Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #284, The Cursed Podcast
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 284. I know what you’re saying; we just did an episode a couple days ago. But as luck would have it, I really don’t know what our… I guess you could say we’re cursed.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: As we were recording, we found out the big news about the Cursed Child, the new and first Harry Potter stage play. As we learned about 40 minutes into our last episode, this is the “eighth story.” So of course, everybody lost their minds, and we, while recording the last episode, didn’t have enough time to process this. I mean, this is huge news. So we decided to record another episode. Eric and Micah are here this week, and I’m also happy to say Laura is here this week. Hello, Laura.
Laura Tee: Hi, guys. How are you?
Andrew: Good to have you back on the show.
Laura: It’s great to be back.
Andrew: And I know you’re excited as well.
Laura: I am.
Andrew: So I guess… here’s the latest. We’ll start with the latest news, and we’ll pray that no more Cursed Child news breaks…
Eric Scull: As we’re doing this recording.
Andrew: … as we’re recording, yeah.
[Eric laughs]
News
Andrew: So tickets went on sale in a presale this morning, October 28. I don’t know about you guys, but I was up at 4:00 a.m. Pacific Time, [laughs] and ticket sales went very well. We’ll talk about that a little later. As we digested in the middle of last week’s episode, we have found out that this is an eighth story – that’s the way they’re marketing it – following Harry and his son Albus Severus. And this is big news because they are explicitly…
Micah Tannenbaum: It’s just Al, Andrew.
Andrew: Just Al. I’m very sorry, Micah. We’re being told this is a sequel to Deathly Hallows, and Harry is going to be overworked at the Ministry of Magic, and Al is going to be struggling with his father’s fame, as well as, I guess, going to Hogwarts. It’s set 19 years later when he’s going to school. So now that we’ve had more time to think about this, how are you guys feeling about this whole idea?
Laura: I’m really excited.
Andrew: Yeah? What excites you most?
Laura: Well, I mean, I don’t know. This is just something that has been such a big part of my life for so long that being able to get another story from J.K. Rowling is just absolutely thrilling. I can’t wait.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s really surreal, isn’t it? [laughs]
Eric: It does feel that way.
Andrew: When we were recording last week, I was just sitting in awe. I never thought I would see the words “the eighth story” in an official capacity.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: I thought it was done. I thought Harry’s story was done.
Laura: Eric, you sound a little disenchanted.
Eric: Ohh, you called me out, Laura.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: The magic’s not there. The magic has faded.
Andrew: Are you?
Eric: No, guys, I didn’t get tickets.
Andrew: Oh, that’s why? That’s why you’re feeling bothered?
Eric: That’s why. I didn’t…
Laura: Oh, I’m sorry.
Eric: I was 40,000 in line, and I didn’t have a lot of confidence…
Micah: StubHub.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: And the scalpers really discourage, or dishearten me, so that’s why I’m disheartened. But I don’t know, guys. This is going to be an interesting occurrence. I feel like on the last MuggleCast, we scratched the surface of things to talk about. Andrew asked, “Is it fair? Is it sort of exclusive? Does it exclude a big part of the fandom by being theater?”
Andrew: Yeah, so this is what… I wrote about this on Hypable last week, and I was accused at least by one person of pandering.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: But I genuinely am concerned…
Eric: Was it because you wrote a letter? It was an open letter? [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, exactly. People didn’t like that I shared my opinion. No, what I’m concerned about is that this is – like I keep saying – being marketed as an eighth story. It’s the tagline. So I think there’s an expectation there that, dear Queen Rowling, if you were giving us the eighth story, I think this needs to be accessible to all. England, or more specifically London, is only easily accessible, affordably accessible, to 1% of the world population. The rest of us have to not only buy tickets to two parts of a play, but we also have to fly over there, and for somebody like me who’s coming from LA, that’s a $1,000 ticket. So the question is… and people have been saying, “Well, Andrew, most plays, they are released in some fashion, in let’s say a book printed. The script will be printed in a book, or it’ll be filmed. The play will be filmed. It won’t be adapted like a Harry Potter movie was from a book, but it’ll just be shot on stage.” I think these are great ideas, but the question is: How long do we have to wait? Because Harry Potter fans are diehard fans, and we cannot… I know this sounds greedy, but we cannot wait two/three years from now to find out what happens in the eighth story in a book or a play. So naturally, we are going to go on Tumblr and read someone’s crappy recap of what happens.
