Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #286, Newt’s Theme
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 286. Eric, Micah, and Mikey are here this week. Hey, Mikey. Long time, no see.
Mikey B.: I know. Hey, Andrew. How you doing?
Andrew: Good, good. Good to have you on. Mikey messaged me bright and early this morning after the trailer came out, “Can I be on MuggleCast??” I was like, “Yeah!”
Mikey B.: That’s kind of what it was. I saw the trailer; I’m like, “I need to be on MuggleCast! I love this! It’s amazing! Ahhh!”
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: It really was just like that too.
Eric Scull: It really was bright and early, wasn’t it, guys? It came out… I mean, it was 5:45, and people were… in the morning, and I’m never up that early, but it just happened to… I rolled over and it was like, “Notification, notification, notification…” I realize it’s 11:00 a.m. or close to noon British, so maybe that’s why they did that.
Andrew: Yeah, I actually just flew back to New Jersey on Sunday, and yesterday, Monday, I slept till 10:00 or 11:00 a.m., but then this morning I knew the trailer was coming out, and I set my alarm for 7:00 or 6:00. I had no problem getting up this morning. [laughs] I was like, “Whoop, I’m awake!”
Micah Tannenbaum: Well, that must be it, Andrew. They waited for you to come back east so they can mess around with your jet lag.
Andrew: Yes. Yeah, I’ll be going to bed at 4:00 p.m. tonight. So anyway, I was thinking back, the last time we did a trailer episode of MuggleCast to discuss a new Harry Potter trailer…
Eric: Oh, God.
Andrew: … was back in June 2011 for Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: And what do you know? Here we are again.
Eric: Four and a half years later.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. And we’re going to talk about it, but first, a quick little plug for our Patreon survey that we brought up on the last episode. We are considering, as you may have heard last episode, launching a Patreon, with the main objective to make the show weekly again. So we’d love your feedback on the Patreon, what you would like to see from it, how much you’d be interested in contributing… just go to MuggleCast.com and you’ll find the link right at the top, and it’ll just take a couple minutes, so thank you for your time.
Eric: Thanks to everybody who has been filling that out. It’s provided great information for us.
Andrew: Absolutely, yeah.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trailer
Andrew: So getting onto the trailer now, this was about one minute and 45 seconds of wizarding world goodness. What was everybody’s first impressions?
Eric: I’m going to let Mikey go. Mikey, what was your first impression?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Mikey B.: Right from the beginning with Lumos Maxima, I was just like, “Ohhh!” You’ve got to understand; I got really excited.
Eric: How excited?
Mikey B.: So here’s the thing: It came out, I was on my way to work. I didn’t watch it while driving; I wanted to, but I’m like, “No, that’s unsafe. I’m responsible and all that.” So I waited, I got into the parking lot, and I started watching on my phone, and I was like, “That’s really cool.” So then I went into work, and then I watched it on a big computer screen, and I was really excited. And then everyone else wanted to see what it was, because they saw me just geeking out over it, and they knew it wasn’t Star Wars, so they’re like, “What else are you geeking out over?”
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey B.: That’s what it was. So I was just super excited for everything. I will say, my favorite part, though, had to be him opening the case and you hearing all the sounds and everything. I’m like, “Oh my…” It’s just… they can make movies after movies of this. I want it to be like an Indiana Jones style adventure of hunting down animals and… oh, man. Like a Pokémon type thing, “Catch ’em all” or something like that. It would just be fun.
Andrew: Eric, how about you?
Eric: Oh, are you sure you don’t want to go to Micah first?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: I’m starting to notice a trend here. But I really liked it. To Mikey’s point, it’s almost like a throwback to Potter trailers of the past, in the sense that as soon as you hear “Lumos Maxima,” you get that feeling, that sense that you’re going back to the wizarding world, and it’s like things never changed. And there were a couple moments… I’m sure we’re going to get to talking about the trailer in a lot of detail, but things that reminded me very much of Harry Potter. The scene with the woman whose name I don’t yet know, when she’s talking to what I’m assuming is our equivalent of the Minister of Magic, and it’s very reminiscent, to me, of the Ministry of Magic scene when Harry has to go in and stand his trial and Dumbledore speaks on his behalf. So I’m sure that for those of us who have gone through growing up with Harry Potter, there’s going to be things that we’re going to come across that’s going to take us back to things we’ve experienced already, and I really… I’m excited. I didn’t think I was going to be as excited, and I know we didn’t even see any fantastic beasts…
[Eric laughs]
Micah: … but I’m really pumped for this movie. And it’s a year away, so plenty more to talk about moving forward.
Eric: For sure.
Andrew: Eric, are you about to share bad news with us? I feel like you keep delaying it.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: What are you waiting to say?
Mikey B.: I think the opposite. I think he’s just going to take forever.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: It’s going to be half an hour of Eric talking.
Eric: It’s courtesy. It’s courtesy to let you guys go first. No, no, it’s actually… so I saw this trailer twice today. The second time was ten minutes ago, prepping for this episode, and I actually really liked it. I thought it was great. The first time, though, was this morning – again, and maybe it was 5:45 in the morning – but I did not like it all that much as a trailer. Well, to start off, if they wanted to get on my good side, or just wanted to not get on my bad side immediately, they should never have opened with Lumos Maxima…
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: … which is reminiscent, of course, of Alfonso Cuarón’s Prisoner of Azkaban movie, which is my least favorite of the movies. David Yates didn’t even direct it, so it’s like, “Why is that even in here?”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: And it’s a made-up spell, guys. It’s a made-up spell, and it angers me. Physically, I shake.
Andrew: I just want to jump in for a second and say you are not the only one complaining about this. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the use of Lumos Maxima today…
Eric: Thank you.
Andrew: … because what you mean by it not being real is that it’s not in the books, right?
Eric: Yes, no, and that’s exactly it. But Lumos should be good enough. Lumos is Lumos. “Lumos Maxima.” Also, it’s just a tiny little light on the screen; what would he need to do to fill that entire screen? No, but that’s just semantics. What I mean is, now that J.K. Rowling has the writing reins, she’s very clearly… basically, she just canonized Lumos Maxima, so that pissed me off. [laughs] That’s what I was upset…
Mikey B.: But it’s canonized now. There’s nothing wrong. She wrote it there.
