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Should 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' Be Considered Canon?

What is Harry Potter canon anyway?

By Jonathan SimPublished 6 years ago 9 min read
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The two-part stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, is headed to Times Square here in New York. I live a few blocks from the theater, but there is no way I'm gonna be able to get tickets for this show.

But I already read the script for the play when it was released in the form of a book in 2016.

And when I first read it, I thought it was phenomenal. I thought it was spectacular, great, awesome, and very worth reading. Now, I knew it wasn't as good as the first seven books, but I watched a video from the SuperCarlinBrothers and it really got me thinking: should the Cursed Child be canon?

I'll be giving my opinion on it.

So, what IS Harry Potter canon anyway?

I mean, there is not really any defined Harry Potter canon. With Star Wars, you have the canon work (ten films, two TV shows, and a few others), and you have the Extended Universe (everything else).

But here's what I say is "canon": everything about Harry Potter written by J.K. Rowling, and pretty much everything she says is canon that makes sense.

So, the books? Obviously canon. That's what it all started with, and they were all written by Rowling.

The films? Not canon. Because they change a lot from the books. I mean, in the real canon, which Rowling wrote, Dobby is the one who gave Gillyweed to Harry and found the Room of Requirement.

It was the idea of Steve Kloves and Michael Goldenberg to have Neville do those things, not Rowling's idea. So, the books are canon, but the movies aren't.

The history of the wizarding world written on Pottermore? That's all written by J.K. Rowling. So, it's all canon.

All of the fan theories that I and a bunch of other theorists come up with? Only the ones that Rowling confirms. So, it pains me to say it, but Draco is NOT a werewolf.

But Harry Potter and the Cursed Child? That's a little complicated. Because even though I love Cursed Child, it creates a lot of problems when it comes to canon.

So, what problems does the Cursed Child create? **SPOILERS BELOW***

Well, first off, the story was thought of by Rowling and two others, but is written by Jack Thorne. And there end up being a lot of problems when it comes to what happens in the book. (I loved it nevertheless)

For example, how did Voldemort end up having a child? I mean, it's pretty cool and all, and you don't need to know how to love in order to have sex, but Voldemort just doesn't seem like someone who would ever want a child for ANY reason.

Think about it: Voldemort wouldn't want an heir, he wouldn't want a companion, and it sure as hell wasn't a one-night stand with Bellatrix.

Which raises the question, do abortions exist in the wizarding world? I mean, if a witch was pregnant and she didn't want the baby, would she have to go to St. Mungo's to get an abortion or is there a spell? Are there some pro-life conservatives and pro-choice liberals in the wizarding world too?

Sorry, I just couldn't get that thought out of my head and needed to share it.

Regardless of the stupidity and confusion behind the idea, I liked the plot twist, though.

Also, in this play, Ron is reduced to an incompetent character of comic relief. He doesn't show too much real competence in this play, and is pretty much there as a joke character who is always eating.

Don't get me wrong, Ron is good as comic relief, but it doesn't make sense for his character to resemble his character in the films rather than the books, which are actually canon.

I mean, he was supposed to be an Auror, for crying out loud. And what does he do in this play? He literally gives his nephew a Love Potion, which is essentially a magical date rape drug if you think about it.

And we have the Polyjuice problem as well.

Hermione was an extremely talented student, and it was very clear that the Polyjuice Potion was difficult to make, and took a month to make. But in the book, Albus and Scorpius, who are just average students, are able to brew the potion, and it's ready in just a couple of minutes.

I mean, this literally goes against the canon and the foundation that Rowling wrote and made explicitly clear; that the Polyjuice Potion takes a month to make, and is incredibly difficult to make.

Our next problem?

Okay, we now have to ask, WTF was this scene in the play? I mean, the trolley lady gets onto the roof of the train with Albus and Scorpius, casually pushing her cart (how the hell did she get the heavy-ass cart onto the top of the train anyway?).

She then proceeds to reveal that her cakes are actually grenades. WTF?! Grenade cakes?! This crazy-ass lady and her explosive cakes. You have to be kidding me with this scene. I mean, again, I liked the play, but this couldn't have been more ridiculous.

This play also leads you to believe that because Ron and Hermione went to the Yule Ball together, that means Ron and Hermione just couldn't grow up to get married, Ron needs to marry Padma, who he has no real relationship with, and Hermione becomes the b**chy DADA teacher at Hogwarts.