Eric: I was going to say, I don’t think it’ll take more than a day and a half for us to figure out what happens in this story.
Andrew: Well, exactly, but is that how we should be consuming this story for the first time?
Eric: Oh, yeah, maybe not.
Laura: I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Andrew: Don’t think what’s going to happen?
Laura: I don’t think it’s going to happen that way. I don’t think that we’re going to have to find… I mean, I guess if you want to find out about it through crappy Tumblr recaps, you can, but I have a feeling, knowing J.K. Rowling, and knowing the fact that she knows this fandom so well, she’s not going to leave us empty handed. I’d be very surprised.
Eric: I mean, just an official West End review would probably do wonders to explain what happens and what’s going on. And I’m sure they’ll try and leave some things up to the people who can see it. But I mean, right now haven’t tickets been sold through the beginning of 2017?
Andrew: Yeah, and this is just the presale. So if you planned ahead, you could make an account through this ticketing website, and you could get access to tickets this morning. It was 11:00 a.m. London time, 7:00 a.m. East. And I was one of the people, and it was pretty streamlined. They gave you a custom email, you click on your custom link, and they put you in the queue, and everybody got the email before the on sale time, so you knew how long you’d be waiting. Now, there were a lot of people. When I jumped in, I was 14,000th in the queue, and I was like, “Well, I guess I’m not going to see this.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: But luckily, some other Hypable people were doing it as well, and they got tickets. So we all kind of ganged up to make sure we got tickets for each other. And then I waited long enough, and then I ended up helping one of my friends get tickets as well.
Micah: So when are you going? What is your date?
Andrew: I’m going June 7 and 9, baby. The first two shows, Parts 1 and 2.
Eric: How’d you manage that? How do you swing the first two shows?
Andrew: I was concerned as well, but evidently… I mean, people have got to travel far, so they can’t just pick any day.
Eric: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Andrew: But for me, I don’t have any plans next June.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: So Eric, I don’t… what happened to you exactly?
Eric: So I found out about it too late, was the thing. I guess I wasn’t up on my Cursed Child news, is all. So I said I was 40,000 in line. Actually, that’s not true. I didn’t get into the line.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Yeah, it was kind of a surprise to me, but I immediately said, “Oh, I shouldn’t,” to myself. I went to London this year, and that cost me an arm and a leg, and I just can’t do another trip. Plus, I was saving up for 2017, right? September 1, 2017 is the 19 Years Later day, King’s Cross station. I had all these trips planned, and Cursed Child, which came out and hit us in the face early this week with all of these details, it was just not one of my plans. And so I want to be really receptive and really fair about the whole situation, but I think I decided early on, maybe even during last recording, that I wasn’t going to go and see this. And it’s possible that due to the resounding success that it is bound to have, that it’ll come to New York; maybe it’ll be accessible. But then a part of me was thinking, “You know, even if that doesn’t happen, we’ve had a good run seeing J.K. Rowling, seeing Harry Potter events like Carnegie Hall, and Harry, Carrie, and Garp.”
Andrew: [laughs] So you’re saying you’ve done a lot, so you won’t be upset.
Eric: All these events that I’ve been to before have made me really happy. Maybe it’s… I’m not going to say passing a torch, because I’m still very much interested in being a part of this fandom, but if I never got tickets to see it, then I would feel happy for those who did still, and that’s kind of my initial thoughts on the whole thing.
Laura: Well, I probably won’t see it.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: No? You won’t go to London.
Laura: No, I don’t have money.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Laura: But I’m still excited.
