Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #766, Analyzing the New “Philosopher’s Stone” TV Show Trailer
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Hello, hello, everybody. Welcome. Happy Back to Hogwarts Day. Oh wait, no, it’s September 2.
Micah Tannenbaum: Plus one.
Laura Tee: Oops.
Andrew: [laughs] “Plus one.”
Laura: Eh, close enough.
Micah: I was going to wear my “Choo-choo” train conductor’s hat, and I was like, “You know what? We didn’t get a trailer on Back to Hogwarts, so it’s back to my old Bulls hat.”
Andrew: So Micah is not wearing his own MuggleCast merch.
Micah: It’s in protest.
Andrew: “Screw you, MuggleCast. I mean, Warner Bros.”
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Yes, so welcome, everybody, to another episode of MuggleCast, and we’re here this week to cover the new trailer for the Philosopher’s Stone television show, airing on HBO Max this Christmas. They released this the day after Back to Hogwarts, which was kind of strange. They had a bunch of “announcements” on Back to Hogwarts Day. We’ll touch on those very briefly. Whatever, it’s here now. We’re all excited.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: So Laura, Micah, and I are here this week, and we’re excited to be joined by friend of the show, big Harry Potter fan, long-time Harry Potter fan. You’ve been on the podcast before; you’ve shared wonderful insights before. Welcome back to the podcast, Miranda!
Miranda: Hey, guys! Thanks so much for having me.
Andrew: Of course! It’s our pleasure. You were just telling us… giving us an update. A little two and a half year old. A future Harry Potter fan, I assume. [laughs]
Miranda: Yeah, I certainly hope so. I won’t press it upon him…
Andrew: Okay.
Miranda: … but I really hope that he’s as big into Harry Potter as I am.
Andrew: Oh, so my next question was going to be if you showed him the trailer, but I guess no, if you’re not pressing it upon him.
Miranda: Yeah, we heard it’s TV-14, right? So I think it’s probably a little too dark for a two and a half year old.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Fair, fair.
Micah: He was at LeakyCon in Portland, so he’s already been introduced to the Harry Potter con life. Eric and I got a chance to meet him.
Andrew: Uh-oh.
Micah: No, what does that mean?
Andrew: Harry Potter con life? That’s TV-Mature. That’s not TV-14. [laughs]
Laura: He’s been indoctrinated already.
Miranda: It was very PG. Yeah, it’s all good. So yeah, I’m doing my best to make him a Harry Potter fan.
Andrew: Good, good. Well, welcome back. We’re excited to have you here to discuss the trailer.
Philosopher’s Stone Trailer Discussion
Andrew: So what we’re going to do, everybody, is we’re going to play the trailer through first all the way. We’ll listen, or if you’re on YouTube or you’re watching through Spotify, we’ll all watch it together. And then we’ll start again at the beginning, and we’ll go through it pretty much scene by scene. There’s a lot of little things we’ll point out. Let’s get started. Let’s watch the second trailer for the Philosopher’s Stone television show.
[Audio clip plays]
[Train whistles]
McGonagall: Before the start of term banquet, first years will partake in the Sorting ceremony. Granger, Hermione.
Hermione: Hi. Did you love the summer reading?
Lavender: There was summer reading?
McGonagall: Weasley, Ronald.
[Sound of sandwich squishing]
Ron: Oi!
McGonagall: Potter, Harry.
Lavender: The House we’re put in basically decides our entire future, so no pressure.
Harry: Not Slytherin… not Slytherin…
The Sorting Hat: Gryffindor!
[Sound of applause]
Dumbledore: Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts.
Seamus: Big day, lads! How are we feeling?
[Snoring]
McGonagall: Mr. Potter. I expect you to work hard, find what sparks your interest, and make solid friendships.
Harry: Everyone thinks I’m this great wizard, but I don’t really know anything.
Snape: Let’s hope you show some talent on the Quidditch pitch, Potter. You’ve certainly not exhibited any in here.
Ron: Go Harry!
Hagrid: Family’s more’n just blood. You’ll find your place.
Harry: We found something incredible.
Dumbledore: We can’t protect them. We can only prepare them.
McGonagall: For what?
Hermione: Anything could be lurking behind any door in this place.
[Music intensifies]
Hermione: Oh, come on. Don’t you two read?
[Audio clip ends]
Andrew: All right. Overall, pretty good trailer, right? I thought it was pretty exciting.
Miranda: I thought it was great. Yeah, I was really excited when I first saw it.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. The music. Again, they’ve avoided “Hedwig’s Theme.” Kind of a bit of a surprise, but I still think it’s going to be in the show. There’s just no way they can’t include that.
Laura: Yeah, there’s no way they won’t pay homage to it. I guess I just wonder how prevalent is it going to be?
Andrew: Right.
Laura: I could see it being very subtle at certain points.
Andrew: Yeah. Despite it not being released on Back to Hogwarts exactly, it is very much Back to Hogwarts-themed. We’re getting the Sorting Hat ceremony. We’re getting the kids on the Hogwarts Express. We’re getting a lot of the start of the story. What’s the first scene we should start with, everybody? We see Hagrid waiting for the Hogwarts Express to arrive, and then we see the Great Hall. The Great Hall looks very similar to what we saw in the Harry Potter video game; I think we were talking about that last time, right? It’s taking on an aesthetic. What about the flooring? I’m sorry, but…
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: The tiles?
Andrew: The tiles. I know this might seem weirdly specific, but it’s white flooring.
Miranda: It looks like a bathroom floor to me. It does.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Is the point to make the floor contrast with the tables and the rest of it? That’s all I can think of.
Miranda: That was what jumped out to me as being different from the movie aesthetic. I think it makes it feel different, while a lot of the rest feels similar.
Micah: I think what it is is this set actually doubles as the bathroom set from later on…
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: … when they’re encountering the troll, so they didn’t want to have to deal with multiple floors.
