Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #282, Back to Hogwarts
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 282. Eric, Micah, and I here as always, and Selina is back this week. Hello, Selina.
Selina Wilken: Hi, Andrew.
Andrew: And you guys too.
Micah Tannenbaum: No, only welcome to Selina.
Selina: Yeah, just hello me. [laughs]
Andrew: I’m being a gentleman. Ladies first. So our last episode was in early August, and a lot has happened since then, including the relaunch of our favorite website ever, Pottermore.
Eric Scull: Augh.
Selina: Yay! [laughs]
Andrew: But we’re going to talk about that a little later, because it was such a big relaunch. There’s so much to talk about with Pottermore, and I need a lot of time to complain about the encyclopedia, so we’re going to hold off on that for now.
News
Andrew: But first we’re going to go through a couple other news items, including Fantastic Beasts. It’s a new day for the Harry Potter fandom, really, because filming is now underway at Leavesden Studios again. Isn’t it surreal?
Eric: It is.
Andrew: Warner Bros. made an official announcement: Filming began on August 17. It really did feel…
Micah: My birthday.
Andrew: Oh, yeah?
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So Warner Bros. made the announcement. They didn’t really share any news. They did reveal one new cast member, Samantha Morton. She is going to play some character; they didn’t share any details. But do you guys…? I still remember having this feeling, even though it was over a month ago. I was like, “Wow, this is so great. A new era for the Harry Potter fandom.” It just feels like… it just felt…
Selina: Does it really feel like that to you? Because for me, it’s totally different. I feel… maybe it’s just because I’m an adult, and I’m jaded by the world or something, but… [laughs]
Eric: As opposed to us, who will be children forever.
Selina: Exactly, exactly. I wasn’t going to say it, but there you go.
[Eric and Selina laugh]
Selina: No, but you know what I mean? When they were doing Harry Potter, it’s like, “Oh, what are they going to take from the books? And what does this movie mean?” Because the series wasn’t done yet. But this, because there are no books – which in itself is great, because it means original movies – but I’m just… I have no idea what to expect, so I can’t really be excited because I’m just like, “Well, this is a movie with Eddie Redmayne and some beasts that may or may not be fantastic, and that’s about all I know.”
[Eric and Selina laugh]
Eric: I’d be surprised if there was a less than fantastic beast in this movie.
[Selina laughs]
Eric: If there were a single… if there were just a regular, ordinary cat or dog, I will raise all hell.
Selina: “Regular Beasts.” There you go.
Micah: There is Colin Farrell.
Eric: Yeah, he’s a fantastic beast. But I get what you’re saying, Selina; it does feel differently, a little bit differently, because we don’t know… well, it’s not based on anything. But I will say that’s no different than being excited for, say, the new Star Wars film.
Selina: True.
Eric: You know which universe it’s in. You kind of know some of the characters, although we’ve been 30 years removed from them, so you have no idea really what’s going to happen. And yet, you’re excited.
Andrew: What did it for me was all of the social media posts. A lot of people were excited and sharing the announcement on Facebook and Twitter, because it was a big event, even though we don’t know anything about it. But Eric mentioning Star Wars reminds me: In the past month, there was Force Friday. This was the big day for Star Wars fans, where all the Star Wars merchandise went on sale.
Eric: Oh. I missed it.
Andrew: And it was a big deal, because this is the first time new Star Wars merchandise for a new movie, obviously, has been released since the last Star Wars movie, the prequels. So I wonder if Warner Bros. will do something similar. [laughs] Fantastic Friday.
Selina: That is a good name.
Eric: Fantastic Friday.
Selina: But we don’t know if it’s going to be a thing yet, because it’s so removed from everything, and it’s not even going to be around Hogwarts. I mean, it’s just… it’s so hard to tell.
Eric: I don’t know that it’ll be removed. The weirdest thing for me, though – while we’re talking about this – the weirdest thing for me is telling people that J.K. Rowling wrote a screenplay, that she wrote this; it’s currently filming. Just thinking about the fact that there’s another… I guess you couldn’t call it a Harry Potter movie, but the fact that there’s another Harry Potter movie in the works right now – same director, same producer, same people behind it, set in the same world – that it’s filming right now is weird. It’s really weird to think about. And then it’ll be released next November, just like it were a Potter movie. It feels weird because it is different in some key ways, which you pointed out. But then I am also genuinely excited for it. I am also feeling as though my fandom-ness, my affection for the series, is going to be able to continue through a new medium.
Selina: And that’s good.
Andrew: Selina, as you know, a big part of these franchises is the merchandise side, so whether or not…
Selina: Well, there will be merchandise. Yeah, I’m not questioning that. [laughs]
Eric: Now that you mention that, too, like the Legos? They replaced Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon with old Han Solo now in the Lego Millennium Falcon.
Selina: Ohh.
Andrew: I am disgusted!
[Eric and Selina laugh]
Micah: The nerve.
Eric: No, it’s cool because he still looks good, but it just… when you were talking about Force Friday, Andrew, I was like, “You know what? I can totally see them having new LEGO sets for this film.” Obviously they will. They’ve already got the rights to Lego Harry Potter.
Selina: Newt is going to replace Harry.
Eric: Yes, they’re going to have Lego Newt Scamander, and he’s going to go on all sorts of adventures.
Andrew: I can’t wait for Newt Scamander grapes. Like the fruit, grapes.
Eric: Why?
Selina: Did they do Harry Potter grapes?
Andrew: Remember they did Harry Potter grapes?
Eric: I didn’t remember. When were there Harry Potter grapes?
Selina: Oh, I hope they bring back the candy.
Andrew: A long time ago.
Micah: Is that like seeing Newt in a piece of toast?
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Andrew: I’m going to make that and then sell it on eBay for a million dollars.
Micah: It probably would. Maybe not a million. But I actually agree with Selina; I’m not overly excited, because I don’t think you have a whole lot of context to what it is that is going to happen.
Selina: Exactly.
Eric: Ahh.
Micah: You don’t know, when all these people are getting cast, what kind of role are they really playing?
Selina: Who are they, yeah. [laughs]
Micah: Who are these characters? And so I think the exciting information comes from J.K. Rowling, when she puts information out on Twitter or she does an interview, and you learn more about the actual story and where it’s taking place and who these characters are. I think we were spoiled a bit going into Harry Potter, because we knew who these characters were. We knew how they were going to play out in the story. And so there was a different level of excitement to it, and I’m not saying that we don’t get excited about this film series at all – I think it’s great that we’re still going to be taken to this world, albeit a little bit earlier than Harry Potter – but it is hard to get up the same level of excitement. It’s just very, very different, especially because we grew up reading these books, and so there was a whole different kind of feel to everything.
Andrew: Well…
Selina: Exactly, and in terms of the fan base – I’m sorry, I know you want to move on – but I just want to say in terms of the fan base, I think that because Harry Potter had this huge, well, actual canon behind it, there was this huge thing where the movies complimented that.
Eric: Or betrayed it.
Selina: I know J.K. Rowling is writing Fantastic Beasts, and I know that we… well, yeah. And I know we all are going to come to Fantastic Beasts, being Harry Potter fans, but the first movie is really going to determine whether this thing is going to be a hit or not. It’s not guaranteed, because there’s nothing to fall back on. These movies stand on their own.
Andrew and Micah: Yeah.
Selina: So that’s why it’s sort of a little bit more precarious, I think.
Andrew: Well, so…
Micah: And Redmayne… sorry.
Andrew: It’s okay.
Micah: He even said… in a recent interview, he was talking about the Fantastic Beasts movies and saying he is feeling pressure to live up to Potter…
Selina: He should be. [laughs]
Micah: … because that’s really what it’s going to be based on. He said, “You don’t want to screw it up.” And you’re right; coming into it, you have to be feeling a certain level of anxiety or nervousness, because Potter was so immensely successful.
Andrew: So when are we finally going to get some meaty information, do you guys think? Are we going to have to wait for the first teaser trailer? I mean, how else will they debut it?
Micah: Well, from the looks of it, check out Pottermore.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Selina: Oh, God.
Eric: I want the majority of the content to be in the movie itself. I really, really, really do.
Andrew: Yeah, agreed.