Micah: Yeah, I mean, this ties into what Andrew said earlier, though, but it’s… I guess I’m countering it in a way, and that is: You look at that, being specifically in London, really only accessible to a specific part of the population…
Andrew: 1%.
Micah: … but the same could be said for the Studio Tour. The same could be said for the theme parks.
Andrew: See, here’s the difference, though: This is a new story. This is the eighth story. So I don’t think you can argue that same point.
Eric: Well, I would say I side partially with Micah, just because, I mean, what did people even in, say, the middle of America…? What do people in North Dakota do for the movie premieres or the theme parks? There’s still some people isolated. It’s a big country. It’s a big world. And even though the Studio Tour, for instance, which Micah just mentioned, has been to now maybe 10 or 14 cities – think they keep going back to some – there’s still people who missed out on a really unique experience that was an official experience. Granted, it wasn’t a new story; you’re completely right, Andrew. But I just… I wonder if there aren’t just tons of people out there who have never been to these events that can now go to this one.
Micah: And I do think people are going to be able to experience this all in some way. I can’t imagine that with a lot of this news coming through Pottermore that that is not going to be a vehicle that J.K. Rowling and possibly those that are producing the play use, not only to market it, but to possibly release scenes, to release scripts, to do other things, because remember, they’ve gone through an entire transformation. They’re not what we knew a couple of years ago. So perhaps this is going to be part of their redesign and their relaunch, heading into the next couple of years. I just… I wouldn’t go to London with intent of seeing this play. If I was going to London on a trip and had other things planned, maybe this is one of the things that I’d plan. But I don’t think it has an impact on me maybe the same way it’s having on other people, the fact that this is new canon, that it’s potentially additional story and characters and material. I don’t know. Maybe because it’s not being told through the same medium, it just doesn’t have such a strong impact on me.
Andrew: We are going to continue with today’s discussion of the Cursed Child 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 out and about, maybe doing some chores, maybe walking the dog, maybe walking to class… whatever you’re doing when you listen to music, you could be listening to an audiobook and getting reading done a lot faster. For listeners of MuggleCast, Audible is offering you a free audiobook to give you a chance to try out the great service. And this week, I am going to recommend, once again, Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling. I am still listening to this book right now. I recently hit a point, a big point in the book. No spoilers, of course, but this thing that I hit is exactly why I love J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series. She slowly drops little tidbits about the two lead characters into this series on a whole, and I just love where these characters are going. I love their backstories, as tragic as they may be, wink, wink. So visit AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. You can hear this excellent book for yourself for free, or any other book in J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series. AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast today for your free audiobook, and thank you, Audible, for your support of MuggleCast.
Cursed Child discussion
Andrew: So let’s say J.K. Rowling decides to release this as… she says, “Okay, you guys. Come this August, after the initial run of shows and all that, we’re going to film this, or we’re going to put this in a book.” Which one would you guys prefer? Book, or let’s say you go into a movie theater, one of those Fathom Events where you watch a play live. Which would you guys prefer?
Eric: You know what, I’m going to actually say the filmed version of the play, because there is something about theater. It’s meant to be performed.
Laura: Yes.
Eric: Sure, you can read it. Of course you can read it…
Micah: Put it on Pottermore.
Eric: … but something like the stage directions – yeah, you could put it on Pottermore – does not do the justice to the production value that this play is bound to have, costuming and other things that will never show up in a book form unless it’s a picture book, which they could do also. But I would vote, between those two options…
Andrew: [laughs] Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the illustrated edition.
Eric: The illustrated edition, yeah.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Between those two options, I would definitely choose a filmed version, a live performance filmed.
Laura: I would like that too, but I would also like to actually have a print copy of the play.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: That would be cool. I think it also… it’d be better if it’s in a theater because you can gather with fellow fans and watch it for the first time. I think that’d be a cool experience. And if they did that next year, that would be a really great way to rev up the fandom before Fantastic Beasts opens next November.
Eric: I have to say, I was surprised by just how quickly and how enthusiastically these tickets have sold today on short notice. This play is being billed as the eighth Harry Potter story, but it’s not being written… it hasn’t been written by J.K. Rowling. It’s authorized by her; it’s written by this other guy.
