If you purchase a wand from the Wizarding World (or if you have one already), you can take it around the two Harry Potter lands — one at Universal Studios and one at Islands of Adventure — and interact with the things around you. This technology is similar to the interactive features of the new MagicBand+ in Disney World. Now, Universal Orlando has filed a new patent to expand this technology.
The new patent is called “Variable Effects Activation in an Interactive Environment” and it was filed with the intent to make it easier for Universal guests to interact with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, according to Orlando Business Journal.
Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando Resort
This technology will be used for guests who are unable to perform the action that makes the interactive experiences in the parks activate. For example, if someone is unable to move their wand in the exact way required in order to make a light turn on, this patent could help make sure that those guests are still able to participate. The patent does state that the interactive environment will still be activated with a device (like a wand).
Guests who aren’t able to perfectly mimic the motion necessary will still be able to participate.
The technology will allow these individuals to perform the movement in their own way that still activates the experience. So, for example, if a certain interactive experience requires a guest to strike a certain pose, the experience will pick up on and accept more than the exact pose asked for — so the guest doesn’t have to pose perfectly to activate the experience. It may also be able to pick up on various ranges of motion, different voice volumes, or “different speed and/or strength capabilities.”
Hogwarts
This technology is still in its infancy as the patent has just been filed (and in many cases, patents don’t always come to fruition), but it is definitely something worth keeping an eye on, especially as construction continues on Universal Orlando’s newest theme park — Epic Universe. We’ll be on the lookout for more updates.
Universal is slowly releasing details about what houses will be available during Halloween Horror Nights, so click here to see what’s been announced so far! As always, make sure to stay tuned to AllEars for the latest Universal news.
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This year, we’re celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets!
Hogwarts
Earlier this year we got to see the 20th Anniversary Return To Hogwarts film, and there never seems to be a shortage of Harry Potter merchandise. Last month alone we found exclusive T-shirts and a huge merchandise sale online. The 20th Anniversary celebration continues with these new FUNKO Pops that are available for pre-order now!
These new Entertainment Earth POP Figures will be arriving in November of 2022. For $11.99 each, you can grab the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 20th Anniversary Gilderoy Lockhart Pop! Vinyl Figure.
Each of these four figures can be pre-ordered now and will arrive in November 2022.
Buy the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 20th Anniversary Dobby Pop! Vinyl Figure here!
Also coming in November is the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 20th Anniversary Ron Weasley in Flying Car Pop! Vinylavailable for pre-order now.
“It just shows the depth of despair she must have been feeling, which none of us had any idea,” Ian says. “I think she thought she was coping, she was finding a way through it. And then, slowly over those months, it all grew – and it swamped, consumed her. But she kept this secret.”
A promotional poster of Harry Potter: Return To Hogwarts. (Image courtesy: hbomax )
New Delhi:
Hey Harry Potter fans, the wait is over. The train to Hogwarts has already left with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), among others onboard and you will get a sneak peek into the reunion on January 1. Where will you watch Harry Potter: Return To Hogwarts, you must be wondering? The Harry Potter special, which will air on HBOMax in other countries, will premier exclusively on Prime Videos on January 1 in India, as per an announcement by the streamer on Tuesday, reports news agency PTI. The special episode, marking the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone, will be available on Prime Video starting 2:30 pm for all the subscribers.
On Monday, the trailer of Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts released on the Internet and raised the excitement level among Harry Potter fans across the world. The trailer featured lead actors and other cast members from all the Harry Potter films cherishing moments together. Some of them are Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Tom Felton, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Alfred Enoch, Ian Hart, Toby Jones, Matthew Lewis, Evanna Lynch, as well as filmmakers Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell and David Yates.
Watch the trailer of Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts here:
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone was the first film in the Harry Potter franchise, which concluded in 2011 with the 8th part – Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
The films were based on JK Rowling’s books of the same names – the story revolves around a young and very special wizard named Harry Potter and how he, along with his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, learn the art of magic at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
If you’ve ever wanted to step into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter without leaving the Hudson Valley, your chance is coming soon.
