Apparently, you can know every trick in the (wizarding) book and still make mistakes. During the highly anticipated Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special, which hit HBO Max on Saturday, Jan 1, shrewd fans noticed that a baby picture purportedly of Emma Watson was actually not of Watson, but rather depicted a different famous Emma: Emma Roberts.
At the top of the special, Watson and her co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, and Rupert Grint reminisced about their connection to Harry Potter before starring in the franchise. During their bout of nostalgia, a photo of a young Emma wearing Minnie Mouse ears appears in the montage. While it’s an adorable picture, the Emma pictured is not Emma Watson—the actress who famously played Hermione Granger for the vast majority of her childhood—but rather her contemporary, Emma Roberts, niece of Julia and star of Scream Queens and American Horror Story.
The mistake was spotted by Twitter user @vee_delmonico99, who shared the photo from the special on social media alongside a screenshot of Emma Robert’s instagram, tweeting “GUYS HELP ME THATS LITERALLY EMMA ROBERTS NOT EMMA WATSON.” A classic mix-up.
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Neither Emma has commented on the accidental swap, but producers for the Harry Potter reunion special addressed the mistake in a statement to Entertainment Weekly, saying, “Well spotted Harry Potter fans! You brought an editing mistake of a mislabeled photograph to our attention. New version up shortly.”
To be fair, both Emmas are about the same age (Roberts is 31, Watson is 30), have brown hair, and were child stars, which renders them practically identical as far as celebs go. During the special, Watson revealed that, at one point, she considered leaving the franchise altogether: “I think I was scared,” Emma told Grint. “I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point, where you were like, ‘This is kind of forever now.'” Luckily for us all she stuck with it—although now it seems clear which famous Emma would have replaced her.
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