Micah: That’s the other thing.
Eric: And they like each other, and there’s been some interviews with the creative team, but it’s not technically written by J.K. Rowling.
Andrew: She co-wrote it.
Eric: Oh, did she?
Andrew: What were you going to say about that point, Micah?
Micah: Yeah, well, I agree in part with what Eric is getting at here, which is you said that she co-wrote it, but if it’s not authentically hers, and she’s not the one fully behind the writing, I think that lessens the experience a little bit. Because yes, we saw some of this with her giving up the writing to Steve Kloves and David Heyman and all the directors throughout the course of the Potter films…
Eric: Mmm, I didn’t even think about that.
Micah: … but you want it to be from her. And I know she’s involved; I guess it just depends on the level of involvement. If you’re going to sit down and you’re going to read the script as if it’s a story – and it is, sort of, the eighth installment – you want to know that it’s her pen to paper, that it wasn’t really influenced by somebody who maybe has a little bit more experience in theater and in scripting plays. So that’s why, again, this doesn’t have the same level of impact for me that I see it having on a lot of other people, in terms of, “Hey, we’re finally going to get more on what happened 19 years later.”
Laura: Well, again – and Micah, you kind of alluded to this – but I think that the media does matter, the type of media being used. The reason that she handed over writing to Steve Kloves is because she’s not a movie person, and I think the same reason that she’s probably handed over some responsibilities in this case is because she’s not a playwright. So I don’t think that necessarily means that the original concept has been molded by other people, but maybe that she’s allowing other people to help guide her in the best way to do this performance.
Micah: That’s a fair point. And I do think, though, that then people would probably want the initial product that she put together, the story that she wrote that maybe then this person is taking and turning into a play.
Laura: It’d be a cool thing to put on Pottermore.
Eric: Yeah, that would be. I don’t know that that exists, though, because this whole process is collaboration. It’s all about John Tiffany and Jack Thorne, the writer and the director, meeting with J.K. Rowling. There was an interview with them, actually; I’m reading these quotes that we’ve selected in this article on MuggleNet right now, but it says… here’s one from Thorne. “Jack went away and came back with the…” Or sorry, this is from John Tiffany. “Jack went away and came back with the first 40 pages. The big thing had happened. He’d written dialogue for Jo’s characters and they sounded like themselves. He’d brought them back. I can’t tell you what it was like to see that.” And then this is a quote from Thorne: “Sometimes I can’t believe it; the idea that we have written the eighth story of Harry Potter. The whole time, I’ve felt this great responsibility of the previous seven stories. Theatre is very different to film; we’ve had to find our own way into the stories. We are starting to see it all come together in workshops now and it’s just wonderful.” And I have no doubt that it’s wonderful; I’m sure that it is, but it’s an interesting medium in general, and I just… before I could… I basically blinked and missed the opportunity to see this, but I don’t know. I don’t understand just how and why it’s so popular. Is it that phrase? “The next Harry Potter story”?
Andrew: I guess… well, that is certainly helping in a big way. But look, I mean, J.K. Rowling was involved in this, she did co-write it, so these things that happen are going to be considered canon for all intents and purposes.
Eric: Well, do you remember the other day Star Wars tickets went on sale? And everybody sat on ticket websites? That hasn’t happened yet with Fantastic Beasts.
Andrew: No, and it won’t.
Eric: And Fantastic Beasts is coming sooner.
Andrew: Right, but that’s a completely different set of characters. No, wait, wait…
Eric: But that film… I’m just comparing the two, because that film was written by J.K. Rowling. So it’s like, here you have this Cursed Child theater thing…
Andrew: Oh, I see.
Eric: … that’s located in one small geographical area, next year, across a year. And then you have this film that’s coming out that she wrote, it’s got everybody you know behind it, and it hasn’t gotten near as much excitement. How does that work?
Andrew: Because people care about the trio. People are dying to see what happened to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I mean, I was actually…
Eric: I thought the seventh book settled that.
