Harry Potter and the Cursed Child previews have officially begun, but can we consider the new story canon before the show premieres on July 31?
Let’s face it: As beautiful of a dream as it was, #KeepTheSecrets was never going to work in the age of the internet. While we will continue to put all spoilers under cuts, and avoid spoiling anything on social media, there are already plenty of places fans can go for full plot synopses — and, honestly, this is neither surprising nor particularly outrageous.
While the Harry Potter fans who get to see this play before the script book is released on July 31 deserve to go into the play unspoiled, the other 99% of fandom who don’t get to see it before reading the script (if at all) ultimately just want to know what happens to Harry and his kids. While it’s always bad to read plot spoilers out of context — and our official stance is that you should wait until the script comes out before you make up your mind — there are undeniably some plot elements in Cursed Child that are already leaving a sour taste in fans’ mouths.
This has even led some fans to create wild conspiracy theories that the play we saw during the first preview is not, in fact, the real play — that in an extraordinary commitment to #KeepTheSecrets, J.K. Rowling and Jack Thorne have actually developed a second story, which will premiere on July 31.
Related: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Initial thoughts (spoiler-free)
This is of course ridiculous. Considering the extraordinary lengths John Tiffany and his team have gone to to choreograph the five-hour long performance, and how hard the cast have worked to get to know their characters, understanding motivations and finding the emotional core of their relationships, imagining that there’ll be an alternate version of the play is not only super ironic, it’s also completely unfeasible.
Plus, despite some fans’ reactions to certain storylines, there is still so much to appreciate about the story of Cursed Child. The characters’ emotional journeys are, at the end of the day, the core of the show, and those journeys are beautiful. As much as they might tweak scenes and motivations, they won’t want to mess with the basic story elements; I believe that Rowling truly is proud of the story she’s helped create, and there are plenty of reasons why she should be.
And we also can’t forget that, while Rowling clearly wants the secrets preserved for post-July 31 audiences, she also won’t want to cheat the thousands of fans who go to see the play during previews out of the authentic, officially canon ‘eighth story’ as she and Thorne planned it.
Still, it’s not like big changes can’t be made during a play’s preview run, even for something as big as a new Harry Potter story. Two months is a long time to keep a show in previews, and as much as we’d like to pretend that canon is cast in iron, we’re likely looking at a couple of major changes that go beyond the expected cut/extended scenes and pacing tweaks. Therefore, fan outrage might be a little premature.
Here are a couple of major story elements already being criticized on social media that could change between now and the premiere:
Twisting the twist
Source: MTV
“Spoiler” alert: Cursed Child is a Harry Potter story. Hence, there is a mystery to be solved. And, like in any good Potter story, the audience is solving it right alongside the characters. This is a big part of the enjoyment of watching it for the first time, and likely a big reason why we’re all told to #KeepTheSecrets (and scolded when we don’t).
The problem is that, even if we disregard the reactions to the reveal itself, as soon as the plot becomes common knowledge it’s going to be a strange experience watching certain parts of Part 1. While usually it’s not a problem to know the story beforehand — it’s never hurt Shakespeare, after all — there’s something about this particular twist, namely its undeniable reliance on shock value, that makes me think it won’t be as effective once the spoiler ban is lifted. In fact, the entire basis for #KeepTheSecrets seems to be that knowing the secrets will significantly lessen the experience of watching the play. So what happens once there are no secrets left to keep?
This leads me to believe that the circumstances of this particular plot line will need to be tweaked, simply to improve the repeat value of the story. And I daresay that, even if they weren’t planning to change it before, a quick trolling of Tumblr will reveal the backlash this twist has already garnered. Does it represent mainstream fan reaction? Maybe, maybe not. But if the negative reactions continue, it might be enough to — if not outright retcon the twist — at least improve certain characterizations, and add a new depth to an arc that isn’t currently there.
Or, getting crazy now, the creative team could actually have been planning a counter-twist all along, which will diverge the story from the spoilers that have been posted so far (without invalidating anything that’d happened until that point or the character motivation that went into it). This new twist-to-the-twist would debut during the July 31 performance, effectively rendering all the early spoiler reports false. And, if I were J.K. Rowling, I’d be very tempted to do just that to make sure no one could spoil all the secrets.
Improving minority representation
Source: Tumblr
“What are you talking about, Hermione is already black!” you cry. And yes, she is, and yes, it’s fantastic. But as strong of a display of inclusivity as Hermione’s casting truly is — in no small part because Noma Dumezweni is, in fact, the perfect Hermione — there’s always room for more.
In fact, the plot at times feels almost contrived in an attempt to avoid practicing the very inclusivity that the Harry Potter series claims to preach. While Rowling and her team have no obligation to do more than what they have already done (as I said: Dumezweni is phenomenal, and is officially ‘my’ Hermione already), there are a couple of ways they could tweak certain relationships and dynamics that would truly bring something extra to Cursed Child, without needing to bend the plot.