Andrew: Yeah, okay. You know what? That totally makes sense. That was a little surprising, but it’s kind of irrelevant, ultimately, at least for our discussion today.
Laura: Yeah, it’s fine.
Andrew: So one of the earliest scenes we do get is Hermione on the Hogwarts Express. It looks like she’s looking for a seat, and there’s this little moment where the following happens:
Hermione: Hi. Did you love the summer reading?
Lavender: There was summer reading?
Andrew: And she’s kind of got a sad face on her.
Micah: I do like how they’re setting up each of the characters in this trailer where their names are being called for the Sorting, but then you’re getting a little glimpse into who they are each as a character. Perfect example here with Hermione, and then we’ll see Ron at home at the Burrow getting his Hogwarts letter, which I think, again, gives a little bit of insight into him as a character when we see the interaction he has with his brothers.
Andrew: Absolutely, and that’s obviously something we did not see in the movie. Or the book, for that matter, right? No.
Laura: Right.
Andrew: And of course, like you said, Micah, we’re getting some insight into Hermione. She’s an overachiever. She’s very excited to go to Hogwarts, so she’s already studying. Do you think there is actually summer reading, though?
Laura: Well, per the book canon, there wasn’t, but we know that Hermione read all of their course books before they got to Hogwarts because she wanted to know what she was getting into.
Andrew: Okay.
Laura: So I think she’s trying to assign them all summer reading, but there wasn’t.
Andrew: Hermione is? [laughs]
Laura: Yeah, or she assigned herself summer reading.
Andrew: I see.
Miranda: Maybe she got the book list and just assumed that it was the summer reading. I could see her assuming that the books you were supposed to buy, you were supposed to read in advance.
Andrew: That could make sense, and you could see that coming up in the TV show. Like, “Hermione, you actually were not supposed to read those during the summer.”
Micah: I sympathize with her, though, but she’s entering a whole new world, not just a whole new school. She’s got to feel like she’s caught up with everyone else.
Andrew: Yeah, absolutely. All right, so moving along in the trailer here, like you just said, Micah, we see Ron getting his Hogwarts letter. Now, here’s something pretty interesting: People noticed that Ron’s Hogwarts letter, all wrapped up in the envelope still, is actually smaller than the one that Harry receives.
Laura: Oh.
Andrew: And people are thinking this is because Ron’s was delivered by owl, so it has to be a little smaller for a little owl to carry it, whereas with Harry’s letter, it went by normal post, at least at the beginning. What do y’all make of that? Because they’re definitely different.
Laura: I didn’t notice that.
Andrew: Yeah, because look at the font size on his letter. I can bring up the Reddit thread. So look at this: You can see Ron’s letter; it’s quite small at the top. And then look at Harry’s; it’s quite big, and you can see Harry’s is mixing in with the other mail that the Dursleys are receiving. Nice touch, right?
Laura: Yeah, that is a nice touch. I hadn’t noticed that. That’s a good catch.
Andrew: Thank you, Reddit.
Micah: Do we think it’s because they’re trying to tell us that Ron is not as important as Harry?
Andrew: See… [laughs]
Laura: I hope not. Come on, y’all.
Micah: I was wondering, though, too, could it be because other members of his family have already received theirs? So I don’t…
Andrew: Less to share with him?
Micah: Yeah, he already knows… that can’t be it.
Andrew: Well…
Laura: No.
Andrew: Yeah, okay. I like this owl theory. That’s what the Internet is saying. They think it’s because it’s easier for an owl to carry.
Miranda: Yeah, I think it could also be the envelope that Harry gets has to blend in with the Muggle post, so maybe they have different envelopes for the owl and the Muggle post.
Andrew: Continuing along, we see the Phelps twins. We see Ron getting…
Laura and Micah: The Phelps twins?
Andrew: Sorry, I always do that.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: We see the Weasley twins. The Phelps twins are not back in their roles as Fred and George.
Micah: I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a cameo at some point, given how involved they are in the Wizarding World.
Andrew: [laughs] They’re teasing their brother. They smash a sandwich, and some of the ketchup gets on Ron’s sealed Hogwarts letter. Poor Ron. He’s all excited to get his Hogwarts letter, and it’s already being stained by his mischievous brothers. I thought this guy on the left was initially Arthur. It’s not; it’s Percy.
Laura: That’s Percy.
Andrew: Next scene we get is the Sorting Hat ceremony. You’ll notice on the left here is Quirrell, the back of his head, and much of his head is very much covered up. This is our first look at Quirrell. Not much of a turban, though, right?
Laura: No, and it has me wondering if they’re changing that… because you’ll have to remind me; I feel like in the book, Quirrell didn’t have the turban when Harry met him in Diagon Alley, but he did have it when he came back back to Hogwarts. Am I right on that timing?
Miranda: Yeah, that’s right.
Laura: Yeah. So I’m just… I’m curious to know what was the purpose of this update?
Andrew: Yeah. It’s a little… well, first of all, it’s way flatter compared to what we see in the movie. It almost looks like something you’d see in Game of Thrones, actually. Maybe they just pulled that from the Game of Thrones set.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Whatever that gear is.
Laura: They were like, “Hey, Kit Harington, while you’re on your way over to film your Lockhart scenes, bring us some of that.”
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, I don’t know. They’re making some changes here and there to the costuming, I guess. Would it have been considered a little more offensive?
Laura: That’s the only other thing I can think, is that this was an updating choice just based on this being made in the year 2026.
Andrew: Yeah, I think I agree with that. So we are at the Sorting Hat ceremony; McGonagall calls out Harry Potter. This is a new look at Dumbledore as well. I just loved Dumbledore in this trailer. John Lithgow was selling me.
Laura: Yeah, me too.
Miranda: I agree. I think he’s great.
Andrew: And look at this wardrobe that he’s got. You can see some sparkle in it. It looks fantastic and fabulous. And we see here this kind of look of concern – or anticipation maybe is a better word – when it’s Harry’s turn to get under the Sorting Hat. It is a black Sorting Hat, just like it is in the books. Okay, now this scene…
Laura: I love this. [laughs]
Andrew: Let me play the audio here.