Eric: We’re in a unique position to get something like this in movie form first. And I don’t know about you guys, but…
Selina: And that happens no time in Hollywood right now. This is literally the only chance. [laughs]
Eric: I disliked a lot of what the movies did more than I liked what the movies did, because having that book, you’re constantly judging. You’re constantly… and not even just me; I actually liked some of the adaptations, but just seeing everybody else be upset about scenes that made it in or didn’t make it in, or were adapted funny or weird. “Why is this here?” I mean, I was watching… it was Harry Potter Weekend – every weekend is Harry Potter Weekend – on ABC Family, and they were showing the Burrow getting torched, and that doesn’t happen in the books. And somebody I was watching it with was like, “Hey, why is this happening?” And there used to be an answer for it. I used to remember. I used to know, right? Pacing is always the go-to answer.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: To inspire terror.
Eric: But we won’t have any of those problems going in, because this is a completely new work of art. And it’s the same people behind it, so I have a lot of comfort, actually, going into this. I understand we’re being guarded with our feelings because of how massively we were fans of Harry Potter, but I feel very comfortable going into this series completely unspoiled.
Micah: To answer your question, Eric, it was to inspire terror, right? That was Half-Blood Prince that it happened in, if I’m not mistaken?
Eric: No, it was pacing. It was pacing.
Micah: Well, no, I think it was to inspire terror, because if you look at the opening of that movie with everything that happened with the Death Eaters, it was to continue that sense of foreboding and that nothing was really safe.
Eric: Oh, right. Yeah, nobody’s safe.
Micah: They’re destroying something that is extremely sacred to Potter fans, especially those who read the book, and they obviously had a major issue with it. But I agree; I like the fact that you’re going into this not knowing what didn’t make it in, what should have made it in… it’s just going to be a standalone piece, and you’re not upset that a character or a piece of backstory didn’t fit in to the overall plot.
Eric: If J.K. Rowling were not involved, if it was Steve Kloves adapting, say, the textbook, the Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts, turning that into a movie, I’d be a lot less excited.
Selina: It would probably be a really bad movie. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, yeah. J.K. Rowling has gone out of her element here, and written the screenplay directly; cut out the middle man. And I know she had some help from Steve Kloves, but at the same time, I can be nothing but excited for it.
Andrew: I’m hoping we get a teaser trailer, because it’s not unheard of for a teaser trailer to be released a year ahead of the film, so I’m hoping for one. I feel like Mockingjay – Part 2 this November may be a little too ambitious, but how about something in front of Star Wars?
Selina: Yeah, I was going to say Star Wars. There you go.
Eric: Oh, gosh.
Andrew: And you can only imagine how many trailers are going to be in front of Star Wars. But I guess same thing for Mockingjay – Part 2 as well, because that’s a big deal. Okay, I’m going to put a 50 cent…
Selina: Uh-oh.
Andrew: … no, a five Galleon bet down on Mockingjay – Part 2 teaser trailer. We’ll hear “Hedwig’s Theme”…
Eric: Well, they couldn’t do it in front of Star Wars, right? Because Star Wars is Disney and Harry Potter is not Disney.
Andrew: They still could.
Selina: Mockingjay is Lionsgate, so they do kind of…
Andrew: Yeah, it doesn’t matter what studio.
Eric: Oh, I thought it was usually studio films that…
Andrew: No.
Selina: It sometimes is. But what is coming…? What does Warner Bros. even have? I suppose maybe Batman? Zack Snyder?
Andrew: Oh, Batman v. Superman. Yeah, there will be a trailer.
Selina: That could be. That’s my bet. Ten Galleons on the table!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I can hear them click-clacking on the table.
Micah: Where’d you guys get all these Galleons?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I went to Gringotts at Diagon Alley in Universal.
Selina: Owl post.
Andrew: We’re going to continue with today’s episode in just a moment, but first, it’s 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 180,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including audio versions of many New York Times bestsellers. Audiobooks are great to listen to when you’re driving, maybe stuck in traffic, on the subway, on the bus, doing chores around the house, at the gym… the great thing is you can take any of Audible’s great apps, play your books, and listen to them like you would a podcast, no matter where you are. You don’t need to be holding a book; you can just listen to it just like you do a radio show, your favorite music, or MuggleCast. Today I’m going to recommend a book that you must read soon, because the film adaptation is coming out and you are not going to want to miss it. It is The Martian. This is by Andy Weir. The adaptation comes out in October. The reviews so far are phenomenal; everybody is going to be talking about this movie, I promise you. I am listening to it right now and absolutely loving it. As everybody knows, especially as Harry Potter fans, you have to read the books before seeing the movies, so this is one you are not going to want to miss. The adaptation is going to star Matt Damon. It’s about a astronaut working for NASA who gets stuck on Mars! Everybody thought he died! Everybody else in his crew thought he died, so they leave without him. Well, it turns out he survived, but it’s going to be a couple more years until they’re able to get back to Mars to save him, because it’s Mars; it’s kind of far away. So that’s what this book is about, about him surviving while he waits for people to come and rescue him. I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying this book right now, and like I said, the reviews have been really great, so I cannot wait for the movie, but first I’ve got to finish listening to it. So I’m listening to it everywhere I go to get it in before I get to see the movie. Again, it’s The Martian, it’s by Andy Weir, and you can get it for free. Just go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. Again, AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast for a free audiobook, and we thank Audible for their support of the show. So moving on: This is the month of September, of course. September 1 is the big day every year that all the students go back to Hogwarts for the new term…
Eric and Selina: Yay!
Andrew: … and J.K. Rowling did not forget. She tweeted on September 1, bright and early in the morning. She said, “I’m in Edinburgh, so could somebody at King’s Cross wish James S. Potter good luck for me? He’s starting at Hogwarts today. #BackToHogwarts.” Everybody lost their minds when she tweeted this, didn’t they?
Eric: It’s true. Yep.
Andrew: [laughs] It was just so exciting to see J.K. Rowling remember that it’s the start of the new term, and to drop this little tidbit. I wonder, did she remember this? Did she do the math, and she said, “Oh, it’s September 2015; this is the year James S. Potter goes to school for the first time”? Or did her assistant tell her?
Selina: I think she knows. I like to think she knows.
Andrew: I agree with you. So then the big question was, after she tweeted that, “Oh, well, what House?” I was one of the people that tweeted her. I love to investigate. I love to bother her on Twitter.
[Eric laughs]
Selina: She loves to ignore you.
Andrew: So I said – as did many others – “Let us know what House James gets into.” And about, looks like, nine hours after her first tweet, she tweeted that she just heard that James S. Potter has been Sorted into Gryffindor. “Teddy Lupin,” and then she put in parentheses, “(Head Boy, Hufflepuff,) disappointed.”
[Selina laughs]
Andrew: So she also revealed that he was Sorted into Hufflepuff and became a Head Boy.
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: So that was a lot of big news that day! [laughs]
Micah: Yeah, I think it’s also worth noting, too, that Will Dunn, the actor who played James Sirius, responded to say thanks to J.K. Rowling. He also said, “Choo-choo,” and used some emoticons of trains.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Oh, that’s great.
Micah: So he was very busy that day as well.
Selina: This reporting is spot-on. [laughs]
Andrew: I love how J.K. Rowling did this. I love that she dropped some new tidbits of information, and I love how all of the fans considered it a big deal. Everybody was so excited by these new revelations.
Eric and Selina: Yeah.
Selina: I thought we knew, though, because – what’s his face? – Albus Severus was so worried about not getting into Gryffindor. But not to be like, “Oh,” like a downer. It’s super awesome! Yay, Gryffindor!
Andrew: But that was Albus Severus.
Selina: Yeah, but I figured that’s because his siblings were in Gryffindor, so he was like, “I want to be where they are.”
Eric: Right, yeah, he didn’t want to be the first to be…
Selina: Because his family is a Gryffindor family, right?
Eric: His dad would have been like, “Oh, if you get Sorted into Slytherin, you’ll just be like your older brother,” and it would have given it away.
Andrew: Yeah, but I guess one could argue that J.K. Rowling tweeted this kind of live, like, “Oh, just heard!” [laughs]
Selina: Oh, yeah, of course. It was super cool. It was really great. It was a good day for us.
Eric: No, I love the info. I’m glad for Teddy Lupin being Sorted in Hufflepuff. His mother was a Hufflepuff, and his father was sort of Hufflepuff-y, although…
[Selina laughs]
Eric: You know, for a Gryffindor. So I’m glad that worked out.