Eric: Well, yeah, but before, there was book canon, and there was movie canon. Now it’s just like, “Eh, I liked what the movies did; I’m going to put that in my movie.” And that’s fine; she has a right to do that. But immediately starting off with that, I’m like, “Okay, I’m irked.” Because I remember that… and Mikey, even if you love Prisoner of Azkaban… which is fine; a lot of people I respect do, as a film and in general. As an adaptation, even, people like it. But in general, I think we can all agree, as readers of the books, that the movies are substandard or lesser than what the books deliver, and so I was immediately, though, reminded of that. I was like, “Oh, wait, this is a Harry Potter style movie; it’s not going to be as good as if we’re getting a Harry Potter style book.” So immediately I was just slumped. I really blame this on 5:45 a.m.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: But in general, I was just moved the wrong way to start, and then the rest of the trailer for me was just ruined. I was like, “Why are these titles so slow?”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Taking forever to be like, “Warner Bros. Pictures is inviting you back…” I’m like, “This is forever.” And there’s four scenes in this entire thing, and it’s… I have problems with it, but they weren’t necessarily all justified.
Andrew: About the lack of footage, I saw some people also say, “Well, there wasn’t enough in here.” The thing you’ve got to remember is this is… first of all, they did call this an “introduction trailer,” whatever that means.
Micah: It’s a year out. We’re a year away.
Andrew: Exactly, we’re still a year away.
Eric: An announcement trailer? Yeah.
Mikey B.: It’s a teaser trailer.
Andrew: Right. We don’t want everything spoiled now; we want to have stuff to look forward to.
Eric: No, definitely agree.
Andrew: And even the plot. I don’t mind a bit that we didn’t really hear about the plot in this.
Mikey B.: Yeah, teaser trailers are always super short, and they just don’t do anything. I can tell you about teaser trailers of other films, and you can look back and think about it, and it literally is… they’re usually short. This one was actually surprisingly long for a teaser announcement type trailer.
Eric: It’s all those titles, Mikey.
Andrew: Because of those titles, yeah. [laughs]
Eric: They take up 30 minutes.
Mikey B.: But you know what? The titles look really cool!
Andrew: [speaking slowly] “From… J… K…” They did.
Eric: They do look cool.
Mikey B.: So you can’t argue with that, right?
Eric: Yeah, no, they’re very masterful titles. But moving from the initial Lumos Maxima, it opens on this character Porpentina…
Andrew: Oh, I loved that.
Eric: … who is – I just want to point out – Newt’s future wife, holding his briefcase. And I’m like, “Who is this chick and why is she holding his…? Where’s Newt?”
Micah: That’s Newt. You didn’t know?
Andrew: That’s Newt. Newt is a girl.
Eric: I thought it was Newt, because you see her from the back when it first opens up, and I’m like, “Wait a minute, who is she and why does she have Newt’s case? Where is he?” Now – again, on second viewing – I realize he’s probably out there trying to catch the beasts. He has no time to bend to the will of the American government.
Andrew: I loved that opening shot of Tina, and my first reactions when I watched this… I just had this moment of surrealness. I was just like, “Holy crap, I’m watching a trailer for a new Harry Potter movie? This is crazy!” And I was just kind of in shock through the beginning of the trailer. And I loved… one of the things that immediately stuck with me was the music. Now, I know this music… trailer music doesn’t really ever show up in the movie, but one thing that was interesting was that at the end, we did get a little bit of “Hedwig’s Theme.” Now, of course, “Hedwig’s Theme” really became synonymous with Harry Potter; it really became the Harry Potter theme song more than anything. And they inserted it in a way that was different, it was unique, and it was subtle, and I really like the way they did it. But they cannot use it again. This is it!
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: “Hedwig’s Theme” is for the Harry Potter movies. Hedwig, Harry’s pet. They cannot use it again.
Mikey B.: I don’t know about that. It took me two or three watches before I actually noticed it; I was just… I don’t know. I think by the time it came on, I was just too excited, and I was giddy about it, but…
Andrew: You couldn’t hear it through your tears.
Eric: Is it at the end?
Andrew: It is at the end. Oh, Eric, you didn’t notice this?
Mikey B.: It’s at the very end, yeah.
Eric: No, because I thought it was… it’s in a minor key or something, right?
Andrew: It is, yeah.
Eric: It’s a little mixed…
Andrew: It’s different.
Eric: I thought it was different enough that I really, genuinely thought that that would be what they’re trying to do as a legit Fantastic Beasts theme, to have it be familiar, but at the same time, different enough that it doesn’t break the Internet with hatred.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: But yeah, the music in general…
Mikey B.: I agree. The problem is, I feel like they have to keep that theme in there somewhere.
Andrew: Hmm.
Mikey B.: Because here’s the thing… all right, I don’t want to talk about Star Wars, but think about it. Everyone knows the Star Wars theme. It doesn’t matter which film it is, where it is; it’s that beginning couple notes. You know it’s Star Wars. And again, John Williams, who did “Hedwig’s Theme.”
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: So you can’t not use it in some way, right? You have to somehow.
Andrew: Yeah, I guess.
Mikey B.: And it’s synonymous with not just Harry Potter, but they didn’t even mention Harry Potter in the film. They use “Wizarding World,” you know? You’re going back to that environment, that world that was created by none other than Miss Rowling.
Andrew: That is interesting. I would have… if you asked me yesterday if they were going to mention Harry Potter, I would have said yes, that you would have specifically seen Harry Potter mentioned like they did J.K. Rowling.
Micah: Well, but can I ask a question? I haven’t had a chance to go through and look at a lot of the news that’s been created around this, but I can almost guarantee that a lot of them have Harry Potter in their headline.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, true.
Mikey B.: Oh, I’m sure they do. In all honestly, even the book… I don’t have the book right in front of me right now, but doesn’t it say Harry Potter?
Andrew: Uh-huh. “Harry Potter’s textbook.”
Mikey B.: Because it came with the… what do you call it? The other one.
Eric and Micah: Quidditch Through the Ages.
Mikey B.: Yeah, I have them; I just… but I don’t think they need to brand this as Harry Potter, especially if they’re going to do more than one film, which I’m sure that’s what Warner Bros. wants, and I would love to see a whole series of it.
Andrew: They’re doing a trilogy of Fantastic Beasts.
Mikey B.: I know they’re doing a trilogy, but I’m feeling Warner Bros…. you just look at Marvel, look at Star Wars, what they’re going to do. They’re going to just have a new film every year. I can see a wizard film coming up every year also, being the big franchise that Warner Bros. pitches. Does it start that way? I don’t know, but I can definitely see something like that happen.
Andrew: I don’t disagree, but it’s going to come down to what J.K. Rowling wants to do. I mean, she still has a very firm grasp on everything, so unless she wants to do it, I’m not sure it’s going to be happening anytime soon.
Mikey B.: That’s true, and whether she’s going to write everything versus hand off scripting and everything else to someone else.
Andrew: Right, yeah.
