Moviefone Editorial

Tag: jk-rowling

  • J.K. Rowling Posts Video Asking ‘Cursed Child’ Audience Not to Share Spoilers

    Britain Scotland CelebritiesNo snitches allowed, except for the Quidditch kind!

    “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is opening previews this week in London, with the story set 19 years after the main plot of J.K. Rowling‘s seventh and final book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Pottermore recently shared three sets of photos to showcase the actors in character, and a script book with the entire story will be available July 31, which is the shared birthday of author Rowling and The Boy Who Lived.

    But there’s a long time between now and July 31, and not all Harry Potter fans will be fortunate enough to see the London play. Some of us may want to know every little detail ASAP while others will want to keep the mystery alive so they experience it fresh in the theater or on the page in the script book.

    To that end, J.K. Rowling just shared her own little 30-second PSA asking the lucky fans who do get to see the play to keep their traps shut and not pull a Rita Skeeter across the Internet.

    Here are Rowling’s tweets on the subject:


    It’s a good thing they are making that script book available July 31 or the Internet might riot. Then again, Rowling herself has a history of extra Potter details, beyond the books, the play, and the upcoming “Fantastic Beasts” movie. Maybe she had to pin that #KeeptheSecrets tweet as a reminder to herself.

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  • ‘Cursed Child’: Meet the Malfoys in Final First Look Photos

    Will young Scorpius Malfoy be a friend or foe to Albus Severus Potter and Rose Granger-Weasley in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”? The lucky fans who get to see the play will find out, very soon.

    Pottermore just shared the final first look photos to tease “Cursed Child,” which starts previews June 7 in London. The story picks up 19 years after the main story of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” following the next generation at Hogwarts. Two days ago we got our first looks at Harry, Ginny, and their son Albus in character; yesterday, we saw the adult Ron and Hermione, with their daughter Rose. Today we have the new Draco Malfoy, played by Alex Price, with Anthony Boyle as his son, Scorpius Malfoy. (No wife/mom? What’s that story?)

    Check out these individual photos:

    Scorpius doesn’t look too mean, he may even be a nice kid, and scared of his own dad. Everyone should be scared of this Draco Malfoy — look at that wand, it’s like a prison shank! He is ready to cut you just for looking at him.

    Author J.K. Rowling is a big fan of the Malfoy casting, saying via Pottermore, “I love Draco and Scorpius – they actually look related!” However you may be familiar with her gentle exasperation with the love for film actor Tom Felton’s Draco Malfoy, since she wishes girls weren’t so drawn to “bad boy” types. She teased of the new guy, “I’ve got a feeling Scorpius is going to do nothing to turn girls off the Malfoy men.”

    Apparently Anthony Boyle is not a natural blond, so when he got his new hair, he said, “It was such a game changer. As soon as I saw it, it was like, “‘Okay, I’m playing Scorpius Malfoy – this is real now.’ That was such a big moment.”

    So many big moments are ahead for this group. The play is opening soon in London, and the rest of us can check out the script book when it’s released on Harry Potter’s and J.K. Rowling’s birthday, July 31.

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  • ‘Cursed Child’: See First Photos of Ron, Hermione, and Daughter Rose

    It’s time to meet the Granger-Weasleys! Yesterday, fans got their first looks at Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, and their son Albus, in images from the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” stage play that starts previews in London on June 7.

    (UPDATE: Check out the Malfoys in the third batch of photos over here.)

    Today’s Pottermore pics show Ginny’s bro/Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley (Paul Thornley) and the great Hermione Granger (Noma Dumezweni), along with their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley (Cherrelle Skeete), who is about to start at Hogwarts (like Albus Potter).

    Check out individual images below (with their wands!), along with thoughts about the characters from the stars and author J.K. Rowling.

    ROSE GRANGER-WEASLEY
    It sounds like young Rose is more like her mother than her father (which, let’s be honest, is probably a good thing). As actress Cherrelle Skeete put it, “Rose is ambitious, obviously her mum is Hermione so she’s got a lot to live up to. I think they’re quite similar in the fact they put a lot of pressure on themselves. And she just wants to do the right thing.”