Andrew: What do these tweets and everyone’s excitement say about us as fans today? I feel like in the past year or two…
Selina: We’re keeping the magic alive.
Andrew: Yeah, I feel like in the past year or two, we’ve all discovered that we still all care about Harry Potter very much, thanks to J.K. Rowling interacting with fans on Twitter. Everybody still loses their minds.
Selina: You know what I’ve found for myself? And I know I don’t speak for all the people that lost their minds on Twitter, but I really found myself feeling like my love for Harry Potter is for the books, and again, this comes back to when we talk about Pottermore and the encyclopedia and all that. I’m like, “I have my books and they’re on my shelf, and they’re very ripped up and read a thousand times, and that’s my Harry Potter.” And so all the stuff online… I don’t know. I don’t know if you guys feel this at all; I think you don’t, but I’m so distanced from it. Every time J.K. Rowling tweets something, I’m like, “Ooh, I don’t really want to know that.” And if it’s something on Pottermore, I’m like, “Mm, that feels like fanfiction.” It doesn’t feel right, because I’m like, “The books…” So I’m actually kind of the opposite. I’m not excited; I’m just kind of like, “Ooh, no, don’t take my imagination from me.” Does that make sense? I don’t think I’m the majority here, but I think there are other people who feel this way.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: You’re certainly not alone; I’ll say that to you. MuggleNet came really close to publishing… and actually, we did publish an article. It pretty much asked the question, “Should J.K. Rowling stop talking?”
Selina: Yeah, I saw that one, and I really liked that one, actually. It was a little bit how I feel about it as well. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, it’s just… it was… I certainly found the article to be a little controversial.
Selina: I mean, it’s not up to us to decide what she does. I mean, that’s totally her thing. But for me personally…
Eric: Yeah, but there are those people who, for them, the story ended when the books ended. They kind of feel as though this new information is encroaching on their imagination, or basically a lot of what J.K. Rowling has been revealing on on Pottermore with character backstories and stuff, and it’s getting to the point where it’s contrary to what people think or imagine for themselves. And so there’s a definite group of people and school of thought where it says, “Well, we don’t need these answers. Let us imagine them for ourselves.” Me? I’m the first person to say my imagination is inferior to whatever JKR can come up with.
Selina: Well, mine is not! [laughs]
Eric: I bow to every single bit of information she’ll ever provide. Not without skepticism, in some cases. We just take them on a case by case. I think, honestly, a lot of what this means – to answer Andrew’s question, a lot of the responses and everything – I think it means that there is a real opportunity… there’s a real community that still exists of people who were affected by these stories who have an attention span for maybe a future… what’s happened since. That’s still in people’s minds, I guess, the story and what happened, and how she’s able to affect what happened in the future, or what is now our present. Because again, the books were set sooner than they premiered, so there’s that cool time travel aspect where 19 years later is still two years from now. And I don’t know; it’s just interesting how there’s still this community, but they’re all following along, still caring.
Andrew: I think also, fans… Harry Potter has taken hold of a certain part of everybody’s heart, and nothing has replaced that, and nothing should replace it. But we all hold Harry Potter in our hearts, permanently, in a very special section, and when stories like this come out where J.K. Rowling gives us an update on one of Harry Potter’s sons, and it’s just the combination of that, first day of Hogwarts, which everybody always loves, and just hearing from J.K. Rowling, the fact that she still talks about her series so actively and passionately… I think it’s just a combination of all these things that makes us all really, really excited. I just love it.
Selina: For me, it’s the opposite, though. For me, it’s like I have Harry Potter like a piece in my heart, and every time something new comes out, it’s like I’m almost guarding it a little bit closer. I’m like, “Oh no, but what if it ruins…? What if this is the thing that’ll ruin something?” I know it won’t, but it’s that feeling of like it was in the past, and I have kept it like… it was a part of my formative years, and now I’m like, “I just want to keep it pure.” It’s really weird, but yeah.
Andrew: I think J.K. Rowling is aware of that and won’t let that happen.
Selina: Okay. We should trust her.
Micah: Selina, the thing you have to learn to do here is just don’t use the Internet.
[Selina laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, or unfollow Jo, like Micah did for so long.
Selina: Right, yeah. Block Hypable and just go back to the Stone Age. What were you saying?
Micah: I agree with a lot of what’s being said, but I think in large part it has to do with the Internet. It has to do with social media, the fact that despite how removed she is, she is still extremely accessible, and the fact that you can throw a question out to her on Twitter, and there is a good chance she may respond. It may also have to do with politics or rugby teams, but you know what I mean? Authors are so much more accessible, and it’s not even authors, but in this case, we’re talking about one, so I’ll say that J.K. Rowling is far more accessible than a Tolkien was back in his heyday. Maybe you could write him a letter and hope that he’ll respond to you, but here you have instantaneous access to a person that created a series that you’ve read many times over, that many people can’t get enough of. And that’s where I think, Selina, some of your points come in about, “Well, I’d love it to just stop at what’s canon, and I don’t want to really know anything beyond that,” because then it starts to mess…
Selina: Unless it’s an encyclopedia.
Micah: Right, or unless it’s another book series that continues on the story, or is a little bit more formal in nature. So I’m not necessarily blaming social here, but I think that our ability to connect also creates a little bit of the issues that some people have.
Selina: Good point.
Andrew: Keep in mind, Tolkien also didn’t have Twitter.
Selina: Yeah, he was way behind the times.
Micah: He had eagles, though.
[Selina laughs]
Eric: It would have been way different. I think knowing that JKR stayed silent for so long, now she’s responding to people on Twitter, it’s very exciting to me.
Andrew: For sure.
Eric: But yeah, I don’t think what she’s doing now is any different from there one day being an encyclopedia. I don’t view that as…
Selina: But see, I do. We don’t have to get into this now because I know Andrew wants to move on, but I think it’s such a big difference between random online information and a book that exists and has been published and edited. You know what I mean? But anyway, I’m sorry.
Andrew: That’s true. No, that’s true. Well, let’s talk about that more when we talk about Pottermore. So a little question for you guys: Rupert Grint doesn’t do many fan conference appearances. Tom Felton does a lot of them. The Phelps twins do a lot of them. But Rupert actually did show up to this one – let’s see, when was this? – earlier this month. Fan Expo Canada. This is a big one; this is kind of the Comic-Con of Canada. And I read this story from AV Club. How much would you guys guess it costs to take a photo with Rupert Grint?
Selina: I really hope it’s not that much, because I really want to like him.
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Selina: $20.
Andrew: $20? Micah, what would you guess?
Eric: Oh, God, no, Selina. God. More, more, more…
Selina: I know.
Micah: I’ll guess a hundred bucks.
Andrew: It costs $142.
Selina: What?! Rupert, why? [laughs]
Eric: Wait, that’s Canadian dollars, though, right?
Andrew: No, I don’t think so. There’s a US dollar sign here. [laughs]
Eric: Well, it’s the same dollar sign for Canada. Well, just for fun, I’m going to look up Canadian dollars.
Micah: It doesn’t matter.
Andrew: He was the most expensive star to take a photo with at Fan Expo Canada, more than Tom Felton, more than the Phelps twins. And this writer wrote this interesting piece on The Walrus, about meeting the stars and how it all works. By the way, if you wanted to take a photo with Felton and the Phelps twins, it was $187, so that’s for three people. If you want a photo with Grint, Felton, and the Phelps twins – so the four guys – $328. [laughs]
Eric: Okay, well, hang on one second, because Canadian dollars…
Andrew: And keep in mind… Eric is going to try to make this sound like it’s not…
Selina: It’s still expensive.
Eric: I just looked it up; it’s 75 cents to the American dollar. So Rupert would be right around 100 bucks. He’d be $106. What was the one for the group?
Andrew: Okay, the point is… $328.
Selina: This is not math class.
Andrew: The Walrus wrote about the experience, this guy from the Walrus.ca. What happens is… it happens very smoothly. They bring you into this room, you take the photo, and you leave immediately. You don’t even have a chance to say hi to these people. [laughs]
Selina: But isn’t that how it goes?
Andrew: Right.
Selina: Isn’t that how conventions usually do it?
Andrew: Yeah, in fairness, to get as many photos taken as possible, they do have to move the line quickly. But imagine paying, say, 100 US dollars for a photo with Rupert Grint. It just feels slimy to me because I feel like these celebrities are taking advantage of the fans. That’s a lot of money for a quick photo.
