Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #277, On That Newt
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: This is MuggleCast, your Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts podcast covering everything about J.K. Rowling’s magical world. This week’s episode is brought to you by Audible.com. Audible is the leading provider of audiobooks with more than 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, nonfiction, and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 277. Micah, Eric, and Matt are all here for today’s April episode. Hello, gentlemen.
Eric Scull: Matt Britton!
Matt Britton: Hey! Oh my God, that opening. Oh, I haven’t heard that in so long.
Eric: It never gets old, though, right?
Matt: Well, it did, yeah, but it doesn’t anymore.
[Eric and Matt laugh]
Andrew: It’s a classic.
Matt: Oh my God, this is Episode 277? Wow.
Andrew: Yes, yes. There’s been a lot of MuggleCast. There’s been hours upon hours of MuggleCast, years and years. So as everybody knows now, we’re doing our monthly episodes, which is very exciting for everybody, and it worked out good this week because we have some news about Fantastic Beasts, some big news, and we’re going to talk about that first today. But I also want to mention today we’re going to do some This Month in Harry Potter History, Matt came up with a fun segment I think everybody’s going to like, we got some good news about the illustrated editions, and Micah is going to rave about Game of Thrones. So it’s a very exciting episode.
Micah Tannenbaum: [laughs] Well, we do that every episode, right?
Andrew: That’s right. That’s right.
Micah: But I just want to… for the listeners, Matt, what have you been up to? How have you been? It’s good to know you’re still alive.
Matt: Yeah. I mean, so far, yeah, nothing’s happened. [laughs] I’ve been good. I have actually… I still live in Los Angeles. I am currently doing a podcast with Andrew, and formerly you, Micah.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: And I appreciate the tribute that you made to me on my last episode. I didn’t get a chance to say that to you, I don’t think, because you were absent.
Matt: Oh yeah, I wasn’t even there. I’m glad you liked it.
Micah: I do appreciate it, yeah.
Matt: Did you like my painting of you being drawn like one of Jack’s French girls from Titanic?
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Micah: I didn’t see that yet.
Eric: I need to see this.
Andrew: You didn’t?
Matt: Yes, you have. You had to have seen it. It’s so good.
Andrew: You’re going to leave the Internet when you see that.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You’re going to quit the Internet.
Micah: No, I’m serious. I haven’t seen it, so send over a link at some point.
Andrew: Okay. [laughs] You’re going to hate it.
Matt: Shut up, shut up, shut up. I’ll text him right now. So yeah, other than that, been working on my career as an actor and comedian. It’s not cheap, but it is fun.
Andrew: Okay. Well, and like Matt mentioned, he’s on Millennial, which is MillennialShow.com if you want to check that out.
News
Andrew: So let’s talk about Eddie Redmayne. We found out on Friday that he is Warner Bros.’ top pick for Newt Scamander in their Harry Potter spinoff series. It was interesting that… it was exciting that we’re… this is the announcement I think everybody’s been really waiting for. And while this isn’t an announcement, he is Warner Bros.’ top pick. And the problem right now, the holdup is that J.K. Rowling, we actually learned on Friday, is still working on the script, and he hasn’t read it yet. But I guess he’s had a couple of meetings maybe with David Yates, and they’re down for working together. Apparently, according to one report, it’s “Eddie’s to lose,” so in other words, he’ll get it if he wants it. It’s just a matter of J.K. Rowling finishing the script, and then him reading it and being like, “Okay, I’m good for this.” So what were your guys’ first reaction to this prestigious actor?
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: He is British. And he’s 33, by the way.
Matt: Oh.
Eric: Obviously, people may have known him before. He was Marius in Les Mis, the recent Les Mis with Hugh Jackman, but I didn’t know him much before that. I saw him in a movie called My Week with Marilyn, where he played the lover of Marilyn Monroe, kind of a hopeful… I think he works in the wardrobe department; he’s an intern who happens to spot Marilyn on a film set and develops a relationship with her. But it was just this not known indie film that he was in, and I thought he had some pretty good acting chops, and that was before I heard him sing in Les Mis and stuff. So I like the guy; I actually just genuinely like the guy. I haven’t seen Jupiter Ascending. Apparently, if you see Jupiter Ascending, it’s hit or miss on whether or not you still want to see this guy do anything.
Andrew: [laughs] I’m going to guess miss the movie on a whole.
Eric: Les Miss, maybe. But no, I think that… I like him as much or more than any of the other contenders that I’ve heard are either up for the role or fans want them for the role. I think he’s just fine.
Matt: I think he’s amazing. I think it’s the perfect choice for right now. He just won an Oscar; he was in The Theory of Everything, which he was amazing in. He’s doing this new movie that I’m really excited for too; it’s called The Danish Girl, where he plays a transgendered man whose relationship with his wife gets just changed throughout life. It’s looking amazing. And it just seems like he’s relatively young – he’s in his early 30s – and there’s really no other actor around that age that has that kind of caliber or trend that he has at this point, so I think it’s a really smart move.
Andrew: Part of the problem with saying if he’s good or not is that we don’t know who Newt is, really.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: But the impression I think we’ve gotten is that the character is going to be late 20s/early 30s in terms of his age, so in terms of that, he fits the bill.
Matt: But this is going to be the first time that we cast a main character in the Harry Potter universe that has proven himself as a well-established and talented actor.
Eric: Well, how do you mean?
Andrew: In a lead role.
Eric: Because, I mean, the Harry Potter films are full of high caliber British actors.
Matt: Yes, but they are also secondary characters. They’re not the main cast.
Eric: Oh, right. So you’re talking about… yeah, the weight of this series will fall onto his shoulders instead of the shoulders of three children.
Matt: Exactly, and it could also mean that this movie will be a lot more… it is going to be a trilogy, right?
Andrew: Yes, at least. Could be more.
Matt: Okay, well, this new series is going to possibly be a lot more intimate, because we won’t have to rely on a larger caliber of cast, because if they’re adding very talented, already established actors, there can be less of a reliance on a bigger cast with a higher caliber of actors.
Andrew: It turns out that Eddie is actually a big Harry Potter fan. I did a little googling after this was announced, and last year…
Matt: Shocking.
Andrew: Well, yeah, okay, so everybody’s a Harry Potter fan.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: But what was interesting is that earlier this year on The Graham Norton Show, he was talking and Graham asked him about trying for a role in The Hobbit, and then he actually hinted that he also really wanted to be in Harry Potter. So let me just play a clip from this real quick.
Eric: Yeah, sure.
[Audio clip plays]
Eddie Redmayne: For a few years there were the Harry Potter films. There was a whole family of ginger people, and I thought somehow I might be part of that at some point. Never happened.
[Audio clip ends]
Andrew: So just a little bit there, but apparently he really wanted to play a Weasley boy.
Eric: [laughs] Oh, man. He’d be a cool Bill Weasley, right?
Andrew: Yeah, I could see him as Bill Weasley. Totally.