Lavender: The House we’re put in basically decides our entire future, so no pressure.
Andrew: “The Sorting Hat decides basically our entire future, so no pressure.” I feel like this is kind of a nod to a running joke that’s been going on for a while, and a nod to what occurs in the books when Dumbledore says in Deathly Hallows, “Sometimes I think we Sort too soon.” Their entire future is being decided in year one.
Laura: I really do think that this is the benefit of them doing the series at a point in time where we actually have all the books. I think one of the things that kind of hamstrung the movies in some ways is that we didn’t know the full story, we didn’t know the full character arcs and what was going to come full circle, and now that we have that, they can plant little Easter eggs like this that weren’t necessarily moments in the book, but that are going to become relevant to the story as it unfolds. I think it’s cool. I see our Discord speculating that this is Lavender…
Andrew: Oh, interesting.
Laura: … who’s saying that “The Sorting will decide our whole lives,” which does kind of feel like something Lavender would say, now that I think about it.
Andrew: Yeah. And I mean, she apparently dies, so for her to make this comment could be kind of interesting.
Laura: Aww.
Andrew: Sorry.
Harry: Not Slytherin… not Slytherin…
Andrew: So this is a scene straight out of the books, straight out of the movies. Harry is under the Sorting Hat, saying “Not Slytherin.”
The Sorting Hat: Gryffindor!
Andrew: Gets Gryffindor. Everybody cheers.
Micah: That’s quite the roll of the tongue by the Sorting Hat there.
Andrew: [attempting a tongue roll] “Gryffindor!” Harry, of course, is very relieved, and then we get this moment from Dumbledore. This is the… it’s very short, but this is what really excited me, from John Lithgow’s portrayal.
Dumbledore: Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts.
Andrew: Just his body language here, and the way he’s looking at the students with excitement, it excited me.
Laura: Yeah, I think he nails it.
Micah: Let’s be real: It’s really what comes next that excited you, Andrew.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Okay… what is, the food? What are you talking…?
Micah: All the food. He just snaps his fingers.
Andrew: [laughs] Oh, oh. And the food kind of pops up, which tracks because it’s coming from under the Great Hall. The house-elves are preparing this. I like how it pops in. I think it’s quirky and weird, and that’s Hogwarts. That’s the wizarding world.
Laura: Right. And we just won’t find out for another few years that this is the result of slavery, but don’t worry about it.
Andrew: [laughs] “Hey, where’d this food come from?” “Oh, who cares? I want to eat. I’m hungry.”
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: We do get a look at the House points and the hourglasses in the background, and for as dark as the Great Hall looks, the House point hourglasses are bright, vibrant. I love how they pop. And then, okay, so I think this is one of the winners of this trailer, right? The kid playing Seamus Finnigan.
Seamus: Big day, lads! How are we feeling?
Andrew: “Big day, lads! How are we feeling?” He is so cute.
Laura: Oh my God, so cute.
Andrew: He’s so energized. He seems shorter than a lot of the fellow cast members do.
Micah: He’s definitely going to be a fan favorite. I have a feeling.
Andrew: It seems like it.
Micah: He reminds me of somebody getting up on the morning of a big sporting event, which is probably what’s happening…
Andrew: Oh, I thought you were going to say Christmas Day.
Micah: Or even Christmas Day. But yeah, he seems like he has the personality of a much older sports fan that’s really excited that his team is about to play today.
Andrew: Yes. I bet that is what’s happening here, right? It’s the morning of a Quidditch game.
Miranda: Maybe it’s…
Micah: Yeah, I think it… oh, go ahead.
Miranda: Maybe it’s how it’s cut in the trailer, but I see it and think that it’s their first flying lesson.
Andrew and Micah: Ohh.
Andrew: Okay.
Laura: Oh, yeah. I was wondering if it was the first day of term as well.
Micah: Oh.
Andrew: “Big day, lads. How are we feeling?”
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: But he does… does he have Quidditch pajamas on?
Andrew: I was going to just say that. It does look like it’s Quidditch pajamas. So yeah, just too cute. Too cute.
Laura: Yeah, it’s very cute.
[Ad break]
Andrew: Then we do get… okay, so I guess this is the same scene. We cut to Neville. We don’t really see him, though; his head is under the pillow, and Trevor, his toad, is on top of the pillow. [laughs]
Laura: That’s a mood. That’s relatable. That’s me in the morning.
Andrew: Yeah? Your dog Canela on top of your pillow while you’re under the pillow?
Laura: Actually, yeah.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: There is a scene here where Harry is kind of concerned about… he doesn’t know what his future holds at Hogwarts.
McGonagall: Mr. Potter. I expect you to work hard, find what sparks your interest…
Andrew: “Find what sparks your interest.” Go ahead, Micah.
Micah: I do like these little schedules that they developed. It’s an added level of detail.
Andrew: Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people… yeah, it’s cool. It’s cool. We see this basically grid with every day and the time of day, and it’s all filled in. “Herbology, Charms, Library…” Okay, then we see the Herbology room, or classroom, I should say.
Micah: Which is cool because we weren’t sure if we were going to get that, given that it really doesn’t play much of a role until Chamber of Secrets, and I don’t think we got any Herbology in Sorcerer’s Stone the movie.
Andrew: No, I don’t think so.
Laura: We didn’t.
Andrew: Difficult to tell what the lesson is going on here, because we do see the backside of Sprout, but we don’t really see what she’s holding. And then I was mentioning earlier, Seamus looks quite small. Here’s a perfect shot of what I’m talking about.
Laura: Yeah, he’s so little.
Andrew: Yeah. Moving along here, I saw… so there’s a shot of Harry and Ron playing in their common room, just having a pillow fight, and you see this poster behind Ron on the right side? That is a real poster from a ’91-’92 sports season. Somebody found that actual poster here in the Muggle world.