Selina: But that’s how cons are, though. I mean, a lot of times… because again, I’ve been to one once, random convention, and it was so weird because just hearing these stories of these people that just literally… these people get so much money to attend conventions, and they just… I don’t know. It’s a little bit icky when fans and stars interact in this way. I think I’m not a fan of that.
Andrew: Yeah, and I’m not talking about just Fan Expo Canada; I realize this happens everywhere. It’s just kind of a sad state of affairs. And I’m sure there are listeners who’ve done this. Eric, haven’t you taken photos with the Star Trek people? And that was probably a pretty little penny.
Eric: Yeah, I’ve taken… I get photos all the time at conventions and stuff.
Micah: You give them? Or you take them with other people?
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Eric: No, no, I get them as in get them taken. I get them done.
Micah: I was going to ask how much you charge.
[Selina laughs]
Eric: No, I have… it’s $142, Micah.
[Andrew laughs]
Selina: In Canadian dollars.
Andrew: I would pay $5 for a photo with Eric.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: He always wears the cloak, so that’s worth something.
Eric: Thank you, Andrew. Thank you. Yes, it just pays for the cloak maintenance and dry cleaning every year.
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Eric: No, I think… look, I’ve paid for photos with the Star Trek people, Next Gen entire cast and different captains and stuff. And it’s usually about $75 or $80 for the captains, and closer to $40 or $60…
Selina: It pays a lot of these guys’ mortgages and stuff, these stars.
Eric: Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing; the show itself has been over for 20 odd years, but… no, and that’s the thing. So the other cast members would be anywhere between $40 and $60, usually. But I mean, the thing is, these actors, they have appearance fees. They have all sorts of stuff. And if a con isn’t run well, or if a con isn’t… well, just run well, a lot of that cost can be manifested in these ticket prices. So maybe some of it isn’t even traditionally their fault, so to speak.
Selina: The lesson here is don’t meet your idols, basically.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Well, I will say in this case… and it certainly seems it’s… they have other actors. Actually, that’s what I like about the AV Club’s article here; it says how much it was to see Malcolm McDowell or Jeri Ryan, who is from Star Trek Voyager, and they were about half as much as Rupert. But Rupert is… I mean, Rupert is still young and going places and probably more in demand. If there were somehow a calculation to determine the young Harry Potter stars, that’s just where they are. I’m glad that Rupert wasn’t twice as much as Tom Felton or anything like that, like if he were way above everybody else. But it is this hype. It is this situation where he’s uncommon and… I don’t know. I think it was probably figured out in a contract with the other Harry Potter actors that they all were similarly priced, and it is upsetting to see that he’s so much. I mean, if it were a question between getting a picture with Jeri Ryan – sorry, two or three pictures with Jeri Ryan – or Rupert Grint, I would choose Jeri Ryan all the time. She’s a babe. She’s awesome. Nicest person ever.
Selina: Rupert is kind of a babe, come on.
Andrew: Personally, I would not do this fan photo experience. I can see why some people do. I just thought it was interesting to share how much it costs to take a photo with Rupert. [laughs]
Eric: But I agree, it is interesting. And hopefully he’ll do more cons. I mean, I’d like to see Rupert at Leaky or Geeky.
Selina: What is he doing, anyway? Not Super Clyde. [laughs]
Andrew: He does films from time to time.
Micah: Nothing, if he has to charge $200 for a photo.
[Everyone laughs]
Selina: It must be.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s the other thing. I mean, these stars, just to appear, they have very high appearance fees, so that’s why they don’t appear somewhere. But if you do throw them enough money, they will appear. [laughs]
Selina: Oh, yeah. Wouldn’t you?
Andrew: So let’s move on. And by the way, what has Rupert been up to? According to his IMDb, he has one film this year called Moonwalkers. So he’s just been…
Selina: Well, I will be watching that.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Andrew: He’s just living on that Harry Potter money, and that’s fine. He can do what he wants.
Eric: I will say, Dan and Emma have much more impressive profiles now since Harry Potter.
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
The Big Questions We Never Asked
Andrew: So let’s move on now. We’re going to get to Pottermore in a little bit; we’re also going to talk about a couple fan theories that have gone crazy on the Internet. But first, a couple questions that we have never asked. Micah, would you like to lead us through this?
Micah: Sure. We asked on Twitter for you to send in some questions we’ve never asked, and therefore never answered here on MuggleCast. And the first tweet we got in is from Emily King, and she asks, “Did the Carrows permanently lift the anti-Apparition charm on Hogwarts grounds? Not in place at battle. Also, was it cast daily before?”
Andrew: Well, it must have come down somehow.
Selina: Wasn’t it one of those spells that were tied to the headmaster, you think? Like, a lot of the school’s protection ended when Dumbledore died?
Eric: Probably. That’s what I would say.
Andrew: “Also, was it cast daily before?” Why do you think Emily is asking that? Because it only lasts for a certain amount of time?
Selina: Yeah, because it stopped working.
Micah: I like the idea that it was tied to Dumbledore in some way, and that once he was killed, that ability for people to Apparate in was allowed.
Selina: Yeah, because one of the reasons Hogwarts was so protected during Dumbledore’s time was because it was Dumbledore protecting it, right? So it makes sense that once he died, it would be a lot less protected, so whatever anti-Apparition charms that the Carrows may or may not have put in place to keep someone like Harry out, they probably wouldn’t have held up once they got distracted, would be my guess.
Eric: And Snape would have probably welcomed… I mean, knowing the nature of the Death Eaters, they probably would want to Apparate in and out of places as needed. Voldemort would want to do the same. Snape as headmaster, being in with the Death Eaters, would also probably just leave that protection unchecked. You basically allow it to be that you could Apparate in.
Micah: Or only select people to do so.
Selina: Yeah, which would make it more unstable. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense, that when Dumbledore was in charge, it was like, “Boom.”
Eric: [laughs] I want to try and Apparate into Hogwarts and have that sound.
[Selina laughs]
Micah: But I’m sure more security measures were put into place as Hogwarts was rebuilt after the battle.
Eric and Selina: Yeah.
Andrew: You would think. A new era for Hogwarts.
Micah: One would hope.
Selina: McGonagall was on that.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Micah: Jennifer Sieben, at @TARDISeeker…
[Selina laughs]
Micah: I figured Selina would like that.
Selina: Yeah, I did.
Micah: She asks, “What are the graduation requirements?”
[Eric laughs]
Selina: Nothing!
Eric: That’s a good question.
Selina: You have to be a Gryffindor. You have to be Harry.
[Eric and Selina laugh]
Andrew: What if Harry in the seventh year didn’t meet all the graduation requirements, and we read that, and that was Jo’s way of surprising us that there was going to be four more books?
Selina: [laughs] Back to Hogwarts.
Eric: Oh, that would be funny. I love the idea of like, “Harry, you’ve just saved the greater wizarding world, but this Acceptable on your Potions exam means you need to repeat a seventh year.”
Selina: Right.
Eric: It’d be really funny.
Selina: But knowing Dumbledore and his “You guys can just skip the exams this year” policy, I’m guessing it’s a little bit more relaxed than that.
Eric: Yeah. Exactly, there were those years where so much happened that they didn’t even sit exams. And the seventh year itself is optional because people are of age. It’s a good question. We don’t know enough about future careers in the wizarding world that may require you to have, I guess, graduated Hogwarts. I think it’s hard to say what the requirements…
Andrew: You’d think you would have to. And that brings up a whole other series of questions, like what’s the job market like? What’s it like to get a job at the Ministry of Magic?
Selina: I hope it’s better than ours. [laughs]
Eric: Well, you hear about examples, right? People either work at the Ministry or are hermits off exploring, finding new magical things. Those are almost the only two…
Micah: Fantastic Beasts?
Selina: Like Pokémon trainers.
Eric: Yeah, those are almost the only two professions for people.
Selina: Oh my God, it’s exactly like Pokémon.
[Eric and Selina laugh]
Selina: It just occurred to me.
Eric: Yeah, except there’s no equivalent of Nurse Joy, which would be awesome.
Selina: Well, you don’t know.
Micah: How do we know that?
Selina: Porpentina is… anyway.
Eric: Oh, she’s a Healer. Oh, yeah.
