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First official Harry Potter and The Cursed Child pictures

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You just know he's gonna have PTSD.

.

I would be very surprised after all the shit he's been through he didn't develop some form of PTSD. Also doesn't he actually go on to become an Auror? So he's likely continued to see a lot of shit in his life.

I really want to see this play. I hope it expands beyond the UK. At least I hope it's filmed.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
Hey if Lavender Brown can go from black to white.

Then Hermonie can go from white to black

BlackWhiteUSE1-e396f69873bbb04ff09d88d77094b57f.gif


SAW YOU KICKIN DIRT IN MY EYE
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Hey if Lavender Brown can go from black to white.

Then Hermonie can go from white to black

Little bit more to Lavender than just whitewashing. She was never really cast in the early films. Kids were given character names to make it easier to direct them, but in the end they were all just extras. Their characters were never talked or were referred to in the film.
 

PSqueak

Banned
Yes and Rowling already responded to that:

J.K. Rowling ✔‎@jk_rowling
Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione

I love black hermione and like i expressed in the other thread, her being black should not be a problem.

Still, Rowling is full of shit with that reply, when the cast was first announced many months ago (with no pictures) and she originally said that, people where quick to fish a quote on the books that clearly described Hermione's face as "white", not to mention how disingenious the statement is.

"Oh yeah, I never mentioned her skin, yup, I just approved every depiction of her in every media to portray her as white and i admitted publicly that she was my self insert, but by all means, she's race ambiguous!"

I mean, Rowling, please! Just let her be portrayed by a black actress and let that be it, don't try to bullshit your way into a few more minutes on the spotlight.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
I love black hermione and like i expressed in the other thread, her being black should not be a problem.

Still, Rowling is full of shit with that reply, when the cast was first announced many months ago (with no pictures) and she originally said that, people where quick to fish a quote on the books that clearly described Hermione's face as "white", not to mention how disingenious the statement is.

"Oh yeah, I never mentioned her skin, yup, I just approved every depiction of her in every media to portray her as white and i admitted publicly that she was my self insert, but by all means, she's race ambiguous!"

I mean, Rowling, please! Just let her be portrayed by a black actress and let that be it, don't try to bullshit your way into a few more minutes on the spotlight.

Totally agree on all points.
 

Jintor

Member
don't really see it as as rowling trying to claim credit for it or whatever. she's just saying she left an out in the canon for it and she doesn't want to clamp down on that interpretation
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I love black hermione and like i expressed in the other thread, her being black should not be a problem.

Still, Rowling is full of shit with that reply, when the cast was first announced many months ago (with no pictures) and she originally said that, people where quick to fish a quote on the books that clearly described Hermione's face as "white", not to mention how disingenious the statement is.

"Oh yeah, I never mentioned her skin, yup, I just approved every depiction of her in every media to portray her as white and i admitted publicly that she was my self insert, but by all means, she's race ambiguous!"

I mean, Rowling, please! Just let her be portrayed by a black actress and let that be it, don't try to bullshit your way into a few more minutes on the spotlight.

In her defense, I think she was just trying to fight back against the criticism and help the production.
 

Figboy79

Aftershock LA
Hermione is one of my favorite characters. I personally only owned the original books, and she appeared on just one cover, the Prisoner of Azkaban, I think. I always pictured her as white, but I love the idea of her being black. Like, I hope that if they do a new film series in ten years, they cast a black Hermione. Rowling barely went into deep character descriptions of her. A few bits here and there. She could be a black girl, or a mixed black girl with pale skin, bushy brown hair, and somewhat oversized teeth. I've know a lot of mixed girls in my life that look like book Hermione. I never knew many white girls that looked like book Hermione, but it ultimately doesn't matter.

I like that the people who cast the play cast a wide net. The movies are one adaptation of the book, and the play is another.

The cast looks really good. Harry looks like he's seen some shit in the Auror office. Has he been doing some wizarding black ops assignments or something?
 
