Toronto Harry Potter fans attended a two-day promotional event this week for the new spinoff film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at Yonge-Dundas Square. The film will be in theatres Nov. 18, 2016.
Tuesday night featured a red carpet event for the film in the square. Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne, who plays the lead role of Newt Scamander, took photos with fans, signed autographs and talked to the press. Other cast members present included Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol.
Wednesday, fans were led through a giant pop-up suitcase set up in the middle of Yonge-Dundas Square. Inside were costumes and other props from the film, a virtual reality experience and the opportunity for attendees to pick up their own free wand.
The buzz surrounding the upcoming film highlights the continuing popularity of the Harry Potter series, which began with the release of J.K. Rowling’s first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in 1997.
“It still seems to speak to us,” said Richard McMaster, a Ryerson University lecturer who has taught a course in Popular Literatures in the past. The Harry Potter series, which began 19 years ago, is something of a phenomenon, he said. “Popular culture works generally don’t have that long a lifespan.”
The fans who grew up with the novels are the ones now coming out for this new wave of excitement, like Paul Callaghan, a third-year Ryerson civil engineering student. He was so young when the first novel came out that his parents would read the books out loud to him and his brother. “It sort of became a whole family event,” said Callaghan.
The earlier movies followed the plot of Rowling’s first seven novels, but since there is no accompanying book for Fantastic Beasts, fans like Lex Finn, data entry clerk, said they have no idea what to expect. Most fans are excited to explore the world beyond Hogwarts, though. “Harry is not the wizarding world. Harry is one person in that world,” said Teresa O’Brien, a lawyer and fan waiting in line for the event.
Others aren’t as eager about this new era of Potter. Nick Ashmore, who is in the MA Literatures of Modernity Program at Ryerson University, said in a phone interview, “after the final book came out, the series should have stopped.” Angelica Greene, another fan who had just come out of the virtual reality experience, said she’s hoping it’s “not just a money grab”.
The crowd waiting to get in Wednesday included both dedicated fans in costume as well as business people out on their lunch break. The promotional event would remain busy, as lines wrapped around the temporary suitcase structure and through Yonge-Dundas Square well into Wednesday afternoon.
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