCast, I’m pretty mixed up, but just the gift shops in the regular Universal World I recalled being so overloaded with Harry Potter merchandise and there wasn’t even a Harry Potter Muggle park yet.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Harry Potter has just become the thing at Universal now, and this is only going to make it more so. That, I kind of want to see them also doing other interesting things that don’t have to do with Harry Potter only because you don’t want to isolate anybody. And plus when people are waiting in line for hours and hours and hours, they need other things to do in the park.
Micah: Yeah, but…
Eric: And if they’ve done it before, then it’s not going to be as interesting.
Micah: At the same time though, they’re capitalizing off of what is hot. And Potter, even though the movies are over and the books have been done for a while, I still feel like it’s something that has been so meaningful to people’s childhoods that are currently in their teens or their twenties or even their thirties, that this has such mass appeal where a lot of the other stuff has kind of fallen flat a little bit. And that’s nothing against something along the lines of Transformers, but Transformers is going to be… did you say it’s actually going to be a land, or it’s just going to be one specific ride?
Andrew: It’s just a ride.
Eric: It’s just a ride, yeah.
Micah: Yeah, it’s just a ride. But you have to look at the fact that Potter has been made into an entire world…
Eric: Mhm.
Micah: …within this park.
Eric: Well, two. Yeah.
Micah: Two worlds now. So can they find something else that’s going to be that mass appealing, or even half that mass appealing that they can build something more than just a ride out of it? There hasn’t been something up until this point.
Eric: Well, the… what was I going to say? The Islands of Adventure, there is a Marvel Land in Islands of Adventure, and they are making like a hundred new Marvel movies.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: So maybe we’ll see an expansion there next. [laughs] I don’t know.
Andrew: See, I don’t think so because now Disney owns that.
Eric: [laughs] Oh, that’s funny!
Andrew: [laughs] And apparently Disney wants to put Marvel in some parks, so…
Micah: Oops.
Eric: Yeah, well, maybe they’ll have to tear down the Islands of Adventure Marvel, which actually, coincidentally, is like right next to the Wizarding World. So maybe we’ll have an expansion again…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Wow.
Eric: …of Harry Potter.
Micah: Well…
Andrew: Let’s hope they don’t have to tear those down. That would be really sad. [laughs]
Eric: I’m sure they have like a twenty-year contract…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: …to continue to keep Marvel in the Universal park. But any revenue that they get will probably end up going to Disney…
Andrew: Yeah, definitely.
Eric: …off the merchandise. So I can see them definitely trying to play the Marvel section down.
Micah: One other thing that I wanted to talk about, related to Diagon Alley, was how authentic were they going to make some of the shops that are going to be in this particular area. I know Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes is going to be a place that people can go to, which guarantee fans of the Phelps twins will be there…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: …many, many, many, many, many times over the course of the next few years. I’m sure we have plenty of fans who are interested in that. But one of the knocks I think against Hogsmeade in the Islands of Adventure is that there are a lot of storefronts but not necessarily a lot of stores to explore, and I think there’s an opportunity here for them. And I’m not talking about merchandise, I’m talking about opening up some of the places that we’ve heard about in the series for people to just go into and experience. And go into a Flourish and Blotts, and just have an experience that Harry or Ron would have going in there. I just think they could build this area up to be a lot more than what its predecessor was.
Eric: God, how cool would it be if they had a bookshop open up in the theme park? How cool would that be?
Andrew: That would be great.
Eric: Right? That would be very cool.
Andrew: So what are you saying, Micah?
Eric: Flourish and Blotts…
Andrew: Sorry. They should promote the shops more as the experience is more, is that what you’re saying?
Micah: No, I just noticed that a lot of the storefronts in Hogsmeade were just that, they were storefronts. You couldn’t actually go into them.
Andrew: Ahhh.
Eric: That’s to keep people moving along though, because there’s no room. So there’s that.
Andrew: And they probably use them for storage and whatnot.
Micah: Ehhh. But now they have plenty more storage space, so…
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: No, I just think… I’m sure there’s going to be certain areas in Diagon Alley that are going to have that authentic store from the book. They’re going to be there. Did they mention any restaurants? Did they name any restaurants for this area? Because I would think that they would want to put one in here.
