I was in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet taking selfies, when I decided to check Facebook. A friend had posted a link to an article about J.K. Rowling writing a new film set in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. I’m certain that all Harry Potter fans across the world will forever remember exactly where they were when they heard the news. I’m sure I will.
The announcement of this new film is thrilling to me. This summer I re-read the books while I waited for my potions to brew on Pottermore (for a while, I was convinced I could single-handedly win Ravenclaw the House Cup). Then I re-watched the movies, even making my parents drive me to Blockbuster to rent the Deathly Hallows. I can’t but help believe that this re-obsession with the Potterverse is some sort of magical (sorry) occurrence if at the very least just a great chance of timing.
During all my reading and watching and concocting, I began delving into my own ideas of what it would be like to live in the realm of witches and wizards. However, being an American, it begins to get a bit difficult figuring out how I would be eligible for a place at Hogwarts. Would my parents up and move us to England? Would I just be so gifted that they would seek me, a kid from Small Town U.S.A., for their prestigious school in Scotland? Rowling revealed in the Goblet of Fire that there are other schools for the magically inclined, Beauxbatons in France and Durmstrang in Norway. A Salem Witches Institute is briefly mentioned in the fourth book but it is neither confirmed nor denied that this is the United States’ equivalent to Hogwarts.
So the fact that this film will be set in America makes me overjoyed. It’s not only an expansion of the fictional world I grew up with but a whole new version of the real country I grew up in. In the end, if this movie accomplishes nothing else, I hope that it at least comforts all the American kids who just wanted to be magic but had a hard time doing a British accent.
