HBO fixes Return To Hogwarts after Harry Potter fans spot huge mistakes

Virgin Radio

4 Jan 2022, 10:08

The US network had to Return to the Edit after eagle-eyed Harry Potter fans spotted not one, but two huge mistakes in the highly-anticipated 20th anniversary reunion Return To Hogwarts. 

Over on this side of the Atlantic, the reunion was aired on Sky and NOW TV on New Year’s Day, and it saw beloved stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint reunite for the first time since the last magical film in the franchise was released in 2011. 

While some fans were watching through tears at the emotional and nostalgic trip down memory lane, others clocked a couple of embarrassing errors.

During one moment on the special, Emma, who played Hermione Granger, was discussing moments from her own childhood, but to illustrate that, a photo of actress Emma Roberts was used instead. 

It wasn’t the only on-screen mix-up, with the next big faux-pas spotted by an actual Harry Potter star.

Oliver Phelps, who starred as George Weasley, noticed editors had managed to mix him up with his twin brother James, who played Fred Weasley in the series.

Seeing the funny side of it though, Oliver shared the mistake on his Instagram page and joked it must be someone getting their own back on the prankster characters. 

He wrote: “I guess after all those pranks over the years somebody decided to get their revenge. It was fantastic to be part of the HP reunion. Hope you all enjoyed it.”

After going back to the drawing board and fixing up the issues, producers of Return To Hogwarts said in a statement: “Well spotted Harry Potter fans! You brought an editing mistake of a mislabeled photograph to our attention. New version is up now.”

The reunion wasn’t just an emotional watch for fans, but for the beloved cast who confessed to how making the magical franchise changed their lives. 

Emma even revealed she nearly quit the series ahead of the fifth film Order of the Phoenix. 

Sitting down with Ron co-star Rupert, Emma revealed: "I think I was scared. I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point where you were like, ‘This is kind of forever now.’

Rupert said he had the same thoughts about leaving his role. “I had moments like that kind of all the way through,”

“I also had similar feelings to Emma, kind of contemplating what life would be like if I called it a day, but we never really spoke about it. I guess we were just kind of going through it at our own pace. We were kind of in the moment at the time. It just didn’t really occur to us that we were all having similar feelings.”