Laura: Oh, wow. That’s cool.
Andrew: So they’re going to be grounding the story in reality. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah. Well, that makes… who does that belong to, then? Would it be Dean?
Andrew: HallowWolf says, “Dean was the West Ham fan.”
Laura: Okay.
Andrew: And we do see the poster on the left side that says, “West Ham are massive.”
Miranda: And Laura, I think maybe what you’re thinking of is in Deathly Hallows. I think he’s on the run because he can’t prove his parentage…
Laura: Yep.
Miranda: … and so that checks out that he’s a Muggle football fan.
Andrew: And this is something I think we’ll touch on more, but there’s a lot of loyalty to the books in the details of what we’ve been seeing, so that poster is a good example. This next scene is another good example. We see the Transfiguration class; McGonagall, Harry, and Ron are all here, and they’re trying to levitate matchsticks, which is exactly what happens in the book. That is their first lesson. Harry is struggling to do it. Harry does also mention… here, I’ll play this scene.
Harry: Everyone thinks I’m this great wizard, but I don’t really know anything.
Andrew: “Everyone thinks I’m a great wizard, but I don’t really know anything.” And I guess this is really… and we see this in the book too. We next see these Quidditch shots, and this is where Harry really comes into his own, right?
Laura and Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: He proves himself to be a really talented wizard. We get a shot of Snape…
Snape: Let’s hope you show some talent on the Quidditch pitch, Potter. You’ve certainly not exhibited any in here.
Andrew: Ouch.
Laura: So I think I’m a little concerned that Snape is too attractive.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Laura: And I know that we’ve documented this on the show before, and again, there’s been so much discourse about the casting of Paapa Essiedu as Snape, and just to stamp out any BS nonsense, we don’t have any issue with his casting. He’s a phenomenal actor. However, he’s a very attractive man, and I don’t know that enough was done to make him…
Andrew: To ugly him up. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah, because the thing is, I’m not someone who thinks that you would need to maintain the same race of casting as what you did in the movies with Alan Rickman or what everyone’s perception from the books is. We don’t need that. I think that a person of any race can play Snape; that’s not an issue. It’s just he’s very attractive, and I think this…
Andrew: But is that a problem?
Laura: I don’t know. I’m going to have to withhold judgment until I see the show. I think it does just stick out to me a little bit.
Andrew: Okay.
Laura: And I was withholding judgment because we only got small snippets of him in the OG teaser, and I was like, “I don’t know, y’all. Snape is kind of hot.”
Andrew: [laughs] And Laura is still facing the same conundrum here.
Laura: Yes. Again, I did not have “Thirsting over Severus Snape” on my bingo card.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Feels a little weird. Is anyone else struggling with this, or is it just me?
Andrew: If I have any concerns, it’s that I’m going to be thinking too much about Alan Rickman while I’m watching him, Paapa Essiedu, live up to Alan Rickman’s Snape. And how is he going to play Snape? Is he going to be…? I guess we’re seeing him be a jerk here, but is he…? He’s not really sneering as is described in the books and what we get from Alan. Miranda, what do you think?
Miranda: I actually really like the way he delivered the line. I feel like it was really strong bullying; that feels very true to Snape’s character. It’s definitely a new interpretation of Snape, so I’m intrigued. I want to see more.
Laura: I agree.
Andrew: Yeah. I think it’s just too much of a distraction for Laura. She’s going to be like, “I can’t focus.”
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Laura: Okay, no, it’s not… honestly, at the end of the day, it’s all about the portrayal. And again, like I said, he is a phenomenal actor, and I’m sure he’s going to nail the role. It’s just… I think based on how disgusting Snape is described to be, it’s a little surprising to see that they didn’t do something to try and bring that across. Of course, what they may be doing here, to Miranda’s point, they may be allowing that to manifest in the way the character behaves, whereas we’re used to seeing it be… because in the books, this is also something you see with multiple characters where nasty people tend to be nasty on the outside too in these stories, and maybe they’re getting away from that for this adaptation, which is fine. That’s fine. It’s just different.
Andrew: Yeah. So we do get some Quidditch here. Draco is standing right behind Ron, which, by the way, is straight out of the book. We see Harry going after the Snitch. We get a shot of some of the Hogwarts grounds. I don’t know if y’all noticed; it’s Christmas. It’s winter. But we see two of the Hogwarts founders’ names at the top of one of the entries here. We see Salazar Slytherin’s name and Rowena Ravenclaw’s name. I thought that was a cool little touch.
Laura: That is cool.
Micah: It’s nice because we haven’t really gotten too much of Hogwarts from an exterior standpoint, right? That’s still something that we’re really waiting on.
Andrew: Yeah. And we were speculating Back to Hogwarts Day, we would get a grand reveal of the castle, and that did not happen.
Hagrid: Family’s more’n just blood.
Andrew: There’s a great shot of Hagrid saying “Family’s more than just blood,” and I think this is probably going to be a theme across the season, if not the entire series. Harry is trying to find his chosen family. And to that point, the next shot after this line from Hagrid is Ron and Harry hugging. Ron is a little beaten up.
Micah: Yeah, doesn’t he get into it with either Crabbe or Goyle during the Quidditch match?
Laura: Yep.
Andrew: I think that’s right. And this is inside Hagrid’s hut, right? It’s got to be, when we’re seeing Hagrid say that line.
Miranda: Looks like it, yeah.
Hagrid: You’ll find your place.
Andrew: This was cool; we see Hermione conjuring a spell, and I love what she’s doing with her arms. Was anybody else really impressed by this?
