‘Harry Potter’ cast to reunite for special
LOS ANGELES >> “Harry Potter” stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are reuniting with other cast members from the blockbuster film franchise for a special 20th anniversary TV retrospective, movie studio Warner Bros said on Tuesday.
Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), director Chris Columbus and other stars of the eight movies will join them, for “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts” on the movie set in London where the first film was made.
The special is to be broadcast on Jan. 1 on
HBO Max. Warner Bros and HBO are AT&T Inc.owned.
“Harry Potter was my home, my family, my world and Hermione (still is) my favorite fictional character of all time,” Watson wrote Tuesday on Instagram. “I think a journalist once said it was irritating how many times during an interview I mentioned how lucky I was and started counting… BUT I DAMN WELL KNEW!!! And still know.
“I am proud not just of what we as [a] group contributed as actors to the franchise but also as the children that became young adults that walked that path. I look at my fellow cast members now and I am just so proud of who everyone has become as people. I am proud we were kind to each other that we supported one another and that we held up something meaningful.”
The retrospective will see the cast return to the original Hogwarts boarding school sets that were featured in the first film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (“Philosopher’s Stone” in the U.K.) released in November 2001.
The film franchise based on J.K. Rowling’s stories about an orphaned boy with magical powers took in some $7.8 billion at the global box office.
Rowling is not participating in the reunion special, however. The author has come under fire in recent years for repeatedly making remarks widely criticized as transphobic.
The special is one of several 20th anniversary events planned by Warner Bros, including a TV quiz contest for Potter fans hosted by Helen Mirren.