Micah: I do agree with what Mikey said, though. I think you need to have it in there, because there’s something that just clicks in your mind when you hear “Hedwig’s Theme,” and that’s what I think Warner Bros. is looking for here. Now, granted, they do mention J.K. Rowling, they do mention the wizarding world in the trailer, but as soon as you hear that music… now, I think that they should look to go and create a bit of new music for these films that people identify with Fantastic Beasts, but the fact is, a huge, multibillion dollar franchise was created around Harry Potter, and that song is just so identifiable, so to think that they wouldn’t use it – I mean, just coming from a business or a marketing standpoint…
Eric: Is naive?
Micah: … is a huge miss. They have to use it.
Andrew: Yeah, but I feel like… I don’t know. I feel like this should be its own thing. We should separate this from Harry Potter. If we’re accepting “Hedwig’s Theme” as the universal Harry Potter theme, then maybe it should be renamed. I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right for me for them to keep using that.
Mikey B.: Well, okay, so I don’t have my iTunes open with all the themes from the different films that were not scored by John Williams. The main theme, was it referred to as “Hedwig’s Theme”? Because they all used “Hedwig’s Theme” in that intro. Or did they call it something else, and they just took motifs from it?
Eric: I think on the first soundtrack, it was “Hedwig’s Theme.”
Mikey B.: Well, I know on the first one, but I’m thinking… I’m opening up iTunes now while we’re doing this, and hopefully it doesn’t cause my computer to freak out.
Eric: They had the riff.
Mikey B.: Yeah, think of… what do you call it? Goblet of Fire. I don’t even remember the composer off the top my head right now, but…
Eric: Hooper? Nicolas Hooper?
Mikey B.: Yeah, it was Hooper. I don’t know. There’s been so many, and I don’t have them all in front of me. I feel so bad right now.
Andrew: Patrick Doyle, Nicolas Hooper, and Alexandre Desplat.
Mikey B.: There you go, so you have it open already. So what was the name of the first song, the opening song there?
Andrew: It was “Hedwig’s Theme.”
Mikey B.: And they called it “Hedwig’s Theme”?
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey B.: Okay, because I know it sounds different.
Eric: But I mean, my girlfriend pointed out something to me today, which was that – and correct me if I’m wrong, Mikey – but the Sorcerer’s Stone teaser that came out a year before that film – or months before that film – was the owl dropping off the post, dropping off the letter, and it was “Hedwig’s Theme” playing? If that’s true, that is iconic. If it’s true, that is much more powerful and much more moving, and it’s obviously going to be hard to try and recapture that in a teaser, or in a… what are they calling it? An announcement trailer? Something like that.
Andrew: An announcement trailer, yeah. Anyway…
Mikey B.: It was more than a teaser. It was definitely more. Yeah, I can see it being an announcement type trailer.
Andrew: Let’s get back to the trailer here, though. So a couple other things we see… like we said, we do get a couple good scenes, like Tina in MACUSA explaining what happened with Newt, and we actually see Carmen Ejogo as Seraphina. She appears to be the… she’s the president of MACUSA, I guess you could say.
Eric: That’s really cool.
Andrew: She’s in a position of power.
Mikey B.: Can I go back real quick to talking about soundtrack? So the “Hedwig’s Theme” in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire soundtrack is called “The Story Continues.” So it’s not called “Hedwig’s Theme,” but they used the motif in it. I knew… yeah, it was the first one that John Williams didn’t do, and that’s why I brought Goblet of Fire up. And it’s called “The Story Continues,” and it was done by Patrick Doyle. Sorry, it took me a while to look it up.
Andrew: In this movie, it’s going to be called “The Story Goes Back in Time.”
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey B.: No, it’s going to be something “Wizarding,” or something “Magic,” or something different. But it’s going to use motifs, because like I said, they used it in every other film, and they didn’t call it “Hedwig’s Theme.” Only on the original film did they call it “Hedwig’s Theme.”
Eric: Everyone knows it’s “Hedwig’s Theme.” The only way they could get away with calling it “Hedwig’s Theme” is if they used the exact track on future films, which is never going to happen.
Mikey B.: No, I agree, and that’s why it’s a different track, and this is going to be a different track and they’ll call something else, but they’re going to have to use it because they used it in all eight films.
Andrew: Okay. Well, I disagree, but let’s move on.
Micah: Well, and I will just add very quickly, Patrick Doyle… we did interview him. I don’t remember if we ever asked him about that, but if people want to go back and listen to when we had him on the show… I don’t know even how many years ago that was at this point…
Andrew: It’s in the archives.
Micah: … but he was sauced up. It was great. You’ll enjoy it.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Oh, that’s right! Yeah, yeah, I forgot about that. [laughs] We are going to continue our discussion of today’s trailer release in just a moment, but first, it’s time to remind you that today’s episode is brought to you by Audible.com. They are the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks, with more than 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including audio versions of many New York Times bestsellers. For listeners of MuggleCast, Audible is offering you a free audiobook to give you a chance to try out their very helpful service. And with all the anticipation around Star Wars this week, my recommendation is the novelization – the official novelization – of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is a top secret project, but it is going to be released on December 18, the day the movie hits theaters around the world. This is a really cool recommendation, because nobody knows what’s going to be in it, what’s going to be in this audiobook version of the film, so I think this is going to be really fun to listen to. We’ll probably learn more details of the story, I would imagine. And a quick reminder: All seven Harry Potter books are now available on Audible. They’ve been available as audiobooks for a while, but the audiobook versions by Jim Dale are now available on Audible, and you can get any one of them for free. AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. Use that coupon code to get a free audiobook of your choice. Maybe Star Wars, maybe Harry Potter, whatever you want. AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast, and we thank Audible for their support of the show. So we see there’s a scene… couple quick clips. We see Colin Farrell as Graves. He’s the Auror; we talked about him on the last episode. I remember saying it’s going to be cool to see an Auror – a reportedly powerful Auror – named Graves in this movie. And there’s a shot of him standing in a room where a beast clearly broke out of because one of the walls is completely missing.
Eric: Gone. And the fire escape and the ladder is bent. This is my favorite shot of the trailer, or announcement teaser thingy. It’s an easy favorite, but…
Andrew: Because it’s so ominous. You’re like, “What happened? Where’s the beast now?” [laughs]
Mikey B.: Yeah, the building is just ripped apart, and it looks so cool. I’m looking at a picture of it right now.
Eric: This is like Lily and James’s cottage that I’m looking at right now. There’s just a hole in the top.
Micah: Reminiscent of it, you mean.
Eric: Well, yes, reminiscent. I certainly hope that nothing as tragic happened when the beast broke out.
Andrew: Well, I would guess so, because if the No-Majes want them out of there, then…
Eric: Gosh.
