Harry Potter
Daniel Radcliffe making film about paralyzed Harry Potter stunt double David Holmes
David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived premieres on HBO November 15th. Daniel Radcliffe Making Film About Paralyzed Harry Potter Stunt Double David Holmes Carys Anderson
Harry Potter TV Series in the Works at HBO Max
The proposed series would be based on J.K. Rowling's original books, with each season tied to a specific novel. Harry Potter TV Series in the Works at HBO Max Carys Anderson
Harry Potter Fans Asked to Stop Leaving Socks at Dobby’s Grave on Wales Beach: “It Could Put Wildlife at Risk”
If you happen to be in Pembrokeshire, Wales and want to pay tribute to the late Dobby the Elf at his Freshwater West Beach grave, go ahead, but please don’t bring him any socks. The conservation charity National Trust Wales said as much after noting that socks and other trinkets Harry Potter fans were bringing to the site were putting the beach and its marine life at risk. Freshwater West Beach became a landmark for Harry Potter fans after the fantasy franchise shot Dobby’s death scene there for 2010’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. In the film, the elf dies in Harry’s arms at the beach, which he describes in his final moments as “such a beautiful place to be with friends.” In the years since the movie’s release, fans have erected a memorial to the belove...
Daniel Radcliffe: “Not Everybody in the Harry Potter Franchise” Is Transphobic Like J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling has long since put a dark cloud over her beloved Harry Potter franchise by consistently sharing unsolicited transphobic opinions, but Harry Potter himself Daniel Radcliffe wants fans to know that she doesn’t speak for everyone involved in the fantasy series. The actor once again spoke out against the author’s transphobia in a new interview with Indiewire, in hopes of supporting all Harry Potter fans who identify as LGTBQ+. Radcliffe first distanced himself from Rowling back in 2020, when he penned an open letter for LGBTQ+ nonprofit The Trevor Project where he stated in plain terms that “transgender women are women.” At the time, he offered the disclaimer that his statement was not meant to be seen as “in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself,” but a call to actio...
R.I.P. Robbie Coltrane, Hagrid in Harry Potter Series Dead at 72
Robbie Coltrane, the beloved comic actor who starred as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film franchise, is dead at the age of 72, his agent confirmed to Deadline. Coltrane had been in poor health for about two years, and died in a hospital near his Larbert, Scotland, home. Coltrane featured prominently in all eight films in the Harry Potter series, serving as a bumbling but lovable father figure to the titular orphan. He also stole scenes in the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999) as Russian gangster Valentin Zukovsky, and won three consecutive BAFTA Awards for best actor in the ITV crime series Cracker. Michael Gambon is the only other actor to achieve that distinction. Coltrane appeared in the anniversary special ...
Alan Rickman Struggled to Finish Harry Potter While Battling Cancer: “See It Through. It’s Your Story”
Alan Rickman’s posthumous diaries will be published next month, and the collected writings unveil the iconic actor’s views on politics, his favorite Hollywood gossip, and then, his struggle to finish the Harry Potter franchise before pancreatic cancer made it impossible. Rickman died in 2016 at the age of 69, five years after the final Harry Potter film bowed in theaters. Now, The Guardian has shared excerpts from Madly Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman, which is set to be released on October 18th. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, and doctors removed his prostrate in January of 2006. On the 5th of that month, he wrote, “Pre-op. This is like a film set. Nothing seems real. Remembering nothing but with that painkiller high in the recov...
Quidditch Rebrands as Quadball to Distance Sport from J.K. Rowling’s “Anti-Trans” Beliefs
The fictional game turned real-life sport quidditch is now known as quadball in large part due to the “anti-trans positions” of its creator, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. US Quadball (USQ) and Major League Quadball (MLQ) formally announced the name change on Tuesday, July 19th, with the International Quidditch Association (IQA) soon to follow suit. In their statements, the organizations named Rowling’s history of transphobic comments dating back to December 2019 as one of two primary reasons for the rebranding. “First, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book series, has increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions,” the organizations wrote. “LGBTQ+ advocacy groups like GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign as well as the three lead actors in the Harry Potter fi...
Alan Rickman’s Top 10 Performances
Top Performances is a recurring feature in which we definitively handpick the very best performances from an iconic actor or actress. This article was originally published in 2006. He was the villain. Until he wasn’t. You can take this angle on the late Alan Rickman in two ways. The first is his film career, in which the actor set himself up to be a go-to heavy for years to come. His Hans Gruber in Die Hard was the perfect foil for Bruce Willis’ John McClaine — the former neat, succinct, calculating while the latter was a mess, foulmouthed, and always improvising. Then there was the scenery-chewing performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, a movie oft-maligned but not because of Rickman. Far from it. These evil performances were not an indication of what wo...
Three Men Embezzled $190,000 to Buy Boat Named After Harry Potter’s Favorite Spell
Expecto jailtonus! Three men embezzled $190,000 to buy a boat named “Expelliarmus,” which Harry Potter fans will recognize as the boy wizard’s favorite disarming spell. According to reporting by the Chicago Sun-Times, it’s part of the broader fallout of the 2017 Washington Federal Bank for Saving scandal in Bridgeport, Illinois. In addition to other shady practices, bank president John Gembara helped William A. Kowalski and his brother Robert Kowalski turn $0 into $190,000 through the dark magic of illegal accounting. Together, the trio purchased the “Expelliarmus” Sea Ray 420 Sundancer motor yacht with a down payment of $200,000, including a $190,000 Washington Federal check that William Kowalski endorsed over to the seller of the boat, plus $10,000 from one of the Kow...
Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Fires Harry Potter Actor
Today in the ever-troubled world of Harry Potter, the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has fired James Snyder, the actor who portrayed the titular wizard, citing unspecified concerns about his conduct. Producers of the play said they launched a third-party investigation into Snyder’s conduct after receiving a complaint from Diane Davis, the actress playing Ginny Potter, Harry Potter’s wife. Davis filed the complaint on November 19th, 2021, just a week after the show resumed performances after shutting down due to COVID-19. Snyder was originally suspended pending the results of the investigation, but his contract has now been terminated, and Davis is taking a leave of absence from the production. “We are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive workplace, whi...
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts: The 5 Biggest Revelations of the Reunion Special
While Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts didn’t include any truly earth-shattering revelations, the reunion special now streaming on HBO Max did include plenty of details about what it was like to be a young person growing up in the Wizarding World. It’s a light and often charming look back at both the franchise and its impact — not on the world in general, though, but instead on the people whose lives were tangled up in it for years at a time. It is also an hour and 43 minutes long, so, if you don’t necessarily feel like committing to the full experience, here are some of the most surprising highlights of the special. The focus here is on the stories that might be totally brand new even to hardcore fans, because believe it or not, there are still some mysteries to be explor...
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts Is More About the Memories Than the Magic: Review
The Pitch: You’ll spend a lot of time thinking about chairs, while watching Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. Not just who’s sitting in them, and where, and with who, but the chairs themselves: plush vintage armchairs, high-backed wooden thrones, and the wide spectrum of options in between. The anniversary special dropping on New Year’s Day is a loving look back at the global phenomenon, as told by the stars and directors involved with the journey along the way. It also, despite best efforts made to add some visual flair in the form of wandering about archived film sets, is about 80 percent just footage of people sitting and talking. While tracking the chairs people are sitting in is oftentimes necessary to understand the context of the soundbite you’re hearing, overall th...
