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10 Harsh Realities Of Rereading Harry Potter And The Cursed Child

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After the dwindling success of the Fantastic Beasts franchise, Warner Bros. revealed that they were not currently planning on making a fourth film, though they would be willing to work on more projects in the future set in the Wizarding World. Though fans have expressed interest in a series following the Marauders, the studio is unlikely to greenlight another prequel anytime soon. Instead, it seems likely that future Harry Potter projects will look to the future.


There is an obvious choice for a future-oriented project with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the stage play that follows Harry’s son Albus as he navigates his own time at Hogwarts. The play is still being regularly staged in six international locations, and the script has sold millions of copies worldwide. However, fans rereading The Cursed Child may find that they are confronted with realities they don’t want to face regarding the plot and likely fate of the series.

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It Ruined Hermione’s Character

Hermione Granger holding her wand in Harry Potter.

In Act 2, Albus and Scorpius’s interventions created a new world—one that paints Hermione in a horrible light. In a world where Hermione didn’t go with Ron to the Yule Ball, they never got together, and she became a cruel professor reminiscent of Snape.

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This is all horribly out of character, and it suggests a very troubling domino effect. Going by the play, Ron and Hermione’s entire relationship hinged on him getting jealous of Krum in the fourth year. Furthermore, Hermione’s real nature is reliant on her marrying Ron. These changes make no sense, and they take away from both characters’ arcs.

It Relies On Harry Potter’s Worst Plot Hole

Hermione and Harry using the Time-Turner in Harry Potter.

Prisoner of Azkaban introduced time travel into the world of Harry Potter, which inherently prompted the question of how there was any semblance of a stable timeline. In the series, fans assume that there were limitations on the device, but the drastically different worlds created in Cursed Child suggest that the right device could undo anything.

J. K. Rowling destroyed all the Time-Turners in Order of the Phoenix to avoid these questions, yet the play’s entire plot depends on this Harry Potter plot hole. There are a few throwaway comments here and there to try to explain why different Time-Turners work, but it still feels the rules exist to keep the plot moving, rather than the plot following the rules.

A Movie Version Would Be Unlikely To Include The Original Cast

Harry, Ron, And Hermione laughing in Harry Potter.

Talks of a Cursed Child movie began in 2016, but while Harry Potter director Chris Columbus said he would like to direct “A version of Cursed Child with Dan, Rupert and Emma at the right age,” the likelihood of that happening is decreasing. Daniel Radcliffe was explicitly asked about being in The Cursed Child and said he wasn’t interested at this time in his life.

Emma Watson has reportedly stated that she will only return to the franchise if Rowling is not involved, and Rupert Grint has said he will only return if Radcliffe and Watson are with him. Reading Cursed Child can bring a lot of nostalgia, but there doesn’t seem to be a path to a film version with the original cast any time soon.

The Characters Have Never Been Cast Age-Appropriately

Scorpius and Albus talking in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

One of the best parts of the Harry Potter films was getting to see the actors grow up along with their characters, and fans want that same thing in a potential sequel. Albus and Scorpius are both eleven at the start of Cursed Child, but they age up to fourteen by the end of the first act. However, Sam Clemmett was 23 when he played Albus, and Anthony Boyle, who played Scorpius, was 22.

This is understandable for the stage, but it does limit how effective it can be to imagine the events happening to a child. This was one of the main things the Disney+ Percy Jackson series is having to fix from its film version, and it’s something that keeps the story from being as impactful as it could be.

It Is Already Set In The Past

Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Harry Potter epilogue.

Though the Harry Potter books were published from 1997 to 2007, they were set primarily in the decade before that. The Epilogue, which serves as the starting place for Cursed Child, is set in 2017. Even given the show’s time jumps, the main events take place in 2020. This causes two major problems.

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There was always an understanding that while Harry Potter is fictional, it could have been real. However, given the changes the real world faced with Covid-19, the play now has to be set in an alternate universe. Additionally, reading Cursed Child with the understanding that it is already in the past, the original Harry Potter series ends up feeling dated.

Many Beloved Cast Members Have Passed Away

Snape in Harry Potter.

One of the best elements of Cursed Child is how it elicits nostalgia. While it follows Albus and Scorpius, readers get to revisit the Triwizard Tournament, Halloween 1981, and major characters like Hagrid, Vernon Dursley, and Snape. For those who became fans of the series through the books, that is exciting to be able to do.

However, movie fans are going to have a more challenging time with it. Robbie Coltrane, Richard Griffiths, and Alan Rickman’s deaths hit the fandom hard, and seeing their characters return without the actors can be painful. Reading the script can bring back the pain that their deaths caused.

How Scorpius And Albus’s Relationship Is Portrayed

Albus and Scorpous in Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

The Harry Potter franchise doesn’t have a great history with LGBT+ characters, and Cursed Child is no exception. Albus and Scorpius have an extremely close bond throughout the play, only for Scorpius to randomly be paired with Rose in the final act. Albus and Scorpius are both jealous of each other’s romantic interests, and Snape compares their bond to his love for Lily.

What’s most telling is that the One Part version of the play makes their relationship canon—but that’s not the version fans can read. As fans reread the play, they may find that the way Albus and Scorpius were written is too close to what could have been to be properly entertaining.

Some Fanfiction Is Better

Harry and Draco dueling in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Though the Harry Potter books were not always written well, a large portion of the fandom has decided that The Cursed Child is “bad fanfiction.” And there are moments that feel like they play fast and loose with characterization and the rules of the Wizarding World for the sake of the convoluted plot.

While this might be acceptable if Cursed Child was the only thing out there, the Harry Potter community has been writing fanfiction for a very long time. There are currently 386,693 Harry Potter stories in Archive of Our Own. For those who read fanfiction often, it won’t be hard to find a fanwork that has everything Cursed Child has, but that does it better.

Delphi’s Parentage Makes No Sense

Bellatrix and Voldemort stand together in Harry Potter

In Act 3, the characters discover that Delphi is the child of Bellatrix and Voldemort who was raised by Euphemia Rowle. But that doesn’t make much sense given what fans know of the original series. Though Bellatrix was fiercely devoted to Voldemort, there’s no indication that he had any desire to sleep with her.

RELATED: 8 Voldemort Memes That Sum Up His Role In Every Harry Potter Movie

Delphi explains that she was born at Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts, yet Bellatrix certainly didn’t seem pregnant in March when the Trio got taken to the Manor. If Bellatrix were carrying Voldemort’s child, she would have been radiating pride, rather than still being desperate for his approval. It doesn’t work with the timeline, and it doesn’t work with the characterization.

It Fundamentally Misunderstood Harry’s Character

Harry Potter hugging his son Albus.

Harry was raised in an abusive household, desperate for a father figure that could fill the hole his parents left. He was shown repeatedly to see past differences in personality and beliefs to befriend those who needed it. Yet, in Cursed Child, he is cruel to his son, keeps him from his friends, and is incredibly controlling. None of this is in line with the character fans grew up with.

Harry told Albus, “there are times I wish you weren’t my son.” Harry had moments of anger in the original books, but he would never say those words. He had prejudices against Slytherins, but Albus’s middle name is supposed to prove that he moved past that. By making Harry act that way, Cursed Child effectively created a new character and gave him the name “Harry Potter.”

NEXT: One Meme That Perfectly Sums Up Each Harry Potter Character



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