Eric: Although I do like Domhnall Gleeson, too, quite a bit. He’s coming up in Star Wars. So the question I have for you guys, then, following Matt’s analysis – just kind of the next level, then – is Eddie Redmayne too good for a Harry Potter role? I mean, he just came off an Oscar-winning performance as Stephen Hawking, one of the brightest minds, if not the brightest mind of our time. Now with The Danish Girl, playing a transgender man, obviously very, very, very excellent, high quality, good film; that’s going to get a lot of attention, a lot of respect for him. I mean, isn’t it kind of a backwards step to go and be part of this kitschy, very highly-sought-after blockbuster fantasy film? I mean that in the least offensive way… okay, I’m going to love this movie; I know it. But isn’t it a back step? Couldn’t he equally just as likely say, “Actually, I’m going on for more of that serious work”?
Andrew: Well, some actors shy away from these big franchise films, especially after they’ve done a franchise, and I don’t think Eddie has really done that yet, so I think that works in his favor. It is risky. I mean, he could be responsible for ruining the Harry Potter world fandom.
Eric: Oh, God, no.
Andrew: [laughs] If it’s really bad.
Eric: I wouldn’t blame him. Eddie, if you take this role, I won’t blame you.
Andrew: But I think it also plays into my “Too big to fail” theory. They want a big name actor for this. I would have liked to see an unknown take this role, like Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint when they first joined on, because it would be more interesting, sort of like how some of us wish David Yates was not directing. We wanted to see a fresh person come into it.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: But yeah, I think this is just another step in WB’s plan to make sure it’s a big hit.
Matt: I think you’re right, Andrew, what you said at the very end. It’s also kind of pushing into new territory with the Harry Potter world with this story, because it’s never been… it hasn’t been written; it’s going to be an original screenplay by the actual author, J.K. Rowling. But they kind of want to have at least just a concrete… at least some kind of promise that it’s going to be well-acted, and the actor who is very good at method acting is going to find a way to even make this character come alive and more three-dimensional for the audience.
Eric: I mean, the Harry Potter films, all eight of them, did not win a single Oscar, so here Eddie Redmayne has more accolades than the entire first eight Harry Potter films.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah, just in terms… there’s BAFTAs in there somewhere, but I mean, Oscar-wise, as far as the Academy is concerned, this one man has achieved more already.
Matt: That’s very true, Eric. The movie series has not been driven by acting, as opposed to the story itself and the special effects.
Eric: But maybe that’ll change.
Andrew: I can see the trailer now: “Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne.”
Eric: [laughs] Right.
Andrew: “Rich as hell author J.K. Rowling.”
Eric: Who knows? They may be going that direction with this film and make it his insight into the world. There’s so many good reasons to see this movie when it finally comes out; it’s a period piece, and it follows a guy who we don’t know, and it’s set in America. So there’s three reasons right there. But I mean, maybe they’ll be doing that. Maybe that’s the route they want to go, to get an accredited actor.
Micah: I think Andrew brought up the best point in that we don’t know really who Newt is, so it’s hard to look at any actor that’s going to play him and judge whether or not they’re going to do a good job of it or not, because we don’t have any context around really him or any of the other characters that are going to be cast in this film. So when we see names of actors and actresses that are going to be portraying these roles, it’s hard to really judge, because we don’t know, is this a dark character? Is it a humorous character? We don’t have that level of context.
Eric: We just have his house, right? He’s a Hufflepuff.
Andrew: [laughs] That’s all we know.
Eric: So probably not dark.
Andrew: Is Eddie Redmayne a Hufflepuff? Take the quiz, Eddie. We need to know.
Eric: Oh, yeah, we’ve got to get him to take the quiz. I want to talk… the Variety article also mentions at least Nicolas Hoult as being one of the former contenders, that kind of thing. Or I don’t think they used “former contender,” because that implies he’s not still in the running, but still. Nicolas Hoult I actually know a little bit more of because he’s starred in the X-Men movies; he plays Beast in the new first class.
Matt: He’s going to be in Mad Max too.
Eric: And he’s now the… yeah, he’s going to be the star of the new Mad Max. So he’s definitely more in the blockbuster thing. I actually first saw him in Warm Bodies.
Andrew: Yes, I wanted to bring that up. I liked that a lot.
Eric: And wasn’t he Jack in Jack the Giant Slayer?
Matt: Yeah, that’s him.
Eric: So this seems like more his cup of tea for roles. But I guess I’d like to see – and again, I haven’t seen Jupiter Ascending – but I’d like to see Eddie do a fantasy. I think that would be great.
Matt: Yeah, and he’s ginger, so… the Harry Potter fans, they eat that up.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Let’s pause for a second. We’re going to talk about a couple of other characters we’re finding out for the first time, we’re hearing about for the first time thanks to this report about Eddie Redmayne. But first, we just want to remind everybody that today’s episode is brought to you by Audible.com, the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 150,000 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 great service. And today I want to recommend – shout-out to Micah again, and Eric, well, and really, every human on the earth – any Game of Thrones book.
Eric: [laughs] Oh, sorry, am I allowed to laugh in the ad?
Andrew: No, you can. It’s fine.
Eric: All right, this is a great time here. We’re doing the Audible ad.
Andrew: [laughs] But Micah, what Game of Thrones book would you like to recommend everybody check out on Audible for free?
Micah: All of them. No, I think that the one that would follow in sequence with what has gone on in the TV show is A Feast for Crows. Not entirely sure that that is the direction the show is going in, but given that a lot of the plot has already been developed on the show from A Storm of Swords, the next in line is A Feast for Crows, followed by A Dance with Dragons. So if you haven’t read either of those books, head on over to Audible.com and download them for free.
Andrew: Yeah, AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast is where you can get the free audiobook courtesy of MuggleCast, and now is a great time to try it. Spring has been in the air; we’re outside more.
Matt: Allergies are all over the place… it’s great.
Andrew: Yeah, don’t carry a book; just listen in your earbuds after MuggleCast, of course. AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. So jumping back to Eddie Redmayne now… so I was excited about this little tidbit: We also found out that they are going to cast Newt’s two sisters, their parents, and somebody called Jacob.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: That’s all we know about Jacob. He’s just somebody called Jacob. Now, at least… I read Oh No They Didn’t’s report on this. They’re already hoping that Jacob is the lover of Newt, which I would love.
Eric: [laughs] Played by Taylor Lautner?
Andrew: Yes, yeah. I mean, there’s not much to say because, again, we don’t know this story, what this story is going to be at all, but we know that Newt’s family is going to play into this somehow.
Eric: It’s interesting because I just imagine he’s away from home. How could his immediate family have a role to play?
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Well, that’s what I’m kind of excited for, too, about this Jacob character, especially because it’s obvious that Jacob is going to be his companion or his best friend along the road.
Micah: Or his nemesis.
Andrew: Lord Jacob.
Matt: Yeah, that’s not going to happen.
Eric: What if Jacob has a rival book that he’s working on?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: “I will report on all the animals before you.”
Matt: “I’m going to report on Quidditch Through the Ages.”
Andrew: Extremely Cool Beasts and Where to Discover Them.