Andrew: I bet something tragic did happen.
Eric: I’ve got to talk about this for a second: So I believe in the first scene with Porpentina, she says, “Wizard -” she’s talking about Newt “- a wizard from Britain is in town, etc., etc.” So they call them “wizards,” but they don’t call the Muggles “Muggles”; it’s still “No-Maj.” And Andrew, you put in your post… was this today that WB released a new synopsis? Was that today that this happened?
Andrew: Yes, which does reference No-Majes.
Eric: Yeah, and I’m just… the more I have time to digest this, the more I hate it.
Andrew: [laughs] I thought you were going to say, “The more I like it.”
Eric: No, no. No-Maj? Again, I want to see the etymological history of hyphenating words that are really just dumb and simple and straight… on the nose, and I’m just like, “I can’t abide that.”
Micah: Just tweet at J.K. Rowling and ask her to explain.
Eric: I hope they never, ever, ever say this in the film. I’m so glad it…
Andrew: They’re going to, sorry.
Mikey B.: I hope they do. And I was telling Andrew this earlier: It took me a while to get the idea, but thinking about it being in America, the way the 1920s…
Eric: They still call themselves wizards. They should call them Majes, then. [laughs]
Mikey B.: Maybe they do call themselves Majes and other weird things, and who knows?
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: I don’t know. But yeah, I’m liking it. I have to hear it in real life, because I was kind of like, “Maj? Mage? No-Maj?”
Eric: No-Maj. No magic, oooh.
Mikey B.: See, that’s what I said. It’s like, “No magic, oooh.” Whatever.
Micah: Yeah. I really do… Andrew, you mentioned this. I like the shot of Seraphina and the emblem behind her, which has the American flag as well as what looks to be an eagle, I’m guessing.
Andrew: Or a phoenix?
Micah: A phoenix. Actually, yeah, you’re right. It does look like a phoenix.
Mikey B.: It looks like there’s a little fire at the edge of it.
Andrew: Because in the previous previews, we saw phoenixes in MACUSA, so yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s a phoenix. But yeah, and it sits there with the American flag. This reminded me of the Capital – at least what Seraphina is wearing – in The Hunger Games.
Eric: Oh, yeah. You’re right.
Andrew: That large and extravagant piece of headwear seemed very Capital-like to me. It looks like something a female President Snow would wear, or… I don’t know.
Eric: I thought you were going to call her Coin at some point.
Andrew: [laughs] She’s the new Coin.
Eric: “Oh, yeah, President Coin is up on the dais.” I wouldn’t say that you were wrong; I would say that’s probably… actually, I agree. It’s very similar-looking.
Andrew: And you know whose chair that reminds me of behind her? Dumbledore’s. [weeps]
Eric: Oh, man. I’m sure it’s the actual chair.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: So I really wanted to… do we know anything about the personality of Seraphina? Because looking at the picture… I don’t know. I’m hoping it’s not someone I’m going to hate, like an Umbridge.
Andrew: That’s a good question.
Eric: No. Well, my thing is… okay, it’s the 1920s, and the non No-Majes are so progressive that they have elected a female and person of color as their leader, and it’s so ridiculously 90 years ahead of where we are today in the US, and so… what’s the word? So exaggerated. And so I think she’d probably have to be a pretty badass leader for that to happen.
Micah: And it may just be my vision, but it only seems like there’s 30 stars on that phoenix.
Eric: … three, four, five, six…
Micah: I didn’t mean for everybody to go count.
Mikey B.: [laughs] Now we’re all going to go…
Andrew: Now I’m curious.
Eric: 30. There are 30.
Micah: And if somebody could figure out what it says around the emblem…
Andrew: Magical Congress of…
Micah: … the United States of America?
Andrew: Probably, yeah. Well, yeah, because that’s what it…
Mikey B.: It says, “of the United States of America.”
Eric: Yeah, so it is only 30 stars, but still 13 stripes.
Micah: Well, Alaska and Hawaii would not have been states at this time.
Eric: Yeah, how many states were…?
Micah: Everybody else should have been.
Eric: Right.
Mikey B.: There should be 48.
Andrew: Maybe the wizarding community didn’t count some of the states as states yet. [laughs] “We won’t accept you as states until you allow wizards to live in them.”
Eric: Yeah, there were 48. New Mexico…
Mikey B.: Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe wizards just aren’t there.
Andrew: Could be.
Eric: In Dakota?
[Micah laughs]
Mikey B.: California is its own little…
Eric: I’m not even sure there are still people there.
Andrew: So the next significant scene… so we’ll break this down by significant scenes. We see Tina entering MACUSA, which still feels weird to say.
Eric: Sounds like she’s visiting an ATM.
Andrew: Yeah. Then we see Seraphina, a closeup shot of her; she looks Capital-like from The Hunger Games. Then we see a closeup shot of Newt’s suitcase being carried around. This is in between those titles Micah talked about. Then we see Graves; we talked about him. And then we see a scene that everybody, I think, really loved the most. It’s this shot of Newt, and Tina is standing at the door, and she asks, “What happened?” And Newt says…
Mikey B.: “Just a smidge.”
Andrew: “Just a smidge.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: “The suitcase was open just a smidge.” Everybody really liked that. Even Eric’s email this morning, the subject line was just “Just a smidge.” [laughs]
Eric: It was nice to see Newt!
Andrew: Yeah, that’s it, isn’t it?
Eric: It’s probably… I mean, that’s not just it, but yeah, it’s mostly… that’s what it is; that’s what I want to see. I kind of expected… it could have just been him, this whole thing could have been from his point of view, and it could have been like, “Mr. Scamander, welcome to the US.”
Andrew: Right.
Eric: And see him opening the doors of the Congress.
Mikey B.: What was that accent?
Eric: I’m not sure what that accent is. I’ll get back to you. But it was nice to see Newt, and it’s nice to see a little bit of humor coming from him. But essentially… and I think what it is is in the scene, Porpentina asks him, “Oh, the case was open?” And he says, “Just a smidge.” I don’t know if they’re trying to portray him as forgetful or aloof, but as a fellow Hufflepuff of his, I don’t know that that bodes well for Hufflepuff respectability in the media.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: That’s not a real complaint; I’m actually super excited, and glad that he can treat something of such heavy significance with a little bit of lightness and levity.
Mikey B.: You know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of Matt Smith or David Tennant as the Doctor.
Andrew: Yes.
Mikey B.: Because in the next scene, he’s chasing with his wand out and everything, and I just instantly was like, “Oh.”
Eric: Sonic Screwdriver?
