Even magical shit has to stink on its way out. So the implications of Pottermore's latest revelation are still wafting through the Harry Potter fandom. On one hand, it's just funny. On the other hand, eww. Now, when we go back to watch the Harry Potter films, we may be left imagining what it was like in those early centuries -- centuries, plural! -- when witches and wizards just ... let loose. Here's what J.K. Rowling's official site decided to dump on the entire class:
Ummm. Many fans are wondering why we needed to know that, even on National Trivia Day. But Pottermore wasn't done, it also tied the news into the Chamber of Secrets, saying the new plumbing almost revealed the Chamber's entrance.
This is all fictional, of course (or is it?), but fans always take the world of Harry Potter very seriously. So it's kind of disturbing to imagine how long students and teachers (and house elves?) went with this method. As we have been told, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 10th century, and the plumbing changes came during the 18th Century.
Fans had many questions and comments, and of course a few jokes.
There are also a couple of versions of this one:
This quick reference to Dwight on The Office is also worth a shout-out:
I'm also kind of into this response:
And here's my own personal reaction:
Many Harry Potter fans are filing this news away in the growing drawer of things J.K. Rowling thinks we need to know but we would rather have lived without.
You could argue that some details in the ongoing Fantastic Beasts saga also belong in that drawer, but that depends on your point-of-view. We're only two films into that five-film story. Fantastic Beasts 3 already has a title (not that it has been announced yet) and an arrival date of 2020.
The second film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, introduced a younger Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) at Hogwarts -- which did have plumbing at the time. That film didn't do quite as well at the box office as the first film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We'll have to see if that trend continues with the third film, or if fans are so curious about the big twists that they come running to get the promised answers.
The Harry Potter film series ran for eight films from 2001 to 2011, based mostly at Hogwarts. Every year on May 2, the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, J.K. Rowling has been tweeting apologies for killing off certain characters. To be honest, we love this world so much that Rowling and her Pottermore can tell us anything they want and we'll be happy (mostly happy, anyway) to hear it just to keep the magic alive.
As we wait for the next Harry Potter prequel film to show up in 2020, keep track of all of the movies that are coming to theaters in 2019 in our handy cinema schedule.