Matt: But on a selfish standpoint, I would hope that Jacob would be his friend that he meets in America so we could see an American character in this universe, and since it’s set in the US, I mean, I think the possibility is pretty good.
Andrew: And that’ll be the first time we’ll have a American character in the Harry Potter stories, right?
Matt: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, absolutely.
Andrew: Yeah, Jacob sounds like an American name. That’s not a British name, right?
Matt: No, it’s a very American name.
Andrew: Ten Jacobs are going to write in. [in an English accent] “Hello, Andrew.”
Matt: [laughs] As Americans, we say, “Oh yeah, it’s an American name.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: I mean, I guess having a family… maybe I’m overthinking it, but maybe this story could have more of a family element to it than the Harry Potter books did? In terms of the nuclear family.
Eric: Oh, because he’s not an orphan? [laughs]
Andrew: Right, well, there’s that. Hey, his parents are alive! Woo!
Eric: Yeah, they’re coming over to visit! Oh, what if Newt has to entertain his folks for a week in New York in the ’20s when all hell break loose?
Andrew: “Mom, Dad, I’ve got to work.”
Eric: Right? It’s just like you’re… but I thought – and just going what we know of the character’s backstory through other… whether it’s Pottermore or other means – there was a period of time where he traveled, basically… I don’t know if you can call it a safari if it’s not to Africa; that’s my ignorance speaking. But he’s on, like, a safari, on a concentrated trip across the world to write this book, and my early impression of the plot was that he was traveling. When you travel like that, you’re kind of doing it alone, like Darwin. Charles Darwin, to write The Origin of Species, may have had a few assistants, but I mean, he took himself out of the main world to go and observe animals for years before writing that book, and that’s what I compare this book to. I know it’s quite high, but you know what I’m saying.
Matt: Yeah, and I loved the first part in Deathly Hallows when they were on the road, and I think it really added something to even the movies, too, that it was just them on their own.
Eric: I think you’re right.
Matt: So I think J.K. Rowling writes really good dialogue when it comes to that kind of story driven when it’s not necessarily based on exciting plot points to… it’s mostly about the characters, which is why I think they need a good actor in the films to kind of hold that.
Eric: Yeah, that’s certainly true.
Andrew: Now remember, J.K. Rowling’s little synopsis that she released a few months ago says, “Newt Scamander only meant to stay in New York for a few hours.” So if I were to speculate wildly in terms of the family, I would say the family is missing Newt because he’s staying in New York longer than he intended?
[Eric laughs]
Matt: Well, do we even know for sure that it’s going to be in the US for a majority of the story? I mean, the way that…
Andrew: They’ve said set in 1920s New York. So I think the majority of it… is it going to start there? Like, is it going to open up in New York? I kind of doubt that.
Matt: I honestly think it’s going to just start in New York City, or at least have the beginning of this whole trilogy, what have you, in the city. But if he’s going to be finding fantastic beasts, he’s got to go to other places besides the metropolitan city of New York.
Andrew: Yeah, I think we once speculated…
Micah: Come on, now. You’ve been to New York. We have plenty of…
Matt: Yeah, but non-human animals, I’m talking about.
Micah: Oh, okay.
Andrew: [laughs] Thanks for clarifying.
Micah: No, but I think we’ve talked about this a little bit on past episodes, the possibility of where these fantastic beasts could live in New York City.
Eric: Right.
Micah: Central Park is definitely up there. Some of the different train stations and other areas that are in and around New York, and certainly…
Eric: If you’ve ever seen a New York rat in the subway, that’s a fantastic beast.
Micah: That’s a fantastic beast, yeah.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: At the Apple Store. That’s another place I think he’s going to find some beasts.
Micah: Which was definitely around in the 1920s.
Andrew: Yep, yep.
Eric: I was going to say you’d find Voltorb there because it’s electronics, but that’s more like Pokémon, so never mind. [laughs]
Andrew: But I think we also speculated that – or maybe it was me – that each film could be set in a different place. So this one’s New York, and the next film he’s going somewhere else to go find beasts, and then in the third he’s somewhere else.
Eric: Like Italy. Like James Bond, where they always do an exotic location.
Andrew: Yeah, I think that’d be cool.
Matt: I think it’s going to be great seeing witches in flapper girl clothes with wands. It’s going to be great for the wardrobe department in Warner Bros.
Eric: I’d prefer if this weren’t a family movie, to be honest. [laughs]
Micah: Now, one question I did want to ask, though – and I guess maybe more so for Matt, or even you, Andrew – is knowing that J.K. Rowling has yet to finish the script… she has a little bit of George R.R. Martin syndrome, it seems like, in terms of being able to write quick enough…
[Eric laughs]
Micah: This movie is slated to be released next year, right?
Andrew: Yeah, isn’t that crazy?
Micah: So how fast are they going to have to film this thing?
Matt: Usually it could take… the typical shoot for a movie is 30 days for principal photography, but I honestly think that they will… [laughs] They might just split this movie into two movies and make it a trilogy.
Eric: Oh, God.
Andrew: No, no.
Matt: But we don’t know how much J.K. Rowling has written. She could be pretty much done; she’s just editing it. We don’t know. And there’s no way that she hasn’t told the studio what the story is about from beginning to end. I think it’s mainly just fine details that she’s trying to work out.
Micah: Well, then she needs to stop taking trips to New York and lighting up the Empire State Building and…
Eric: Oh, you’re just mad that she didn’t invite you over for a beer.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: These just sound like excuses that Game of Thrones fans are saying to their author.
Andrew: But we already know that they’re planning to film in late summer, so I don’t think they’re behind at any point.
Micah: Okay. No, I was just asking the question.
Andrew: Okay.
Matt: Yeah, I think once it starts, it starts all at the same time.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re going to be hearing stuff.
Matt: Once they go, they’re going to go hard.
Andrew: Like I’ve said, casting is going to be really interesting, because hopefully we’re going to get some descriptions about these characters when these reports about who they’re… like when we find out who plays Jacob, we’re going to get maybe a sentence about who the character is.
Matt: And they’re going to keep casting even around the time when they even start filming. They did that with Lord of the Rings; they actually cast Viggo Mortenson while they were filming because they made a change because the actor that they did cast was too young, so they…
Eric: Was that Stuart Townsend?
Matt: Yeah, it was Stuart Townsend.
Andrew: So let’s move on until next month… well, actually later this episode. We asked our followers on Twitter and Facebook what they think of Eddie Redmayne, and we’ll discuss that later on. So a couple other news stories to discuss this week: First of all, we know that the Harry Potter illustrated editions are coming. The first one is coming out later this year in October, and for the first time, we’re getting a look inside the illustrated editions. And we’ve previously speculated how these are going to look. We already knew there’s going to be over 100 illustrations in the first book, which is really great. And now we’re seeing the inside, and they are just beautiful.
Eric: Gosh.
Matt: Oh, they’re amazing. I haven’t seen these yet.
Andrew: So the pages do look much bigger than a standard Harry Potter book. And there are two columns on each page, and there’s just a lot of spacing around the text, and a lot of the pages share, like, 50% illustration, 50% text, and they just look beautiful.