    J.K. Rowling added, “Rose is like her mother, but more secure, more grounded. She was born to wizards and knows her place in the world. Cherrelle plays her perfectly: bossy but deeply lovable.”

    HERMIONE GRANGER
    J.K. Rowling raved about Noma Dumezweni in the role Emma Watson played in the movies. “I saw Noma workshop the part and when John Tiffany told me he’d cast her, I was overjoyed. She gets Hermione inside out.” She also gets the best wand. Look at that thing — it’s practically a lightsaber.

    RON WEASLEY
    Paul Thornley said they wanted to find a jumper (sweater) for Ron that is his favorite one and only occasionally gets washed, and he doesn’t care much what he wears in the morning. J.K. Rowling said to expect the Ron you remember from the books (and from Rupert Grint in the movies). “Ron in his forties isn’t very different from Ron in his teens, except that his feet hurt a bit more. Paul’s so funny and brilliant in the role.”

    And there’s more! Pottermore will share one final first look this week, with images of two more characters from “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two.” So expect that on Thursday.

    This looks so good, we hope it takes off and flies/portkeys its way over to the U.S. for a later run. For now, unless you get tickets in London, the best you can do is pick up the “Cursed Child” script book on July 31, which is both Harry Potter’s and J.K. Rowling’s birthday.

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  • J.K. Rowling Apologizes for, and Explains, Another Harry Potter Death

    DAVID THEWLIS as Remus Lupin and DANIEL RADCLIFFE as Harry Potter in Warner Bros. Pictures' fantasy "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE USED SOLELY FOR ADVERTISING, PROMOTION, PUBLICITY OR REVIEWS OF THIS SPECIFIC MOTION PICTURE AND TO REMAIN THE PROPERTY OF THE STUDIO. NOT FOR SALE OR REDISTRIBUTION.Last year, on the May 2 anniversary of the battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling began a tradition of apologizing for one character death per anniversary. She started in 2015 with Fred Weasley. Since today is May 2, 2016, Rowling returned to Twitter to share her second apology, along with reasons why she killed off this year’s tribute: beloved teacher/Marauder/werewolf Remus “Moony” Lupin, played on screen by David Thewlis.


    Baby Teddy! He’s the son of Lupin and Tonks, who were both killed in the battle. Twitter is honoring the anniversary by trending #18YearsBattleOfHogwarts with some tributes that may make your eyes water.


    Do you think they’ll do a major worldwide event in 2018 for the 20th anniversary? We should probably feel bad for caring more about this than most real-life events, but … nope.

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  • J.K. Rowling Loved ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ Obviously

    Harry PotterFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” but according to “Potter” author and “Beasts” screenwriter J.K. Rowling, the wait will be well worth it.

    Rowling, who made her screenwriting debut on the hotly-anticipated flick, caught an advance screening of the film on Thursday, and her succinct review was nothing short of a rave. (No parsletongue required, though a fluency in emoji is helpful.) The writer took to Twitter to express her admiration for the film, and her heart-filled missive really speaks for itself.


    “Fantastic Beasts” follows the adventures of the young Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a British wizard traveling the globe collecting magical creatures for his textbook, “Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them,” which is used by Hogwarts students in the “Potter” series. But before that big break, Newt was just a bumbling budding magizoologist who wound up in 1920s New York — and wound up accidentally setting free some of his findings on the unsuspecting muggles no-majs around him.

    From what we’ve seen so far, the flick looks to be every bit as magical as the “Potter” movies, and with Rowling’s direct involvement — and now, her positive review — we’re confident that diehard Potterheads will be satisfied. Now if only we had access to Hermione’s time-turner so we could see it sooner ourselves.

    “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” hits theaters on November 18.

    [via: J.K. Rowling]

    Photo credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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  • 7 Times JK Rowling Saved the Internet by Revealing Harry Potter Secrets

    %Slideshow-366075%The “Harry Potter” movies and novels are finished, for now, but JK Rowling is not done with them.