Mikey B.: Sonic Screwdriver, exactly. It was fun, and he wasn’t super worried about it. He was just like, “Just a smidge.” Like, he can handle it. You know what I mean? He was ready to do it.
Andrew: Now, the final shot is this quick glimpse, like Mikey mentioned, of Newt throwing a spell, presumably towards a beast. And we see Jacob – played by Dan Fogler – behind him, carrying the suitcase. Jacob, remember, is a No-Maj…
Eric: A what?
Andrew: A No-Maj.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And he is American, and as we previously heard, he’s going to be the first significant No-Maj/Muggle character in the series, in the wizarding… in Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts.
Eric: I am excited for Jacob. I am. And I wanted to mention the synopsis that…
Mikey B.: Before we go any further, do we know No-Maj is for a nonmagical person? Or is it the name for a Squib? Because Jacob is obviously a No-Maj, but he knows about magic, carrying the case. Does that mean he knew about magic already?
Andrew: I don’t know, but I think he’s in support, unlike other characters in this film.
Eric: There was something about… it was revealed somewhere that there’s a section of the American public that knows about wizards, and that’s why there’s picketing and stuff.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: I don’t think it was just our speculation on the last MuggleCast; I think there was actually a confirmation that at some… the Second Salemers; we already talked about that. I’m trying to remember where it would have been said officially about like, “There are Muggles who know and distrust and dislike.”
Andrew: They protest. We saw them filming; we talked about it a couple episodes ago. They were doing this exterior night shoot, and there was a protest happening, presumably in front of MACUSA. And they said Second Salem, something about Second Salem.
Eric: I mean, maybe Newt’s beasts getting loose causes this uproar?
Andrew: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s definitely what this plot is going to be.
Eric: But again, I think it’s a little quick if it’s all of a sudden that the people are up in arms and picketing and stuff because of what he did. But I don’t know. The plot is still open enough to me for interpretation where I’m like, “Okay, anything could happen.”
Andrew: Yeah. So in this last shot, we hear somebody yell, “Mr. Scamander.” [laughs] And when I first heard it, I thought it was Professor McGonagall.
Micah: So did I.
Andrew: It totally sounds like Professor McGonagall.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: I really did. That was the first thing I thought.
Eric: Guys, what if it is?
Andrew: What if it…? I mean, all right, let’s go to Google. Figure out how old is McGonagall. Could this work? [laughs]
Eric: She would need to at least be…
Andrew: She was born in 1935, so no. Maybe it’s her mom.
Micah: Damn it.
Mikey B.: Well, maybe it’s her grandmother or someone, and it’s… never mind. I’m not going to go there.
Andrew: Well, on Hypable we did this over-analysis article, and this writer… and she could be right. It may be Mary Lou, the leader of the Second Salemers. I don’t think so. Why would she know Newt? But who knows?
Eric: They’re all going to become fast friends once he lets his beasts loose and they have an interest in preserving the city.
Andrew: True.
Eric: He’s their go-to guy. The cool thing is… I mean, he’s at least captured these beasts and put them in the suitcase once, so he can probably do it again, right?
Andrew: Right, right.
Mikey B.: Yeah, he can.
Micah: He’s got to catch ’em all.
Eric: I think the magic, though? The magic still works. The brandishing a wand still works. It’s the familiarity; being able to see a character do this on the big screen is super exciting. And when he opens the case and the roar comes out – Mikey, you said that was your top moment – I agree, that’s kind of… I mean, it just goes back to… well, again, Prisoner of Azkaban, when the housekeeper knocks on the door, and the door opens and there’s this roar and it blows her hair back, and then she’s like, “I’ll come back later.” Or the Monster Book of Monsters scene. Any of that is the magical part of Harry’s world that is never paid much attention to because it’s a Harry Potter story, but now maybe we’ll get more of that. Maybe we’ll get more of what you can do with magic and see new and interesting things that just weren’t even factored into the Harry Potter stories.
Mikey B.: I’m hoping for that. I’m hoping for new and interesting things that we did not see, we didn’t even take into consideration, because it is a new story, and it’s a new thing we’re focusing on.
Andrew: Overall, I liked how this trailer moved. Again, I’ve watched this multiple times today. I love the music that… there’s probably a term for it, but the kind of rushing sound. [imitates trailer music] That was really exciting.
Eric: Staccato? I don’t know.
Andrew: And then, of course, the ending with the Harry Potter theme that I hope to never hear in a Fantastic Beasts preview again. [laughs]
Micah: Never. One thing I did want to mention, though – and it could just be me looking for more – but when you saw the “In 2016” title come across the screen, to me, what was showing in the background reminded me a lot of Death Eater masks.
Eric: I’m going to look at that.
Andrew: And they had closeups of what I presumed were beasts. Very, very close up of beasts’ skin.
Micah: Yeah, maybe you’re right. Maybe that’s what it was. Maybe it was the skin of certain fantastic beasts.
Andrew: Yeah, I think that’s what it is. And I mean, another reason why we’re not seeing much from this movie is because you know the special effects are not done yet. We’re not going to see that stuff for a while.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Mikey B.: Although, speaking of the masks and the Fantastic Beasts logo and just the text on it, I’ve looked at some of the 3-D text there, the gloss from it and everything. It looks like the reflection is actually some type of beast. I’m sure they mapped a scale or a texture from one of the main beasts that they’re going to be showing in the story, just because if you look at it, it’s such an interesting kind of highlight from lights and everything. There’s something hidden in there, which might be me looking too much into it.
Andrew: And I also think that these beasts are going to be very important to how this film is received by fans and critics. They have to look good, they have to be believable, they have to be whimsical… I mean, I think this is going to be the most challenging part for them to pull off. They have to pull off a variety of creatures that are going to be intriguing, that you’re going to want to care about. Warner Bros. consumer products is going to want to turn all these beasts into basically modern day Pokémon. There’s going to be plushies. There’s a lot riding on how these characters look.
Eric: The Wizarding World of Fantastic Beasts theme park.
Andrew: Yes. Well, we’ve heard, actually, before that part of the deal, I think, was Universal is going to do some sort of Fantastic Beasts expansion at some point.
Eric: Well, it makes sense.
Andrew: Yeah, especially when you consider there’s three films in the pipeline.
Harry Potter and Star Wars
Andrew: All right, well, anything else to say about the trailer? We have some other stuff to talk about today.
Eric: I have a tweet I want to read, and Mikey, you’ll appreciate this. It’s from a friend named Ryan, and his tweet is, “I love Star Wars too, and imma let you all finish, but Fantastic Beasts is my Force Awakens.”
[Mikey B. laughs]
Andrew: Agreed. Agreed.
Mikey B.: I can’t… I’m just so pumped on Force Awakens, but at the same time… I don’t know.