Eric: Gosh, this one of Hagrid, right? And Dudley? Creating the pig’s tail. And one of his slippers has fallen off; one of his crocodile or alligator slippers has fallen off. This is beautiful.
Andrew: Yeah, I cannot wait to reread the books. This is going to be so fun. And I was thinking, I’m not going to skim through this book at the store, just look at all the illustrations. I want to buy it and only look at the illustrations as I’m reading.
Matt: This is such a great book.
Eric: This is the most added value that they have been able to do for any of the Harry Potter books since they were first published.
Andrew: I agree. I agree.
Matt: When is this book being released?
Andrew: October. And there’s going to be one released every year, I guess every October. And have we spoken about the cover yet on this show? I don’t think we have.
Eric: Maybe not.
Andrew: So the cover came out as well for the Sorcerer’s Stone illustrated edition, and I love it because it is a complete re-imagination. It features the Hogwarts Express, but the Hogwarts Express is not how you’ve seen it before in the movies or even the books. It’s been inspired by a dragon. It has kind of wings; it’s got a dragon head on the top of the smoke stack. It’s got these – I don’t know what you would call them – on the sides.
Micah: Palm trees?
Andrew: Palm trees? What?
Micah: At the front of the…
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Micah: Those probably aren’t palm trees. I’m making that up.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: It’s funny because I was looking at the cover of the Philosopher’s and Sorcerer’s, and the Sorcerer’s actually covered up that dragon because the font is bigger. You know what I’m saying?
Andrew: Yeah, I don’t get that.
Eric: I love it because I hate that… I don’t know what the hell that dragon thing is. [laughs]
Andrew: Oh, you don’t like it?
Eric: I don’t like it.
Matt: Yeah, I’m not a big fan of this redesign.
Andrew: See, I like it because it’s surprising. If we were just going to be looking through the illustrated editions and it’s more of what we’ve seen a million times, that makes it less thrilling. But surprises like this, I think, are awesome.
Eric: I will actually agree with you, and I’m sure that the thing that has a dog head is a proper… that they adorn trains with, like a mast of a ship, where they’ll just get creative with it.
Andrew: Well, that boar is also at the… that’s a boar, right? I don’t know what kind of creature that is.
Micah: A winged boar, yeah.
Andrew: Okay, so that thing is also in the front of Hogwarts Castle at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Eric: Yeah, the winged boar.
Andrew: So I thought that was a cool reference.
Matt: Yeah, the boar looks cool. It looks like Batman’s train. It looks like the Bat-Train.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, it does.
Eric: Oh, yeah. Just those spoilers in the front are bad, are very bad. But that’s so funny. I was relieved that it didn’t say on the front of it “5972,” right? Because that is a movie-ism that just the train that they happened to get that they turned into the Hogwarts Express was the number 5972.
Andrew: Oh, really? Hmm.
Eric: West Coast Railways, 5972, steam-powered locomotive Olton Hall, I think it was called. But anyway, that’s 5972, so now when you see Lego Hogwarts Express, and in even, I think, the LEGO games, even in the movies… the movies, but also anywhere else, it’s always those numbers: 5972. And it’s nowhere in the book, so I get really angry about it, but I’m glad that didn’t make the transfer back to book, so… that’s just me.
Andrew: Like Micah mentioned, or Eric mentioned, J.K. Rowling was in New York this past week. She was launching the United States arm of her Lumos charity campaign, and while she was there, she did an interview with Matt Lauer of The Today Show. Unfortunately, it was a big fluff piece. There’s another part of the interview coming out tomorrow, but I’m not expecting any fireworks. [laughs] But of course, Matt Lauer had to ask the question that everybody’s asked her a billion times, which is that “Are you going to write another Harry Potter book?” And of course, J.K. Rowling gave the same answer she always does. She says, “You know, I’ve always said I’m not going to say I definitely won’t, because I don’t see why I should say that. It’s my world, and I might choose to step back into it. And in a way, I am stepping back into it with Fantastic Beasts.” And then she said, “I think Harry Potter 8, as in what happened next to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” And then she said, “But even as I answer that, I know that someone’s cutting this on YouTube to make it as though I gave you hope,” which is hilarious because The Today Show cut it; they wrote a headline that made it sound like she was giving hope.
Eric: Oh, that’s super funny.
Andrew: Their headline was “Will J.K. Rowling return to Harry Potter? ‘I’m not going to say I definitely won’t.'” [laughs]
Eric: Read The Today Show‘s headline. Oh, God. That’s despicable.
Micah: That’s the problem with that, though. As fans of the series, do we want that to even happen?
Andrew: Right, right.
Micah: I feel like we have closure. We know that they’re safe, they’re happy, they have families; there’s no reason to continue his story. And I don’t understand why people still ask the question.
Andrew: Well, and then the media jumps on this, and it’s so annoying. Entertainment Weekly said this on Facebook: “More Harry Potter is not out of the question.” [laughs] I’m like, “Yes, it is!”
Eric: We already knew this. Ugh.
Matt: You know, you run the risk of actually destroying the franchise when you keep prolonging this, especially if you do sequels. Even if you do prequels. I mean, this Fantastic Beasts thing seems to be an original story, which is okay; I’ll give her that. But when you add extra things to a beginning and an end, when there is an end, you have to finish there. You can’t continue.
Andrew: You have to stop there.
Matt: Yeah, it’s just like when you do with… I’m just starting to…
Micah: Star Wars.
Matt: Yeah, I was going to say Lost, but Star Wars too. Star Wars is a perfect example.
Andrew: But J.K. Rowling, she’s not the one floating these rumors; it’s everybody else. And like I point out in this article on Hypable, everybody should start asking the question, “When are we getting a Marauders series?” Don’t ask Harry Potter 8. Ask Marauders; ask Weasley spinoff. I don’t know. Anything but an eighth Harry Potter book. Or how about the encyclopedia?
Eric: She should just start answering, “Harry’s dead. Don’t you know that?”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Matt: Or she should just rewrite the series and have Harry and Hermione end up together, and Ginny dies, and Severus becomes gay, and it’s just…
Andrew: [laughs] Severus and Dumbledore get together.
Eric: Just to bait the press?
Andrew: But I think it’s safe to say… we can say without doubt that she is never writing Harry Potter 8, right?
Eric: Not in that configuration.
Matt: I hope so.
Eric: It won’t be Harry Potter 8.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: No, this is our series. I don’t want new people getting in on it. [laughs] I just want ours the way it is.
Eric: [laughs] This is our thing.
Matt: This is our thing!
Andrew: So that’s it for news.
Who Said It: Harry Potter Character or Real Person?
Andrew: Matt has a fun segment for us to play this week. Why don’t you set it up?
Matt: Oh my God, we’re already there. Okay, yeah. So I just thought about doing this little fun segment where you have to guess which quote that I read is by Albus Dumbledore, or a famous quote from a famous person?
Eric: Oh.