Andrew: Yeah, I think the Leaky Cauldron seems to be the one that’s going to happen. That’s what the… they said there’s going to be a restaurant, they didn’t say which one, but the rumors have said the Leaky Cauldron.
Eric: That actually makes an astonishing amount of sense. [laughs]
Andrew: Oh, yeah. Definitely.
Eric: I was thinking, “What is there besides the ice cream parlor, right?” [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, and you know, I really like the Three Broomsticks restaurant. The food is good, there’s a lot of space in there, it’s a good place to cool off, and it’s usually not too hard to find a table. And they also have that nice back patio, if you want to sit outside.
Eric: Yes.
Andrew: So I’m a big fan of the Three Broomsticks. Hopefully they’ll do as equally good a job with this.
Eric: Andrew, you were cutting out there a little bit with your signal.
Andrew: Oh. Maybe it was just the Internet for a second.
Eric: It’s kind of wiry.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: I don’t know.
MuggleCast 265 Transcript (continued)
News: Universal Orlando Announces The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley (continued)
Andrew: I will check it. Did you hear what I said, though?
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Okay.
Eric: It’s just wiry. I don’t know how to explain your voice right now.
Andrew: Oh.
Micah: You sounded fine to me. I don’t know.
Eric: Oh, really?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, I hope it’s… okay.
Andrew: Maybe it’s you! [laughs evilly]
Micah: [in a deep voice] Maybe it’s you, man!
Eric: No, I mean I hope the recording doesn’t get it. That’s all.
Andrew: I’ll check it.
Eric: But we’re fine.
Andrew: No, it should be fine.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, okay.
Micah: Yeah, I mean if you go on and you look, there’s just probably fifty different places that are in Diagon Alley that are mentioned throughout the course of the series. So to have some of them in there that are recognizable, I’m sure they will. And they may have even taken some and flipped them over into Hogsmeade because they thought that that was going to be the only area of Potter to be in Universal originally. So…
Eric: Well, we know that Ollivander’s is in Hogsmeade. It’s their Hogsmeade location. But yeah, I really wonder if they would do that, put it in its proper place in Diagon Alley now that they have the opportunity.
Micah: Now, I also read, Andrew, that there’s kind of an open area, you talked about this a little bit, where people can sit down and relax.
Andrew: Yeah, there’s a little… off to the right side. It’s hard to tell what it is, but maybe you guys have a different interpretation. It looks like a covered area that just sort of looks like a place where you can… I don’t know. I thought it was the Hogwarts Express station at first, but that’s on the left side.
Eric: Oh yeah, you’re right.
Andrew: So I feel like this is comparable to that Owl Post area in the center of Hogsmeade, where you can just sit and chill out…
Eric: Under the big pavilion.
Andrew: Yeah, and you’re out of the sun.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: I know a lot of people, from what I’ve seen, just like to sit there because it’s in the shade and you still get to watch all the people. So…
Eric: If I had to guess, I’d say the area on the right looks more like Covent Garden in London, which is kind of like…
Andrew: Oh, yeah!
Eric: …an open shopping area. But in the concept art it appears beyond the barrier, so it has to be somewhere in the wizarding world and so I’m probably incorrect.
Andrew: Well yeah, that’s true too. But it’s still behind other… that was the other awkward part to me about it, it’s behind that row of buildings.
Eric: Mhm.
Andrew: It seems weirdly placed. I mean, maybe it’s… who knows? [laughs] Who knows what?
Micah: Maybe an entryway of sorts?
Andrew: Oh, or it could be the queue for Gringotts because Gringotts is right there. It could be the outdoor portion of the queue.
Eric: Yeah. I’m trying to remember though, back to the concept art of the initial park, which was awesome too. It kind of showed the layout of the park, but actually not really, you know? So things… other parts were exaggerated. So I’d love to see an actual… well, obviously, more aerial photos, if we have any friends with helicopters. But just to kind of get a better picture of the scale or proportions of this whole area.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But the concept art is just loaded, and I have to shootout that article on Hypable that takes a closer look at all the areas of the concept art because I think it’s really interesting and it points out all the little intricacies that exist in this one image.
