Last week, the world lost a hero. Alan Rickman lost his battle to cancer last Wednesday night. The Wizarding World is in mourning. Alan Rickman played many famous roles throughout his career, but none as memorable as his role of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise. He will truly be missed.
The Harry Potter fandom has been on a streak for few years now. In 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 came out and many considered the series over for good. However, in the past couple years, amazing things have come out for our fandom. We are getting a new movie in November 2016, a play premiering in the summer of 2016, and we’ve gained so much new information from our queen, JK Rowling. But it definitely halts us in our tracks when we hear one of our favorite actors has died.
The fandom is a mess right now. Literally. But it depends on who you ask; take myself, for example. When I heard of my favorite actor had died, I was heartbroken. I broke down sobbing in the middle of the library. However, some fans may think while Alan was a great actor and portrayed Snape well, Snape was a horrible character to play. But Alan in real life was an amazing person to know. He was actually really funny and loved throwing in Harry Potter references in real life. Like this gif below where he ‘pretends’ that Jimmy Fallon is James Potter and tries to get the truth out of him.
Celebrities everywhere are showing their support for Alan and his family. Everyone from his coworkers to fans have been sharing their stories of Alan. I had people coming up to me, sharing their stories of how Alan made a difference in their lives and it made me stop and think back to Harry Potter. When people were in mourning of Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore said that “the pain we all feel at this dreadful loss reminds me, reminds us, that while we may come from different places and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one.” That is what many of fans did, holding memorials in Alan’s honor. We came together, despite our loss, and remembered the great actor we loved so much. At Universal Studios, they had a moment of silence, with the crowd raising their wands high in the air in remembrance, the same happening at Universal Studios in Japan. At The Making of Harry Potter in London, visitors left lilies by Snape’s classroom door and left more lilies and other gifts at the Snape section of the tour. Alan’s death touched the world.
So even though the world lost an amazing actor, we will never forget the amazing things that he has done and the ways he has changed us all. It’s even said that “the ones that love us never really leave us. You can ALWAYS find them… in here. <3 Thank you, Alan, for showing us the true power of magic and for being the best Snape the world will ever know.