Matt: Yeah, so I got a few of them. Let me pull them up. I tried to make them a little ambiguous, but this is from a wizarding world…
Eric: This is kind of like a special edition of Quote Quiz, quiz, quiz, quiz… isn’t it?
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Matt: What? Oh, I miss Quote Quiz. Eric!
[Eric laughs]
Matt: Aww. Okay, all right, so here we go. Should I make a tally, do you think? Because I’ve got a few of them.
Andrew: I’ll keep track.
Matt: Okay. No, because you’re going to lie.
Andrew: No! What?
Matt: Because you’re playing this game. No, I don’t trust…
Andrew: I’m not going to lie.
Matt: All right. Okay, I got something. You can just worry about the quote. And no cheating! Okay, first one, here we go.
Andrew: Micah. Wait, who’s guessing?
Matt: Everybody.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Matt: Do you want me to just do one person at a time?
Andrew: I think one person at a time.
Matt: Okay.
Andrew: Well, just because otherwise… well, go ahead. We can do it your way; it doesn’t matter.
Matt: I mean, I don’t have that many, so… okay, so the first one is: “It is my belief that the truth is generally preferable to lies.”
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: I think that was not Dumbledore. Who that was, I don’t know.
Matt: Okay. Eric?
Eric: Yeah, I’m going to… that’s a good one. I like that you pulled that because I’m like, “Ehh,” but knowing that Dumbledore lied to Harry his whole freaking life, I’m going to choose to guess – and it’s only a guess – that he’s not that big of a hypocrite, and that he probably wouldn’t say something like that. So I’m going to say no, but I like it. I think it’s close. It makes me think.
Micah: I’ll agree with the other two.
Matt: Okay, neither of you were right. It was Albus Dumbledore.
Andrew: What? What?!
Eric: It was Albus…? [laughs]
Matt: That was from Sorcerer’s Stone.
Eric: Oh, gosh.
Matt: So he hasn’t lied to Harry yet.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: That escapes. That goes right through all the rules. Okay.
Matt: All right, next one: “We become what we think about.”
Eric: Not.
Matt: Not?
Andrew and Micah: Not.
Matt: Yeah, there you go. All right, that was Earl Nightingale. I have no idea who he is, and I probably should, and a lot of the listeners may hate me now.
Eric: Look him up.
Matt: Okay. “I’m sorry. If you were right, I’d agree with you.”
[pause]
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: No.
Andrew: Yes. I’m going to say yes.
Micah: I’ll say no.
Matt: All right, Eric and Micah were right. It was Robin Williams.
Eric: Oh!
Matt: Let me choose one… all right, “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”
Andrew: Dumbledore.
[beep sound]
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Oh, we breached…
Micah: Guess we know the right answer to that one.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: All right, yeah, you guys are…
Micah: That spoiled it.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: Although that quote also sounds like something from a Robin Williams movie. Hook, right? This is like, “Death, the next great adventure.”
Matt: Yeah, “Death is but the next great adventure.” That’s from Peter Pan.
Eric: “To die would be a great adventure.” Or “To live.” Sorry, I misquoted.
Matt: “We are all born mad. Some remain so.”
Andrew: Robin Williams.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Let’s play “Is this a Robin Williams quote or not?” No, no. I would say no.
Micah: I’m going to say Dumbledore.
Andrew: My answer is no, because Robin Williams.
Matt: All right. It was not Albus. It was Samuel Beckett who said that.
Eric: Ooh, okay.
Andrew: One more.
Matt: Okay. “The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with caution.”
Andrew: Hmm.
Eric: That sounds like Dumbledore to me.
Andrew: I think so too.
Micah: I don’t think so.
Matt: All right, it was Albus.
Andrew: Yes!
Matt: All right, looks like Eric won.
Eric: [laughs] Gosh!
Andrew: Congrats, Eric.
Matt: Andrew, do you still want me to finish? Do you want to keep going?
Andrew: No, that’s okay. I’ll accept defeat.
Eric: No, I was just… that’s a really good… that’s really well done, Matt. That’s confusing.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Yeah, I thought this would be a lot harder to do, but he’s a pretty ambiguous guy.
Eric: Was that last quote from Half-Blood Prince?
Matt: Um… which one did I read again? No, it wasn’t. I think it was… oh, I think it was, actually. It was Half-Blood Prince.
Eric: “The truth is a terrible thing, which must be treated with…” yeah, I may have just read that the other day because we’re going through Book 6 on Alohomora! podcast.
Matt: Most of these were Half-Blood Prince. Well, yeah, duh, because that’s where we see Dumbledore the most.
Eric: Oh, yeah. That’s true too, I guess.
Andrew: No, I think it’s Sorcerer’s Stone. I just Googled it.
Eric: Huh. Okay.
Andrew: “‘The truth.’ Dumbledore sighed. ‘It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.'” That’s what you read, right?
Eric: Oh, he’s probably talking about, what, Erised?
Andrew: Yeah, probably, probably.
Eric: That’s interesting.
This Month in Harry Potter History
Andrew: Okay, so it’s time now for This Month in Harry Potter History.
Eric: Woohoo!
Andrew: These are kind of challenging to find, because I’ve yet to find a Harry Potter timeline that has everything. So these segments are by no means complete, but I try to find the biggest things. This, I think, is the mother of all… in history thing. April 1997: Arthur A. Levine from the Scholastic Corporation won the rights for $105,000, the rights to publish Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, more than Levine had ever paid any author, let alone a first-time novelist.
Eric: That was a heck of a gamble, and how it paid off.
Micah: “Best $105,000 I’ve ever spent.”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: It’s funny, now sometimes you hear headlines like, “Oh, this publisher just spent a ton of money on an unknown author; it’s going to be the next Harry Potter,” and then it never is. A recent example I can think of is Queen of the Tearling.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: Everybody was really excited about that. Apparently, Emma Watson was going to star in it. I mean, and Warner Bros. is doing this with David Heyman producing. We’ve talked about it on the show before.
Eric: Yeah, I’ve heard the name before.
Andrew: Yeah, so Erika Johansen, that was the author, and apparently the publisher paid a lot of money, but it just didn’t take off.
Eric: Well, they can’t all be hits.
Andrew: No.
Eric: I mean, even measuring the success of… I mean, they tried to do the His Dark Materials movie, right? The Golden Compass came out, but they never followed those up. The Narnia films, which I still love… I was surprised to find that they had actually done Dawn Treader after Caspian, because I thought Caspian doesn’t do well, but I loved Dawn Treader, but they’ve kind of stopped doing those movies. And even measuring the success of Twilight or Hunger Games or Divergent, which is still coming out, to weigh it against Harry Potter once it’s finished, I wonder how it’ll compare.
Matt: Like, the longevity of the series?
Eric: Yeah, longevity, profit… probably adjusted because the money is always…
Matt: Well, I mean, let’s compare it to Twilight too. Twilight was huge, it was massive, and now…
Eric: But it’s kind of in the shadow of Harry, right? But then one has lasted longer than the other.
