Harry Potter And The Cursed Child: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

6. Fun With The Concept

Cedric Diggory Death Harry Potter
Warner Brothers

Although there may be some issues with how Cursed Child uses time-travel, or more specifically its time-turners, there is one definite positive to come out of it.

As Albus and Scorpius go back and try to change time, they end up stepping on a load of metaphorical butterflies, which has some big repercussions for the future.

It means we're thrown into a couple of alt-worlds, which brings back a number of great characters from the series, and has a lot of fun with the characters being slightly different than we're used to, but with enough of them recognisable - like in one version, Hermione being the most-wanted witch alive in a world ruled by Voldemort, and Dolores Umbridge back and in charge of Hogwarts. Like the best alt-realities, it knows its characters, and knows just how to riff on them.

Even just in the real timeline there are characters popping up that it's fun to revisit, from the minor, like centaur Bane, to Professor McGonagall having a decent part to play in things.

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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.