Beginning Oct. 22, a portion of Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park in Yorktown will transform into the franchise’s Forbidden Forest.
“Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience” will welcome all ages of witches, wizards and muggles alike to a walking trail where they’ll cast spells and experience creatures from both the “Harry Potter” and “Fantastic Beasts” franchises. Some creatures include centaurs, unicorns, hippogriffs and nifflers.
The experience, put together by Warner Brothers Themed Entertainment, Thinkwell and Unify, also has locations in Cheshire, United Kingdom and Leesburg, Virginia. This is the only New York-metro area location for the attraction.
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Food and drinks as well as souvenirs will be available for purchase in a village at the trail’s end.
“We are so excited to welcome Harry Potter’s Forbidden Forest to Yorktown,” said Matthew Slater, Yorktown’s town supervisor. “From Trader Joe’s to Harry Potter, we are once again proving that Yorktown is a destination for shoppers, witches and wizards of all ages. We look forward to welcoming new guests to our community and to show them all of the great attractions we have to offer.”
If you go
Tickets start at $36 per adult and $25 for kids. Price is dependent on the day and time of the session chosen. Tickets go on sale at 11 a.m. on Aug. 18.
“Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience” will be open from 5 to 11 p.m., according to Yorktown officials. The full experience should take guests anywhere form 60 to 90 minutes to enjoy.
Go: Taconic State Parkway entrance to Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, 2957 Crompond Road, Yorktown Heights; begins Oct. 22; a closing date for the attraction has not yet been announced. For more info, go to hpforbiddenforestexperience.com/westchester.
Shreve Memorial Library’s popular Harry Potter-themed escape room, “Welcome to Hogwarts,” returns to the Broadmoor Branch Monday, July 18. The escape room challenge invites Harry Potter fans, young and old, to experience a fun and challenging puzzle in the school of Hogwarts. Participation is free and open to the public, however registration is required to participate.
Using elements of the Harry Potter series, the “Welcome to Hogwarts” escape room presents a series of challenges and puzzles in each of Hogwarts’ four houses. Participants will solve riddles and complete challenges using their knowledge of the Harry Potter series. The Harry Potter-themed escape room is designed for groups of 2 to 6 persons and is appropriate for those ages 12 and up. Younger patrons may participate with adult supervision. Participants will have up to 1 hour to compile the clues, solve the puzzle, and escape the room.
Starting Monday, July 18 through Saturday, July 30, the “Welcome to Hogwarts” escape room will be open during regular business hours at the Broadmoor Branch, located at 1212 Captain Shreve Drive, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Space is limited for the escape room, and registration is required. Those interested in participating must register in advance by calling (318) 869-0120 to reserve their spots.
For more information about this and other Shreve Memorial Library programs, please visit www.shreve-lib.org. Please note that program dates and times are subject to change.
Ron Weasley star Grint told GMB in January: “I can’t really think of a reason not to. I love that character, I love that world. It’s a huge part of my life. I would [come back]. If the others did, I think, yeah!”
On top of him, Christopher Columbus who directed the first two Harry Potter movies would love to helm a Cursed Child movie.
Also referencing the Star Wars sequel trilogy, he told The Hollywood Reporter: “A version of Cursed Child with Dan, Rupert, and Emma at the right age, it’s cinematic bliss. If you’re a film nerd or cinephile, it’s kind of like what J.J. [Abrams] did with Star Wars. Star Wars really started to be great again when J.J. made the film and we had all the original cast back. There’s no question if you’re a Star Wars fan, you were moved just seeing them on screen. Seeing Harrison Ford as Han Solo again, and Chewy. It was very moving.”
When a person has a name similar to their job—i.e. a water researcher named “Andrew Drinkwater”—they’re filed under a category called “nominative determinism.” When Buzzy Cohen played and hosted Jeopardy!, for example, he validated the hypothesis that people work close to what their name implies (perhaps the Jeopardy! buzzer brought him to the game show).