Matt: Yeah, I don’t even think it’s really the shadow effect; I think it’s also since Harry Potter and… I would compare Harry Potter to The Lord of the Rings, as something that…
Andrew: It stands the test of time.
Matt: It will stand the test of time because I know Harry Potter will definitely be remade, whether it’s in 80 to 100 years. But there is no doubt in my mind that Harry Potter will be at least rebooted of some sort – especially Hollywood, if they got their hands on it – and it’s going to stay within society and our culture from our generation, at the very least.
Andrew: Whereas Twilight won’t.
Matt: Yeah, those were… I mean, this is kind of a new thing with young adult books being made into films, into trilogies and to quadrilogies from just one book or something. Yeah, it’s just a trend that started really with the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films.
Andrew: So also in the timeline here: April 2012, Pottermore! Our favorite website open to the public, following a beta period and much hype.
Eric: Yeah!
Andrew: But it’s been quiet on the Pottermore front lately. We’re waiting for Deathly Hallows now.
Eric: So Pottermore is close to ending, and it’s been three years.
Andrew: Yeah, maybe they’re going to drop it all at once. I guess they did that with Half-Blood Prince, I think. And then also in April 2012, J.K. Rowling announced her first post-Potter book, The Casual Vacancy.
Eric: Hey-o.
Matt: I still have it, and I still have not opened it.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Andrew: I have a confession: I tried to sell it a couple weeks ago.
Eric: What?!
Andrew: At one of those stores that buys books.
Micah: The signed copy?
Andrew: No.
Eric: To shame, to shame. First of all, that you tried to sell it, but second of all, that you were unsuccessful in selling it. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, they wouldn’t even accept it. They were like, “No, we don’t want this.” It’s one of those book exchange places where you can take books in and they’ll buy…
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: And they didn’t take it! I was actually really surprised. [laughs]
Eric: “Your book is no good here.”
Matt: They probably have already a few of them.
Andrew: Maybe, but sometimes they’ll… I don’t know.
Micah: Well, winter’s over; they don’t need to burn anything for fire anymore.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Well, actually, tied into that – I know you have it a little bit further down here – but the fact that it’s going to be on HBO on April 29. And for me, I’ve read the book. I don’t have a very strong recollection of everything that’s happened in it, and I would find it very difficult to do a reread because it has a very slow moving pace to it. It picks up at different parts, but I just don’t know if I can put myself through reading that book again. It’s very dark, and it’s just a difficult read. It’s certainly not in any way the style that Harry Potter was written in. It’s much, much different from the Cormoran Strike novels. And so this kind of book by her, I know a lot of people – you guys have touched on it – have found it very, very difficult to read.
Andrew: Yeah, I was actually just talking about this with a friend last night. We both read about the first 100 pages, and then we gave up. It was just like, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this. Too bored. Sorry.”
Eric: Yeah, I made it about that far in too. But that same month, actually… so before that announcement in April 2012, that was when Micah and I devised… our big April Fool’s joke that year was that we’re going to say that the new novel has a different name, because we didn’t know the name of the book; it was announced then. And so we made that April Fool’s article on MuggleNet called… what was it? “Lairs of Lady Po,” which I think is an anagram for April Fool’s. Yeah, April Fool’s Day; that’s what it was. And the funny thing is I got my roommate’s typewriter out and spattered blood on the pages and typed the title, and it was supposed to be an image of Jo’s own manuscript, and we released it and it got picked up, and I still found an article by EW just while we were talking there of the article because, I don’t know, it gained some widespread attention. But later that month, she announced the real title.
Andrew: That’s funny. I didn’t know that.
Eric: I’m not claiming that we forced her hand, but it was funny that…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: No, not in the same way that Micah does all the time on Twitter.
Andrew: I will watch The Casual Vacancy on HBO. Finally I will know what happens in this miniseries.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Matt: To be honest, that’s also the reason why I never went to actually read it once they announced they were filming a series, because the people who have read it…
Micah: Why read when you could watch it on TV?
Andrew: Right, it’s much easier.
Micah: I’m joking.
Matt: I hear there’s a lot of parts in the book that are kind of… they kind of stop the story a little bit.
Eric: Look, I don’t know about that, but it’s grueling. The death of the main character… what’s his name? Not Stanley Yelnats; that’s Holes.
Andrew: Fats? I’m just guessing. That’s the one character I remember. [laughs]
Eric: No, the patriarch character.
Micah: Well, don’t spoil it.
Andrew: Oh, Barry Fairbrother.
Eric: Barry Fairweather. Fairbrother. Yeah, whatever.
Matt: The death of this character starts the story.
Eric: Starts the story, yeah. So that hopefully is not a spoiler. But I know that in the TV series, they’re keeping him around a little longer.
Andrew: Oh, so they start a little earlier to set up Barry?
Eric: They either start… yeah, they may start earlier and just show some of the backstories, things that are written in the book are probably going to be first story, beginning of the story, and then they’ll have his death somewhere in the middle of the series. But I mean, the book, if you read even… the first chapter is him waking up with a headache, right? And then eventually dying, and there’s nothing he can do, because he succumbs to this really painful aneurysm in his head, and he bleeds out and dies in front of his family.
Matt: Oh, that’s nice.
Eric: And it’s the most… yeah, it’s so crushing.
Micah: Cheery novel.
Eric: So, so crushing. And that was the point, I think. To some extent, Jo was trying for gritty…
Micah: Well, what she’s really trying for is taking a deep look at society and social issues, and I think that she really brings them to light. And that’s what, at times, can make it very challenging to read, because these are very, very difficult situations that a lot of these characters are going through. And actually, I think, isn’t Michael Gambon in the cast? I don’t know of any other Potter actors, but I know I saw him on a preview when I was watching HBO the other day. So there may be some familiar faces for Potter fans that have been cast in the series.
Andrew: Sold.
Eric: I will watch the show.
Andrew: They are also going to be… so it already aired in England on BBC.
Eric: Oh!
Matt: How are the reviews for it?
Andrew: Fine. I think they’re fine. But they’re also going to be adapting the Cormoran Strike novels, which I’m very excited about, because there’s a wealth of material there.
Eric: That’ll be cool.
Andrew: And the books are actually really good.
Matt: What is that?
Andrew: What? The Cormoran Strike… Robert Galbraith. Her whodunnit books.
Eric: Yeah, The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, and whatever the third one is.
Matt: Oh, okay.
Andrew: So J.K. Rowling wrote some other books under “Robert Galbraith,” and they are called The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm.
Eric: They’re really good, Matt. They’re actually really, really good.
Andrew: Did you not know that? You knew that.
Matt: I knew Cuckoo’s Calling, and yeah, I think I did know about The Silkworm too. I haven’t read… I mean, actually, I do have The Cuckoo’s Calling, and I did read a little bit of it, and I just lost interest.
Andrew: Oh. Well, I’ve lost interest in you being on the show. Bye.
Eric: Oh, he’s kicked out. There’s a flap in the floor that he falls through.
Andrew: No, everybody has to like the Robert Galbraith books. They’re great.
Matt: Why?