Andrew: Yeah. At first I was disappointed that there was only one piece of concept art because I remembered when they announced the last one in 2007, there [were] multiple pieces of concept art and you got to see inside some of the stores. So…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: But then once seeing the hi-res version, I was like, “Whoa, okay, there’s a lot of detail here that you could really appreciate.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: And Universal has said that they’re going to be making more announcements over the next year about… because we really don’t know much yet. We don’t know how exactly the Hogwarts Express is going to work, we don’t know what shops there are going to be, what restaurants it’s got. We don’t even know what happens in Gringotts! So they have a good four or five major announcements to squeeze out of this still, I think.
Eric: Yeah, and with only a year to go, presumably, if they open in the summer of 2014.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: So this news is going to eclipse any Pottermore news that happens in the next year.
Andrew: [laughs] I know, it’s kind of… I’ve been looking forward to this announcement for a long time because the rumors started in December 2011, I think. I mean, the rumors have been around so long, and finally a year and a half later we’re getting some official information about it.
Eric: Mhm.
Andrew: I’m reading an interview here with Mark Woodbury. He’s the president of Universal Creative, and he spoke about talking… or working with JK Rowling. And he said:
“Those meetings are fascinating and wonderful opportunities to have, to be able to talk and collaborate directly with JK Rowling and the Warner Bros. filmmakers. This was a big idea. And everybody immediately saw that when we initially laid it out. And the fact that we wanted to continue to tell the ‘Harry Potter’ story, the places that we had chosen to develop – Diagon Alley and London and Gringotts and Hogwarts Express – were really big ideas and bold moves, I think that the ambition behind that was very much appreciated.”
Referring to JK Rowling’s appreciation of… I mean, they really… not only are they doubling the size of the park, but they’re raising the bar, when you think about exactly what he said. You’re adding Diagon Alley, London, Gringotts, and Hogwarts Express. I mean, that’s a huge undertaking.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Yeah. And I look at the fact that he’s worked with JK Rowling and he’s worked with probably David Heyman, Stuart Craig… who am I missing here? [laughs] Probably directors and others.
Andrew: Yeah, David Yates maybe was involved a little bit.
Micah: Yeah, and probably those who worked on maybe the initial concept art for Diagon Alley and Gringotts, especially in Deathly Hallows: Part 2. So I would think that… having been to the park in Orlando and having experienced that, we have something really cool to look forward to because I think they really did it right. I rarely saw people complain about the park in Orlando, so I think that this is something that we all look forward to, and look forward to going and having a good time there.
Eric: Did we read yet the quote from JK Rowling?
Andrew: I think at the very beginning we did, right?
Micah: Did she tweet it?
Eric: [laughs] No, she did not tweet it, Micah.
Micah: Oh.
Eric: You have yet to miss anything by not following her on Twitter.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah, just really quickly in case we didn’t. She says:
“I’m so pleased that ‘The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’ has proved so popular to date, and I’m sure that the attention to detail in creating the new Diagon Alley area will make this an even better experience.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: So there you go.
Micah: Basically, she just paraphrased what I just said.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah. Well, it’s proven to be so popular, and now it’s going to be an even better area. So that seems exciting.
Andrew: A little more from Mark Woodbury. This kind of… I don’t know, maybe this does give a clue as to how you enter Diagon Alley. He said:
“Starting with the London area, which is totally authentic and recreates and captures the essence of the iconographic parts of the fiction in that space, we went big. And then we find our way into Diagon Alley in much the same way you do in the books and movies. And that’s a totally different environment that gives guests an even deeper immersion into the world of ‘Harry Potter’. And those buildings are big as well. Four and five stories tall in some places.”
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: So that’s interesting, yeah.
Micah: So maybe they will go for a tap of the brick.
Andrew: Yeah, that little clue – that part where you said – you go into Diagon Alley much the same way you do in the books and movies.
Eric: Floo Powder! [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Micah: Right.
Eric: There’ll be chimneys set up everywhere.
Micah: Will there be a Knockturn Alley?
Eric: Knockturn Alley is the security area [laughs] where you get taken if you are too rowdy in the park.
Andrew: [laughs] Well, ladies and gentlemen, any other thoughts today?
