The Harry Potter film franchise is having a rough go of it at the moment. There are still a lot of people wildly enthusiastic about the Wizarding World, but many seem very attached to the characters and cast of the original Harry Potter films rather that the newer Fantastic Beasts franchise, at least, based on box office numbers.
Which is why a lot people probably went slightly bonkers on Twitter yesterday when they saw Neville Longbottom himself, Matthew Lewis, post to Twitter than a new Harry Potter movie was on the way, and the original cast was returning. If you happened to see it, you probably clicked on the attached link without even thinking, assuming it would take you to the Pottermore website where, all would be explained, but that’s not what happened.
The link, if you click on it, takes you to the U.K. government website where you can register to vote. The deadline to register to vote for the United Kingdom’s December 12 election is midnight tonight, about six hours from now local time at time of writing. Matthew Lewis was really just trying to get people registered to vote, and that’s all good.
The upcoming election is viewed as especially important because the Brexit conversation still hasn’t been settled. Whether to leave the EU, or how to do so, is still a hotly debated topic and whatever party comes out on top December 12 will be in the driver’s seat of those decisions.
While many American fans feel a little betrayed, the movie they wanted isn’t really happening, and they can’t take part in the vote anyway, most fans are taking the otherwise troll-ish move in stride. They understand that voting is important, and approve of whatever it takes to get people to recognize that.
How many people really thought they were clicking on news on a new Harry Potter movie is unclear. Hopefully, if nothing else, it got a few people to register to vote. Many probably weren’t fooled by the tweet, but were curious just what the link went. Of course, it’s a good thing nobody had hacked Lewis’ account, or a tweet like that could have done a lot of damage.
It’s also great to see that Matthew Lewis’ call for people to vote hasn’t broken down to a political debate in the comments. It’s pretty much all people supporting the message, there’s no telling where people fall on the political spectrum.
Of course, people who really are hoping for a new Harry Potter movie starring the original cast are still waiting. It seems quite unlikely that such a thing will happen. We still have three more Fantastic Beasts movies set for theaters first and it seems like a long shot that anything else will be planned with the larger franchise until that is done, but who knows?