She was white on the covers, no? In the chapter art as well I believe. It's hard to remember because characters other than harry never appeared on them with any sort of frequency.

Visual accuracy in plays is kinda thrown out the window so it's not a huge deal.
JK Rowling didn't draw the covers so I mean, that's more to the artist's interpretation of the characters. But she did have say over them and didn't correct them, but maybe she didn't feel it was that big of a deal. Plus the UK art and the US art is different.

Her own concept sketches did include a white Hermione though. I think if you read a book like Harry Potter most people are going to assume every character is white unless it's stated otherwise (Dean Thomas was explicitly introduced as being black), but that doesn't necessarily mean they have to be. I think as long as it's not central to the character's story arc it's fine to change a character from being white to a minority - Hermione being black also would give Malfoy's mud blood talk a further dimension. Generally I wouldn't want that to flip because there are so few roles for minorities in theatre as it is, everything is pretty segregated. If you're a black actor your options in the mainstream theatrical canon pretty much start and end with August Wilson until the 00s unless your director is open to color blind casting (I saw a Streetcar with a black Blanche and Stella that was awesome).
 

Madness

Member
book covers aren't ever hard canon, since they also tend to change a lot even for the same book when reprinted

Except for the actual chapter images that show her as white too? Or how about every single book cover for every region whether it is NA or UK or Asia, or the movies etc. Even her own character sketches had her as white.

J.K. Rowling never specified race in the books because she knew Hermione was white and wanted everyone to assume that. It is why every other non-white character from the Patel sisters to Cho Chang to Dean Thomas who are not white had their skin color specified.

And then let's not try to ignore Emma Watson perhaps cementing her look in our minds. I think this casting is great, should be a great play, but let's not pretend up until this play Hermione wasn't intended to be white or won't be white if there was ever another movie sequel or book.
 
Except for the actual chapter images that show her as white too? Or how about every single book cover for every region whether it is NA or UK or Asia, or the movies etc. Even her own character sketches had her as white.

J.K. Rowling never specified race in the books because she knew Hermione was white and wanted everyone to assume that. It is why every other non-white character from the Patel sisters to Cho Chang to Dean Thomas who are not white had their skin color specified.

And then let's not try to ignore Emma Watson perhaps cementing her look in our minds. I think this casting is great, should be a great play, but let's not pretend up until this play Hermione wasn't intended to be white or won't be white if there was ever another movie sequel or book.

uhm, the art for the books was never 'canon'. It wasn't drawn by Rowling herself.

Besides she's the fucking author, she can do what she wants.
 

Madness

Member
uhm, the art for the books was never 'canon'. It wasn't drawn by Rowling herself.

Besides she's the fucking author, she can do what she wants.

6OVlX76.jpg


Here is her own hand drawn concept art from 1999. You can see what she envisioned Hermione as. Plus she approved every single cover and chapter art.
 
uhm, the art for the books was never 'canon'. It wasn't drawn by Rowling herself.

Besides she's the fucking author, she can do what she wants.

Authors can be wrong, for example no matter how much Orson Scott Card wants to be a homophobe and denounce homosexuality there is no question that there was some homosexual tension within Ender's Game
 

Monocle

Member
Authors can be wrong, for example no matter how much Orson Scott Card wants to be a homophobe and denounce homosexuality there is no question that there was some homosexual tension within Ender's Game
They can't be wrong about their own intentions though, regardless of how others interpret their text. I have mixed feelings about the whole death of the author thing.

I say this as someone who's not just willing but inclined to seek out gay subtext in most of the stories I encounter.
 

Caelus

Member
I have mixed feelings about the whole death of the author thing.

Same, though Rowling did endorse the casting, so I'm happy with it.

Though when applied to the canon, it changes the intensity of her being called 'mudblood' for me, even though all muggle-borns were called that slur. :/

Play looks like fun.
 