Eric: I just wanted to push that button. I couldn’t resist.
Mikey B.: I’m so giddy this week, it’s not even funny.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I know.
Mikey B.: You have to understand, I took Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off to watch it over and over again.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Mikey B.: But I did the same thing for all the Harry Potter films and the book releases and stuff, so it’s not like it’s something I haven’t done before.
Eric: It’s amazing that this came out today. Meanwhile, I too was in Star Wars mode. I was like, “Hey, this is the greatest thing ever.” The world premiere was last night, people are saying favorable things about it… not that I’m spoiling myself, but people are just generally… Patton Oswalt’s tweet, for instance. “JJ did it.” And I’m like, “This is amazing!” And then today this comes out, and I’m like, “This is also very, very, very, very cool.”
Mikey B.: I know. Well, and you know what else came out that was really cool? And I know this is not related to either Star Wars or Harry Potter, but Independence Day. The new Independence Day trailer looks really good too.
Eric: Oh, yeah. I have feelings about that. Grandpa Bill Pullman. [laughs]
Mikey B.: Well, I won’t go ahead and get into that, but that came out at a good time. I was like, “Wow, that’s really cool too.” It made me excited for seeing that again.
Eric: Good week to be bringing stuff back.
Mikey B.: Yeah, it’s a good week for all that stuff.
Andrew: So speaking of Harry Potter and Star Wars, and a new era for Star Wars, I wanted to ask kind of a fun question. With the movie coming out, I’ve been wondering, will Warner Bros. do something similar with Harry Potter that Lucasfilm and Disney are doing with Star Wars? In, say, 30 years from now. So of course, right now we’re having prequels, just like Star Wars did a decade ago. Will we see Harry Potter set 30-40 years in the future, with Dan, Emma, and Rupert all coming back? And maybe there’s somebody out there who wants to continue on Voldemort’s dream or something.
Eric: I hope that never, ever happens, just so that something cannot be billed as “The next Harry Potter story” again. The Cursed Child already tested my patience.
Andrew: [laughs] See, here’s my thing: I can… we know Warner Bros. wants to do more wizarding world stuff for the rest of time, because obviously, it’s a very successful franchise. But I think Rupert would do it; he would come back as Ron. Emma, I think she would. It would take some convincing, but she would. But Dan, I really can’t see him doing that. Although, a lot of people probably would have said they wouldn’t see Harrison Ford coming back either. [laughs] Can you guys see them coming back?
Mikey B.: I don’t think it would happen unless all three of them came back.
Andrew: I agree, they would all have to be on board. But think about it, a story driven around Harry’s kids and Ron and Hermione’s kids.
Eric: I don’t know. It would be funny, but also… I mean, we’ll already have this answer – 15 years from now – to see what the trio looks like, so we can see how good the makeup was in Deathly Hallows – Part 2 for the 19 Years Later scene. [laughs]
Micah: It’s a cash cow; I think that’s what it comes down to. And if Warner Bros. thinks that they can make money off of it, then they’re definitely going to do it.
Eric: Well, it’s more than that, though, which is that JKR still has to sign off, and this is the most brilliant thing she’s doing now, is she has complete…
Micah: Well, no offense, but what kind of state is J.K. Rowling going to be in 30 years from now? I mean, hopefully she’s still around.
Mikey B.: Well, and that’s why I said… I was saying it earlier; I feel like it might be like Star Wars, because Lucas had nothing to do with the new Star Wars films coming out. And I mentioned that – I don’t even know if I said it on the show or we were just talking beforehand – a new one coming out every year, different stories with different trilogies and different independent pieces of just the wizarding world, and even if J.K. Rowling didn’t write them, what if she sold off the film rights like Lucas did with Lucasfilm? He sold Lucasfilm to Disney.
Eric: I don’t think that’s the kind of person she is. I don’t think she’s a Lucas. I read something about Robin Williams recently, which is that there’s this footage of him… because basically, when he got on attached to Aladdin, he rewrote everything they had, or they did, around his new Genie character. And there’s these long recording sessions of jokes that never made it into the film, and this article was about how Robin Williams has… he willed it in his last will and testament that that footage be held dormant for X amount of time. Basically, Disney can’t touch it. They can never release it as… because you could essentially see them do a brand new Aladdin movie with his voice as the Genie, using jokes that never made it into the first film. You could do that, technically, with that kind of stuff, and he knew that that would just be crap. You should never, ever, ever do that. So I would hope that J.K. Rowling – this is the point I’m getting at – I would hope that she would make sure that there’s a serious amount of quality control behind everything, because that’s what’s driving me to theaters next year, the fact that she wrote this, so you almost can’t get more of a seal of approval than that. And I won’t lie, also, Eddie’s portrayal looks awesome.
Andrew: Yeah, I agree with you. I’ve said before, I think this is too big to fail at this point. And in terms of other stuff that may come out of the wizarding world, I think J.K. Rowling has surrounded herself with people she trusts and will have her best interests at heart always. So it won’t be a situation like, God forbid, the To Kill a Mockingbird… [laughs] I almost said Mockingjay.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: To Kill a Mockingbird author, Harper Lee.
Eric: You know what was weird? When you said that, I was like, “Oh, he said the wrong word.” I was like, “Oh, doesn’t he mean To Kill a Mockingjay? Oh, wait.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I just saw that movie too last week and now it’s stuck on the brain.
Micah: With Go Set a Watchman?
Andrew: Right, yeah. I mean, a lot of people say that was not good, and it’s because the person who looks out for Harper Lee… Harper Lee is in bad health these days, reportedly. The person who looks out for her just wants to make a quick buck, and it’s really sad.
Eric: She kind of wrote that under duress, right? Or refined it…
Andrew: It wasn’t ready. It was the original version of To Kill a Mockingbird, and then she wrote something else.
Micah: I think a lot of it, though, depends upon not necessarily the success, but – because we know it’s going to be successful – how J.K. Rowling feels after these movies are released, and if she wants to continue on. I really don’t see a situation where she sells the movie rights, at least not in the near future, right? I think that she has shown her ability to still create within this world that we all have come to know and love, and Fantastic Beasts is really one of those major first steps by putting something that’s not traditionally Potter onto the screen. So based on how she feels after all three movies have been released, and if she feels that it’s been a great success in her mind – I’m not talking financially – then I think maybe she does continue to write. And maybe it’s pre-Harry, maybe it’s post-Harry, I don’t know, but I just don’t think I’d want to see a situation where you have Dan, Emma, Rupert come back 20-30 years down the line. I think if there are ways to incorporate characters that we’ve come to know already into other stories, that could be interesting.
