Please stop leaving socks on Freshwater West Beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales. That’s the message that the National Trust of Wales has for Harry Potter fans following an eight-month review of the site. According to Entertainment Weekly, so many fans of Harry Potter have left socks on the beach — the site of the death scene for the beloved Dobby in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part One — that it’s become an environmental issue.
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As fans of the Harry Potter franchise are well aware, socks are a major symbol for Dobby. The beloved house elf was enslaved by the Malfoy family when fans are first introduced to him in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and, at the end of that book, Harry tricks Lucius Malfoy into handing Dobby a sock — and freeing him in the process. Dobby keeps that sock until his death rescuing Harry and his friends from Malfoy Manor, after which Dobby dies in Harry’s arms on the beach.
Fans have since taken to leaving socks on the beach over the years as a shrine to the character, but it’s become an issue. However, the National Trust has said that while they don’t want people to continue to add socks and items to this shrine of sorts, they plan to leave the current memorial as it is.
“the memorial to Dobby will remain at Freshwater West in the immediate term for people to enjoy,” the National Trust Wales said in a statement. “The Trust is asking visitors to only take photos when visiting the memorial to help protect the wider landscape. Items like socks, trinkets, and paint chips from painted pebbles could enter the marine environment and food chain and put wildlife at risk.”
“While we’re delighted that so many want to visit, we have to balance the popularity of the site with impacts on the sensitive nature of the beach and wider environment, and pressure on the facilities and surrounding roads,” another official with the National Trust Wales said.
Will there be more Harry Potter films?
So far, the biggest addition to the Harry Potter mythos has been a trilogy of Fantastic Beasts fans — which have floundered at the box office and drawn additional controversy due to the offscreen behavior of stars Johnny Depp and Ezra Miller. While the larger franchise has had some other tie-in elements, including a few pieces of non-scripted programming and an upcoming video game, the overall Potter brand has ebbed and flowed, with reports indicating that it could be “reset” altogether under Zaslav’s reign.
However, a recent report from Variety indicates that Warner Bros. Discovery currently doesn’t have any Harry Potter or Wizarding World movies in any stage of development. The publication wrote on Thursday that there are “no active discussions” between Rowling and the company in regard to future films. That seems to include the ongoing Fantastic Beasts film series, which was supposed to have two more films.
