What better way to start the new year than with a Harry Potter Reunion? On Jan. 1, 2022 the Harry Potter cast reunited. Streaming on HBO Max the reunion featured Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and many of the other cast members. Viewers watched as the cast reminisced on scenes, jokes and stories from the past.

 At the start, they explained how they went about casting all of the characters to fit the books properly.

Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint were all cast as their characters at a young age. Watson mentioned that in the casting, they had different groups of kids and would mix and match the characters to run scenes until they finally settled on herself, Grint and Radcliffe. Viewers even got to see the chemistry the three developed in their first scenes together. 

Afterwards,  the reunion took viewers behind the scenes as the Narrator explained how the magic and sets were made. Fans got to see how Fawks, Dumbledore’s pet phoenix, was made. They also explained how the singing toads in the beginning of “The Prisoner of Askaban” were created. Both creatures were animatronics that looked amazingly real. 

They talked and gave insight to all seven of the movies. The producers went through why they casted who they did, and the cast members highlighted their favorite memories from the movie. Memories that will live for a lifetime. 

The best thing about Harry Potter is that it brings everyone together. Many of the directors and characters say they got into and loved Harry Potter because of their family. 

This is the same reason laker Kelsey Linton got into Harry Potter. She and her mother started watching the series so much that they have done multiple marathons. She expressed her happiness about the cast doing the reunion. “It gives you another sense of the magic and allows you to connect with these characters more,” Linton explained.

Harry Potter was first written in 1997 by J.K. Rowling, and the first movie was released in 2001. Even after twenty years, it is still a popular running franchise and everyone believes it will keep running, allowing many more to connect.

The cast seems to agree that the franchise is in it for the long-haul. When Robbie Clotrane, the actor who plays Hagrid, was asked about the Harry Potter legacy, he said, “The legacy of the movies is that my children’s generation will show them to their children; so you could be watching them in 50 years’ time, easily. I’ll not be here, sadly, but Hagrid will.”