Andrew: In light of all this, I recently did a search for things that happened after Harry Potter ended or something like that, and I found this BuzzFeed article that recounts all the things that J.K. Rowling said about what happened to the characters, and it’s been… I mean, it’s BuzzFeed, so everything gets big traffic, but it had been viewed over 5 million times! So people really care to learn what happened after the final book. And I think people have always really had an interest in Albus Severus and the other kids since reading the epilogue, so yeah, I think that’s why it’s been so popular.
Eric: I want to correct myself real quickly. I made a huge mistake. It actually comes out… Fantastic Beasts comes out 18th November next year. I just made the mistake of saying it came out before Star Wars.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, I was thinking that.
Eric: Okay, if they’re selling tickets for a play well into 2017 already, where’s that hubbub for Fantastic Beasts? Why is Fantastic Beasts – which I find to be, personally, more exciting – not getting that kind of response?
Micah: Because it’s not Potter directly. That’s why.
Laura: Well, and I think also the Cursed Child is limited, right? Fantastic Beasts you’re going to be able to see in any theater anywhere around the world.
Eric: Oh, that could be it.
Laura: This play, there’s only one place you can go, and there’s a very limited amount of availability.
Andrew: And they haven’t started promoting Fantastic Beasts yet.
Micah: Yeah, and I was going to say, let tickets go on sale, and then we can have sort of a basis of comparison for that.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: Don’t worry, Warner Bros. is going to hype it up.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Laura: Supply and demand.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, part of me… does anybody here think that maybe J.K. Rowling should have actually written this as a book?
Eric and Laura: No.
[Micah laughs]
Laura: I will say this: I trust J.K. Rowling. I trust her. I can’t really think of one thing that she has done related to her stories, in the entire time that we’ve been talking about them, that has been bad. Except for the epilogue.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You didn’t like that, Laura? No wonder you’re not excited for the Cursed Child.
Micah: Yeah, I was going to say…
Laura: No, I am very excited about it, and I totally trust her judgment. I think this is going to be something new and very cool for the fandom.
Andrew: But wait, what’s your problem with the epilogue?
Eric: What didn’t you like about…? Yeah.
Laura: I just… I didn’t think it was the best piece of writing she’s ever done.
Micah: She wasn’t a fan.
Andrew: [laughs] I mean, yeah, I guess.
Micah: One of the things, though, about that that I think back to is knowing that at least the foundation for the epilogue was written pretty much at the beginning. I wonder, as she grew as a writer throughout the course of the seven books, if maybe that’s just her being less mature as a writer and so it not fitting as well into the overall story.
Eric: Maybe she refrained from rewriting it towards the end of the process because she was so nostalgic for it.
Laura: I think she actually said that she didn’t do very much editing on that.
Micah: If you think of the timing of it, right? The fact that it was written pretty much from the beginning; she was still writing Sorcerer’s Stone back then. So I’m sure even she would say she evolved as a writer over the course of the years that she put this series together…
Laura: Oh, absolutely.
Micah: … so maybe that’s why that doesn’t fit as well.
Eric: Yeah, certain people have way other issues with the epilogue, though. They don’t like that it paired everybody up, answered relationship questions for shippers. They hate the epilogue for that reason.
Laura: Oh, that’s not my problem with it.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. I’m a little ambivalent how I feel about it.
Andrew: But real quick, could the epilogue ever have lived up to expectations? I mean, how do you end a series like that?
Eric: Well, that’s my excuse for the seventh book, why I don’t like the seventh book. It’s like, “Oh, how could it have…?”
Laura: You don’t like the seventh book?
Eric: No, heavens no. But could it ever have lived up…?
Laura: But I was with you when you read it. How did I miss this?
Andrew: She was too busy crying.
Eric: I was quiet in the corner the whole day. I remember this.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Laura: In that little, tiny hotel room.