Laura: Yeah, no, I thought this was really cool. But again, this moment is something else lifted straight from the books, because what she’s doing is animating the poster that Dean drew for the Quidditch match of the lion to make it roar, right? And then you see it in the next shot. But yeah, it’s really cool to see that there is at least, in some ways, attention being paid to spell casting, routines, strategy…
Andrew: Methods, yeah. It’s different than what we saw in the movies, I think. And I think it speaks to Hermione’s natural skills that she’s pulling off what looks like a pretty complex type of movement so easily for a first year. So yeah, that was cool. We see the chess set animated. And I think something we said about the first trailer was we weren’t seeing any magic in it. I don’t think there was anything.
Laura: Right.
Andrew: And we get a lot of that in this trailer.
Harry: We found something incredible.
Andrew: We see the trio heading towards Fluffy, and now, this is something… this shot is straight out of the movies as well, but we get Neville in this one. So just like in the books, it’s the trio and Neville who come across Fluffy. You see Neville… this is a really cute shot, how they’re just screaming their faces off. [laughs]
Micah: And what it probably means is that given they’re in their pajamas, that we’re going to get the midnight duel, which is how they initially come across Fluffy.
Laura: Right.
Andrew: Yes. Okay, and there is a shot of Draco at night in what looks like the forest, Forbidden Forest, so I think that’s probably from the midnight duel chapter as well. Now, this shot, two wizards on a bridge, and they’re kind of lighting up the bridge with their wands. Some people have speculated this is Lily and James; that thought crossed my mind too. I think what’s more likely here is this is just two wizards who are celebrating the fall of Voldemort. Thoughts?
Laura: Yep, that’s what I think too.
Micah: Sure.
Miranda: I don’t know who it is, but I love the way the magic looks.
Andrew: Yes, it is very cool. The whole bridge is alight, and actually, the spell carries over into the trees too. And this is something big that we’re going to get that we didn’t get in the movies, and I think we’re going to probably get more than what we even got in the book. And we saw those paparazzi photos of Vernon trying to go to work, and he’s seeing strangely-clothed people out and about celebrating something. He also runs into… what’s that wizard’s name?
Laura: Oh, Dedalus Diggle.
Andrew: Dedalus Diggle. Now, there’s also a scene here… a lot of people have been talking about this as well. Let me play the dialogue.
Dumbledore: We can’t protect them. We can only prepare them.
McGonagall: For what?
Andrew: “We can’t protect them. We can only prepare them,” says Dumbledore to McGonagall. And McGonagall says, “For what?”
Micah: Such a Dumbledore thing to say. [laughs]
Andrew: Don’t you think that is teeing up basically the rest of the series?
Micah: The series, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. And getting back to Laura’s point, with the benefit of hindsight, they can build out stuff like this very early on. We see a shot of Harry checking out the Mirror of Erised. This scene I cannot wait for.
Laura: Same.
Andrew: Of course, this is before Dumbledore steps in. Who do you think this is? Is this Filch? We get a shot of some room at Hogwarts.
Micah: It’s a trophy room, it looks like.
Andrew: Okay.
Laura: And isn’t that where the midnight duel was supposed to be?
Miranda: I think so, yeah.
Laura: So yeah, I think it probably is Filch.
Andrew: I don’t know if we know who’s playing Filch yet. We only see this person’s backside. A lot of backsides in this trailer. [laughs]
Micah: When I was looking at the trailer initially, I was wondering if I would spot Mrs. Norris somewhere, but I don’t see her.
Andrew: Oh.
Micah: But I think it’s probably Filch. He has very similar mannerisms to David Bradley when he was in the role. He’s kind of slightly hunched; he’s holding the lantern. Could also be the Restricted Section, but I feel like all that stuff looks somewhat polished, maybe.
Andrew: I think you’re right. There’s trophies and there’s some crests, too, that I see, which could maybe be awards. So there’s that. We see Hermione, I guess in her common room. So Hermione says this line:
Hermione: Anything could be lurking behind any door in this place.
Andrew: Anything can be what behind any door in this place?
Laura and Micah: Lurking.
Andrew: Lurking, okay. Any thoughts on who she might be talking to, or what the context is here?
Laura: It wouldn’t surprise me if we got some POV shifts in the show, just because we know that we’re going to see stuff like Hermione getting her Hogwarts letter, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they shifted away from Harry’s point of view to show a conversation happening in the girls’ dormitory, for example. Maybe that’s what this is.
Miranda: I thought maybe it’s after they find Fluffy and they’re speculating about what else might be happening in the castle or something like that.
Laura: Yep, that too.
Andrew: Oh, okay. So we get a shot of the troll. Troll looks quite different than the one in the movie, right? Any strong feelings about this?
Micah: Looks fresh out of the Upside Down.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Yeah, it looks scary. I like it.
Andrew: Scary, slimy… yeah, it’s almost like it doesn’t have eyes, right?
Miranda: Yeah, it’s like they’re hidden under his skin, maybe. This felt very TV-14 to me.
Andrew: [laughs] And there’s Ron getting ready to fight the troll. Of course, this is a pivotal scene in the friendship of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Micah: There’s those tiles, too, Andrew, that you pointed out earlier.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Oh, there’s the tiles. Yep. Now here’s that shot of Draco I mentioned a couple minutes ago. This probably is the same midnight duel chapter. Harry and Draco are going into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid; Draco is looking a little apprehensive. We see hot Snape again. Now, who dis? Is this Hedwig’s…? Hedwig’s. Is this Hagrid’s hut?
Micah: I think so.
Laura: Yeah, I think it’s the exterior.
Micah: My thought on this was we know that Hagrid got Norbert from this mysterious individual at a bar, right? That’s the way that it’s written in the books. But would it make more sense for the purpose of the TV show, maybe, to have that person show up at his hut?
Andrew: Maybe.
Micah: So my thought is this is Quirrellmort in disguise. I could be totally wrong.
Andrew: Yeah. I think that’s right, especially with having the hood up. RachelPuff in our chat tonight thinks it’s Voldemort as well. This person looks tall, right? What is the…? But if this is Hagrid’s hut, and he’s walking into the hut, and he looks taller than the door, and Hagrid is large… you know what I mean? Why would this entry be small? So I’m a little confused.