Micah: Eddie Redmayne is Ash Ketchum.
Selina: For sure. [laughs] It’s perfect.
Micah: Yep. So actually, along the lines of Fantastic Beasts, we got a question from JM, who says, “Is this trophy at the WB Studio Tour from a previous movie, or is it a new one?” And we can probably post a link in the show notes to the actual photo, but it is a trophy that is awarded for “Bravery Against Fantastic Beasts.”
Eric: Huh!
Micah: And this is something I don’t think we should be surprised by, because we’ve gotten news of different parts of the Fantastic Beasts movie showing up in the Wizarding World in Orlando. But now here’s what appears to be a piece, possibly, at the WB Studio Tour in the UK.
Selina: How great is that if they really are just putting in these little clues?
[Eric laughs]
Selina: Maybe it’s a scavenger hunt and no one’s realized, and if you figure it out, you get the trailer or something.
Eric: Like a QR code beneath the trophy.
Andrew: Well, so at the bottom of this, it does name a wizard. It says Martino Fro… something ending with a C.
Micah: Frolic?
Andrew: And then it says 1921, which is around the time that the film is set. We know it’s set in the 1920s.
Eric: That’s cool.
Andrew: But what does this mean? Award for Bravery Against Fantastic Beasts?
Eric: Could be anything. I mean, I could easily see this just being a prop that was used in the earlier films, perhaps in Sorcerer’s Stone. They go to… they don’t have the trophy room duel with Draco in Movie 1 like they do in Book 1, but there’s still that moment where they show – what was it? – James Potter’s Quidditch profession, which is also different. And there’s some trophies in the back there. I can totally see… knowing the level of detail, I can see this being one of those trophies that is…
Micah: It’s too coincidental.
Selina: Yeah, I think it’s tied to the movie.
Andrew: Well, hold on. So I just Googled it, this name, and there’s this post from last March, March 2014, on FantasticBeastsMovie.net. They asked somebody on the set. It turns out Martino Frolic was actually a friend of the designers and whose name was added as a tribute, and not for a part in the movies.
Selina: Oh, that’s not fun.
Andrew: So yeah, it’s just kind of a little Easter egg for one of their friends, unfortunately.
Eric: Huh. Okay.
Selina: I don’t know.
Andrew: I guess it doesn’t surprise me. They have to come up with so many little details for the Harry Potter movies, and they’ve got to write something on it, and obviously “Fantastic Beasts” has been a well-known term. Though I do wonder where in the movies it showed up.
Selina: I really wish it’s something. Yeah, that’s a shame.
Andrew: I guess the trophy room.
Selina: Yeah, I think Eric is right about that.
Eric: But I’d love to know where this is positioned. That’ll also tell you. If this is in the middle of all that other stuff from the movies, I would say this is probably just…
Selina: Well, if it’s just some random prop, and they were just… some person working at the Studio Tour was like, “Uh, guys?”
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Eric: Yeah, “We’ve got to dust this off and put it out there.”
Andrew: Remember, when Diagon Alley opened there were some comments made by the designers… that one creature store in Diagon Alley. Do you guys remember the name of it? There are “Fantastic Beasts” in there, and somebody… one of the designers on the theme park said that those offered a hint at what’s to come in Fantastic Beasts. So they are…
Micah: I think it’s the…
Eric: Oh, yeah, are you talking about the Magical Menagerie?
Andrew: Yes.
Micah: Yeah, I was just going to say.
Andrew: Yes, that’s it. There’s a bunch of creatures up in there, and they’re really fun to look at. They’re very colorful, unique-looking creatures. So whenever you go to Diagon Alley, dear listeners, keep an eye out for that. So those are all the ones that we had. You can follow us on Twitter. We will continue doing this segment; I think it’s a fun segment to answer some questions that you listeners are dying to hear us talk about.
Eric: Ten years of podcasting now, and there’s questions we haven’t answered.
Andrew: Yep. So let’s move on to Pottermore now…
Selina: Yeah, I don’t think we answered these ones.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: We tried. We tried.
Pottermore
Andrew: Let’s move on to Pottermore now. Pottermore released their new site earlier this week; it is drastically changed from the Pottermore you remember. First of all, there’s no more login. For now, there’s no more Sorting Hat, no more wand quiz. Those are coming back at some point with… they also said that they’re still planning on bringing in a Patronus quiz. [sighs] I don’t even know where to begin with this, because it’s such a big overhaul that we could talk about.
Selina: It’s so random.
Andrew: Yeah, basically…
Selina: The stuff on there… have you guys been to the Features page?
Eric: I was going to wait until we were actually podcasting to go on the new Pottermore.
Selina: Okay, well, have fun with that.
Andrew: So we could hear your reaction and disgust live?
Micah: Yes, let us know how you react. I don’t really know how to react to it either. It’s something that is just so drastically different, to Andrew’s point, from what we were used to, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I think I’m not going to look to Pottermore to get my Potter news. I think that there have been sites that have been around for many, many years that do that extremely well. And I know that this is an official source, so it’s a bit different, and maybe you’ll get some sort of breaking news here that you won’t get other places, but I just don’t understand the need to make Pottermore into something like this.
Selina: Right, but it’s no more official than you have stuff like “Seven reasons to love Luna Lovegood,” and “The 15 times Harry ruined the Dursleys’ day.” [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, they’re trying to do like Buzzfeed…
Micah: Are those fan-submitted?
Andrew and Selina: No.
Micah: Or are they coming from the Pottermore team?
Selina: They talked about this on Hype, too.
Eric: It would almost be better if they were fan-submitted.
Selina: It’s just so weird. It’s like stock content, and it’s just really ridiculous.
Andrew: One of the critical changes is you no longer browse by book and chapter. That was a big part of the original Pottermore.
Selina: Which is kind of nice, because you don’t have to scroll through everything.
Eric: But still…
Andrew: Yeah. But remember, Pottermore was sold to fans as a companion to the Harry Potter books.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: So you would read the chapter in the actual book, in theory, and then go on Pottermore and read these extra little tidbits about each chapter. So all that is completely gone. But to browse now, you click on “Explore” on the top left, and they don’t have a list or anything. You just type what you want as a search. So if I type in “Harry Potter,” I’ll get all the books, and then if I click a book… here’s another big problem: The new Pottermore also features movie material, stills from movies, for example, and a big aspect of Pottermore – the original Pottermore, again – was not showing you the faces of the characters because they didn’t want to ruin your imagination while reading, and now here are all the characters in the movies. They kept the Pottermore illustrations, too, thank God. But the design is all new as well. It’s responsive, meaning it works on mobile and tablets as well, so that’s good. But I don’t know what there is here to really like.
Eric: It’s such a shame, because we were so cruel to Pottermore for so long…
Selina: And look what happened to it.
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Andrew: It got worse!
Eric: … and now we’re so nostalgic for it. Now we’re sort of like, “We want it… give me back the moments!”
Selina: I think that Pottermore before… I mean, it is true; it was created as a companion. But the whole going through everything, trying to find one thing… because that’s what they realized, I think, is that people mainly go on it for the new info, so they’ve made that easier to find, which is great…
Eric: Have they?
Selina: … but it’s just like a cheaper… well, they kind of have. But it’s just like a cheaper version, again, getting closer to the encyclopedia without being the encyclopedia. And then you have this news, which is nice-ish, and then you have all this stupid, pointless stuff, like the lists and whatever, and it’s just… it’s such a shame. I don’t know what’s happening.
Andrew: Yeah, a big new aspect is this news section.
Selina: I miss J.K. Rowling’s site.
Andrew: Me too.
Selina: I know it’s still there, but it’s not the same.
Andrew: This news section is written by the Pottermore Correspondent. They don’t have a name. And they write with personality; it’s definitely…
Selina: Rupert, is that you?
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Andrew: That’s what Rupert’s doing. So whoever’s writing has a good voice, good writer. There’s a lot of personality in the Pottermore Correspondent’s writing; it’s just that it’s a lot of uninteresting… sorry. I have this fear of the Pottermore Correspondent reading this, or listening to this. [laughs]
Selina: It’s filler stuff, isn’t it? No, but then hopefully they’ll be like, “Oh, that’s good advice. Let me alter it.” Because it’s just filler. It’s not… it’s like a poor imitation of what sites like MuggleNet already do a lot better. I mean, I think we can say that. They’re trying… it’s like a cheap imitation of a Potter fansite, and we already have those.