Micah: Internal rage.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. No, no, it wasn’t. It was something… it’s a general… I won’t get into that, but I like that there’s new stories being told. I like the idea of Harry as a father. The one thing that didn’t sit with me for the whole series, too, is Harry as a… there was sort of the hero’s journey, the way that the hero, if he survives the past, is immortal, or he has no future; he’s never allowed to grow up or go past that moment. Once the stories are over, they’re over. Now, seeing that character that J.K. Rowling wrote, that we’re so familiar with, as a father, dealing with different challenges, that excites me. That, I’m genuinely interested in seeing, because it’s outside… because of the time that has passed between when he was Hogwarts age Harry and what he is now. I will say, though, part of these descriptions are making me think that we’re going to start seeing some Death Eaters recurring, or something from the past, this evil that doesn’t stay dead, whatever it was that the bio says. Really worries me that there will be some stuff from the books that probably should just be left alone in the books.
Andrew: Voldemort comes back.
Eric: I don’t know about Voldemort, but something.
Micah: Well, I said this on the previous episode, though, but just the fact that Albus could be cursed in the sense that he’s Harry’s child. I know that there could be actual dark forces at work throughout the course of this play, but just the sense that… knowing that – and I think it mentions this in the description – that he has to live up to expectations. He has to live up to his father, and what his father was able to accomplish. That could, in and of itself, make him cursed. So it can almost be a double meaning. But I like what Laura said earlier, just about the fact that it’s continuing on Potter, it’s making it still relevant here in 2015 and beyond, and I think they could have a lot of fun with this. I think that you could bring back so many actors to play different roles that are still alive on the West End.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Oh, none of them are coming back.
Micah: No, I think you could!
Eric: Well, I will say, there’s 30 more names to memorize, because the actor names.
Andrew: I think it’ll be… that’s an interesting question, Micah, but I don’t think… I mean, we know Dan Radcliffe has done everything in his power to distance himself from Harry Potter, so he’s not coming back.
Micah: Rupert needs something to do.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Rupert does need something to do. He should come back.
Laura: Poor Rupert.
Andrew: See, but wouldn’t it be weird? I don’t think they can cast anybody from the movies, because then that one person sticks out.
Laura: Yeah, I agree.
Andrew: And the other fun side of this is that J.K. Rowling is probably going to drop a bunch of interesting tidbits in here. For example, we don’t know Albus Severus’s House. What if he’s a Slytherin?
Laura: He’s totally going to be a Slytherin.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And this could be a chance – and I’m dead serious here – for J.K. Rowling to redeem Slytherins.
Eric: No.
Andrew: Yes!
Eric: Make him a Hufflepuff. Redeem Hufflepuff.
Andrew: Okay, redeem them both. I mean, maybe he can have a friend in Hufflepuff. Maybe he dates a Hufflepuff.
Eric: That would be awesome.
Laura: He’ll be a Slytherin and he dates a Hufflepuff.
Eric: I’m sold. I’m going to get scalper tickets to see this.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Do you guys have any one question that you’re hoping does get answered in this play?
Eric: Ooh, that’s a good question. That in and of itself is a good question.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Oh my gosh.
Eric: Yeah, does Harry spend any of…? Here’s my question: Does Harry spend any of his time, since he works at the Ministry, in the room with the veil, trying to commune with Sirius? Or has he made any efforts to figure out just what the heck happened in that room?
Laura: I would like to know why she ended the epilogue with “All is well,” because clearly it’s not.
Eric: Clearly it’s not.
Andrew: All was well for Harry.
Micah: All was well… until…
Laura: [laughs] 19 years later.
Andrew: [laughs] She should have ended with scar.
Eric: [laughs] I agree.
Andrew: “Harry Potter and the Scar.” So we asked on social media: What are your thoughts on this? We got some feedback. Mira writes,
“I’m a little frustrated that I won’t be able to see it. I haven’t yet heard anything about it coming to Broadway or going on tour, and even by that point, I feel like a lot of it will be spoiled online. I love theater, but I think the play is going to hit the fans differently since not everyone will be able to see it.”