Andrew: They’re really good, that’s why.
[Eric laughs]
Pen and Paper Are My Priority
Andrew: Okay, now it’s time for another new segment, Pen and Paper Are My Priority. This is where we catch up on what J.K. Rowling has been doing on Twitter recently. She’s been, I guess, busy; there hasn’t been as many tweets. But she did a little rumor control recently. Somebody tweeted her with a image; I’m sure it’s from… apparently it’s from DidYouKnowBlog.com, whatever the hell that is. So it said, “In 2009, J.K. Rowling announced that Harry Potter lost his virginity in the second half of Goblet of Fire, but had to edit it out because her editor said it would cause parents to complain and call Bloomsbury during office hours.” What does that even mean?
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: “We have to edit this out, because people are going to call the Bloomsbury office”? That’s so stupid. So somebody tweeted Jo saying, “Is this true?” She replied, “#NeverHappened.” And then somebody replied to her, “How would YOU know?”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Sarcastically. And then J.K. Rowling said, “Fair question. He tells me everything.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So Harry tells J.K. Rowling when he gets laid, apparently. [laughs]
Eric: That’s awesome.
Matt: Yeah. I mean, he would have been 14.
Andrew: Yeah, I think that… well, yeah, 14-15. So something else happened with a Hypable writer. So Hypable writer Michal went to her Lumos event in New York City, and she kind of took a selfie with Jo in the background, and then she tweeted it at Jo, I think. You know, actually, come to think of it, she didn’t even tweet it at Jo, so I wonder how Jo even noticed. Anyway, J.K. Rowling for some reason replied, “Were you as cold as I was?” which, by the way, we were kind of freaking out, because it was like, “Oh my God, J.K. Rowling replied.” And then Michal said, “Your light gave me warmth. Thank you for all you do.” And then J.K. Rowling replied with double x, as in kiss kiss. Now, how cool is it to get a tweet like that from J.K. Rowling? I would print out this entire conversation on a T-shirt and wear it every day of my life.
Eric: Yep. Absolutely, absolutely. 100%.
Micah: It’s kind of like meeting the President.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Like Micah did last week.
Matt: Oh, was that…? Oh, I see what you did there.
Andrew: Meaning J.K. Rowling is better, I think.
Matt: For those of you that don’t know, Micah posted a picture, didn’t you?
Micah: Yeah, I did.
Eric: [laughs] Who took the picture, Micah? Who took the picture? Because you’re taking a picture in the photo, but somebody else is taking a picture of you that has Obama in it.
Micah: So the person taking that photo is one of our photographers.
Eric: Oh, okay.
Andrew: Oh, I thought it was going to be Emerson or something.
Eric: No, Obama is playing basketball at the White House, right? And Micah is there covering the event?
Micah: Yes.
Matt: No, he’s playing with Obama.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Yeah, you don’t see; I actually jump out and reject the shot.
Eric: Let the President win, Micah. How many times do we have to tell you this?
Andrew: So finally, a little update on the third Robert Galbraith book. Somebody tweeted her asking about it, and she said, “Robert Galbraith says to tell you he’s very close to finishing his third. He still doesn’t know his Twitter password.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I guess that explains why he hasn’t tweeted in a while?
Eric: Oh, I get it.
Andrew: So that was in mid-March, so I’m really excited for the third Robert Galbraith book. We’ve got to be hearing about it soon. I’m getting anxious.
Matt: God, I’d rather her just finish the movie script that she’s doing too.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I’m sure she’s working on both at the same time.
Listener Feedback
Andrew: So on Twitter, like we said earlier in the episode, we asked everybody, “What do you think of Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander?” Presumably, it’s going to happen. On Twitter, Twitter.com/MuggleCast, we got lots of responses. CDON said, “I was hoping they would cast a relatively unknown actor so we wouldn’t have preconceived ideas and who could grow into the role.” Anne said something we sort of said: “Never imagined what Newt would look like. If only the actor portrays him like the loony kind of character I picture, I’m fine.” Do you guys see him as loony?
Eric: I don’t know.
Matt: I see him as a very curious person if he’s going to be doing this book. I feel like he might show a little bit of a weird obsession over something that a lot of the people are confused about, or like, “Why are you so interested in doing this?”
Eric: He’s a character who is willing to get his hands dirty. Very Puffy. Very Hufflepuff-y.
Micah: I feel like he’s got a little bit of Xenophilius Lovegood to him.
Matt: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. I was going to say a cross between Xenophilius and Sherlock Holmes, where he’s a social outcast.
Eric: This whole “loony” thing is funny because doesn’t his grandson marry Luna?
Andrew: Xeno’s does, right?
Eric: No, Newt’s grandson marries…
Andrew: Oh, right.
Micah: Rolf. Isn’t it Rolf?
Andrew: Isn’t it a great-grandson or something like that?
Eric: Rolf Scamander. Yeah, could be a great-grand… I’m not sure. Rolf Scamander ends up marrying Luna. But yeah, it’s funny that they’re like, “This guy is a loony character!” because that connection has already taken root. But yeah, he is somebody who seeks… he’s an academic; he seeks knowledge. Not necessarily in a Ravenclaw way, but he seeks the truth of these beasts. He’s doing a mass study of animals, which would separate him from the common folk, who would either ignore animals entirely or not pay as much attention to their habitat. It takes a lot of to study… just thinking about… I’m watching that documentary called Life, which is narrated by Richard Attenborough, and just knowing that the people, the camera crews who go to the ends of the earth to film creatures that have never been filmed before, and learn about them and catch… it’s just crazy, the isolation, the anti-socialism that you have to have innate to you to be able to deal with the isolation. It sets up a different type of character. So yeah, I do think that he’s a little loony, in the sense that he is a little different from your average Joe, who would be content interacting with other wizards.
Andrew: Rohan Gotobed, who plays young Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, is actually a MuggleCast listener, and he replied, “Wouldn’t complain, but feels a little safe – would love to see a casting out of left field like Rory Kinnear.” Or maybe Rohan Gotobed. I don’t know.
[Eric laughs]
Matt: I mean, I do really understand what a lot of these listeners are coming from when you want a relatively unknown person, because we always want to have a fresh face for a fresh character that we don’t know, and it’s a lot easier to cast a more well-established actor when you have a good basis on what the character is, because we as Harry Potter fans, especially, are notoriously guilty of constantly comparing the movies and the books, and also actors from the characters that they’re going to portray. We’re notorious for it. But I completely understand why the studio decided to be safe and have a well-established actor who could find multiple levels of a character that we haven’t seen before.
Micah: Yeah. One other question – and we may not be able to answer this now – that just popped into my mind is: Is this going to be more of an adult type of film? The Potter series could be classified as being a little bit more geared towards kids and young adults, let’s say, but could – knowing that this role is somebody who’s in their late 20s/early 30s – the series have a little bit more adult themes to it?
Andrew: That’s a good point, because a young adult starring in this… I think you’re right. But if Warner Bros. wants this to be a big hit, they want the Harry Potter audience, the same Harry Potter audience.
