The 20-year Harry Potter reunion is coming at us faster than my boyfriend Oliver Wood chasing a stray quaffle, and we’re getting so much boiling hot tea spilt before it’s even truly begun. From cameos to real-life dark witches to cast crushes and someone nearly quitting the franchise completely, there’s plenty of hot goss to gaze upon like Trelawney in the tea leaves.
We’re not too sure who sipped upon a vial of Veritaserum and rattled all these truths, but goodness me we’re glad they did. Let’s dig in shall we?
WARNING: This delves into things that reportedly happen throughout the HBO Max reunion special, which is due to air on BINGE on January 1. If you don’t want to spoil the magic, perhaps look away. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
1. Daniel Radcliffe Had A Whopping Crush On A Co-Star
Oh, bless his cotton socks. Apparently, Daniel Radcliffe had a crippling crush on co-star Helena Bonham Carter (who played Bellatrix Lestrange) during their time on set together.
Page Six reported that Radcliffe read out a letter he gave Bonham Carter during filming years ago in a recent interview, which explored his feelings for her as a heady teenager and how he wished he was 10 years older so he “had a chance” with her.
“Dear HBC,” he said.
“It was a pleasure being your costar and coaster in the sense that I always ended up holding your coffee.
“I do love you, and I just wish I had been born 10 years earlier [so that] I might [have had] a chance.
“Lots of love and thanks for being cool.”
I’m yelling louder than a howler from Mama Weasley, this is incredible. Bonham Carter is 32 years older than Radcliffe, but I truly can’t blame him for having a monstrous crush on her in the mid-00s.
I mean, she’s effortlessly cool and exceptionally gorgeous so who wouldn’t be impossibly infatuated after working with her on several films?
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2. Two Lead Actors Nearly Quit The Whole Thing Halfway Through
A far less enjoyable morsel of gossip is that Emma Watson and Rupert Grint nearly quit the Harry Potter franchise about halfway through the film series.
According to Decider, Watson talks about the way sudden fame affected her in the reunion special after Grint presses her on the fact she nearly threw in the towel before filming the fifth movie — Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — when she was about 15 years old.
“You were considering pulling out, I’ve never really spoken to you about that,” Grint said to Watson at one point in the reunion.
Watson replied that the fame hit home “in a big way”, which made it feel like a bit of point of no return in terms of her celebrity status as a teen.
“Yeah. I think I was scared,” she said.
“I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point where you were like, this is kind of forever now.”
Per Uproxx, Grint also considered leaving the Harry Potter franchise throughout filming, apparently regularly wondering “what life would be like” if he “called it a day” on playing Ron Weasley.
Look, it’s rough as guts to be thrust into such extreme fame in your formative years but I’m so glad they stuck around.
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3. JK Rowling Is Still Involved In The Harry Potter Reunion… Kinda
Despite literally everything and all the times the noted trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) has shoved her foot all the way in her mouth and bared her ass online for all to see, JK Rowling will still appear in the 20-year reunion.
Though she likely won’t be there for anything super recent, it’s reported that she’ll be featured in archival footage from the franchise, and interviews from throughout filming — including one as recent as 2019 where she discusses difficulties pinning down someone for the titular role.
Ahh well, there’s apparently no spell powerful enough to remove her dark mark from the reunion, and we’re just going to have to accept it (and maybe cast an Obliviate charm on ourselves afterwards).
4. Emma Watson Also Had A Massive Crush On A Co-Star
There’s no doubt about it — you put a bunch of horny teenagers together on a big film set for about a decade and there’s going to be hormones and crushes flying around like nobody’s business.
Despite her headstrong lead role, Emma Watson (our beloved Hermione) wasn’t immune to developing a big schoolyard obsession with one of her co-stars.
According to ET Canada, Watson found herself simply giddy over Tom Felton, who wooed her during a tutoring session when they had to imagine what God looked like (which probably make her cringe looking back on it now as a 30-something).
“I walked into the room where we were having tutoring,” she said.
“The assignment that had been given was to draw what you thought God looked like, and Tom had drawn a girl with a backward cap on a skateboard. And I just don’t know how to say it — I just fell in love with him.”
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Apparently, she was so besotted with the blonde boy (who she would later go on to smack in the nose for being a massive posho twat) that she would get all excited if he was on the daily call sheet with her.
Felton said he found out about Watson’s crush on him through a makeup artist on the film set, and found he became super protective of her almost instantly.
“I became very protective over her. Yeah, I’ve always had a soft spot for her and that continues to this day,” he said.
“There’s always been something that’s like, I don’t know, a kinship.”
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts is set to land on BINGE and Foxtel at 7.01pm AEDT on Saturday, January 1, 2022.