Eric: Go Universal!
Andrew: Yeah.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: It really is a fantastic little thing that they all put together here.
Eric: Make a Harry Potter hotel.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: They keep adding hotels to the Universal property, might as well make one Harry Potter-themed. Come on.
Andrew: I feel like that’s a little too… I don’t think a Harry Potter hotel could work.
Eric: Harry at Hogwarts is a boarding school. I mean, it hosts about a thousand people. Maybe they should just extend Hogwarts and have people sleep there. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, I guess, come to think of it, that could work. Because they have like Nickelodeon hotels. If they have Nickelodeon Spongebob rooms…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: …I’m sure Harry Potter hotels could be pretty popular.
Eric: Well, I don’t even know if Nickelodeon Studios is still functional there because… obviously I stopped watching the shows there a long time ago, but I just always thought that area was a lot bigger than I think it was.
Andrew: Hmm, yeah.
Eric: But, you know, it’s very cool.
Andrew: Absolutely. What do we… I mean, Micah, were there any specific shops or anything you were hoping to see in the thing-a-ma-bobber?
Micah: Thing-a-ma-bobber?
Andrew: Yeah, thing-a-ma-bobber.
Micah: No, I just hope that it replicates – and I’m sure it will, knowing who is working on all this – what we know to be Diagon Alley. And I think that Flourish and Blotts would be cool. We talked about it before, [how] it plays such a large role throughout the course of the series. So many interesting events take place there. And I’m looking forward to Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. I think that’s going to be a fun place for people to go to. And other than that, I hope, as Eric mentioned earlier, they have a Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor to eat at.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Because you’re going to need some ice cream with that dragon breathing fire all the time.
Eric: Yeah, definitely. And it may just be because I’m a Hufflepuff I get hung up on the food, but that ice cream parlor, that’s looking really good.
Andrew: I would say there’s a good chance of that. After you burn your face off because of the dragon’s fire, you’ll want to cool off with a refreshing ice cream.
Eric: And maybe we should have Florean Fortescue going around, helping people with their homework. That’d be cool.
Andrew: There you go.
News: Scholastic to Debut All 15th Anniversary Harry Potter Paperback Covers This Summer
Andrew: A little other news story really quick and then we have a couple of voicemails, the Harry Potter… the new book covers [are] apparently debuting during the summer. That’s all that has to be said about that.
Eric: You got a shout-out. [laughs]
Andrew: Well, yeah, because on the Scholastic… I found this out because the Scholastic Twitter tweeted something about the new covers. And then I went undercover, I posed as a super fan…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …and I said, “But when do we get to see the rest of the covers???” And then they said with a smiley face, “We’ll be rolling them out over the summer. :)”
Eric: So when you pose as a super fan, is that when you add excessive question marks?
Andrew: Exactly. I was so anxious I had to know immediately. [laughs]
Micah: What’s your cover name?
Andrew: Andrew Sims.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Micah: Oh.
Andrew: Yeah, they don’t… I don’t think the Scholastic social media person knows me, so…
Micah: They didn’t know you were the Andrew Sims.
Andrew: Little did they know I was going to write a story about it.
Eric: Though, rolling them out over the summer, that’s good. We’ve already seen the first one, but the news kind of died by then.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s… right. It’s kind of more fun to spread the news out because then it’ll be a big deal. Every time a new cover comes out it’ll be exciting.
Eric: As long as they’re good.
Andrew: Right, and we’ll have time to analyze each cover and think, “Oh, does this little thing mean this is going to happen in the book?” And then we’ll remember, we’ve already read them.
Micah: Yeah, that’s the issue that they face with this, is that to me – and I know we talked about this probably a couple of episodes ago – it’s more about people who want to collect, in my opinion, these new covers than anything else. Because you’re not getting new material, you’re not getting any new art within the book. It’s just the cover and that’s it. And so you have to ask yourself, do you want to actually spend the money to repurchase the whole series again just because the cover is different?
Andrew: Right, right. Oh, my goodness. Well guys, I’m just so excited. This is a great year for Harry Potter news. Look at all this news we’re going to have to talk about over the next few months.