Micah: Oh, maybe it’s the bar that we were mentioning earlier. It’s just it’s at night; it’s dark. This could be in Hogsmeade somewhere.
Andrew: That’s true. That’s true.
Micah: It doesn’t have to be his hut.
Laura: Yeah, is it the Hog’s Head?
Andrew: Maybe. We see Hermione right above the trapdoor. We see Ron in the chess challenge, which of course is going to be a big moment for the fandom, when he says, “Knight to E5!”
Laura: [laughs] Do you think he’ll have that iconic “Not me, not Hermione, you”?
Andrew: Oh, yeah. 100%.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Now, this has to be the scene when Harry is confronting Quirrellmort, right? It looks like there’s fire reflecting off of him.
Micah: Yeah, could be.
Andrew: Man, I can’t wait to see this stuff come to life. And then we get a glimpse at this book that answers Hermione’s question about the Philosopher’s Stone. Oh, and then there’s this great…
Hermione: Oh, come on. Don’t you two read?
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Perfect. So that’s the trailer!
Laura: Yeah, it got me excited.
Micah: The ending was just like the last one, where it left you with something to be excited about.
Andrew: Yeah, left you something to be excited about. It’s kind of a moment that I think is almost made for the Internet. Very intentionally, they included this in the trailer to please the Internet. Just like with the last trailer, “Are you Harry Potter?” And then Harry shows the scar, and then Ron goes, like, “Mind blown.” That was perfect, and it added so much to that scene.
Micah: Totally. And I think it was intentional, right? That the last one ended with Ron really showing his character, and then this one ends with Hermione showing her character with the reading.
Andrew and Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I actually think Ron got more lines in the last trailer versus…
Micah: Than in the entire series?
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Laura: Whereas Hermione gets more in this trailer.
Andrew: Justin is saying in our chat, “Hermione gets the best lines, just like in the movies.” Oh, we also did get this shot of Hedwig. Is that a real owl or it’s a fake? An animatronic?
Laura: That’s an animatronic.
Micah: It’s got to be fake. I don’t think that we’re going back to real owls anytime soon.
[Andrew laughs]
Miranda: It looks good, though.
Andrew: It does look good. It looks really good. Oh, somebody was also speculating over on YouTube that that mystery figure with the hood, that could have been Godric’s Hollow.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: That could have been Voldemort coming for James and Lily, potentially.
Laura: Right.
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, really, anything’s on the table.
Miranda: Maybe we’ll get a flashback when Hagrid tells the story to Harry about what happened to him.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. I think we’re absolutely going back in an expanded way.
Micah: I mean, if we’re going to go along those lines, what about Snape coming to the Hog’s Head to overhear the prophecy?
Andrew: Oooh.
Laura: I think that would be so cool, if they… honestly, that is my dream opening for this series, is Snape overhearing the prophecy.
Micah: Just because you want to see more Snape?
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Laura: No, it’s not even…
Andrew: “Take off the hood!”
Laura: [laughs] It’s just because it’s a really creative way to frame the story, right?
Micah: No, I agree.
Laura: But yeah, they wouldn’t be able to show who it is.
Micah: True.
Laura: It’s just like, if you know, you know.
Andrew: But also, it’s just they need more stuff like that in this show to justify this show’s existence. Because another thing we’ve been seeing online a lot is, “Why are they rebooting? Why are they doing this?” I think the answer is quite clear; I think we’re all in agreement about that. You’re going from a two-hour 40-minute movie to eight plus hours of adaptation time.
Laura: Right.
Andrew: There’s so much more opportunity. And actually, there was this interview with David Heyman this week where he described the TV series as “the books plus.” So he’s basically telling us we’re going to go beyond the books, which is very tantalizing. DeepCoverAuror said, “All smiles and fighting tears during this trailer,” so they’re a very, very big fan of what we saw.
Laura: [laughs] Oh, Catherine.
Andrew: What?
Laura: Talking about our merch. I like this idea. We need merch that says, “I’m just here for hot Snape.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Can we make that shirt and sell it in the store?
Andrew: Yeah, sure. Are you going to be the first purchaser?
Laura: I was kind of hoping that as a member of this panel, I wouldn’t have to buy it, but…
Andrew: Yeah, no, no, of course we’ll get it.
Laura: Oh, okay.
Andrew: Yes, we’ll get it. I was just hoping you’d say yes just to help sell the “I’m going to buy it, and you can too!” [laughs]
Laura: Listen, I’ll model it.
Andrew: Yes!
Laura: I’ll take pictures in it, and you can sell it in the merch store with me wearing it. [laughs]
Andrew: We sold a pair of your pants the other day, too, in the merch store. The copies of your pants.
Laura: Oh, lovely.
Andrew: Yeah, I was very excited about that. Okay, so we’ll work on that, Catherine C. Any other points we want to bring up today before we start wrapping up this?
Laura: Something I thought was interesting that I just noticed in a couple of the cuts: It seems like they’re going to be wearing their uniforms outside of classroom settings a lot more than what we saw in the movies. Both Harry and Ron appear to be wearing their uniforms, or at least their button-ups and their ties, in the finale scenes, like where we see Ron on the giant chess set and Harry facing Quirrellmort.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. And hopefully they stick with that through the rest of the series. Maybe I’m being too much of a stickler, but remember when Alfonso Cuarón for Prisoner of Azkaban was like, “Eh, they’re going to start dressing down,” and then they really carried that through for the rest of the series? It’s a little complaint, but I think just for consistency’s sake, if they are going to keep them more dressed up like this, Laura, at the beginning, then just carry that all the way through the series.
Miranda: I hope they do. Yeah, that’s always been one of my criticisms of Prisoner of Azkaban. Especially Ron would never be walking around in Muggle clothes around Hogwarts.
