Jan. 1, 2022, was an important day for many Potterheads. Not because of the New Year but because of the release of the Harry Potter Reunion on HBO. But let’s be honest: it was really underwhelming. I’m not saying it was terrible, just lacking. Here are some of the reasons why.
Missing Characters
Dumbledore? Professor McGonagall? Are you there? It was very evident with fans that some significant people were missing from this reunion special, like Michael Gambon [Albus Dumbledore] and Dame Maggie Smith [Professor McGonagall].
Although Gambon and Smith are not part of the Golden Trio, they are the characters that fans love and are essential parts of the Harry Potter universe. It was like there was a hole in this reunion, and they [Gambon and Smith] were never really mentioned. It completely disregarded their importance to the Harry Potter Franchise because there wasn’t even an explanation for their absence.
Although there may have been some extenuating circumstances as to why neither of them appeared, there were many other characters that were important to the series that never appeared or were talked about, like Cedric Diggory [Disclaimer: he’s a personal favourite of mine].
It’s one thing to not include them, but to not even mention them makes it wrong. These were important people that helped push the success of the whole franchise, they should at the very least be mentioned.
JK Rowling Interview Clips
The clips were originally from a 2019 interview about the franchise. Still, it felt weird that they were included in the actual reunion. It almost felt out of place and not necessary. According to Entertainment Weekly, she was offered the chance to appear and chose not to, but her team thought that the archival footage from 2019 was enough.
There is very much a divide on this front because some thought there was an insight missing that only she could give, Ed Power explains in a review for The Telegraph. Even some angry viewers felt that she should not have been snubbed, whereas others were angry that she had even been included.
A lot of other viewers felt that it was comical she was included in the special through archival footage, which was made very clear to have been shot in 2019, thinking that the franchise would want to distance itself from her because of the disparaging remarks she made about trans people.
Deja Vu
When watching the reunion, there was this whole sense of Deja Vu. All the behind-the-scenes clips that were featured were things that, if you’re a die-hard harry fan, you’ve likely seen online.
Yes, there were some great stories that none of us had heard before, and those were amazing; but for a reunion of this magnitude, I would expect to see things I haven’t seen or heard about throughout the entire show. It’s like going to watch a movie and knowing what to expect: it is still okay, but not amazing.
Emma who?
Like, I mean, COME ON! You had one job!
Seriously though, how can you make a mistake like this? It’s a bit wack. I mean, maybe I’m off, but that doesn’t really look like Emma Watson at all.
I don’t think much else needs to be said on that front because everyone expected a lot from a reunion like this, yet they make such a silly mistake. To me, this shows that a lot more time and effort could have been put into making this whole special.
Overall, this reunion was sort of a flop since they had all this opportunity to make it even better than it was, yet they didn’t. They left out key characters, made things weird with the whole JK Rowling clips, there was so much Deja Vu of clips and stories we had already seen, and they made a really avoidable mistake that just astounds me.
So for your own sake, don’t go into watching the reunion with really high expectations because they will be busted.