Summary
- Fans debate the canon status of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child due to its contradictory elements that stray from the established rules of the wizarding world.
- The play introduces time travel and alternate realities, which fundamentally alters the canon that fans had come to know and love.
- While J.K. Rowling confirms the play as canon, many fans view The Cursed Child as more of a fan-fiction or what-if scenario, causing it to be excluded from conversations about the wizarding world.
To this day, the Harry Potter saga remains a worldwide literary and cinematic phenomenon. Originally, the beloved series came to an end with the release of The Deathly Hallows, marking the end of an era, and giving fans a satisfying sense of closure as the now grown-up characters waved their goodbyes to their children at Platform 9 ¾, and fans simultaneously said their goodbyes to the wizarding world. Or so they thought. Nearly a decade after the release of the final book, the world was shocked after learning that an eighth entry to the Harry Potter saga was in the works. The idea seemed promising, and a majority of fans were excited to revisit the wizarding world once more. In 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a play written by Jack Thorne, based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Thorne, was released. Its reception amongst fans was pretty divisive, ranging from amusement to disappointment, and even with many actively rejecting it from the mainline series’ canon.
While The Cursed Child presents an interesting premise and many may even find the overall story entertaining, the play features some elements that contradict the established rules of the wizarding world, which makes fans question its canonicity. It is often viewed as more of a fan-fiction than an actual entry in the Harry Potter series. Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy embark on a journey that revolves around time travel and alternate realities. This ambitious plot was perhaps too ambitious, as the concept of time travel originally introduced in the series now operated under different rules, fundamentally altering the series’ canon that fans had come to know and love.
What Is the Harry Potter Canon?
Despite The Cursed Child being the entry most commonly excluded from the mainline series’ canon by fans, ever since the release of the first film, there have been debates amongst fans about what is and isn’t canon in the series. The concept of canon refers to anything that is considered true in a particular work of fiction, basically all the material created by the author. In the case of the Harry Potter saga, evidently, the seven original books are as canonical as it can get. And to many fans, that’s it. However, following the original definition, other books by J.K. Rowling that take place within the wizarding world, such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Quidditch Through the Ages, are also canon. The same happens, in theory, with other material written by Rowling herself, such as Pottermore, where she provides additional backstories, facts, and information about the series, and even X (formerly Twitter) posts made by her. These two, particularly the latter, are a bit more controversial. While some fans consider everything Harry Potter- related published by J.K. Rowling to be canon, others don’t.
Things get a little more complicated when it comes to the 8 Harry Potter film adaptations. A majority of fans, despite enjoying the films, don’t consider them to be canon, but rather faithful adaptations of the books. Although J.K. Rowling endorses the films and they are an important and beloved part of the series, its lore, and its appeal, many of the events that happen in the films contradict the books. Most fans consider the films their own separate canon within the Harry Potter film universe, which also includes the Fantastic Beasts series. This is a fair categorization that gives the films and Rowling’s endorsement a rightful canonical status while also respecting and preserving the book series as the original canon.
Many arguments about what is and isn’t canon within the Harry Potter series can be made, and the topic remains a pretty divisive one amongst fans. However, perhaps the most agreed-on opinion about it is that The Cursed Child is not canon. But since the play has J.K. Rowling’s seal of approval, and she helped write the original story the play is based on, it is officially considered a legitimate continuation to the series and part of the Harry Potter series’ canon. She also confirmed this on her X (Twitter) account in 2015. But many fans won’t take that for an answer. And it is not without its reasons. Since a majority of fans consider it to be a what-if scenario or a fan-fiction, The Cursed Child is, more often than not, left out of conversations and seems to have become sort of forgotten when it comes to the wizarding world.
What Is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child About?
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child begins right where The Deathly Hallows ends, as the now adult characters send their children to Hogwarts. The play follows Harry and Ginny’s son, Albus, who gets sorted into Slytherin and faces several challenges during his time at the wizarding school. Albus forms a friendship with Draco Malfoy’s son, Scorpius, and they embark on a time travel journey using a Time-Turner they steal from Hermione’s office. They meet a girl named Delphi, who wants to travel to the past. Albus and Scorpius travel to several moments in the past, such as the Triwizard Tournament and the night Harry's parents are killed.
Albus and Scorpius attempt to prevent Cedric Diggory from dying in the Triwizard Tournament. They succeed, but this creates alternate timelines where events of the past played differently and had great consequences on the wizarding world in the present. Some of these huge consequences include events such as Cedric becoming a Death-Eater, Snape being alive, and Ron and Hermione never marrying. The biggest consequence, however, is that in one of these timelines, Voldemort won the Battle of Hogwarts and rules the wizarding world. In this timeline, Harry is dead, and therefore Albus was never born. Scorpius, alone, travels back in time and restores his original timeline.
It is revealed that Delphi is actually Voldemort and Bellatrix’s daughter, and she intends on restoring the timeline where Voldemort rules the wizarding world. Albus and Scorpius are taken to the night Harry’s parents were killed. Harry saves them using Draco’s Time-Turner, and ensures that the events of the past play out exactly as before so the original timeline is restored. They succeed and return to the present, and everything is well once again.
What Does Albus and Scorpius’ Time-Travel Journey Mean for Harry Potter?
While many fans may believe the story delivers an interesting and engaging adventure, the time travel aspect is one of the main reasons many fans choose to ignore The Cursed Child as part of the Harry Potter canon. The Prisoner of Azkaban introduced fans to the Time-Turner, which Harry and Hermione use to travel to the past. However, rather than altering history, their actions only ensure that the events they have already experienced, actually happen like they did the first time. The original saga states that there is one consistent timeline, which acts like a loop, with time travelers only helping maintain the events as they have happened. This approach to time travel eliminates the possibility of paradoxes and alternate realities.
Unlike the former, The Cursed Child changes the established rules of time travel by introducing the concept of alternate realities. Unlike Harry and Hermione, when Albus and Scorpius travel back in time, their actions have deeper consequences and result in different versions of the present, where important events happened differently. For example, when the duo attempts to prevent Cedric Diggory from dying, as they head back to present time, Scorpius discovers they now live in a world where Voldemort was never defeated and Harry was killed during the Battle of Hogwarts.
Although Albus and Scorpius mess with important events from the past, at the end of the play, Harry manages to undo their actions by traveling further back in time to the night Voldemort killed his parents, ensuring that the events unfold as they needed to, in order to restore the original series’ timeline. However, as nonsensical as the time travel rules may seem, in the end, the original timeline is restored either way. Following the time travel rules established in The Cursed Child, the play itself can be considered a paradox. And to the comfort of the fans who don’t consider it part of the Harry Potter canon, it can be argued that, in the brand new main timeline, Albus and Scorpius’ time travel journey may not have even happened in the first place.