Andrew: Right.
Selina: So it’s just weird.
Andrew: And you can’t be a fansite if you’re officially tied to J.K. Rowling, because then you can’t really share true opinions. You’re playing into the hand of Jo.
Eric: Ohh.
Selina: Right, exactly. So it’s just really soulless. Not that the Correspondent isn’t perfectly great; I’m sure they are. Rupert, I love you, if it’s you.
[Andrew laughs]
Selina: But I mean, it’s just such a shame. I don’t know. It’s like it has identity crisis, doesn’t know what it wants to be. And that front page picture of the phoenix feathers shows up really pixelated on my big computer screen.
Andrew: Oh, really? It looks good on mine.
Selina: Yeah, that just gives me a bad first impression.
Andrew: One positive thing I will say about this new Pottermore: When they first started teasing it a couple weeks ago, they said that it would be easier for them to update, which I get the impression that the original Pottermore was a pain for them to update and for Jo to add new content to. They specifically said it’s going to be easier for J.K. Rowling to write new content for this new Pottermore, which is good because maybe instead of dropping tidbits on Twitter, now she’s going to start posting stuff on Pottermore, and maybe this way she’ll be able to share more, which we were talking about this earlier; should she be sharing more information? Personally, I think it’d be great if she started sharing more information on the new Pottermore. Tidbits like what she already shares on Twitter, but things that are longer and maybe more detailed.
Selina: Sure, like a blog. She can just throw out whatever she wants. That would be amazing.
Andrew: Yeah. I’m very interested to see how they do these quizzes. I mean, are they going to be quizzes made on Playbuzz.com and then just embedded?
Selina: It’s going to be like Playbuzz quizzes, yeah. [laughs]
Andrew: And is the Sorting Hat finally going to be a real Sorting Hat? Because we remember, as I’ve spoken about numerous times, the Sorting Hat was weighted on the original Pottermore to keep all the…
Eric: We think, right? We think.
Andrew: I know it is. Because how could everybody…? How could the Houses have so many… be equally populated?
Selina: Yeah, that was definitely rigged.
Andrew: I mean, I guess this was a problem with Hogwarts as well, but we’re not in Hogwarts now. We want our true House.
Micah: One question, though, I just wanted to ask was, going into the writing section, is this new information? Or is this information that was previously on Pottermore?
Andrew: Previously, but the new one is “The Potter Family” by J.K. Rowling. That’s something new.
Micah: And that’s brand new launched with the site?
Andrew: Brand new.
Micah: And how often are they going to update?
Andrew: Guess we’ll see.
Micah: Do they say that?
Andrew: No. And by the way, you can’t even find all of the new stuff that J.K. Rowling has written on Pottermore on this new “Written by J.K. Rowling” page.
Eric: But they were always very close to the vest about what… we didn’t know when the next books would be coming out on Pottermore to go through. It’s still hidden behind the mystery of their inner workings. But I would like to see… and I think this was our comment when we first reviewed Pottermore, is we’d love to see a timeline, or some evidence of planning. If somebody were to say, “This is how often J.K. Rowling will be releasing new content,” that would be really exciting. It’s constantly being notified that there’s something new, and then having to go and find it that’s really… or in the case of the old Pottermore…
Selina: Yeah, you keep going in and out of the Potter mindset again. It’s just like, “Ooh, something new,” and you have to be like, “Okay, right, I have to prepare myself to read this Potter thing,” and then… yeah.
Eric: For the old Pottermore, I just kept having to remember my username and reset my password, but at least this one you don’t see that. But this one, still, I can tell already I’m going to have trouble navigating it.
Micah: It’s very clean, it’s very simple, and it actually seems very easy to navigate, not to counter the point that you just made.
Eric: Eh.
Micah: But Andrew touched on this a little bit with the mention of the movies, and one of the things I thought that Pottermore tried to do very early on – and actually, I think J.K. Rowling spoke about this – was the illustrations were supposed to be such that you didn’t get your imagination influenced as to what certain characters, creatures, should really look like. If you remember, a lot of the times the characters were forward-facing, so you saw the back of their heads…
Eric: Yes.
Micah: … and this completely goes in the opposite direction, especially by using photos from the movies themselves. You’re influencing what certain characters are supposed to look like, especially when this was billed as an opportunity for those who are just getting into the series to be able to explore and to use it as a companion as they read along.
Eric: You’re still using these gorgeously illustrated moments from the moments of the old website – here, I’m looking at the Gilderoy Lockhart page – but then you’ve got as well the movie stills with Kenneth Branagh, and it’s like, at least, okay, that was a character that was adapted well. What about the characters that were adapted poorly, or never adapted? I mean, there’s a listicle about Ginny and Harry, like, “Nine tender moments” or something. The movies completely screwed Ginny Weasley. Completely. There was no tender moment.
Selina: Amen.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: But is that the point of what this website is supposed to be, though? I don’t think it is.
Eric: It was always awkward between Harry and Ginny in the books, and now that – sorry to interrupt – but they have the movie stills, and I just… it leaves a bad taste.
Selina: Yeah, it’s true; they’re mixing the canons. That’s what’s really confusing. You’re right.
Andrew: Right, that’s the other thing. So here’s another aspect… oh, before I get to that, I’m going to offer one positive about Pottermore. Another positive about Pottermore.
Eric: It’s all okay, guys. Let’s all say something nice about Pottermore.
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Andrew: I genuinely believe J.K. Rowling needs a site like this. We have several arms of the Harry Potter franchise, if you will, to keep fans up to date on. So Cursed Child, the play; Fantastic Beasts; and whatever comes next in the world of Harry Potter. Oh, Wizarding World theme parks. There’s just a bunch of different things, and I do think there needs to be a site to kind of keep track of it all officially.
Selina: But that’s why it should just be her.
Micah: But there is a new section on this site that, if you go to, it has information on the things you just mentioned, but that wasn’t supposed to be the intention of Pottermore.
Selina: But I think that’s what’s confusing to me, yeah, because that’s the thing, is what is Pottermore? Is it a fan companion to the books? Is it J.K. Rowling’s mouthpiece online? Is it a extended “official” fansite? Is it a news site? What is it? Because I think what you’re talking about is kind of like what I was saying with the blog – which is so 2007, but whatever – a place where we know that everything that’s on there is straight from Jo, right? So it’s 100% official. But this weird news/listicle/books/movie, inferring some random person who… this probably is J.K. Rowling that’s writing this, and we’re just slagging them off…
[Andrew laughs]
Selina: … but the point is that this random info of someone deciding what the cutest moments from the books are and showing pics of the movie… it’s just… what? I don’t know. It’s just weird.
Andrew: I agree. Well, and speaking of mixing of the canon, there’s been a little debate stirred up by Pottermore. And also Hypable, to a lesser extent.
Selina: [laughs] We try.
Andrew: On the Lavender Brown profile page, a Hypable reader noticed that in the Lavender Brown fact file, it says, “House: Gryffindor. Death: presumed dead, May 2, 1998.” Now, why is Pottermore, the official resource, official J.K. Rowling website, saying “presumed dead?” You’re J.K. Rowling!
Eric: Is she dead or not?!
[Eric and Selina laugh]
Andrew: Just tell us, is she dead or not? I mean, this shouldn’t be up for debate. And I used the powers of Google to search the entire Pottermore website to see if anybody else is listed as “presumed dead,” and the answer is no, just Lavender. And it reminds me of the fact that we don’t really know if Lavender actually died.
Selina: No.
Andrew: I mean, according to the movie, yes, she died, but not according to the book. It was left open. So I just want…
Selina: Maybe she disappeared into the Fantastic Forest. What’s it called? The Dark Forest? What is it called?
Andrew and Eric: The Forbidden Forest.
Selina: The Forbidden Forest, oh. [laughs]
Eric: Hey, Selina, those seven books you hold dear that are all on your shelf? Go read them again.
Selina: Oh, shoot.
Andrew: Fantastic Forests and Where to Find Them. I agree, Selina. I think the big problem here is Pottermore still doesn’t know what it wants to be.
