In this video of highlights from the press conference, you will hear from Domhnall Gleeson [Bill Weasley], Robbie Coltrane [Hagrid], Warwick Davis [Griphook/Flitwick], Matthew Lewis [Neville Longbottom], Evanna Lynch [Luna Lovegood], Helena Bonham Carter [Bellatrix Lestrange], and Tom Felton [Draco Malfoy] talk about their experiences in the new land, contrasting visiting Universal's Diagon Alley with working on the original film-set version.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley opens officially to the public on July 8. Today, Universal announced team member previews for this Wednesday through Saturday, which should pretty much lay to rest any hope of a public soft opening this week. Diagon Alley vacation packages start on Sunday, so we expect Universal hotel guests who booked those packages to get access then, with the possibility of public soft opens to follow only after that. Follow the hashtag #potterwatch on Twitter for alerts from other readers about a soft open, if and when it happens.
Previously:
We skipped the non-theme park stuff for this, though I love Domhnall literally showing the "talk to the hand" to a reporter who asked about Star Wars. "Just stop," he said. "There's nothing I can tell you without getting shot."
I regret that we missed a great comment from Helena Bonham Carter at the very end on the importance she felt of having compassion for Bellatrix, or any character she plays. (We were packing up as we had an extremely limited amount of time to film outside in Diagon Alley immediately after the press conference, and we figured maximizing that time was more important.) Nothing to do with theme parks, but a wonderful "actor's studio" moment from a great pro.
These are some very big stars, Helena Bonham Carter especially (yes, bigger than Daniel Radcliffe). Does everyone forget that he launched the original Wizarding World just a few years ago... how often does he need to do these events? He's busy on stage in NY at the moment.
Unlike some childhood stars (I'm looking at you, Disney Channel), the three main HP kids don't bash where they came from, nor do they create tabloid messes. But do they need to be always accessible HP mascots? I don't think that's reasonable, nor mandatory, nor a fault of Universal or the stars.
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