Micah: I wondered what the big story of 2013 really was going to be, and I think we have our answer…
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: …at least for right now, with the theme park.
Andrew: Yeah, but it’s kind of like a non-story because it’s not even technically happening this year. It’s just we’re learning about it. And we knew about it for a year and a half. [laughs]
Eric: We’ll find out.
Andrew: Yeah, who knows? Maybe there will be… maybe JK Rowling will announce… you know, we still have a long way to go this year.
Voicemail: Old MuggleCast Segments
Andrew: Anyway, we got a couple of voicemails here. Here’s the first one.
[Audio]: Hi, this is Caitlin and Victor calling from Ohio. We just had a request for one of your last episodes before you end the show. Can you please bring back one segment, at least, from Ben of “Give Me a Butterbeer” and/or a “What’s Buggin’ Micah?” segment? And maybe the segments could be about having Jo come on the show.
[Andrew laughs]
[Audio]: Like “What’s bugging’ Micah? Jo, come on the show,” or Ben could do a “Give Me a Butterbeer” about Jo not having been on the show these past eight years. Something like that, just an idea.
[Andrew laughs]
[Audio]: No matter what topic you guys do it on, I would just love to hear one more segment of those before you guys end. Love the show. Bye.
Andrew: All right.
Micah: Well, really every episode is “What’s Buggin’ Micah?”
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: No, I’m just kidding.
Eric: That’s the secret. We’ve turned it into the whole show now.
Micah: I think we can plan… in these last couple of episodes that we have, we can plan to bring back some of these old segments. And we’ll make sure we do our damnedest to make them good and to make them relevant.
Andrew: Yeah. This is a simple show because we wanted to talk about the news since it’s fresh in everybody’s minds. Other shows, as we wrap up MuggleCast’s run, we’ll of course have segments and stuff like that.
Micah: I’d love to hear Ben do “Give Me a Butterbeer.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: It’s been such a long time.
Andrew: We’d have to get him riled up about something.
Micah: That doesn’t take too much. We’ll find something that’ll piss him off.
Voicemail: Jim Dale’s Narration of the Harry Potter Audiobooks
Andrew: All right, here’s the next voicemail.
[Audio]: Hey guys, it’s Manny from Northampton, PA, “Albus Dumbledore.” I thought I’d leave a little more serious voicemail today. As a visually-impaired Potter fan, I’ve always read the books through the audiobooks. And I was curious to get you guys’ opinion, if you’ve ever listened to the books, what you think of Jim Dale’s performances in the books. And Micah, I feel sorry for you. Being a Mets fan and all, I know it’s tough when your season ends before it begins most years.
Andrew: Ouch!
[Audio]: But I’m sure if you had John Sterling as your announcer, you wouldn’t be too disappointed in his excited, enthusiastic calls. One thing you’ve got to admit, he is enthusiastic. Then again, he wouldn’t be shouting “The Mets win!” too often, would he?
[Andrew laughs]
[Audio]: I’m sorry, I had to get that in. But you guys really do a great job. Keep up the great work, and I look forward to hearing your comments. [as Dumbledore] Have a good afternoon and evening to you. Buh-bye!
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: So Micah, now you wouldn’t punch an old man, would you?
Micah: [laughs] No, not at all.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: But I’m assuming that he is a Phillies fan and that’s exactly why he said those very nice things about the New York Mets. And he’s right, though. Look, let’s face it. The Mets’ season is over before it begins, and that’s usually the case year after year. Or he could be a Yankees fan, but I’m assuming since he’s from Pennsylvania that he is a Phillies fan.
Eric: But we all like the underdog. I’ve learned that living in Chicago.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: On the North Side.
Micah: I wasn’t aware that our discussion about John Sterling got left in the episode last time. But yeah, no, I still think he’s a horrible announcer. It has nothing to do with the fact that he announces the Yankees. I think he’s annoying.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Look, there’s announcers you just don’t like, right? Let’s face it, there’s people on the news you don’t like, there’s people on the radio you don’t like…
Andrew: Right.
Micah: …there’s people who podcast you don’t like.
Eric: Announcers you don’t like. Okay, but what about Jim Dale? That’s his voicemail question.
