It’s a commonplace when old fans meet more recent Potter-philes that the one group says, “You can’t imagine what it was like not knowing how it ended, waiting on each new book…” The newbies are usually very polite about the smugness; I hope the old hands are as courteous when the readers “who didn’t have to wait” come up with insights that no one has noticed until now.
Believe me, it happens. I have a new friend to whom I am impatiently waiting to introduce you whose understanding of the theological underpinning of Harry Potter startled me, a feeling of “How did I miss that?” I haven’t had since reading chapter four of Beatrice Groves’ Literary Allusion in Harry Potter.
I thought of the differences between the four generations of Potter Pundits this morning when I learned that Warner Brothers will be re-releasing the first four adaptations of the Hogwarts Saga novels in February for experiencing on the Big Screen. From Collider:
Fathom Events is taking charge of a re-release, along with Warner Bros., to bring Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire back to multiplexes, starting on February 13, 2025. After that, the movies will be shown sequentially over three consecutive weekends, running from Thursdays through Sundays, and it will also mark the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which originally premiered in 2005.
So, this is how it will work. At the end of February, every Thursday from the 13th forward will be a showing of Sorcerer’s Stone, every Friday Chamber of Secrets, every Saturday Prisoner of Azkaban, and every Sunday Goblet of Fire, the last Saturday and Sunday being in March. There will be three run-throughs of the first four films, which, if you’re loaded with Galleons, you can catch three times each or any variety of different ways (the one thing you cannot do is watch Goblet on the first Sunday and then catch the films in reverse order back to Stone, which would be a Time Turner trick of sorts).
For fans that are giving this a big yawn, the studio is introducing new big screen formats that weren’t available 2000 to 2005 when these films were first released.
I’m not a big fan of the adaptations. I suspect, though, that I may go with some friends to watch these new releases, if only to talk about where we were when we first saw each. Yes, it’s fan servicing and a money-grab that has next to nothing to do with Goblet’s twentieth anniversary (do people really observe those kinds of dates for movies?). It could nonetheless be an occasion for some great story-telling across fandom generations. I’d love to read if you might be going to one of these new releases in the comment boxes.