So she has some feelings similar to ours. But I have to say, this definitely will be going to Broadway. This definitely will be touring. But like Mira brings up, what are we going to do? Are we all… people who aren’t going to London. Are we going to wait, or are we going to read spoilers online? I guess we’ll do both, right?
Eric: I mean, more so than movies or books, this play will… there will be haves and have-nots in the Harry Potter fans. It’ll be divided for at least some period of time, as is acceptable. I would actually not like it if it were, say, available in theaters within a month of its release on the West End, because that would cheapen the experience of being there in person and seeing it. There’s still something special about it. So there’s some period of time that it makes sense to wait before releasing the footage or the content of the play, but I don’t know exactly where that line should be drawn.
Laura: I just think this is going to be a really interesting intersection of a community that is so easily riddled with spoilers, and then a community – being the theater community – where spoilers aren’t really a thing. I go to Broadway shows here as frequently as I can, and you go up and you read the synopsis and it gives you the basic overview, and you go into it sort of knowing how it’s going to end, but you’re not really there for the ending; you’re there for the show, right? You’re there to enjoy the performance.
Andrew: That’s true.
Eric: Yeah. Well, Laura, I have to ask, did you end up seeing It’s Only a Play while that was on Broadway?
Laura: No.
Eric: Okay, because Rupert was in that, and it was very funny.
Laura: Okay.
Eric: But I happened to see that. Yeah, so I’ve seen a lot of things with these people in it, and I’m happy. I mean, I did miss Equus, but I got to see Dan on Broadway for How to Succeed when that came. And so I feel like I’ve been to a number of shows that I can be proud of…
Micah: But New York is a lot closer than London.
Eric: … but I think I will miss Cursed Child, most likely. Unless…
Andrew: I want to see Albus Severus come out as gay. Maybe that’s one of the dark things he’s struggling with.
Laura: A gay Slytherin who’s dating a Hufflepuff.
Andrew: Never thought I’d see the day.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: It’s Luna Lovegood’s son or something, I don’t know, in Hufflepuff, who’s gay.
Laura: No, it’s Draco Malfoy’s son.
Eric: Oh, gosh.
Andrew: [laughs] Draco Malfoy would have a Hufflepuff?
Laura: Scorpius. Isn’t that his name?
Andrew: Yes. What was his name?
Laura and Micah: Scorpius.
Andrew: I’m double checking. Is it?
Laura: Yeah, I’m pretty sure.
Andrew: Was it a double name, though? No, it wasn’t.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: I mean like “Albus Severus.” According to the Harry Potter Wiki, his name is Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. [laughs]
Laura: What is with this generation of wizards and weird names?
Andrew: What’s with any author and their weird names? I mean, like Stephenie Meyer this month with the gender swapped Twilight…
Laura: Oh my God, I don’t even… I can’t even address that.
Andrew: … calling them Edith and Beaufort.
Eric: Beaufort. Oh, I didn’t know that.
Andrew: Yeah, short for… or long for…
Eric: How was that, by the way? Not to get off topic.
Andrew: I haven’t finished reading it.
Eric: Okay. I was excited about it.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. I hear… this play is actually gender swapped Harry Potter. That’s the twist to get everybody in. [laughs]
Eric: Ahh. You know what? Actually, I’m going to change… or no, I won’t change my question, but I’m really excited to see Harry and Ginny as parents. Mostly for Ginny. I hope Ginny is a part of this show.
Andrew: Yeah, I bet she will be.
Eric: And I hope she’s a big part of this show.
Andrew: Yeah, and I’m just imagining going to this surrounded by Harry Potter fans. And for myself, being at one of the first shows, we’re all going to be learning… there are going to be some May preview shows; there’s going to be four, and I don’t know who those are going to be for yet, probably VIPs and whatnot. But I think being at the first “fan shows” will be really exciting. It’ll feel like being at a Harry Potter conference or a book release.
Eric: That will be something very special. You’re right. You’re 100% right.
Andrew: Yeah, so if anybody wants to buy my ticket, I’ll sell it to you for $1,000.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: For just Part 1.
Eric: Ohhh.