Micah: I like Jim Dale. No, no, well, wait! He also brought up other stuff at the end there. But, no, I like Jim Dale. We’ve had Jim Dale on the show and he provided such great insight, I thought, when he came on with us to what he does and the amount of preparation that went into narrating the Harry Potter series, at least the American editions. And I haven’t really listened through any of the audiobooks, I don’t know if you guys have, but I’m sure that he did a great job just based off the conversation that we had with him.
Eric: Andrew, you ever listened to the audiobooks?
Andrew: Yeah. And exactly what Micah was saying: He put so much care into creating those characters. We’ve heard before about how many characters… he does a different voice for every character. It is a very, very fun experience, and I was glad to see that they added some audio clips into Pottermore because it really brings it to life. And I learned that if you are in the US, you hear Jim Dale. If you are in the UK, you hear Stephen Fry.
Eric: Aww, cool!
Andrew: I don’t how it works in the rest of the world, but…
Micah: Oh, that’s cool.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: One thing they did right.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: No, no. And if people want to listen to Jim on our show, he was actually on Episode 137. So give it a listen.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Okay! I’ll give it a listen.
Micah: He did an intro, as well. Do you remember way back when? He did an intro.
Eric: Yeah! [as Jim Dale’s Professor McGonagall] “This is Professor Dumbledore.” Or, “This is McGonagall.”
Micah: It was actually McGonagall.
Eric: It was McGonagall. [as Jim Dale’s Professor McGonagall] “This is Professor McGonagall. Dobby! Dobby, come here!” [back to normal voice] Yes. Jim Dale, for me…
Micah: It scares me that you remember that.
Eric: I always have friends who… [laughs] right, I don’t always have friends. I had friends who would always tell me about Jim Dale, and this is way before I listened. I read the books. I never listened to the audio for the longest time, but people would… I’d hear about people turning him on before they went to bed and falling asleep with Jim Dale doing Harry Potter in their ears, and this is a common occurrence. Road trips, they’d listen to the Harry Potter audiobooks. And so just very recently I was… I had to read Chapter 17 of Prisoner of Azkaban for the Alohomora! podcast, and I… there was no way I was going to get it done. I didn’t have enough time to read because I was working that day when we were recording right after I got home from work, so I turned on the audiobook and I put it in and I played it in the car when I was out working, and I really just had this great appreciation – almost re-found appreciation – for what he does. And I think he’s excellent, and I think he was the right fit for her type of books.
Micah: Yeah, you just have to think about how many different characters he had to be responsible for, and then to remember what they sounded like over the course of seven books – and in some cases a lot of those characters were young, so they were aging over the course of these seven books – so how to keep that all in mind and to have those voices and to do it as well as he did it, that’s just amazing. He must hear voices in his head.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: Yeah. Or the real question is, when he talks to himself what voice does he use?
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Dobby.
[Eric laughs]
Voicemail: Thank You, MuggleCast
Andrew: All right, we have a couple of emails about the show now that we’ll listen to.
[Audio]: Hey, MuggleCasters. This is Alastor from Glasgow in Scotland. I just wanted to thank you guys for keeping the show going for all these years. I’m sad that it’s finishing, but I think you’re making the right decision. I just wanted to tell you something poignant about the date that you guys finish. I started reading the Harry Potter books when I was nine, and in August when you guys stop, I leave university and start my first adult job, so it feels like an end of an era for MuggleCast and an end of an era for me. So thank you for you guys, for being there when I was reading the Harry Potter books and getting [unintelligible] with the films. And best of luck for the future. Thanks, MuggleCast!
Andrew: All right, there’s a nice voice… oh!
[Audio]: Hey, MuggleCasters. This is Alastor from Glasgow in Scotland.
Andrew: Oh, it’s playing again.
Eric: Oh, I didn’t mean for it to.
Andrew: [laughs] It’s okay.
Eric: No, the… but it’s great to hear from our Scottish listeners as well, our international friends.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that nice message. And here’s one more:
[Audio]: Hey, this is Jacob from Alabama. I just wanted to say I really do appreciate you guys. I was listening to Episode 263, and I heard that you were going to do your last lesson. Now, you guys have been the first podcast I ever listened to, and I was going to listen to you guys I thought for years and years to come. Looks like it’s not going to happen…
Andrew: [laughs] Aww!
