Since the release of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows novel back in 2007, the franchise has had limited updates when it comes to new stories or the larger lore of the Wizarding World, though the movie adaptations kept fans satisfied by bringing the stories to life. The series did go back to the decades prior to the events of Harry Potter‘s story with the Fantastic Beasts feature films, which filled in a few gaps for key characters, but the idea of what happened after that iconic epilogue in the final book was largely left untouched, that is, until 2016.
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Ten years ago, the play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, made its debut in London’s West End. Officially starting during the epilogue from Deathly Hallows, and called “the eighth Harry Potter story” by series creator J.K. Rowling, the play told the story of Harry Potter’s second son, Albus Severus Potter, and his first year at Hogwarts, along with plenty of updates about other major characters ten years later (though the plot is akin to It’s a Wonderful Life as it uses time travel to show how different a few choices would make the world). When it premiered in the UK, The Cursed Child was super-sized, a two-part play that required an extended intermission; now that’s changing.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Play Being Cut Down in UK
Since its debut in The West End, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been two performances that audiences could watch either in one day (in the afternoon and evening) or across two evenings, with each half of the show clocking it at over 2 hours and 35 minutes. The UK production has confirmed that this fall, The Cursed Child will officially transition to a single, extended performance, clocking in at 2 hours and 55 minutes (though it does include a short intermission). It’s worth noting that the shorter performance has been how Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been seen across the globe, with only the UK version maintaining the longer version of the story up to this point.
“We felt this milestone moment was the right time to make the production more accessible than ever before,” producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender said in a statement. “Now running at under three hours, the reimagined production retains its scale, illusions and theatrical magic and emotional depth, while allowing more audiences to experience the story in a single visit.”
This change to the show, despite Harry Potter fans likely wanting as much new lore for the series as possible, was done for economic reasons. By shortening the show, producers can sell more tickets because more performances are actually taking place, not to mention audiences perhaps no longer being interested in an all-day affair.
Ever since the Harry Potter play was confirmed to the world back in 2013, scuttlebutt and the rumor mill have pointed toward its potential at also getting a feature film adaptation. Warner Bros. previously applied for trademarks for a feature film adaptation, but no official news has ever been announced by the studio on if they will make one. Though filmmaker Christopher Columbus, who directed the first two movies, has expressed interest in returning to the series with a movie adaptation of Cursed Child, stars like Daniel Radcliffe have said the opposite, however, in part due to the continued controversies with Rowling.
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Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