Andrew: What if J.K. Rowling is in the movie too? She plays a wise old witch who has the answers to everything. She’s like the new Hermione. [laughs]
Mikey B.: Oh.
Wizarding World Hollywood
Andrew: All right, so let’s move on. We weren’t expecting this trailer; we only found out a few days ago that it was going to happen. Our December episode was going to be more of a look back at 2015, look ahead to 2016, catch up on some news… something I want to mention briefly: The Los Angeles Wizarding World now has an opening date. It will be opening in April 2016. April 7, to be more specific.
Eric: Ooh.
Andrew: They did something amazing the eve before announcing the opening date. They lit up the castle, and they sent a spotlight up into the sky that could be seen from all of Los Angeles. And I was on my way to dinner, and I turned to my right… I told you guys on the show previously, I can see Hogwarts from the freeway near my place.
Eric: Yes.
Andrew: And I hop on the freeway and I see Hogwarts lit up, and I’m like, “Whaaat?!” It was absolutely insane, all these lights on it, plus that one spotlight shooting up into the air. It’s like the Luxor light in Vegas. And I was just giddy and in shock; I was freaking out. [laughs] Because I was like, “Why are they doing this?” And then somebody reminded me, “Oh, they’re making a big announcement tomorrow,” and then, of course, it was opening date. But it was so smart of Universal, because everybody could look up into the sky. I mean, everybody could look up into the sky and see this light and be like, “What is that?” And then the next morning, they turned on the news. “Oh, guess what? Universal announced the Wizarding World date. That’s the light you saw last night, by the way.” So it was really exciting. [laughs] And yeah, so look forward to it. Just me? Okay, let’s move on. So it’s time now to look forward to…
[Micah laughs]
Eric: I think it’ll be great, Andrew.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Yeah, I look forward to that opening.
Mikey B.: I look forward to it, because I’ll be…
Andrew: You guys look forward to not visiting. [laughs]
Eric: No, no.
Mikey B.: I’ll visit. You know I’ll visit.
Andrew: No, you won’t!
Eric: I mean, it’s not Florida, but…
Mikey B.: I’m going to be out there in January.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, let’s be real, the Florida one will probably always be better. But I’m excited because this one’s really close to me.
Eric: Well, I just hope the butterbeer tastes to your standards.
Andrew: [laughs] I hope so too.
Harry Potter in 2016
Andrew: So let’s look ahead quickly to 2016. I was thinking we should do a year in review as well, but then I realized to do a year in review is actually to look ahead to 2016, because all the big announcements this year were really setting up a new era in Harry Potter. We have the Cursed Child, that big announcement. That’s coming up in June 2016. We have the first of seven illustrated editions; that came out in October. By the way, hot holiday gift. That thing is sold out on Amazon.com, on BarnesAndNoble.com, and so if you see a copy in stores, get it now, because you won’t be able to get it online before Christmas.
Micah: I did get a copy.
Andrew: Oh, you did? Good. Did you like it?
Micah: I’ve only paged through it. I think… I have a couple of weeks off coming up; I might just take an hour or two and just read through it. And I know it’s probably going to take me longer than that, but from what I saw, it is really, really cool.
Andrew: Yeah. And then finally, we have Fantastic Beasts. That opens in November. So really, this year starts a lot of big things for the Harry Potter fandom, of course, Fantastic Beasts being the biggest, because that’s going to be at least three movies. So in 2016 we have to look forward to the Cursed Child in June, Fantastic Beasts in November, the Chamber of Secrets illustrated edition hopefully around this time next year. And then I had some oddball things to look forward to as well. Of course, J.K. Rowling’s tweets. She really blew us away this year, didn’t she?
Eric: [laughs] Oh, yes.
Andrew: Think of all the… another full year J.K. Rowling’s fun tweets, implying that people have small dicks. What else did she do? That’s the only one I remember. [laughs]
Eric: About a thousand other things. Well, what was it…? You were telling the story before we started recording about how she said she wrote the whole movie? You want to tell that story real quick?
Andrew: Oh, yeah. So somebody tweeted her earlier today, saying, “Jo, did you write that line about Newt when Newt says, ‘Just a smidge’?” And J.K. Rowling was like, “Of course. I wrote the whole thing.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: And that was good, because I guess she was kind of implying that she… that kind of shocked me. She really did write the whole thing. It’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around. Every little thing in the movie.
Micah: She’s very opinionated on Twitter about a number of different topics, but if you want, there’s an article that I saw somebody post recently. I believe it was a Mashable article. It’s something along the lines of, “25 Times J.K. Rowling Was a Badass on Twitter.”
[Eric laughs]
Micah: And it goes through not just this year, but previous years, and makes note of a lot of the things that she’s said, including the one that Andrew just mentioned, not about the movie, but about being able to find penis enlargement supplements online.
[Andrew and Mikey B. laugh]
Micah: You just don’t expect that from J.K. Rowling.
Andrew: You don’t. Yeah, it’s like your mom saying that. It’s just weird.
Eric: Well, that guy called our mom a very, very bad name.
Andrew: [laughs] They did. That’s true.
Eric: He totally deserved that.
Andrew: Actually, and another big one I just remembered is when she said… somebody tweeted her about not getting her Hogwarts letter or something, and J.K. Rowling said, “You guys, you were there. You all went to Hogwarts. We all went there together.” And people lost their minds over that tweet.
Eric: I still can’t find my mind from that tweet.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: It’s true.
Micah: That’s been for ten years, though.
Andrew: J.K. Rowling really has harnessed Twitter. I think whether you’re a Harry Potter fan or not, she’s one of the greatest people on Twitter right now. She is open with the fans, she is honest, she is fun, she’s insightful… it’s just awesome. Love it. I have another one…
Micah: Oh, I was going to say, I don’t know if this is where you’re going, but her recent comments about Snape.
Andrew: Yeah, those were good too. She spent a whole day going in depth on Snape, right? Because I think she was trying to defend Snape, because people were saying Snape is evil, and she was…
Eric: No, I think it was the opposite. They were saying he was good, and she’s like, “The whole point is it’s a gray area.” She had a lot of very interesting… what it was was something was trending where it was like, “Snape: Good or evil?” was trending, and she was just like, “Why is this trending? I’m so tickled that this is still trending, but here, let me give you the answer so that it’s not trending anymore.”
Andrew: Yeah, but then she did a series of tweets – I want to say at least ten – discussing with fans Snape, and it was super interesting. Another thing now… this is kind of one of the curses of being so open on Twitter. She and Pottermore have promised over the past year or two that a Patronus test was coming to Pottermore soon, and it still isn’t here. So of course, Pottermore did that big relaunch in 2015, and now it… I mean, you can’t even get Sorted anymore. They did say the Sorting Hat is going to come back at some point; maybe it will come back with Patronus. But Pottermore and J.K. Rowling have now promised that multiple times over the past couple years, and it’s still not there.
