Not My Canon!

Lumos Maxima

In the weeks before the official premiere of the play, the PR team kicked things into overdrive, making the summer and fall of 2016 the time to stir the soil and wake the fanbase (without shaking the foundation). This began with interviews from the cast.

Stage actor, Jamie Parker, offered his simple insight in bringing Harry to life.

"You don't need anything more than the scar and the glasses. You kind of go, 'there it is'. I don't really know how to put it into words. It's just immeasurably exciting and I can't wait to show it to people."

While wishing I lived in London so I could watch his performance in person, I tried to subdue that creeping cynicism of mine that told me with every new casting, and each interpretation, with more people officially representing a version of Harry, it would somehow make him less special. Maybe I was being unnecessarily negative, as usual, but much of what I was feeling had to do with the actual character of Harry Potter. He was the boy who lived. The only boy. A very exceptional, unequaled character. Which is why it has always been difficult for many of us to imagine a reboot of the film series, and anyone other than Dan Radcliffe playing the role.

Next came a hugely successful Comic Con panel, where attendees were gifted with their own Newt Scamander wand and an appearance by Eddie Redmayne, himself. He led the audience in casting a LUMOS MAXIMA spell at the screen, which introduced a new trailer for the movie. We went berserk.

The very next day, promo pics were released en masse, and rumors started to build that that HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD was already planning to cross the pond for a Broadway premiere in 2018, assuring us all that previews were going off without a hitch.

As the days were getting closer to the book launch, we stalked Twitter for words from production. A final tweet was released from the play's official account to whet our appetites. The photo was breathtaking, but the quote was... a little confusing.

I had to speculate, of course. They went with... time?? Hmm. I wonder if they're referring to this debilitating wait we all have to endure. Or maybe that it's Harry's time to shine again. Heh, cool.

Wait, didn't the initial pitch mention something about the past and present fusing ominously? Ooooh... I just had a random fear. This play better not have an ounce of time travel in it. LOL. That would be so dumb. I'll just brush that thought away. It's highly implausible. Jo knows the mistake she made in creating Time-Turners, which is why they were all destroyed in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.

I'm reading into things again. Just stay excited, Mike!!

All we had left to do was wait for premiere night and then drive to the local bookstore. Our copies of the script book were coming in. They were being stacked. The moment was coming, and we were more prepared than ever before to race home and read the 8th story!