Hero Fiennes Tiffin would like to have a word with the creators of this concept. It isn’t working for him. He can’t stop playing evil.
“It’s weird, [because] my name’s Hero, and I keep getting cast as villains,” he says, speaking about his turn as cruel slave trader Santo Ferreira in the brilliant new action flick The Woman King. Pair that with playing a young Voldemort in the Harry Potterseries (he’s Ralph Fiennes’ nephew) and the somewhat emotionally abusive boyfriend of After and you’ll get the full picture.
Fiennes Tiffin is fine with the irony. He laughs it off. It’s an honor to be included at all! In fact, he says, it’s easier to make audiences love you than hate you, and he’s up for the challenge.
“You have to care a lot more,” he says. “I’ve played a few villainous characters. Now, [in real life] I’m accustomed to making people happy as a success, an achievement. But it’s nice to do a bit of both, isn’t it? It’s nice to take them on a roller coaster, make them happy, make them sad.”
While his Santo Ferreira should make The Woman King viewers viscerally angry, his Hardin Scott that will have After fans in tears. For those who haven’t been keeping up: After was originally a Wattpad fanfiction about Harry Styles and the rest of his One Direction crew, hence the name “Hardin Scott.” (The initials are the same, and the rest of his friends have the same initials as the One Direction boys: Nate for Niall, Logan for Liam, Landon for Louis, and Zed for Zayn.)
In After Ever Happy, the fourth installment of the cheesy teen romance saga, Fiennes Tiffin returns opposite Josephine Langford as Tessa, his love interest. Hardin isn’t like fun-loving Harry Styles at all, though. He’s full of cuss words. He punches walls. He kicks doors in and shouts, “Fucking Trevor!” while Harry Styles is on stage in a feather boa, pouncing around like a sprightly elf.
Hero Fiennes Tiffin in After Every Happy.
“To be honest, that works in everyone’s favor,” Fiennes Tiffin says of the separation between his character and its inspiration. “I’m sure Harry doesn’t want to be defined by a character about him. And I know for a fact that the writer Anna Todd was aware of that and reluctant to overstep any boundaries or be intrusive. It started as an inspiration, and I think everyone will be happy that they’ve gone different ways.”
After is a goofy, goofy franchise. Again, it’s based on a Wattpad story. Fiennes Tiffin seems to realize the inherent absurdity of this, chuckling about the scene where has to punch a wall in, or how many cuss words he has to drop in every take. He tells me that he has to wake up (as in, literally act like he’s waking up) too much while filming—in fact, he demonstrates on our Zoom, pretending to be asleep and then popping his eyes open, looking around. He’s good at it. Must be all the practice. But what does he do the most? Scream “TESSA!” at his sweet, loving girlfriend.
“If we rehearse a scene where Hardin says ‘Tessa’ once, between rehearsals and takes, it’s got to be five on average,” he says, as he tries to deduce how many times he’s said Tessa’s name across the entire franchise. “It’s got to be over a thousand [times]. Probably over two thousand, three thousand. If any fans have a lot of free time and want to figure it out and do the math, get on it and let me know.”
Tessa and Hardin are on-again, off-again, but by the end of After Ever Happy, they’ve parted ways. (Worry not: A fifth entry was filmed in secret, which means the pair will surely be back together soon.) Hardin’s final scene is shot in a bookstore, where he reads from his book about his love with Tessa while she gazes on from outside.
I had to ask: Does he see the parallels between this and Taylor Swift’s All Too Well short film?
“I haven’t [seen it],” he confesses. “Essentially, she copied us? We’ll get the lawyers on it and see what we can do,” he then jokes.
When they’re not arguing, Tessa and Hardin are having sex. That’s pretty much all they do: argue, break up, and have sex. Before they shot the third movie, the After team introduced an intimacy coordinator to guide the many sex scenes in their films, and Fiennes Tiffin is grateful for the addition. He was happy working with Langford before, but now, they can get a little more creative. In the third film, for example, the pair get hot and sweaty on a gym bench.