Eric: Did the Pottermore Enthusiast promise us that, Andrew?
Andrew: The Pottermore Correspondent, you mean?
Eric: Correspondent, yeah.
Andrew: That mysterious figure on Pottermore.com? Yeah.
[Sound of dogs barking in background]
Andrew: And then finally – as my dogs bark in the background, begging for the new Patronus test – the odds of an encyclopedia. Now, of course, we have all wanted this for so long, and we’re still waiting for it. Is it going to be in 2016?
Eric: No.
Micah: I don’t think so.
Eric: That’s a guess. That’s a guess.
Micah: No, there’s too much other stuff going on that she’s working on, that she’s a part of. And possibly… I don’t know if it’s been confirmed or not, but to throw another thing in there would be a fourth Cormoran Strike novel that could potentially be in the works, and so… I would love to have it. I mean, the hope would be that over the last couple of years, that she would have been slowly piecing something like this together, so that it’s not something that we would think she has to write throughout an entire year or two years, that it’s all kind of being worked on behind the scenes. But I would hope that at some point it would be released. I think we’ve talked enough about it, but…
Andrew: No. There is never enough talking about the encyclopedia. [laughs]
Micah: No, but I mean analyzing it, and how it was up on her site when it relaunched, and then it got taken down…
Andrew: Right, right.
Micah: … and she shifted her focus over to Pottermore, and she just… she’s playing mind games with us.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: I mean, how many years has this been in the making already, talking about an encyclopedia?
Andrew: Oh, forever. Well, that confirmation on her official website came out in 2012. I remember sitting at Disney World, and you told me about it. I was like, [gasps] I pulled out my laptop in Disney World, I started punching away at the computer: “Encyclopedia confirmed!” So I’ve previously speculated that she would drop it before the release of Fantastic Beasts to get the fandom revved up again. And I mean, we still have 11 months to go, so that theory isn’t out the window yet.
Mikey B.: It could still happen.
Micah: Can we tweet at her? Can we ask her when’s the encyclopedia going to be released?
Andrew: Yeah, ask her.
Micah: I’m going to do that. That’s my job for the next show, to make sure that happens.
Andrew: Can you please…? Can you do that every week from now until when it’s released?
Micah: Sure, why not?
[Eric and Mikey B. laugh]
Andrew: And here’s what you do to make it better: Reply to your previous tweet, so all the tweets are linked to each other, and then you’ll have a hundred of them. [laughs]
Micah: As long as you retweet.
Andrew: Sure. I’ll start doing it too. I think we need a movement to make this happen.
Micah: Yeah, I think if enough people start asking the question or retweeting, she’ll respond in some way.
Andrew: You think so? All right. Well, I hope so.
Micah: She’s already replied to you once. Isn’t that another big J.K. Rowling Twitter moment of 2015?
Andrew: That was… I mean, I don’t want to make it about me, but that was definitely my favorite J.K. Rowling tweet of 2015.
Eric: She blushed.
Andrew: When I made her blush, yeah. I had something else to say about the encyclopedia, but now I’m forgetting it. It’s got to be – and I feel like I’ve been saying this for eight years now – but it’s got to be soon, guys. [laughs] I can feel it. All right, so I think that’s all.
Mikey B.: Is that it?
Eric: I have another fun thing I saw on social today – I’m really frantically searching for the origin of it – but after seeing the trailer, a friend of mine on Facebook remarked, “Can we talk about how the Fantastic Beasts movie is all about how Newt Scamander, a Hufflepuff, is a particularly good finder?”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Which is a Very Potter Musical sort of indicator thing. So they appreciated the reference, being fans of both.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s cool. So I think that’s it. That concludes another year of MuggleCast. We’ll be back next year. We kind of have big plans; we’re thinking about some big plans. Visit MuggleCast.com. Check out that Patreon survey; we’re very serious in really amping up this show, but we need your help to figure out what we should do. The survey will just take a couple minutes of your time, and we’ll really appreciate your help. And like Eric said at the top of the show, we got some good feedback earlier.
Micah: We did.
Andrew: Mikey, Thanks so much for being on.
Mikey B.: Thank you for having me on. I was excited to be here.
Eric: Mikey, it’s always good…
Mikey B.: Like I said, I saw the trailer and I was like, “Oh my God! Yeah!”
[Eric laughs]
Mikey B.: “A whole new world!” Super excited.
Eric: Oh, man.
Andrew: Enjoy Star Wars. You know what came up in my Timehop the other day? The picture… your selfie that you texted me of you with your mouth open when Disney made the announcement that they bought Lucasfilm. You were like, “You know how excited I am? Look at my face!”
[Andrew and Mikey B. laugh]
Andrew: It was great. Showed up on my lock screen. It was classic.
Eric: Oh, I found my friend. It’s Annette Willman. She said, “Oh, geez. Who realized that Newt is a Hufflepuff, and the movie is going to be about him being a particularly good finder?”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: So today Lumos Maxima got canonized, and StarKid got canonized. So it’s a good day for canonizing things.
Andrew: Excellent, yeah. All right, well, thank you, everybody, for listening. We hope you have a happy holiday. Happy New Year. We’ll see in 2016. So much to discuss with Fantastic Beasts coming up. So much.
Micah: So much.
Eric: Here’s to more MuggleCast in 2016.
Andrew: Here’s to more MuggleCast. Agreed.
Micah: Unless this is one of those episodes where between now and 2016, we get something new. I don’t know.
Andrew: What?
Micah: It’s possible.
Andrew: What are you talking about? Like the encyclopedia?
Micah: More news. Another trailer.
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Eric: It’s true, all of it. The Jedi are real.
Andrew: Micah, go tweet J.K. Rowling right now about that.
Mikey B.: I’ll retweet it.
Micah: She’s probably asleep, though.
Andrew: Oh, yeah, you should do it in… yeah, schedule your tweet for 3:00 a.m. Eastern. She’ll just be waking up and sitting down to her morning tea.
Micah: And then I can wake up to her response, right?
Andrew: [laughs] Yes. “Hello, Micah. I’m blocking you. Goodbye. Good day.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: “Please shut up and watch the Fantastic Beasts trailer. Can’t you be happy? Isn’t that enough?” [laughs]
Eric: Are we ever truly satisfied?
Andrew: All right, we’ll see everybody next week. Or next month, in the new year.
Eric: Next year!
Andrew: Next year, for Episode 287. Goodbye.
Eric, Micah, and Mikey B.: Bye.