HBO's Harry Potter Remake Could Include A Great Cursed Child Easter Egg In Season 4

HBO's upcoming Harry Potter TV show has the exciting opportunity to fold in the events of the stage production that continues the events of JK Rowling's source material, but it would make the most sense to do so by waiting for the adaptation's fourth season. Although the Cursed Child play could still technically be made into a movie with the original Harry Potter cast, what's perhaps more likely is that the eighth franchise story will be acknowledged by the TV show. However, HBO's version has a huge advantage over the Harry Potter movies.

Debuting in London in 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child picks up where the books end. The two-part play follows the original characters but primarily focuses on Harry's youngest son - Albus Severus Potter. The play makes surprisingly heavy use of time travel for the first time since The Prisoner of Azkaban. As a result, Albus and his fellow Slytherin housemate revisit a key event in Harry Potter canon in an attempt to alter history. Ultimately, their plan is thwarted, but that doesn't mean their exploits shouldn't still be visible.

Harry Potter Season 4 Can Include Albus & Scorpius' Attempts To Prevent Cedric's Death

The Cursed Child's time travel story should cross over with The Goblet of Fire in HBO's adaptation

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For a variety of reasons, including generational guilt and the need to prove himself after being sorted in Slytherin, Albus Potter agrees to help Amos Diggory restore his son to the timeline. To do so, Albus joins forces with Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius, to thwart Cedric's efforts at the Triwizard Tournament and have him ejected from the contest that's shown in The Goblet of Fire. Because The Cursed Child hadn't been written when the fourth movie was made, it would have been impossible to include Albus and Scorpius in those scenes. Now, HBO can correct this issue.

The show will adapt one book per season. Therefore, Harry Potter season 4 should cover The Goblet of Fire.

Harry Potter's time travel rules are established in the third movie as being self-fulfilling. Essentially, everything that will happen is pretty much predetermined. The Cursed Child makes extensive changes to the Time-Turner lore by allowing Albus and Scorpius to successfully alter the past and make it so that Cedric doesn't make it to the final Triwizard task. Their alterations are ultimately undone, but Albus and Scorpius are still able to hide in the crowd, disguised as Durmstrang students. So, they could be included as a subtle Easter Egg when the Harry Potter TV show adapts The Goblet of Fire.

Including A Cursed Child Easter Egg Would Make An Adaptation Even More Exciting

The Harry Potter play currently feels separate from the rest of JK Rowling's saga

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Officially, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is part of the franchise's main canon. However, the vastly different medium means it stands apart from the other stories and almost feels as though it's a separate entity. Part of the reasoning for this is the play's time travel story not quite marrying up with the Harry Potter books, or even the movies. By including Albus and Scorpius in Harry Potter season 4, even in a minor way that's hard to spot at first glance, The Cursed Child would feel much more like a part of the same universe.

Harry Potter Book & Movie Release Timeline Comparison Title Book Release Year Movie Release Year Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 1997 2001 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 1998 2002 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 1999 2004 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2000 2005 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2003 2007 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2005 2009 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2007 2010 (Part One), 2011 (Part Two) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 2016 2016 (Stage production)

The Cursed Child coming so long after the books ended doesn't help with the story's feeling of separation from its predecessors. In addition, it premiered the same year as 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which was marketed as a new era for the franchise. Releasing a prequel movie the same year as a sequel stage production is an easy way to muddy the waters of where to draw the franchise lines. So, including Cursed Child lore in the plans for the TV show adaptation partially corrects that error.

Why HBO's Harry Potter TV Show May Ignore The Cursed Child Completely

The Cursed Child's plot holes make it difficult to include in a live-action adaptation of the Harry Potter saga

There are several canonical inconsistencies between the play and the other seven stories. As such, many Harry Potter fans don't consider The Cursed Child to be proper canon. Instead, it's believed by some to be more of a standalone narrative or a speculative what-if scenario. While neither assumption is correct, it's easy to see why it would be difficult for some to accept the play as unfolding within the main Harry Potter universe. It could also be difficult to use facets of the play's story without them clashing with the main arc from the books.

Related I Hope The Harry Potter TV Show Restores A Big Book Omission That Always Bothered Me HBO's upcoming Harry Potter TV show should adapt an iconic book sequence more faithfully than the movies did, as there's long been something missing.

For example, Harry Potter season 3 should cover the events of The Prisoner of Azkaban, which is the installment that introduces time travel to JK Rowling's Wizarding World. If the show plans to pay homage to The Cursed Child, season 3's temporal laws would arguably need to be tweaked for consistency across the board. It would be a delicate endeavor for what could be nothing more than a sly wink. Then again, if Harry Potter season 8 turns out to be The Cursed Child, the show would need to make the changes sooner rather than later.