Harry Potter
Alan Rickman’s Top 10 Performances
Top Performances is a recurring feature in which we definitively handpick the very best performances from an iconic actor or actress. This article was originally published in 2006. He was the villain. Until he wasn’t. You can take this angle on the late Alan Rickman in two ways. The first is his film career, in which the actor set himself up to be a go-to heavy for years to come. His Hans Gruber in Die Hard was the perfect foil for Bruce Willis’ John McClaine — the former neat, succinct, calculating while the latter was a mess, foulmouthed, and always improvising. Then there was the scenery-chewing performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, a movie oft-maligned but not because of Rickman. Far from it. These evil performances were not an indication of what wo...
Three Men Embezzled $190,000 to Buy Boat Named After Harry Potter’s Favorite Spell
Expecto jailtonus! Three men embezzled $190,000 to buy a boat named “Expelliarmus,” which Harry Potter fans will recognize as the boy wizard’s favorite disarming spell. According to reporting by the Chicago Sun-Times, it’s part of the broader fallout of the 2017 Washington Federal Bank for Saving scandal in Bridgeport, Illinois. In addition to other shady practices, bank president John Gembara helped William A. Kowalski and his brother Robert Kowalski turn $0 into $190,000 through the dark magic of illegal accounting. Together, the trio purchased the “Expelliarmus” Sea Ray 420 Sundancer motor yacht with a down payment of $200,000, including a $190,000 Washington Federal check that William Kowalski endorsed over to the seller of the boat, plus $10,000 from one of the Kow...
Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Fires Harry Potter Actor
Today in the ever-troubled world of Harry Potter, the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has fired James Snyder, the actor who portrayed the titular wizard, citing unspecified concerns about his conduct. Producers of the play said they launched a third-party investigation into Snyder’s conduct after receiving a complaint from Diane Davis, the actress playing Ginny Potter, Harry Potter’s wife. Davis filed the complaint on November 19th, 2021, just a week after the show resumed performances after shutting down due to COVID-19. Snyder was originally suspended pending the results of the investigation, but his contract has now been terminated, and Davis is taking a leave of absence from the production. “We are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive workplace, whi...
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts: The 5 Biggest Revelations of the Reunion Special
While Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts didn’t include any truly earth-shattering revelations, the reunion special now streaming on HBO Max did include plenty of details about what it was like to be a young person growing up in the Wizarding World. It’s a light and often charming look back at both the franchise and its impact — not on the world in general, though, but instead on the people whose lives were tangled up in it for years at a time. It is also an hour and 43 minutes long, so, if you don’t necessarily feel like committing to the full experience, here are some of the most surprising highlights of the special. The focus here is on the stories that might be totally brand new even to hardcore fans, because believe it or not, there are still some mysteries to be explor...
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts Is More About the Memories Than the Magic: Review
The Pitch: You’ll spend a lot of time thinking about chairs, while watching Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. Not just who’s sitting in them, and where, and with who, but the chairs themselves: plush vintage armchairs, high-backed wooden thrones, and the wide spectrum of options in between. The anniversary special dropping on New Year’s Day is a loving look back at the global phenomenon, as told by the stars and directors involved with the journey along the way. It also, despite best efforts made to add some visual flair in the form of wandering about archived film sets, is about 80 percent just footage of people sitting and talking. While tracking the chairs people are sitting in is oftentimes necessary to understand the context of the soundbite you’re hearing, overall th...
Every Harry Potter Movie Ranked From Worst to Best
This feature originally ran in November 2018. Welcome to Dissected, where we disassemble a band’s catalog, a director’s filmography, or some other critical pop-culture collection in the abstract. It’s exact science by way of a few beers. This time, we sort through the best and worst of the still-expanding Wizarding World cinematic universe. A viewer of a certain age will remember what the run-up to the release of 2000’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone felt like. Just a couple of years earlier, the Boy Who Lived arrived on American shores with a slightly altered first installment title and the many wonders of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world in tow. Potter phenomenon was already well underway, but the idea of being able to bring Hogwarts and its inhabitants to life set the exc...
