Our top five things “Potter” to look forward to in 2015
Happy new year from all of us at MuggleNet! 2014 has been a remarkable year – but 2015 might be an even better one! In anticipation of the coming year, we’ve put together a list of the top Potter-related things we’re looking forward to in 2015!
1. MuggleNet Live! 2015: Expo Patronum
We can’t help it – everyone here on staff is counting down the days to the first MuggleNet convention on April 18! We’ve already secured several awesome guests, including Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown), Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley), and several others! We’re working hard to put on an event like no other in the Potter community, and we hope you’ll be there with us. Stay tuned for even more announcements, and purchase tickets right here.
2. More Fantastic Beasts News
Okay, so this one’s a little vague, but with a projected release date of 2016, 2015 is sure to be filled with casting announcements, plot details, and maybe even… a trailer?! We don’t know for sure what we’ll learn about Rowling’s new film franchise over the coming months, but we do know that we’ll be keeping a sharp eye out to let you know all of the latest details as soon as possible!
3. Details on the Potter Play
Similar to our anxious anticipation for news about Fantastic Beasts, we’re really dying to know more about the play featuring Harry’s early life that’s currently in production. Jo made the first announcement in December of 2013, and we’ve heard little else since then besides a single rumor about whom the director and co-writer of the play might be. We really hope we start to get some real information on the production very soon!
4. The Pottermore Patronus Test
The Pottermore Sorting quiz has revolutionized the way the fandom thinks about house placement. Since its debut, the inevitable follow-up question to any declaration of house allegiance is immediately, “Are you Pottermore official?” Even fans who don’t keep up with Pottermore chapter releases have usually created accounts just to find out once and for all which house they would have been sorted into upon entering the Great Hall for the first time. Although the wand quiz currently featured on Pottermore is also awesome, what many fans have really been clamoring for is a Patronus test. In September 2014, J.K. Rowling teased that fans should keep their eye on Pottermore for just such a feature. We’re betting it comes sometime during 2015!
5. Tons of New Projects by Potter Alumni
We can barely even begin to count all of the awesome projects that the actors and actresses from the Harry Potter films will be taking on in 2015, which means we’ll be headed to the cinema over and over again in the coming months! The most publicized of these projects is, of course, Star Wars, featuring Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley) and Warwick Davis, but there’s also Cinderella, directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart) and starring Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange); A Little Chaos, directed by Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) and featuring Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy); The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring Dame Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall) and Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour); and of course, the highly anticipated BBC adaptation of The Casual Vacancy, which is not only an adaptation of a J.K. Rowling book BUT ALSO stars Potter veterans Sir Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) and Simon McBurney (the voice of Kreacher). Those films are just the tip of the iceberg, so be sure to keep an eye on our section of the site to stay updated on all of the Potter cast’s latest projects!
This list represents only a small portion of what there is to look forward to in 2015 – there’s also the new Bloomsbury illustrated editions, the publication of J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech, news about the BBC adaptation of The Cuckoo’s Calling, and much more! Of course, we all know that many of the most exciting announcements in the Potter-verse are ones we never expect are coming, like the initial announcement about the Fantastic Beasts films, the news that there would be a Potter play, and the revelation that Jo had written a book under a pseudonym. We’re not Trelawney – we can’t see into the future to see what 2015 will hold – but we do know that it will be a year to remember!
What are you most looking forward to in 2015?