Andrew: [laughs] $10,000 for Part 2.
Eric: Can you do that?
Andrew: Yeah, they’re separate tickets.
Eric: Oh, man.
Andrew: That’s the other thing; it’s like, not only is J.K. Rowling dragging us out to London to see this, but it’s also two shows. And in fairness, the tickets are pretty cheap, but still, it’s two parts, epic nature of the story…
Laura: And there’s an intermission in each part?
Andrew: Probably.
Laura: Good grief.
Andrew: They’re two separate days. There’s actually… there are some days where you can see both parts in one day, but that doesn’t seem… so I’m seeing it June 7, and then I’ll have a day to recover on June 8 and theorize and speculate about what’s going to happen, and then June 9 will be Part 2.
Eric: That’ll be fun.
Andrew: What if Harry dies or something?
Eric: I don’t… I don’t know.
Andrew: Do you think she’ll kill any characters in this?
Eric: She… hmm…
Andrew: You almost said she should.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: It’s not controversial enough if she doesn’t kill somebody.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s true.
Micah: This is not Game of Thrones.
Eric: It’s not Harry Potter after Book 4 if somebody doesn’t die.
Andrew: What if Scorpius dies?
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: He died of a bad name.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Okay, well, we wanted to make this short. Anything else you guys wanted to say?
Laura: No.
Eric: I am genuinely… I’m really excited that this is something that’s happening.
Andrew: Me too.
Eric: Like I said on the last episode, that J.K. Rowling is continually being intrigued by these various options, that she continues to roll out creative things that have to do in this world, great. I feel really happy about that, that J.K. Rowling is not completely ignoring the mass appeal of Harry Potter fans. And there’s a commercial aspect to it, but I don’t think that’s what this is all about, and I don’t think that’s what Fantastic Beasts is all about. I mean, something about this story… when this writer and this director approached J.K. Rowling, something about the story clicked, just like when Warner Bros. approached her about Fantastic Beasts. Something clicked, and she has said yes, and I think I’m along the lines of what Laura said, going to be trusting of J.K. Rowling, trusting that the quality is there. So I am excited for this to be unleashed upon the world. I look forward to reading everybody’s response to it.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s an exciting time in fandom, I think, and I just… this has been an exciting month for Harry Potter fans.
Eric: Oh, heck yes.
Andrew: The illustrated edition, and this, and J.K. Rowling’s book, new Cormoran Strike book… so yeah, I’m very excited for this play. I think it’s going to be very fun to talk about and very fun to experience. So Laura, thank you for coming on.
Laura: Thank you for having me.
Andrew: Laura and I are MillennialShow.com, doing the weekly podcast. Eric and Micah are at GameOfOwns.com. And we’ll see everybody sometime in November for more. I think we should do a deeper talk on what J.K. Rowling should do in this play. What can she give us? Like redeeming Slytherins, things like that. What can she straighten out?
Eric: Well, yeah, like I said, redeeming Ginny definitely, because even in the books…
Laura: We’ll really have to start theorizing.
Andrew: Oh, yeah, Ginny. Because I really did not like Bonnie Wright’s portrayal as Ginny. [laughs]
Eric: No, it’s not just the movies; in the books, the best days of Harry’s life during year six are spent off screen. You don’t read about it. It’s like, Harry talks about, “Oh, all these wonderful, sunny days alongside the lake, by the giant squid, by that tree, under that tree…” and you’re just like, “Okay, this is a POV book of Harry, and we didn’t see that happen?” It’s for time or whatever. So J.K. Rowling robbed the Ginny/Harry thing even in the books, and I want to see some very intense, dynamic relationship that really hooks to me. That’s what I’m most looking forward to now.
Andrew: Yeah. All right, well, thank you, everybody, for listening. We’ll see you next week – or next month, sorry – for Episode 285.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: You never know.
Micah: Who knows?
Andrew: You never know. Coming soon, Harry Potter 9. You’ll have to go to the Moon to see it.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: See everybody next time. Goodbye.
Laura and Micah: Bye.