Laura: Right. Well, and they all look like they’re wearing Abercrombie & Fitch, and it’s supposed to be the ’90s. Not to say that that didn’t exist then, but those were definitely early 2000s fashions that they were wearing. So I hope that when we get to see them in Muggle clothes – it seems like this is the route they’re going, hopefully – they’re going to be accurate to the time period.
[Ad break]
Andrew: There was a shot too… I don’t know if it was in the trailer, but this shot I’m currently on on YouTube reminded me. At one point, it’s Hogwarts during the day, or the Great Hall during the day, and the stained glass behind the faculty table at the front is just lit up with color and beautiful, so I’m just very excited to see this adaptation of Hogwarts and what they do… right here. This is what I was thinking of. You see the Hogwarts House animals in the stained glass, and it just looks great. My only complaint is the flooring.
Laura: Yeah. Well, and I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about their perception that this looks too dark and that it’s missing color, but I have to say, I disagree. I actually think it’s pretty colorful. I mean, there are portions of it, like at night where it’s like, “Yeah, you’re in a castle with no electricity. It’s going to look dark in there.”
Andrew: Right.
Laura: But I mean, during the daytime, it seems pretty well lit.
Andrew: Yeah, look at this scene. This is a midday scene. And right, you’re in a castle. It’s not like it was built for great interior lighting.
Miranda: It’s also up north, right? So it makes sense there’s not a lot of daylight.
Andrew: Right. Everybody’s still really burned by Game of Thrones. Nobody’s going to ever let this go. Even House of the Dragon, I feel like, has gotten brighter, or is brighter compared to Game of Thrones. So that’s the trailer. Somebody asked in the Discord on our Patreon, “Will this be the last trailer before Christmas?” I don’t think so.
Laura and Micah: No.
Laura: I think they’ve got to do one more.
Micah: I think Halloween would be a good one.
Andrew: Oh, Halloween. Yeah, yeah.
Miranda: What’s the title of this trailer? Does it say “teaser” again?
Andrew: “Official Teaser Trailer.” Oh, yeah, it does say that. But what is the difference between a teaser and a trailer?
Miranda: I don’t know, but I feel like we’re due at least one more.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, with movies, they’re typically shorter, and you see less. This is like a full-blown theatrical trailer. I mean, do we even see this for TV shows normally? No. We’re actually being quite spoiled, I feel, with these trailers. [laughs] For a TV show, do you ever get this much?
Laura: I don’t know. I’ve never really paid attention. And I don’t know, maybe this is the HBO treatment. Maybe this is what they do for all of their flagship series. I’m not sure.
Andrew: Yeah, I don’t know. I feel like we’re reviewing a movie trailer right now. It doesn’t feel like a television trailer at all.
Laura: Yeah, Danielle in the Discord is saying, “If teaser trailers are over two minutes, what the heck is a trailer trailer?” [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, this is two minutes 30 seconds. It’s really long.
Micah: RachelPuff also brings up a good point in the Discord; maybe we get something around Thanksgiving because Harry Potter is going to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which was a big announcement yesterday as part of Back to Hogwarts.
Laura: Ahh, yeah.
Andrew: That’s right. That is one of the announcements that they made. So there’s going to be some sort of Harry Potter float. I guess they’ll have some of the cast members on the float too? Is John Lithgow going to be waving a Pride flag or something on it?
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Micah: Maybe.
Laura: He should.
Andrew: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Gay Parade, brought to you by Harry Potter.
Laura: Well, especially… I mean, did you see his beard? His beard is immaculate. It looks like somebody gave Dumbledore a beach waver to get perfect spirals for his beard. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, no, it looked great. It looked great. I’m really pleased with Dumbledore so far. So Micah mentioned that announcement, this Back to Hogwarts event. It was about 45 minutes long. It streamed live.
Micah: I’m sorry, Back to Hogwarts ad special.
Andrew: Yes, it was one giant ad. It was like… I felt played watching it. They announced the Thanksgiving Day parade thing. They announced products coming to Target. Who cares?
Micah: [laughs] Target does.
Andrew: They teased that there’s going to be Harry Potter TV series Legos. They touched on the Harry Potter Illustrated Edition coming out October 6, which we already knew about. They announced a new Sorting Hat experience on HarryPotter.com. That I’m actually curious to try, and I think we’re going to do a bonus MuggleCast where we take it and see if we get a different House than…
Micah: I did.
Andrew: Oh, you did?
Micah: I got a different House. I’m not telling you what it is, though.
Andrew: [gasps] Ooh, were you a Hatstall?
Micah: No.
Andrew: Oh, wow. Okay.
Laura: I’m going to have to do this as soon as we finish here. I’m curious.
Andrew: I think we should do it on bonus MuggleCast, though, Laura.
Micah: I can take it again if you want.
Andrew: Yeah, maybe. But yeah, it just felt like a big ad. Oh, they announced a new broomstick experience at the Harry Potter New York store. [laughs] They announced a new store, I think, coming to London. It was just one big ad. Miranda, were you excited about the broomstick experience?
Miranda: I feel like they had one before.
Andrew: I thought so too.
Miranda: I don’t know what happened to it.
Micah: Wasn’t there something with Dobby?
Miranda: Yeah, there used to be these two interactive experiences there, and then it closed and I think they added more store space, and now it looks like maybe they’re trying to bring the broomstick experience back. I don’t know.
Andrew: What a phrase, a broomstick experience. What about a flying experience? Why are you calling it a broomstick experience? [laughs]
Laura: Yeah, what happens?
Andrew: Yeah, that just… well, presumably you get on the broomstick and you’re flying around. I think that’s what the preview showed, right?
Miranda: It’s actually hard to tell what it will actually be like when you show up at the store. I feel like their advertisement for it was more like you see yourself flying with something in the background. I wonder if it’s more of something that you can use on your social media that you get a video after of you flying on a broomstick.