Porter Robinson Hired the Company Behind The Wizarding World of Harry Potter for His Music Festival
Harry Porter is in the building. Ahead of the 2021 edition of his curated Bay Area music festival Second Sky, Porter Robinson has announced a magical partnership to bring the event to life. The electronic music virtuoso has teamed up with Nassal, a renowned developer of themed environments who designed The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando. “some more updates on transforming Second Sky – my manager hit up Nassal, the company that delivered the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando,” Robinson wrote in an Instagram post. “when i first heard about it, i really thought there just no way it was possible that we could get them.” “i am insanely hyped to tell you that Nassal will be the one...
‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Returns to Broadway as Single Show
The Cursed Child is the latest show to schedule its return to New York City stages alongside other recent announcements for The Book of Mormon, The Lion King and Wicked, and the delayed debut of The Music Man. In a statement, producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender called Broadway’s reopening “an unprecedented moment in theatre history.” They shared that they were “delighted” to announce the debut of a re-imagined show “audiences can see in one afternoon or evening.” “Given the challenges of remounting and running a two-part show in the U.S. on the scale of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the commercial challenges faced by the theatre and tourism industries emerging from the global shutdowns, we are excited to be able to move forward with a new version of the play that allows au...
R.I.P. Paul Ritter, Chernobyl and Harry Potter Actor Dead at 54
Paul Ritter, the English actor known for his roles in the HBO miniseries Chernobyl and films like Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Quantum of Solace, has died at the age of 54. According to a statement released by his agent, Ritter passed away Monday (April 5th) from complications related to a brain tumor. “Paul was an exceptionally talented actor playing an enormous variety of roles on stage and screen with extraordinary skill,” Ritter’s agent said in a statement. “He was fiercely intelligent, kind and very funny. We will miss him greatly.” In Chernobyl, Ritter portrayed Anatoly Dyatlov, the deputy chief engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The 2019 mini-series went on to win 10 Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes. On-screen, Ritter will be remembered for his role a...
Lord Voldemort Comes to J.K. Rowling’s Defense, Calls Backlash “Disturbing”
Over the past two years, J.K. Rowling has gone out of her way to make numerous transphobic statements and reveal that she’s a bonafide bigot. The majority of Harry Potter cast members don’t align their beliefs with those of the discriminatory author, but at least she has Lord Voldemort on her side. Ralph Fiennes joins Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid, as the latest Harry Potter actor to defend Rowling’s comments. In a new interview with The Telegraph, Fiennes sympathized with Rowling, going on to say “the vitriol” sent her way is “disturbing.” You would think Fiennes could comprehend why transgender people being denied the bare minimum — respect and equality, particularly in the form of having their gender identity understood — by a life-changing author has fans up in arms. Then aga...
Harry Potter Live-Action TV Series in the Works at HBO Max
It’s time to choose your wand and grab a spot in line for the Sorting Hat, because a new Harry Potter live-action TV series is in the works at HBO Max. According to The Hollywood Reporter, executives at the streaming service have been holding brainstorming conversations with potential writers to imagine new ways to steer the Harry Potter franchise. However, the TV series is still a long way off from becoming a reality. Right now, there’s no writer attached, no plot hammered down, and no cast in mind, which means they’re still in the “extremely early stages and no deals have been made,” notes THR Because the live-action Harry Potter TV show is still searching for a pitch, the creative teams at HBO Max and Warner Bros. are hesitant to announce this news themselves. As they said in a sta...
Mads Mikkelsen In Talks to Replace Johnny Depp in Fantastic Beasts: Report
Hollywood moves fast, even during a pandemic. No less than a week after Warner Bros. announced the departure of Johnny Depp from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, reports are already coming in on a potential replacement. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen is in talks to replace Depp as Gellert Grindelwald. The behind-the-scenes brevity makes sense, seeing how the film is already in production following postponements to Covid-19. If all goes accordingly, Mikkelsen will be the third star to portray the villain. Prior to Depp, Colin Farrell had worn Grindelwald’s seemingly ever-changing mug, all before exiting stage left by the end of 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The untitled third adventure in the Harry Potter prequel series hits theaters on Ju...