[Audio]: …but I’m okay with it. I just hope that you guys have a good few last episodes, and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate you guys. Thanks, bye.
Andrew: Aww, that’s really nice! Now I feel bad!
Micah: That’s awesome.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: He was hoping he’d listen to us for years and years to come, and now he’s not. I mean, you still will. Just you can in different ways.
Eric: Yeah!
Andrew: But I get what he’s saying, so…
Eric: Yeah, go back. Listen to our Jim Dale episode for once.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: What episode was that again, Micah?
Micah: 137.
Eric: 137. There we go. And the numbers 137 do not appear in sequence in the MuggleCast hotline number – I just looked at it – but if you do want to leave us a voicemail, please remember you can do that. The hotline is open 24 hours a day. That number to leave us a voicemail, the MuggleCast hotline, is 323-984-8547.
Andrew: Okay.
Eric: We’re here for you. [as Miss Cleo] Call me now. I’m Miss Cleo.
Show Close
Andrew: And also a plug for Hype. It’s the new podcast on Hypable.com. Well, it’s six episodes old now. I don’t know. By MuggleCast days, age, then Hype looks very new.
Eric: [in a high-pitched voice] It’s a baby!
Andrew: [laughs] We’re recording Episode 7 this Friday. New episode out. We’ll be talking about the Divergent sequel. Already booked for a sequel. Can you believe it? And Mortal Instruments also getting a sequel, second movie. These are big, big, big, highly anticipated book-to-film adaptations, and we’ll be talking about a lot more on Friday. So you can look forward to the new episode, or just listen to Episode 6 right now.
Micah: Awesome.
Andrew: And don’t forget the MuggleCast website: MuggleCast.com. Like Eric said, we’ve got the voicemail number. We’ve got to update the voicemail number on the Contact page. People are probably still trying to call that.
Eric: Oh.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: I can edit that right now.
Andrew: Okay. And then follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/MuggleCast, our Facebook: Facebook.com/MuggleCast, and the fan Tumblr: MuggleCast.Tumblr.com.
Eric: Shout out to Allie and… Ashley?
Micah: You can also…
Andrew: They need to update it because the second-most recent post is you with the tattoo, which is nice but…
Eric: [laughs] That’s old.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. No, that’s true.
Andrew: Go ahead, Micah.
Micah: I was going to add that you can rate and review us on iTunes, but this is the wrong show for that. I think we’ve had plenty of “rate and reviews” over the course of the last seven-plus years.
Andrew: But they’re great to read through. It’s great to hear people’s feedback about the show because we hear from people that they love the show and whatnot, but it’s nice to hear them not directly speaking to us about the show.
Micah: Exactly.
Andrew: They’re talking to potential listeners.
Micah: Yeah, I think that’s the key. I mean, we joke around about it on Game of Owns, which is our Game of Thrones podcast that we do in conjunction with Hypable. Eric, myself, Selina, who is also on MuggleCast, and then Zack, another one of our friends. But we jokingly force them to do this five-star review every time that they do a “rate and review” of the show. It’s become a running joke, but I really like the point that you just made, and one of the things that we stress is the fact that by them talking about it, it allows other people to see what the product is and the fact that there might be other people out there who are potentially interested, and it’s just a way for them to help communicate that to other potential listeners.
Eric: It’s Allie and Angel over at the MuggleCast Tumblr. Gosh, I felt so terrible.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: [laughs] Because at one part of the page it says, “Run by Allie.” It doesn’t have Angel. But then both their contact info is listed.
[Show music begins]
Eric: You guys have got to update your site and I promise to update ours, okay? There you go.
Andrew: Well, while we’re thanking people, another thank you to the MuggleCast transcribers.
Eric: [laughs] Yes, and I will send you all of the voicemails in advance this time.
Andrew: We appreciate your hard work as well.
Eric: Thank you.
Andrew: So that’s it. We’ll see everybody next time for Episode 266, where there will be more fun news to discuss in the world of Harry Potter. Goodbye!
Eric: Maybe a “Butterbeer.” I’ll talk to you later. Bye!
[Show music continues]