Matt: Well, the same Harry Potter audience is in their mid to late 20s.
Andrew: Has grown up, right, but they’re also trying to… but they’re going to want to get the younger kids, too, because I mean, look at the illustrated editions; they’re still trying to find new audiences for Harry Potter. But yes, that’s a good point, too, Matt. I mean, these people… the fans have grown up, so maybe the story should as well.
Matt: And the story of Harry Potter is the story of a young boy who has this journey… even the books themselves, if you compare the Deathly Hallows to the Philosopher’s Stone, they’re geared completely to a different age demographic. And the demographic, of course, is made by society and how we tell kids can only read kiddie things and innocent things. But the whole series is also… the agenda of the Harry Potter series is that children can be exposed to very adult things, as long as they understand the life lessons and everything. So I would love for it to be a more mature series.
Andrew: Questions we just don’t have answers for. So okay, and then over on Facebook, just want to mention a couple more. People were holding out for Matt Smith. People were hoping that the Doctor Who alum would star. I definitely saw great potential in that. There was a rumor about that happening, but doesn’t look like it.
Matt: Maybe he could be Jacob!
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, really. And they’ll be lovers, and they’ll set Tumblr on fire. Anne said, finally, “I might be delusional, but I’m still holding out hope for Dev Patel. He would be so good.”
Eric: Yep.
Andrew: So thanks, everybody who participated on Twitter.com/MuggleCast and Facebook.com/MuggleCast. We’re going to look ahead… well, we had a calendar segment at the very end of the show, but we already spoke about The Casual Vacancy.
Eric: Oh, I can talk about something on the calendar.
Andrew: Okay. Well, hold on, but first we’re going to plug a couple things. Like we mentioned at the start of the show, Matt and I are doing a podcast with Laura and Elysa called Millennial. You can go to MillennialShow.com. We got a new episode every week, and lots of bonus content if you donate to our Patreon, but more details about that after you get into Millennial. So check out the show; we’re having a lot of fun talking about politics, entertainment, everything that’s going on.
Micah: Everything. It’s a great show. I recommend it.
Andrew: Thanks, Micah.
Micah: And one other podcast that Eric and myself do, along with our friend Zack Luye, is Game of Owns, and given that the show starts its fifth season tonight… or whatever the timing is, depending on when you listen to this episode. We have a lot of fun. We’ve been doing it for a couple of years, but there’s no time to get into it like now, with the fifth season starting. You can find us, follow us, GameOfOwns.com, and then Twitter and Facebook, Game of Owns. So give us a listen. I’m sure if you enjoy the series – we plugged it earlier – you’ll enjoy the podcast as well.
Eric: And I wanted to mention, before we close out our show, that this coming Saturday – that’s April 18 – a very special event is heading to the UK. London’s Excel Center will play host to MuggleNet’s first ever live event called Expo Patronum, and the big thing to know about this is that 17 members of the cast and crew of Harry Potter will be in attendance, so I’m going to list a couple of them here. Warwick Davis will be there. Natalia Tena will be there. Harry Melling, who played Dudley Dursley, will be there. Nick Moran, who played Scabior. Fan favorites like Chris Rankin, Rohan Gotobed, will be there as well. And really, just a whole bunch of others. On the crew side, we have MinaLima, the graphic artists for the Harry Potter films, and Gary Tomkins, who’s the art director for Harry Potter as well, will all be there. This is a one-day event. It’s, I think, eight hours in length, and tickets start at £45. If you’re in or around London next Saturday, please check us out. And the website address for this is Live.MuggleNet.com. It’s your last possible week to get tickets, because the event, as I said, is on Saturday.
Andrew: And just announced guest: Eddie Redmayne is coming!
Eric: Hey!
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Just kidding.
Eric: Not yet, not yet. I think we’re working on him. [laughs]
Andrew: Let him read the script first, then you can start bothering him.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Oh, and Alfred Enoch will be there, too, and he’s big on How to Get Away with Murder now, so that’s really exciting.
Matt: That’s cool.
Andrew: So looking at the calendar, like we said, J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy television series hits HBO on April 29. The first two parts will air back to back April 29 from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m., and the third and final part will air the following evening, from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. So it’s a weekend event, you and The Casual Vacancy. If anybody wants to buy my Casual Vacancy book, by the way, let me know.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I’m trying to sell it. [laughs]
Micah: Sign it, and that’ll increase the value.
Andrew: Sign it. Me sign it, J.K. Rowling sign it, Robert Galbraith…
Micah: Either one.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: No, but seriously, I’m moving soon. I need to get rid of it. [laughs]
Eric: Nobody say yes. You can’t sell J.K. Rowling’s book. You can’t secondhand that.
Andrew: I know. See, it’s so funny. I was really torn; I was like, “Would I really sell a J.K. Rowling book?”
Eric: Right?
Andrew: I just don’t know.
Eric: It probably took you a lot of effort just to go in that store. But to be denied, that’s a sign, dude. You should just stop.
Andrew: No, now I’m more determined than ever.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Like, “Who will buy this?”
Eric: Nobody buy Andrew’s book!
Andrew: And then I mean, also, we don’t have an exact date yet, but if you’re looking for more J.K. Rowling writing, I would expect an announcement about that third Robert Galbraith book, which, as you can tell, I’m very excited for, and I won’t be selling my copies of that. [laughs]
Eric: On the next and MuggleCast episode’s Pen and Paper Are My Priority segment, we’ll find out when that book is coming.
Andrew: I’m going to start tweeting her every day until she…
Eric: Maybe she’ll buy your book.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: You know, I was trolling her last night. I was out, I’d had a few drinks, and I got back and it was 1:30 Pacific time, so it was morning England time, and J.K. Rowling was up tweeting, so… [laughs] I’m not proud of this one. I may delete this tweet.
Eric: Gosh.
Andrew: So I like trolling her on Twitter; I like just tweeting her random stuff. [laughs] One day she’ll reply. And I tweeted her last night, “Did you hear this rumor about Eddie Redmayne playing Newt? I just don’t know. #NotMyNewt.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So I encourage everybody to start using the hashtag #NotMyNewt. [laughs] But a couple people replied to me. They were like… gosh, what does she say? Oh, some people said, “Andrew, what’s wrong with you? Eddie is amazing.” So people thought I was serious, but I was just kidding.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: All right, everybody. Well, on that note.
Matt: On that Newt.
Eric: On that… ahh! Yeah.
Micah: Well done.
Matt: Thank you, thank you. I’m pretty proud of that.
Andrew: Thank you for listening.
Eric: That should be the episode title. “On that Newt.”
Andrew: “On that Newt,” you got it. Matt, thanks for coming on. I’m sure we’ll have you on again in the future.
Eric: That was great.
Matt: Sure. Thank you guys for having me.
Andrew: Micah and Eric, thanks for coming on. I’m sure we’ll have you guys on again in the future.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: I hope so. If our audition goes through.
Andrew: And we’ll see everybody next time in May, for Episode 278. Goodbye.
Eric: Goodbye!
Matt and Micah: Bye.