Andrew: Probably. “For an extra $50, we’ll let you print out the photo. We’ll let you take this photo we printed for you, and if you don’t buy it, we’re just going to throw it out, so you decide what happens.” So yeah, all in all, it’s just meh, and they should have… they need to take a page out of Disney and Apple’s books. Yes, the Disney presentations and Apple Keynotes are giant ads as well, but they give the people what they want. They give you previews. They give you genuinely exciting announcements. That was a whole lot of nothing on Back to Hogwarts Day.
Micah: Yeah, I agree with you. I will say, I did enjoy the bit we got about the upcoming Illustrated Edition and just seeing how the illustrator worked on the book. But that aside, I mean, that could have been a quick social media clip that was posted; it didn’t need to be built into this 45-minute advertisement. And what I found to be really surprising – and I know, Andrew, I mentioned this to you about their promotion yesterday – was it really did not feature any of the old Harry Potter actors or movies. I mean, the Phelps twins were in there because they have a new season of Wizards of Baking, which is going to be coming out later on this year. But aside from that, they didn’t use Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and especially surprising since he’s coming to Broadway next year. That was not mentioned at all.
Andrew: That’s shocking to me.
Micah: I know they are probably trying to distance themselves somewhat from the older cast, given that they have a new TV show coming out, but that just kind of surprised me. There was nothing really there to evoke the nostalgia of going back to Hogwarts.
Andrew: Yeah, if they had put that Rupert Grint Cursed Child announcement in that event yesterday, that would have been far and away the biggest announcement, and I would have been like, “Oh, cool, we got something good out of this.” But instead, we were just marketed to and sold a lot of products, many of which we already have: Legos, books, Illustrated Editions, etc.
Micah: We also didn’t get anything related to Hogwarts Legacy, which I found surprising.
Andrew: No. Oh, we did…
Micah: I mean, they gave you a what? A little hat?
Andrew: We get a free hat now in-game if you didn’t already have it.
Laura: Woo-hoo.
Micah: Yeah, but I think we were expecting a little bit more there.
Andrew: [laughs] Oh, yes, we were.
Laura: A free hat in the game that came out three years ago? Okay.
Andrew: [laughs] Right, right. You know, Disney does their D23 Expo, I think, every other year – they were for a little while – and part of the reason for that is they don’t have enough to share every year. Maybe Harry Potter needs to start doing that too. Go to an every other year cadence for this “big” (air quote) Back to Hogwarts event. Don’t hype it up like this every year. Or focus it on the TV show; why was there not more attention put on the TV show? That’s all anyone cares about, and Hogwarts Legacy. So yeah, it was disappointing. But we’ve just got to remember this for future years. But at least we did get a trailer… the next day. So that’s what happened there. We’re all pleased with the trailer. We’re all very excited for Philosopher’s Stone to kick off in December.
Laura: I mean, y’all, I just have to say, it’s really fun to be back here doing trailer analysis episodes.
Andrew: Absolutely.
Laura: I know I said this last time, but I never imagined that we would do this again.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, and that we’d be fawning over Snape. I mean, what world are we in these days?
Laura: You know, we live in strange times. That’s all I can say.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, so if you’re new to MuggleCast and you’re tuning in because you wanted to hear some Harry Potter TV show trailer – teaser trailer, excuse me – analysis, we are going to continue covering the TV show as we approach Christmas. And then I don’t think we’ve really announced this yet to everybody, but once we get about a month out from the TV show premiering – so maybe around Thanksgiving – we’re just going to go full in on the Harry Potter TV show for the following four months. Because we’re going to be covering the TV show week to week, of course, while episodes are airing, and then after the series airs, we’re going to want to go back and and look at everything again. So expect about four months of dedicated TV show coverage. And we will be putting Chapter by Chapter on ice; we’re going to park it for a moment while we’re covering the TV show, but then we’ll get back to Deathly Hallows Chapter by Chapter once we finish.
Laura: Yeah, we’ll actually bring it back.
Andrew: Yes, yeah, we’re not going to drop Chapter by Chapter permanently or anything like that.
Micah: And I think there’s also a high likelihood that we may do multiple episodes per week when the show is airing. We’ll do a initial reaction to the episode, and then we’ll do a followup episode later in the week where we can really incorporate all of your feedback and take your thoughts on what’s happened and what’s to come.
Andrew: 100%. Because as we saw today, there’s so many little things that they’re pulling from the books or just adding. Remember, David Heyman described this as “books plus,” so there’s just going to be so much to talk about with every episode. I mean, we just spent…
Micah: We’re going to have to read again, you realize this?
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Most likely.
Andrew: Well, yeah. I mean, we could use the full-cast audiobooks. I would personally enjoy doing that. But we just spent 45 minutes talking about two and a half minutes of preview, so imagine us talking about a 60-minute episode, or however long these episodes end up being.
Micah: And half of that was about bathroom floor tiles.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: I was thinking of cutting that out of the episode, but now that it’s come up a few times, I guess we’re keeping it in. So we will cover the TV show as more news breaks in the months ahead, so make sure you’re following us in your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. Next week, unless there’s more breaking news concerning the TV show, Chapter by Chapter will continue with Chapter 7 of Deathly Hallows, “The Will of Albus Dumbledore.” And like I said, if you’re new here, we’re currently doing a Chapter by Chapter reread of the final Harry Potter book, so join us for those fun in-depth discussions in between our TV coverage episodes, and I think that’s about it. Miranda, thanks for joining us today. We appreciate you hopping on.
Miranda: Thanks so much for having me. This was great.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, a lot of fun. Exciting to talk about this big trailer that just came out today. Listeners, visit MuggleCast.com for links to our social media, our Patreon… the Patreon is the reason why we are a weekly podcast and still here today, 20 years later. Woo! So we really appreciate your support at Patreon.com/MuggleCast. And then you can visit MuggleCast for transcripts, our favorite episodes, how to follow us online, everything you need. Thanks, everyone, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Laura: I’m Laura.
Miranda: And I’m Miranda.
Andrew: Bye, everyone!
Laura: See you next time. Bye.