Why 'The Cursed Child' Fails to Earn Full Canon Status Among Harry Potter Fans

Highlights

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 change the established canon beloved by fans. Although J.K. Rowling acknowledges the play as canon, many fans perceive The Cursed Child more as fan-fiction or a hypothetical situation, leading to its exclusion from discussions about the wizarding world.

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The Harry Potter saga continues to be a global sensation in both literature and film. Initially, the series concluded with The Deathly Hallows, providing a satisfying conclusion as the characters bid farewell to their children and fans bid farewell to the wizarding world. However, nearly a decade later, fans were surprised to learn that an eighth installment was in development. Released 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, received mixed reactions from fans. Some found it entertaining, while others viewed it as more of a fan-fiction due to its contradictions to established wizarding world rules. The play introduced time travel and alternate realities, which altered the canon and left fans questioning its authenticity.

What Is the Harry Potter Canon?

The Cursed Child is often excluded from the mainline series' canon by fans, leading to ongoing debates about what is considered canon in the Harry Potter series. Canon refers to the material created by the author that is considered true within the fictional world. The original seven books are widely regarded as canon, but other books by J.K. Rowling, such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Quidditch Through the Ages, are also considered canon. Additionally, Rowling's additional backstories, facts, and information provided on Pottermore and her X posts are seen as controversial canon by some fans.

The 8 film adaptations of Harry Potter add another layer of complexity to the canon discussion. While many fans enjoy the films, they are not universally considered canon. Instead, they are seen as faithful adaptations of the books that exist within their own separate canon within the Harry Potter film universe. Despite this, the films are endorsed by Rowling and hold an important and beloved place in the series' lore and appeal. This categorization allows for the films to have a canonical status while still respecting and preserving the book series as the original canon.

Many arguments can be made regarding the canonicity of the Harry Potter series, which remains a divisive topic among fans. However, the general consensus is that The Cursed Child is not considered canon. Despite receiving J.K. Rowling's approval and her involvement in writing the original story, the play is officially recognized as a legitimate continuation of the series and is included in the Harry Potter canon. This confirmation was also made by Rowling herself on her Twitter account in 2015. Nevertheless, many fans refuse to accept it as such. The Cursed Child is often regarded as a what-if scenario or fan-fiction by a majority of fans, causing it to be excluded from discussions and seemingly forgotten within the wizarding world.

What Is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child About?

The story of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child picks up immediately after the events of The Deathly Hallows. Our beloved characters, now grown adults, entrust their own children to the magical world of Hogwarts. The focus of the play revolves around Albus, Harry and Ginny's son, who finds himself sorted into Slytherin and confronted with numerous obstacles during his time at school. Albus forms an unlikely bond with Scorpius, Draco Malfoy's son, and together they set off on a daring adventure through time by stealing a Time-Turner from Hermione's office. Along their journey, they encounter a mysterious young girl named Delphi, who harbors a strong desire to alter the past. Together, Albus and Scorpius journey to pivotal moments in history, including the famous Triwizard Tournament and the tragic night when Harry's parents met their untimely demise.

Albus and Scorpius strive to prevent Cedric Diggory's death in the Triwizard Tournament, resulting in the creation of alternate timelines that drastically alter the course of the wizarding world. These timeline changes include Cedric's transformation into a Death-Eater, Snape's survival, and Ron and Hermione not getting married. However, the most significant consequence occurs in a timeline where Voldemort emerges victorious in the Battle of Hogwarts and rules over the wizarding community. In this reality, Harry dies and Albus is never born. Left alone, Scorpius travels back in time and successfully restores the original timeline.

The shocking revelation is unveiled that Delphi is, in fact, the daughter of Voldemort and Bellatrix. She aims to resurrect the timeline in which Voldemort reigns supreme. Albus and Scorpius are brought to the night when Harry's parents were murdered. With the help of Draco's Time-Turner, Harry saves them and ensures that history unfolds exactly as it did before, restoring the original timeline. They ultimately succeed in returning to the present, where everything is once again in order.

What Does Albus and Scorpius’ Time-Travel Journey Mean for Harry Potter?

Many fans find The Cursed Child's story to be interesting and engaging, however, the incorporation of time travel is a major reason why some fans disregard it as part of the Harry Potter canon. In The Prisoner of Azkaban, fans were introduced to the Time-Turner, a device used by Harry and Hermione to journey into the past. However, instead of altering history, their actions merely ensure that the events they have already witnessed unfold as they did the first time. The original saga maintains the existence of one consistent timeline, creating a loop where time travelers uphold the events as they have occurred. This approach to time travel eliminates the potential for paradoxes and alternate realities.

In contrast to this, The Cursed Child deviates from 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 significant consequences and lead to different versions of the present, where pivotal events have unfolded differently. For instance, when the duo attempts to save Cedric Diggory from his untimely demise, as they return to the present, Scorpius realizes that they now reside in a world where Voldemort was never defeated and Harry perished during the Battle of Hogwarts.

In the play, Albus and Scorpius tamper with crucial past events, but Harry ultimately resolves their actions by going back in time to the night Voldemort killed his parents. This ensures that events unfold as needed to restore the original series' timeline. Despite the seemingly nonsensical time travel rules, the play ends with the restoration of the original timeline. According to the time travel rules laid out in The Cursed Child, the play itself can be seen as a paradox. For fans who do not consider it part of the Harry Potter canon, there is an argument that Albus and Scorpius' time travel journey may not have occurred in the brand new main timeline at all.