Micah: Totally agree. And I still go back to my point earlier; it is easy to navigate, but I don’t know what I’m navigating through. I don’t know what it is that it’s trying to be, to your point, Andrew. I really have a hard time understanding. And I’ll spend some time, I’ll go through the site, but somebody mentioned it’s very much Buzzfeed-ish, and even with the layout, it has that very contemporary feel to it, very mosaic, heavy, tiles, and I just… I’m confused as to what it is that I’m going to experience here. I would want to get a companion to the Harry Potter series and get more information as it relates to the stories. I’m somebody who wants that, and that’s what I thought it was. And now it’s got news about Fantastic Beasts, and it’s got integration of the movies, and it’s got all these different pieces that I get why they’re doing it; they’re doing it, I would think, because Fantastic Beasts is coming out in movie theaters in a little over a year, and they need to stay relevant. They need to have more material there than just the books. But then how do fans respond to that? It’s going to be interesting to see.
Selina: But you know what I just realized? And I’ll make this quick, because I know we’re running a bit long, but I realized the whole book versus website, the whole Twitter, J.K. Rowling releasing info… what is upsetting me about it is that it’s mixing the idea of Harry Potter being a work of fiction and us pretending that it’s real. Because if it’s the books, obviously we’re buying into the illusion that this is all real, and if it was an encyclopedia, it would all be there, like, “This is the dates of this person and this person, this is what happened,” and all this lexicon as though it was a real thing, and you can buy into the illusion. But when you mix it with stuff like J.K. Rowling, in one tweet she’s like, “Say hi to James for me,” and then the next one, she’s like, “Okay, so this is Fantastic Beasts casting thing,” and you’ve got Pottermore going, “Oh yeah, Lavender Brown, presumed dead, blah, blah, blah,” and then you’ve got “11 times Snape was the worst,” and it’s just… what is it?
[Eric laughs]
Selina: And Internet doesn’t work at Hogwarts, and what…? I don’t… it confuses my inner imagined child person who just wants to believe it’s all real and it’s all happening somewhere, and I can’t believe that if J.K. Rowling is tweeting about it as though it’s… you know what I mean?
Andrew: Yep.
Selina: I think that’s what it is. It’s like, I want to keep my fiction fiction. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. So let’s move on from Pottermore. We’ll have more to say in the future. I think we’re all very interested to see where it goes from here. First, let’s get those darn quizzes back! That’s what everybody loved about Pottermore!
Micah: Yeah, how could you relaunch this without the Sorting Hat?
Andrew: Exactly.
Selina: “What pet will you bring to Hogwarts?”
Andrew: They should have just waited. I don’t know why they didn’t just wait. I mean, why not?
Selina: “Who is your Weasley soulmate?” See, they could hire me.
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Harry Potter Illustrated Edition and #PotterItForward
Andrew: So in positive fandom news, the first ever Harry Potter illustrated edition hits bookstore shelves on October 6. And I don’t know about you guys, but I am very excited about this. The book is affordable; it’s only about $22, I think, on Amazon. Yeah, $22. It is going to have over 100 illustrations. This is the first book; they’re going to be releasing one new illustrated edition every year. At least that’s the plan right now, as far as I can tell. The illustrations are by Jim Kay. I think we’ve all seen some of the illustrations by now. They’re wonderful. Aren’t you guys excited to reread the books with these illustrations?
Eric: Yes.
Andrew: I am so excited. I was talking with my friend about this the other day; I think we’re going to do a little reading club.
Eric: Oh, that’ll be fun.
Andrew: Yeah, this is the perfect opportunity.
Eric: I’m really excited. I think it’ll be… well, I don’t know what it’ll be like. It’ll be unlike something we’ve ever experienced before. I think the art is going to be beautiful, from what we’ve seen, and it’ll be a new experience, a new way. I mean, I wonder how heavy the book is going to be, but not too worried about it.
Andrew: Me too. I’m really hoping for a midnight release party.
Selina: Aww, cute.
Eric: Yeah, you know there will. You know there will be.
Andrew: Well, we’re only a couple weeks away.
Selina: This is really good for kids. This is really… because I feel like with… I just talked about this on Hype a little bit, too, but my little cousins are getting to the age now where they’re getting ready for Harry Potter, right? And so to their mom, I was like, “Oh, you can start reading them the books soon,” and she was like, “Yeah, I think I want to show them the movies,” and I was like, “No! No!”
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Selina: To the skies. So maybe a more illustrated, kid-friendly… not that it’s for kids, but it might be a good thing.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, speaking of a new generation of readers…
Eric: Aw.
Andrew: … MuggleNet started a great new movement, hashtag #PotterItForward. They challenged fans to write a little note on a Post-it, some sort of piece of paper, and put it in a new copy of a Harry Potter book, so in a library, in a bookstore, etc. And the idea is to let a new reader know what Harry Potter has meant to the previous generation. And it’s…
Selina: Love this.
Andrew: Eric, can you tell us more about it? It’s really been great, hasn’t it?
Eric: Yeah, it really, really has. And I think that one of the coolest things that I’m enjoying seeing… so basically, this was started last month. It was actually September 1, I think, we rolled out with it. But what I’m finding shocking about it is that people are picking different Harry Potter books and different chapters of the Harry Potter books to leave their messages. So just… and all you do is once you’ve left this note in for a future Potter reader to find, you take a picture of it, you use the hashtag #PotterItForward, and you can really read what inspiring messages and personal messages people are leaving for other readers. And I think, Andrew, in your article, you said you went and looked through some books already? Or you will be?
Andrew: No.
Eric: Oh, okay, you know what? It was actually…
Andrew: I said I want to leave one myself.
Eric: Yeah, one of the other articles that mentioned this – it’s been real fun to see the different websites like MTV pick this up – but people are kind of getting really into it, and seeing where and what people are saying, I guess, is the big thing. So I was surprised… you’ll get a letter from somebody, and it’s in Book 1, “The Journey from Platform Nine and Three Quarters,” when Harry first goes to Hogwarts. Okay, that makes sense. But then there’s a really big Hermione fan who’s writing, I don’t know, in the middle of Book 4, the Yule Ball chapter, and it’s just… you never know what chapters people are going to pick that move them the most, or what people feel is the most opportune place in the books to impart on somebody how these books made them feel. And the other thing I like about it is it’s not defacing property. It’s free, or it costs you a slip of paper, and you can leave something very emotional inside a book. And books in general are emotional, but it’s sort of capturing that experience that we all had while…
Micah: So are you seeing people that are taking photos of these messages and then they’re posting them to social media? How are you gauging the reaction that those who are going out and purchasing these books are having?
Eric: Well, we are keeping track of it on social, and I think the big thing about it is seeing actually people are stealing… not notes, but people are sort of, I don’t know, participating through taking existing images, and there’s been some identity thievery or something over people on Instagram posting notes that have already been submitted, so somebody else wrote them, or they’re either writing them or finding them. It’s a bit tough, but we’re just sorting through, I mean, all of the data at this point.
Micah: I think it’s a great campaign. And I still get news alerts related to MuggleNet. You mentioned MTV, but I’ve seen a lot of places pick this up, so great job on this campaign.
Andrew: It went viral.
Micah: It did. It went viral.
Andrew: I’m going to make some #PotterItForward notes that just say, “Listen to MuggleCast!”
[Eric and Selina laugh]
Andrew: I’m going to put them in 30 different books.
Eric: #PotterItForward.
Selina: Way to abuse it for your own benefit.
Andrew: [laughs] #MuggleCastItForward, the new movement.
Selina: Just write, “I love this book because it brought me to MuggleCast.” [laughs]
Andrew: Exactly.
Eric: But I will say, if you guys want to take a look, just search Twitter, search Instagram, #PotterItForward. You can see what other people are writing and leaving in Harry Potter books for other fans. So it’s great. It’s been a lot of fun.
Selina: It’s awesome.
Andrew: Also on the calendar within the next month, it looks like tickets for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child are going to go on sale on October 19. This is the new stage play. It’s not a prequel, according to J.K. Rowling. We’ll see what it actually is. We still don’t really know what it is. Hopefully by the time tickets go on sale, they’ll share more details. Everybody’s dying to know. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child? Well, what is this?”
Eric: Yeah. It’s that new play that isn’t a prequel, right?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Exactly.
Micah: Yes, Pottermore clearly states that it’s not a prequel.
Selina: [laughs] So it must be true.
Fan Theories
Andrew: I wanted to mention a couple fan theories this week as well, because two really went viral since our last episode. First of all, did you guys hear this fan theory suggesting Ginny would have killed Voldemort if Harry Potter died in Deathly Hallows?