“Like a stunt choreographer or dance choreographer, [an intimacy coordinator] also can gauge how comfortable you are,” he says. “Sometimes, they don’t need to do anything. Sometimes, it’s like when a director says, ‘You guys are playing a scene so well, it’s all realistic, it’s honest, I buy it, I don’t need to say anything.’ But it’s for the times when it doesn’t go right.”
He compares it to the hours of work put into stunt work in The Woman King—if you’re going to have something special, you’re going to need to hire a specialist. And speaking of that, The Woman King happens to include some of the finest stunts in recent memory, resulting in a moving action film beyond comparison.
“This was such an important story for so many young girls around the world,” he says of the movie, now in theaters. “I don’t know a type of person who wouldn’t like this film. It has something for everyone in it.”
He’s right! The Woman King stars Viola Davis as the leader of the Agojie, an all-women army looking to defeat a neighboring tribe and remove their Dahomey Kingdom from the slave trade. Despite playing one of her character’s nemeses, abrutal Portuguese slave trader, meeting Davis was Fiennes Tiffin’s favorite part of film shoot.
The pair don’t share any scenes together, but at base camp in South Africa, they did get to meet. Fiennes Tiffin showed up on set to see Davis giving her input on a scene, wearing a onesie and some killer shades. When she was done (and everyone agreed with her opinion, naturally), she threw off the shades and gave Fiennes Tiffin the warmest welcome ever.
“[Viola] exudes an experienced boss level energy,” he says. “She’s really good at playing the maternal, caring, making sure everyone’s okay, while also playing the role of making sure stuff gets done on time. The only thing I wish is that I had more scenes with her directly.”
As one might guess, things don’t end so well for Santo Ferreira in the film. They’re not looking so great for Hardin, either, thanks to his heart-wrenching breakup. But Fiennes Tiffin signs off chipper as ever, ready for whatever wicked (or maybe kind and sweet, like his real life demeanor) role heads his way next.
So, when exactly is Hogwarts Legacy set and what does that mean in terms of Harry Potter connections and familiar characters that could appear? Keep on reading and we’ll break it all down for you.
When is Hogwarts Legacy set?
Hogwarts Legacy is set in the late 1800s, placing it before all the books, films and stage shows you may have already seen. The year 1890 seems to be a likely bet, with that particular year appearing on a newspaper clipping in one of the trailers.
At this point in the timeline, according to the game’s official website, “The Wizarding World is fraught with dangers including creatures corrupted by a magical force, sinister witches and wizards, as well as a possible mounting goblin rebellion.”
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In the books, Harry Potter was born in 1980, meaning that Hogwarts Legacy takes place roughly a century before The Boy Who Lived started living. It’s long before he turned up at Hogwarts, then!
The first Fantastic Beasts movie (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) is set in 1926, with Newt Scamander apparently being born in 1897. He’d probably be a bit too young to appear in Hogwarts Legacy.
Three minutes and 50 seconds into the video below, you can see this point in the timeline being revealed as the setting for Hogwarts Legacy.
Which Harry Potter characters may appear in Hogwarts Legacy?
As the trailer confirms, “It’s the late 1800s, so while the common rooms and classes may be familiar, most of your professors will not be.
“However, you may recognise a few faces,” the trailer teasingly tells us, before cutting to a scene where the player-character converses with Nearly Headless Nick (who is already a ghost at this point).
Which other characters could you expect to see, then? There’s always a chance that other familiar ghosts could appear, but what about living and breathing people?
It’s worth noting that ancient Potter characters such as Nicolas Flamel (he of Philospher’s Stone fame) would very much be alive at this point, which could make for interesting cameos.
Albus Dumbledore is said to have been born in 1881, which could mean he is the right age to be attending Hogwarts himself at the time of the game. His future romantic interest/nemesis Gellert Grindelwald would be alive at this point too.
So far, only Nearly Headless Nick has been confirmed in terms of returning characters, but we’ll be sure to let you know if that changes! It’s certainly an interesting point in the Harry Potter timeline.
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