‘An emotional rollercoaster’: Harry Potter fans react to new teaser of reunion special
‘The Harry Potter fan inside me is currently defrosting,’ one social media user wrote
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Your support makes all the difference.Harry Potter fans are feverishly re-watching the franchise films after HBO Max released a new teaser for the forthcoming reunion special.
The streaming service released a first look teaser for Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts on Sunday night (5 December) ahead of its release on New Year’s Day, amid rising fan excitement.
Sharing a 40-second clip on social media, HBO Max captioned the post: “The invitation you’ve been waiting for has arrived.”
Responding to it, one user wrote simply: “I can’t wait for this Harry Potter reunion!”
The new teaser features familiar faces like Robbie Coltrane (who played wizarding school Hogwarts’s groundskeeper Hagrid), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbotton) and Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley).
Twitter user Burke Loftus wrote: “This is the first thing I’m watching in the new year. I’ve grown up with Harry Potter my whole life; books and movies. Seeing the original cast back at Hogwarts 20 years later will be an emotional rollercoaster.”
In addition to Coltrane, Lewis and Williams, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), and Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) will also star in the forthcoming special.
However, one fan lamented that Alan Rickman won’t be a part of Return to Hogwarts, after the beloved British actor died in 2016 aged 69 of cancer.
The retrospective special commemorates twenty years since the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was released in 2001, and is the final in a series of promotional events planned by Warner Bros this year – including a TV quiz with Dame Helen Mirren.
The reunion special will feature interviews and cast conversations about the making of the films, and has been described as a “magical first-person journey through one of the most beloved film franchises of all time.”
Notably, British author JK Rowling, who wrote the books the movies are based on, will not attend the special after multiple cast members criticised her comments about the trans community.
One Twitter user admitted that “the Harry Potter fan” within them is “currently defrosting” after the first look at Return to Hogwarts was released.
In addition to its release on 1 January on HBO Max, the 20th anniversary special will also air on TBS and Cartoon Network in spring 2022, just before the theatrical release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. UK viewers will be able to watch on Now.
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