Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts – The End of a Beautiful Era

2022 started off with quite a bang for most people – there were fireworks, loud and exciting parties, lots of food and of course, the customary ‘New Year resolutions’. The start of a new year is always marked with celebrations and merriment after all. However, for all the Potterheads out there, the beginning of 2022 was something else – it was magical. The air was filled with a new kind of enthusiasm, anticipation and impatience for them as they desperately waited to feast their eyes and ears on the much-awaited Harry Potter 20^th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. This 2022 reunion special of the Harry Potter film series was released on HBO Max on 1^st January 2022 and it’s safe to say that it stirred up a whole lot of different kinds of emotions among fans ranging from nostalgia, utter joy, sadness, curiosity, and a wee bit of disappointment too.

It feels like only yesterday when we were bawling our eyes out while also rejoicing at Harry’s ultimate victory when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was released back in 2011. It took the Potterheads a long while to finally accept the fact that it was the end to one of the greatest fantasy series of all times and we ultimately made peace with our emotions and feelings. But, as it turns out, this pandora box had to open again (thanks to the 2022 Harry Potter reunion special) that graced our televisions at the very start of this year and brought all the nostalgia back to the surface.

The 2-hour long 20^th anniversary special of the Harry Potter series is nothing short of an emotional trip down memory lane. It starts off with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) talking about their life on set and how they literally grew up on it, followed by many other cast members such as Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) and a few others sharing memories from the time that they worked on the franchise.

But it isn’t just that – there’s so much more to this wonderful reunion special that left us teary eyed and overwhelmed. From fun behind the scenes to on-set shenanigans to cast members sharing anecdotes from the set to directors and producers talking about the whole filming and casting process, think of it as a short, bittersweet ride that marked the end of a beautiful era.

The best and the most magical highlights of the reunion special can’t be listed as for a true and a diehard Potterhead, there’s so much to take away from it.

One simply can’t overlook the special bond shared by Emma Watson and Tom Felton which we get to witness right in the beginning where the moment they lock eyes, they engulf each other in a big, warm hug while grinning from ear to ear. The love they share which is so evident in the reunion is nothing but cheering and it left the fans simply ecstatic! Felton says in the interview, “Emma and I have always loved each other, really. I think I was in the hair and make-up chair and someone said something along the lines of, ‘She has a crush on you.” Watson confirms having a crush on Felton in the special and this was a huge gaga moment for the viewers. Needless to say, it warmed our hearts.

The fact that J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series was absent in this reunion special caused quite a wave of disappointment among viewers. She appeared only through archival footage from 2019 and was featured for about 30 seconds or less in the entire one-hour-and-45-minute special. From the looks of it, her absence in the show has to do with her controversial comments on the transgender community in June 2020 because of which she came under fire and received a lot of backlash and criticism. It’s hard to say if that’s actually the reason behind her nonappearance, and while we really appreciate her creative genius that led her to create the magical world of Harry Potter, we can’t help express disappointment at her comments at the same time. Another reason why we felt sad was how so many other important characters were absent from the special including Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Emma Thompson (Sybill Trelawney), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory), Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick and Griphook), Julie Walters (Molly Weasley) and Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew).

A much heartbreaking moment during the special was the little tribute paid to Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) who died in 2016 of pancreatic cancer. His death left us absolutely shocked and heartbroken, and all these feelings resurfaced during the final tribute to this legend where Dumbledore asks him, “After all this time?” and he replies, “always.”

The friendship between Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, as evidently displayed in the special is a whole other territory, one that simply brings a huge smile on the face. From Radcliffe teasing them so much about their characters having to kiss in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, to Watson choking up at one point in the special and telling Grint, “It feels like you’re, like, a pillar of my life,” the emotions got the better of us.

The emotional journey that Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts took us could go on, but as Watson aptly put it, “There’s something about Harry Potter that makes life richer, like when things get really dark and times are really hard, stories give us places we can go, where we can rest, feel held.”

The special hit all the right chords at one time, and one simply can’t deny the fact that it marked the ultimate end of a beautiful era. It will make you laugh, cry, feel strange at heart, all at the same time. But, in the end, it will make you feel whole. Complete.