Bessy67

Member
6OVlX76.jpg


Here is her own hand drawn concept art from 1999. You can see what she envisioned Hermione as. Plus she approved every single cover and chapter art.
There's also the line in Prisoner of Azkaban "Hermione's white face was sticking out from behind a tree." (ch. 21, pg 401 in the US Scholastic Press hardcover)
 
Here is her own hand drawn concept art from 1999. You can see what she envisioned Hermione as. Plus she approved every single cover and chapter art.

She can still change her mind though

If she wanted to write that Harry denounced his marriage and was suddenly gay in this play, that'd be ok. If Hermione is black in this adaptation, then that's ok.
 
She can still change her mind though

If she wanted to write that Harry denounced his marriage and was suddenly gay in this play, that'd be ok. If Hermione is black in this adaptation, then that's ok.

Sure, just don't be surprised that alot of people followed what the author originally intended/depicted
 

Madness

Member
She can still change her mind though

If she wanted to write that Harry denounced his marriage and was suddenly gay in this play, that'd be ok. If Hermione is black in this adaptation, then that's ok.

You're still changing what you said. You said she never drew her white. She has called Hermione white in the books as listed above, she approved every cover art, every chapter image and the casting of Emma Watson as well. She is free to say what she wants and fans are free to voice their opinions for or against it.

Reminds me of her copout with Dumbledore being gay. Ignoring it for every book, adding a few lines of questionable dialogue in the final book, and then once all sales done, hype down, oh and Dumbledore is gay. If she had any backbone or resolve she would've introduced it in a natural and meaningful way.

Harry Potter is second to the Bible for most printed book etc. The movies are some of the most successful of all time. Whatever she says now doesn't matter. She identified every major coloured character in the books, now she wants to play dumb and go well I never really specified her race hurr durr. I mean that is her own hand drawn image above.
 
I don't mind black Hermione but there's probably a decent number of people who didn't read the books and only saw the movies and will be a little confused since Hermione was always played by a white actress in the original films.
 
Reminds me of her copout with Dumbledore being gay. Ignoring it for every book, adding a few lines of questionable dialogue in the final book, and then once all sales done, hype down, oh and Dumbledore is gay. If she had any backbone or resolve she would've introduced it in a natural and meaningful way.

I dunno if because of all of the "fandom entitlement" stuff that's been going on - and that might be severely coloring the way I'm reading this - but there's something that's sorta shitty about that whole bit (and especially the bolded part).
 

Figboy79

Aftershock LA
Man, people get reeeaally fucking pissed when a white character is turned black. Like, really pissed.

Ultimately, none of this bitching matters. Rowling approved both book, movie, and play Hermione. As the creator of the series, she can change the ethnicity or sexual orientation of a character as she sees fit. The play isn't disturbing the cannon. It's just another author approved interpretation of the canon.
 

bengraven

Member
Her race was never stated in the books, but other than Ron and the rest of the Weasley's being the most ginger people on Earth, no one's race was ever stated, except for when they weren't white. I have no doubt that JK wrote Hermione as white (she's shown as white on several covers of the book), but in the end, it doesn't matter. This is a play. This play will be done all over the world and they'll all be cast as various races at some point. Cast the best person for the job, regardless of race. I like the look of this actress as Hermione and, since I'll likely never make it to London, hope they put a performance on video at some point.

This is a great response. Seriously a ton of respect to you.

6OVlX76.jpg


Here is her own hand drawn concept art from 1999. You can see what she envisioned Hermione as. Plus she approved every single cover and chapter art.

Why does skin color have to be canonized unless it's a story about race?
 
6OVlX76.jpg


Here is her own hand drawn concept art from 1999. You can see what she envisioned Hermione as. Plus she approved every single cover and chapter art.
Stop calling that "concept art", she drew that two years after the first book was published. She probably based it on the art that the publishers chose for the books (where did you read that she approved every single cover and chapter art? That seems unrealistic for a new author's first book, where she didn't even have control over the *name*).
 
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