Going off the Tumblr reactions, one obvious way would be to increase the presence of the Granger-Weasley children, particularly Rose. Another would be to reconsider the play’s amount of LGBT inclusivity, which amounts to exactly zero. A third includes a reworking of one of the very final scenes in the play, in which two of the characters discuss a third in a way that’s borderline troubling when you really think about it.
Could these, perhaps, be elements that might be tweaked ahead of the premiere? Probably not — it seems hard to imagine that they’d make any significant inclusivity additions if it wasn’t already planned ahead of the previews, and I’m certainly not going to hold out any hope, but you never know. The story kinks are still being worked out, after all, and if enough people raise their voices, perhaps Rowling, Thorne and Tiffany will listen.
Including more ‘Harry Potter’ faves
Source: Fanpop
While Cursed Child has plenty of Harry Potter callbacks — perhaps even too many — there are surprising character omissions. Some characters that seemed guaranteed an appearance aren’t even mentioned, and one character is mentioned so frequently throughout, it’s a little bizarre in retrospect that he/she never actually shows up.
Of course they don’t need to add anyone else, but it might be a fantastic premiere twist if one or more of these conspicuously absent, beloved characters actually turned up. It would certainly upset fans who went to see the show in previews, but preview audiences have to expect that they’re not getting the full experience if they book tickets ahead of the actual premiere.
We can already think of a few characters whose absence was particularly felt during the first preview performances. While it’s tough to communicate this to the creative team considering the whole spoiler lockdown, we have to imagine that they’re seeking out the online conversations about the play — and the absence of those characters are being lamented out there.
Tweaking Harry’s characterization
Source: Tumblr
This is a tough one, because you don’t want to soften the blow of what Harry goes through in this play, as the emotional climax pretty much hinges on it. But what seems evident from early criticism is that fans think Cursed Child took one of the central conflicts just a little too far.
And perhaps that was the point; perhaps they want fans to feel a little betrayed. In my opinion, the scene I’ve seen the most criticism of was actually very effective, and I understand why it needed to go to the level it did.
But the negative fan reaction could also be an indicator that they may have over-exaggerated certain conflicts for the benefit of the stage format, and that it’s being interpreted differently than they’d expected. In that case, they might want to rethink just how far they need to raise the emotional stakes of one particular scene involving Albus during Part 1.
Conclusion: We’ve got at least one more surprise to look forward to
Source: Tumblr
While the fans who saw the play during previews would undoubtedly feel cheated if the creators make too many storyline changes that messes with the ‘new canon’ they’ve been made privy to, we’d also love if the fans who see it at the premiere get to experience the same sort of shock we got to experience at the first preview performance.
While we can all agree that it would be nice if plot spoilers weren’t posted or shared online between now and July 31, that’s simply not the reality of the internet, and we don’t blame the fans who can’t attend the play and who just want to know what happens. Considering the fact that full show synopses are already being shared, we wouldn’t be surprised if fans starts discussing it openly on social media within a week.
Related: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script to be published as a book this summer
This is why I hope a couple of key plot points are being held back until the world premiere. As this is an officially canon Harry Potter story, they logistically can’t change anything too major (as this would pretty much invalidate the ‘reality’ of the world), but they can definitely work off the existing relationships and characterizations to reveal a couple of cool new things the previews didn’t show us.
Perhaps it’s as simple as adding one final ‘epilogue,’ or perhaps Thorne and Rowling will actually take the negative fan feedback into account as they tweak the story to perfection. Or perhaps the story as it stands is so solidly canon that Rowling has already decided it’d feel like a betrayal to the fandom to change anything major, come hell or high water. (Although with all the secrets that aren’t being kept, that decision might be revisited simply to throw the spoiler-sharers off track.)
Either way, I can’t shake the feeling that the premiere performance (and the script book that’s released the same day) will change more than just the little tweaks one would normally expect after a play’s preview run. Whether it’s pre-planned or in response to negative feedback, Rowling will want to make sure that all of us over-excited fans so eager to share the new canon with the world simply won’t be able to reveal everything. It’d be the ultimate double-cross, just like in her stories.
As I’ve already seen the play, it’s honestly a little surreal to contemplate major plot changes (irregardless of the fact that I personally think the story could stand to improve). Because, for better or worse, it’s ‘my’ canon now — and knowing that the story is arbitrarily moldable definitely ruins some of my ability to believe in the reality of the universe. But I’m also a realist; all plays change during previews (that’s why previews exist), and some plot elements of Cursed Child definitely need some fine-tuning. So, just as I’d be wary of getting too attached to the eighth Harry Potter story, I’d also propose that those of you who’ve read the spoilers don’t get too angry about the new canon just yet. In theory, anything can happen between now and the world premiere.