Selina: Yes! I love it so much.
Andrew: Yeah. Tell us about it, Selina.
Eric: I haven’t read it.
Selina: Okay, I will tell you about it. It was posted on Hypable.com by Merma, and she found it… and I love this so much because I love Ginny. So it’s a Tumblr user called Mamodork who wrote, “So imagine a Harry Potter where Harry isn’t able to come back at the end of Deathly Hallows. He left Voldemort mortal, but he’s not around to kill him. So the battle rages on, and someone else must kill Voldemort. So Neville takes out Nagini, Molly takes out Bellatrix, and into the void steps Ginny, the first Weasley daughter in over a century, the seventh child of a seventh child, the girl more familiar with the inner workings of Voldemort’s soul than anyone else alive. Protected by Harry’s sacrifice, fearless and burning with righteous fury, she takes the stage. And at long last, Ginevra Weasley has her triumph over Tom Riddle.” Mic drop.
Andrew: I love it.
Selina: It’s so good. I wish that… I mean, I’m happy that Harry survived, but this would have been so awesome, just finally giving her her moment of triumph.
Andrew: Exactly. It would have been a really fun surprise, I think.
Selina: Yes.
Andrew: And then one other worth mentioning, this one about Dumbledore being Death. Now, this one draws comparisons between “The Tale of the Three Brothers” to Harry, Snape, and Voldemort. So… God, I don’t know how to pronounce these names. Antioch, the brother, he would be Voldemort; both are obsessed with power and wanted to conquer death. Cadmus was Snape; both were in love with a woman who died too soon. Cadmus tried to revive his love with the Resurrection Stone, but it didn’t work out how he had hoped. And then Ignotus is Harry; both were in possession of the Invisibility Cloak. So who represented Death? Who would be Death in relation to Harry, Snape, and Voldemort? Well, the answer is Dumbledore.
Eric: Dumbledore!
Andrew: Just like Death with Cadmus and Antioch, Dumbledore played a role in the deaths of Snape and Voldemort, to some degree. So this was another theory. And by the way, the big thing with this one is that J.K. Rowling was all about it! She endorsed the Dumbledore is Death theory! She said, “That’s my favorite theory.” So there you go, guys. It’s legit.
Selina: It’s so good.
Eric: It’s a lot to think about.
Andrew: She said, “It’s a beautiful theory and it fits.”
Micah: Right. Well, if you remember, I mean, wasn’t Dumbledore the one that was in possession of, really, all three? So he was the Master of Death for a period of time. And this idea… not the idea, the reality that he meets Harry at King’s Cross Station in his death, welcoming Harry, but Harry in turn chooses to go back and fight Voldemort. I think it’s an amazing theory, and the fact that it’s been given the seal of approval by J.K. Rowling, whether she intended it to be that way or not, I think is really cool.
Selina: Yeah, me too.
Andrew: Agreed. I love how… and this is another reason why I love the Harry Potter fandom right now. Just like I was talking about with people getting excited for J.K. Rowling’s tweets, people also get really excited about these theories. And there’s been a little bit of debate; some people have said, “Oh, these theories are dumb. The books happened how they were, how they did. Just let it be.” But I love them.
Selina: Me too. See, I love this stuff. I love the fan-speculating and finding new things in canon and exploring them. I love that so much.
Andrew: Yeah, after all this time.
Eric: Always.
[Selina laughs]
Andrew: We will always speculate.
Selina: Yes.
Andrew: I’ll be on my deathbed scrolling through another Harry Potter theory.
Selina: You’ll be like, “Oh, wait! I got it!” And then you die.
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Selina: Sorry. Super morbid.
Andrew: My last thought is a revelation about Harry Potter. [laughs]
Selina: “I figured it out! Yes, this changes everything!” Famous last words.
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Andrew: “I can’t wait to MuggleCast about -” beeeep.
Eric: Aww.
Andrew: Well, on that note.
Selina: RIP. [laughs]
Andrew: On that tragic note. Thank you, everybody, for listening. We really appreciate your support, after all this time. We will be back in October with another episode. Maybe we should do a Halloween discussion next month. We used to always do the Halloween discussions in October.
Eric: Right!
Micah: Let’s do it. We’ll plan something out.
Andrew: Okay. I like it.
Micah: And also, one other thing to point out: I know we didn’t have this on the calendar, but the third book in the Cormoran Strike series, Career of Evil, is released on October the 20th.
Andrew: Yes!
Micah: So Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling. I’m sure we’ll have some information related to that coming up in the next couple weeks.
Andrew: I hope J.K. Rowling does another appearance as Robert Galbraith. Last year she did one event, and she wore a suit and tie, and it was amazing.
Selina: Did she? That’s so cool.
Andrew: Yeah, Google search that. “J.K. Rowling Robert Galbraith.” You’ll see it. [laughs] So who’s caught up on the Robert Galbraith series? Just Micah and I?
Eric: Yeah, I haven’t read the second one yet. I loved the first one.
Andrew: You’ve got to read the second one. Start reading that right after this.
Eric: I will.
Andrew: Good. Thanks, Micah, for that reminder. All right, well, I think that’s all. I want to plug the podcast that I do with Laura, Elysa, and Matt every week: MillennialShow.com. It’s about pop culture, about politics, about life, about everything. And you can subscribe on iTunes, but to get a good introduction to the show, just go to MillennialShow.com. Anything else, guys?
Selina: I want to plug Hype.
Andrew: Oh!
Selina: If I can.
Eric: Go ahead.
Selina: The show you used to do with me, Andrew, but now you have new friends… or I suppose old friends.
Andrew: Now we record Millennial on the same night. [laughs]
Selina: Yeah, how convenient that that happened.
[Eric and Selina laugh]
Selina: So it’s just us – it’s me and Marama and Pam and Kyle from Hypable – and we bring in other staff members as well to talk about the latest news in pop culture, so basically all the big stories that have happened in movies and TV and books within the past week. And we do specials sometimes; we just did a Merlin retrospective, which was a lot of fun.
Micah: Wow.
Selina: I know, we’re still talking about that.
[Andrew and Selina laugh]
Selina: Speaking of things we can’t get over. And we did a special about Ready Player One, the book that’s being adapted by Steven Spielberg. So good.
Andrew: That’s going to be amazing.
Selina: Yes, we’re so excited for that. So you can check us out on Hypable.com if you click the left hand corner, those little lines, and you can find podcasts in there. Super easy to navigate.
Micah: Yes, unlike… well, no, I was going to say unlike Pottermore.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: And then Eric and I are doing a podcast with our friend Zack Luye, called Game of Owns. You may have heard us mention it on this show before, but we have a pretty big event coming up next month in New York City on October the 9th, in conjunction with New York Comic-Con. We’re doing a live show.
Eric: Yes.
Selina: I saw the art on Twitter. It’s so creepy, but it’s so cool.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: It’s us as White Walkers.
Selina: Yes. [laughs]
Micah: So we will be at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square on the 9th of October with our good friend Kristian Nairn, who will be DJing, as well as a bunch of other good events that we have planned during that time, and maybe some other guests who will appear as well. But it was a big weekend this past weekend for Game of Thrones at the Emmys, so Season 6 is in the midst of filming, and we’re just having a lot of fun doing the show, so check us out at GameOfOwns.com
Eric: Before we wrap up, I’ll plug another podcast that we do. Actually, I’ll plug two.
Micah: Damn.
Eric: One’s literary discussion; we talk about Harry Potter. We’re going through the books over on MuggleNet’s Alohomora!, and we’re in the middle of Book 7, so we’re just about to wrap up. But it’s a global reread podcast, and just like we used to do on MuggleCast with Chapter by Chapter, each new podcast episode is devoted to a chapter of the books. So for Harry Potter fans, listeners of this show who are not listening to Alohomora!, you should be. And earlier in the show, we talked about me being a Star Trek fan. I edit a podcast called Improvised Star Trek. Just go and check that out if you also like Star Trek, or if you like long form improv, which that show is.
Selina: We need more podcasts. [laughs]
Andrew: All right. Thank you, everybody, for listening. And yeah, if you need a weekly podcast option, there’s 80.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So thanks, everybody, for listening, and we will see you next time for Episode 283. Goodbye.
Eric: See you then! Bye!
Micah and Selina: Bye.