LONDON: Among screaming fans and alongside cast members amassed on the red carpet in London’s Leicester Square for the recent world premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Rowling spoke about her feelings on the end of the Potter phenomenon.
“This is my favourite film of the lot. So it’s a very exciting evening but I’m looking forward to seeing it again, I’ve only seen it once finished,” she said.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, the penultimate Potter picture, hit US theatres on November 19 and looks set to provide another big pay day for Warner Bros.
The Hollywood studio decided to split the final book about Harry and his wand-wielding pals into two films after the first six movies amassed $5.4 billion at the global box office.
In Deathly Hallows Part 1, Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on a mission to track down and destroy the secret to evil Lord Voldemort’s immortality and destruction - the Horcruxes.
The three are forced to fend for themselves outside the comfort of Hogwarts school, and the pressure to fight the forces of evil sees best friends Harry and Ron come to blows.
Rowling said that unlike cast members, she had been given more time to digest the finality of Pottermania because she finished writing the books long before filming came to a close.
“I feel like I’m further ahead in the grieving process. I feel like I’m the one who will be counselling them when it’s all over because, I think, obviously there was a lag,” Rowling said.
“I already went through my bereavement with the books so for me this is a lot of fun. I think, for them, it’s getting a lot more poignant.”
Rowling said that she “thinks” she has closed the book on Potter, but refused to say for certain that his wizarding adventures had come to an end. The series of books has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide.
“I think it’s over but I’ve always said ‘never say never’ because I don’t know. Every time in my life I have said: ‘I will never do X’ you can guarantee I will do it within a year,” she said. “So I’ve learned I’m not just going to say it’s over, it’s over, it’s over completely. I don’t know.”
Despite the author’s uncertainty, the young British stars of the films appear ready to move on.
Radcliffe, 21, has been filming the ghost story The Woman in Black, Grint, 22, plans to play Olympic ski-jumping personality Eddie The Eagle Edwards in an upcoming biopic, and Watson, 20, will star in My Week with Marilyn alongside Michelle Williams.
Radcliffe is unlikely to reprise the role should Rowling pen another novel.
“10 years is a long time to spend with one character, I’m not sure I’d go running back. It would be a very hard decision, certainly.”
While the actors may be keen to move on to other roles, they all remember the final day of shooting as an emotional one. “It’s just like 10 years came down to one little shot and it was over and it was really sad,” Grint recalled.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2010.
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