    At least when it comes to peeling back the curtain for some behind-the-scenes facts about the world of Harry Potter.

    With the help of her beans-spilling Twitter, Rowling has recently dropped several bits of trivia to satisfy her fans’ need to know more about their favorite characters or moments. Here are seven secrets she revealed that saved the internet — and also probably made several Potter fanatics go all brainsplode.

  • ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Is Already a Bestseller

    Muggles across the globe rejoiced yesterday when author J.K. Rowling announced that she would publish an eighth installment in the “Harry Potter” franchise, in the form of the script for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the new play (and “Potter” sequel) hitting the London stage this summer. It should come as no surprise, then, that fans were so thrilled that they immediately ordered the book, sending the title to the top of several bestseller charts less than 24 hours later.

    Retailers including Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, and UK chain Waterstones all list “Cursed Child” as their number one title more than five months before the book’s release. The tome, featuring the rehearsal script for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts I & II,” is set to be released on July 31 (which also happens to be Harry’s birthday), the day after the play debuts on London’s West End.

    The ambitious project came about thanks to a collaboration between Rowling, playwright Jack Thorne, and director John Tiffany, who announced the play last summer. According to the trio, the story was split into two parts “due to the epic nature of the story,” and will closely follow Harry’s youngest son, Albus Severus Potter, as he navigates his first year at Hogwarts and his father’s looming legacy. The action picks up immediately after the events of the “Deathly Hallows” epilogue, 19 years after Voldemort’s defeat.

    With the publication of the script, “Potter” fans who haven’t cosplayed since “Deathly Hallows” came out in 2007 now have the chance to relive those glory days of midnight release parties. And while physical bookstores are no doubt scrambling to set up such events, sadly, Rowling herself is not slated to make any appearances herself, according to her publisher, Little, Brown.

    But the author heard fans loud and clear when the play was announced, and according to The Guardian, took great pains to make sure audiences the world over would be able to enjoy “The Cursed Child,” regardless of geography.

    “David Shelley, chief executive of Little, Brown, said on Wednesday that Rowling and her team had received many requests from fans who cannot see the play to publish it in book form,” the paper reports.

    “We are absolutely delighted to be able to make it available for them,” Shelley told The Guardian.

    We’re delighted, too. Accio summer!

    [via: The Guardian]

    Photo credit: Pottermore

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  • Eighth ‘Harry Potter’ Book Will Appear on His 36th Birthday

    Does anyone else miss gathering for those midnight “Harry Potter” book releases? We all had no lives together and it was awesome! The last book in the seven-novel series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” came out in 2007. Not quite 10 years later, J.K. Rowling is promoting our best hope for a sequel book — the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” script book, which is coming out right after the opening of the play in London.

    According to Pottermore, what’s coming out on July 31 — the shared birthday of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling — is a Special Rehearsal Edition of the script book of the new stage play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II.”

    Here are more details from Pottermore:

    “Print and digital editions will publish simultaneously after the play’s world premiere this summer, and will comprise of the version of the play script at the time of the play’s preview performances.

    Theatre previews allow the creative team the chance to rehearse and explore scenes further before a production’s official opening night. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opens for previews several weeks before its official first performance on Saturday 30 July and the Special Rehearsal Edition of the script book will later be replaced by a Definitive Collector’s Edition.

    Pottermore will bring you further updates on the Definitive Collector’s Edition as we learn more.”

    That Definitive Collector’s Edition may be even better, but since most of us won’t be able to make it London for the play, it’s good to know we can get a book version of this official eighth story in the “Harry Potter” canon just a day after the play opens.

    “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” picks up the story after the 19-year time jump of the “Deathly Hallows” epilogue. This new script book comes out as Harry turns 36 and J.K. Rowling turns 51, so maybe we can all celebrate together by reading the story as a group.

