‘Harry Potter: 20th Anniversary Reunion’: The 8 Biggest Takeaways
Written by SOURCE on January 1, 2022
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this year. The beloved cast and crew commemorated the occasion by reuniting for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special premiering on HBO Max on Saturday, Jan. 1. Harry Potter fans will be kicking off the new year filled with nostalgia as they watch Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) head back to where it all started more than two decades ago. The trio became worldwide icons when the movie was released in November 2001, but they had no idea how suddenly their lives would change.
This special is similar to the ones we’ve seen for Friends and for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air recently. In an era where beloved shows and movies are constantly brought back to life for spinoffs and reboots, having a simple walk down memory lane is enough—it’s emotional and nostalgic without overdoing it. This anniversary celebration allowed fans to watch as the cast relived some of the best moments from the 10 years they spent together. The stars recounted stories of their auditions, their first times meeting each other, their secret crushes on set, and even the moments they considered walking away from the franchise.
As a die-hard Potter fan, seeing Radcliffe with a beard and watching a grown-up Watson walk into Hogwarts made me more sentimental than I anticipated. It’s a strange feeling to look back at your own life and make parallels between where you were and who you were when each one of the movies dropped. As the actors have grown up and gone on to accomplish different things, so have we as fans. Fans who watched the films in theaters at midnight are also all adults now too, some in their 30s or even older, and continuing the magic by introducing the films to younger generations. During the special, Radcliffe said that Harry Potter makes life richer, and that’s exactly what the films have done and will continue to do, always. Check out all the things we learned from the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts.
