The Huge Mistake The Harry Potter Reunion Special Made That Fans Can't Get Enough Of
After all this time, Potterheads across the world still can't get enough of "Harry Potter." To ring in the new year on a magical note, HBO Max dropped the "Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts" reunion special much to the delight of fans. Viewers were taken for a ride as we got to see our favorite actors reunite and reminisce their days at Hogwarts when they were filming their adventures in the Wizarding World.
From the cast's audition experiences and mischief on-set, to their struggles while filming certain scenes, fans gained a more in-depth understanding about how the entire movie series came to be. With Potterheads hanging on to every scene, eagle-eyed fans couldn't help but notice some blunders that made it into the documentary. For starters, many noticed the actors who played the Weasley twins, James and Oliver Phelps, had their names swapped during their interview.
Oliver Phelps, who played George Weasley, turned the mistake into a laughing matter when he posted a screenshot on Instagram. "I guess after all those pranks over the years somebody decided to get their revenge," he wrote. "This is legit hilarious," Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom, commented. "It was my doing," Tom Felton, the actor behind Draco Malfoy, quipped. But this tiny yet hilarious error wasn't the only one fans noticed.
The Harry Potter reunion special mistakenly used Emma Roberts' childhood photo instead of Emma Watson's
HBO Max's "Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts" banked heavily on nostalgia. Not only did it show the cast's younger selves in the early aughts while filming, but it also took us on a trip down memory lane and offered us a glimpse of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson's childhoods. But when the documentary started showing photos of young Emma, fans spotted a major problem — one of the photos was actor Emma Roberts, not Emma Watson. Yes, that's right — they showed the wrong famous Emma.
Observant fans were quick to notice that one of the photos on the special was a picture Roberts posted of herself in 2012. "How was this not clarified before it was used? Wow," one fan said. "@hbomax better hire better researchers in their team," said another. Luckily, the blunder was brought to the attention of the producers, who then quickly apologized and rectified the mistake. "Well spotted Harry Potter fans! You brought an editing mistake of a mislabeled photograph to our attention," they said in a statement, per Entertainment Weekly. "New version up shortly."
Even with those tiny mistakes, the "Harry Potter" documentary special was still one for the books. It reignited our love for magic and brought back a lot of happy memories. The "Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts" is now available for streaming on HBO Max.