Where is the cause-and-effect? You go to the prom with your future husband, so he doesn't become your husband, and you just become a straight up b**ch?! And Hermione's not the only one who stupidly changes in the altered timelines, if you know what I mean.

I mean, come the hell on; you remember the awesome Cedric Diggory we saw in the books? You're telling me Cedric became a Death Eater, working for the evil Lord Voldemort, because he was humiliated by having his head blown up?

Like, that's it? I mean, s**t, I've been humiliated and laughed at in school. But I'm not gonna work for ISIS because of that. Cedric's a Hufflepuff. How could he have changed like that? It's just not believable that one humiliation could turn into a life of crime. And there's Snape.

The movie will have you believe that in the altered timeline, Cedric killed Neville, so Neville couldn't kill Nagini. But what in the altered timeline stopped Voldemort from killing Snape? How has Snape survived in the new timeline?

And not only that, but how did Harry die in the Battle of Hogwarts in the altered timeline? Harry would still be master of the Elder Wand, right? If Voldemort was gonna try to use the Elder Wand against Harry in the final battle, it still would have destroyed his body.

I mean, Voldemort would survive because Nagini didn't die, but Voldemort just couldn't kill Harry with the Elder Wand. It makes no sense, and again, it goes against the canon that Rowling wrote.

You know what else goes against Rowling's canon? The Fidelius Charm.

In the months leading up to the assassination of Lily and James Potter, they were put in the house and the house was put under the Fidelius Charm, meaning that no one could see the house. Not even Voldemort.

But in the play, Lily and James are just calmly walking around Godric's Hollow, taking Harry on a walk. Albus and Scorpius can both see the house, even though NO ONE is supposed to be able to see it. There is so much in this play that goes against Rowling's canon, because Rowling did not write the play.

Also, Harry, who never even got to know his parents, is gonna tell his own flesh and blood that he wishes he wasn't his son. Not only is that very cliché (The Cat In the Hat, Jumanji, etc.), but I'm not comfortable with Harry saying something THAT bad, even in the heat of the moment.

We also have the problem with the way Time-Turners work in the wizarding world.

The way it worked in Prisoner of Azkaban is, by the time Harry and Hermione have decided to go back in time, they have already existed in the past.

Everything that Harry and Hermione do once they travel to the past is stuff that has already happened before they traveled back in time. There was only one timeline, and it was altered when Harry and Hermione went back.

Okay, so, let me word it like this: let's say that my 35-year-old self travels back in time to right now to smack me in the face. That will have happened NOW. As in, there wouldn't be two separate timelines where in one untouched timeline, I don't get hit in the face, and in the altered timeline, I do.

Time only goes in one way when it comes to time traveling with a Time-Turner. It's not like Back to the Future, where you have one timeline with nice Biff, one timeline with mean supervisor Biff, and one timeline with Donald Trump Biff. Time and the way of the world can only go one way in the wizarding world, and there is only one timeline.

Come to think of it, this kind of time travel WOULD solve one of the Looper paradoxes I wrote about.

But in Cursed Child, you have a different kind of time travel from the one in Prisoner of Azkaban. There are a bunch of timelines, like I mentioned before. One timeline with b**chy Hermione, one with alive Snape, one that's the untouched timeline...got it?

But it's like Cursed Child NEEDS to be canon, right? Rowling came up with a story for it, and she has said this:

But at the same time...it's just not. The Cursed Child isn't canon. That's my verdict. I like the play a lot, but it just goes against too many rules that J.K. Rowling has written herself.

Now, maybe Cedric COULD have become a Death Eater, maybe the Trolley Witch COULD have been making grenade cakes, and maybe Harry COULD have told his son he wished he wasn't his son. But the Fidelius Charm, the Polyjuice Potion, and the alive Snape are all enough for us to just agree – it's not canon.

And I'm not one of those bitter fans that has STILL not gotten over The Last Jedi (grow up, please), but I'm just saying that despite how much I like the play, the plot holes stop it from agreeing with the canon books.

But hell, if I had some free tickets, I'd watch the play in an instant. Anyways, that's it!

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About the Creator

Jonathan Sim

Film critic. Lover of Pixar, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Back to the Future, and Lord of the Rings.

For business inquiries: [email protected]

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