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  • Rupert Grint Thinks Ron Would’ve Divorced Hermione by Now

    You never could trust that Ron Weasley to stick around. Harry Potter’s best friend was known to get jealous and even walk out when the going got tough … but then he did always come back in the end. J.K. Rowling‘s novels closed with Ron and Hermione Granger married with two kids, but actor Rupert Grint doesn’t think they would still be together today.

    While at Universal Orlando for the recent Harry Potter celebration, Grint and fellow castmates talked to Huffington Post about the future of their characters.

    Here’s the Ron section:

    Huffington Post: If J.K. asked you where you’d like your character to be off to, what would you say? Swing for the fences, or go as crazy as you’d like with what you’d be doing in that universe.

    Grint: [laughs] I would expect Ron has probably divorced Hermione already. I don’t think that relationship would have done very well.

    Evanna Lynch (Luna): What?!

    Huffington Post: Like living in his own, low-rent bachelor pad?

    Grint: Yeah. Exactly. He’s living on his own, in a little one-bedroom apartment. He hasn’t got a job.

    Lynch: Don’t say divorced. Say they’ve split up. They can reconcile.

    Grint: Yeah, they’re briefly separated.

    Huffington Post: Ron is on Tinder doing horribly…

    Grint: Yeah!

    Matthew Lewis (Neville): Living in a one-bedroom studio apartment all alone, doing nothing. He lives in Kings Cross, right in that area.

    That sounds really sad, but maybe it’s not far off. You may recall when J.K. Rowling herself shared doubts about Ron and Hermione, telling Emma Watson for a Wonderand magazine interview that she “wrote the Hermione-Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment” and “in some ways Hermione and Harry are a better fit,” and that “Hermione’s always there for Harry.”

    However, Rowling was hopeful for Ron and Hermione’s future, telling Watson, “Maybe she and Ron will be alright with a bit of counselling, you know. I wonder what happens at wizard marriage counselling? They’ll probably be fine. He needs to work on his self-esteem issues and she needs to work on being a little less critical.”

    What do you think? Would Ron and Hermione still be together today? Hermione seems like she’d want to work on the marriage and wouldn’t be the one to file for divorce first. But if Ron left, what would they both do? Harry seems to love Ginny, and they have kids too, so it’s not so easy to say Harry and Hermione would just get together…

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  • ‘Shocked’ J.K. Rowling, Daniel Radcliffe Honor ‘Magnificent’ Alan Rickman

    It’s a bad day for all fans of actor Alan Rickman, who died January 14 at age 69, but Potter Nation is in deepest mourning. Rickman charmed the Harry Potter fanbase with his on-screen role as Severus Snape, and tributes to the actor and his complex, clever, complicated, frustrating, heartbreaking, always magical character have flooded social media.

    The Harry Potter queen herself, author J.K. Rowling, and franchise film star, Daniel Radcliffe, both reacted to the death of the man, not just the actor.

    Here’s what Daniel just posted to his Google+ page:

    Alan Rickman is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with. He is also, one of the loyalest and most supportive people I’ve ever met in the film industry. He was so encouraging of me both on set and in the years post-Potter. I’m pretty sure he came and saw everything I ever did on stage both in London and New York. He didn’t have to do that. I know other people who’ve been friends with him for much much longer than I have and they all say “if you call Alan, it doesn’t matter where in the world he is or how busy he is with what he’s doing, he’ll get back to you within a day”.

    People create perceptions of actors based on the parts they played so it might surprise some people to learn that contrary to some of the sterner(or downright scary) characters he played, Alan was extremely kind, generous, self-deprecating and funny. And certain things obviously became even funnier when delivered in his unmistakable double-bass.

    As an actor he was one of the first of the adults on Potter to treat me like a peer rather than a child. Working with him at such a formative age was incredibly important and I will carry the lessons he taught me for the rest of my life and career. Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man.

    And here are a pair of moving tweets from J.K. Rowling:


    Sadly, it was just last week that she honored Snape’s birthday, taking the middle road between fans who see him as a hero (she always defended him) and those who see him as a villain:


    With Rickman, there’s no argument: He was the best.

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