It’s a bit of a Harry Hodgepodge – 50 per cent sparkly Hollywood overkill, 50 per cent old mates meeting up and wondering if it’s too early to get the drinks in. Beneath floating candles, dancers sway while Potter gang catch sight of one another and hug. They arrive at the Great Hall of Hogwarts, which, as luck would have it, has been perfectly preserved as a visitor attraction at Warner Brothers’ Studio Tour London. Joining her there are other Potter veterans such as Coltrane and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom). We see Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) become over-wrought as she receives a magical invitation to board a train at Platform 9 and 3/4 at King’s Cross. It is also, in its initial segments at least, rather cloying, with the saccharine, Vaseline-on-the-lens ambience of a John Lewis Christmas ad. And almost everyone ever involved in Potter – again with one exception – appears to have been hauled in for a grilling.
It clocks in at nearly two hours, including ad breaks. By contrast, and as with the Potterverse in general, Return to Hogwarts is really just for fans. Why not do it again? The crucial difference is that the Friends reunion was careful not to take itself too seriously and could be enjoyed even if you were agnostic about that Generation X sitcom. Last summer, the studio struck gold with a tear-jerking Friends: The Reunion. Return To Hogwarts isn’t Warner Brothers’s first stab at this sort of thing. No, this big chugging steam train of a promotional film is all about bringing extra lustre to the Potter brand and evoking early-onset nostalgia among millennials raised on Harry and his hair-raising adventures. These opinions are, of course, not broached in Return to Hogwarts. Even a muggle will have concluded that the lack of time given to Rowling in this documentary has something to do with the public rebuke by the series’ stars (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) in response to her views on trans people.
Generally, though, her importance is downplayed. And one or two of the assembled cast mention her by name – Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) says that, because of Rowling, “millions now read books who would never have read a book in their lives”. Rowling did not take part, although she does pop up in a handful of brief clips from 2019. But there is one prominent absence: Harry Potter creator JK Rowling. The opening credits that introduce this long, slightly stodgy anniversary special – it’s 20 years since the first Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – announce many guest appearances. This new reunion show is a celebration of all things Harry Potter.
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