Time turner, anyone? The “Harry Potter” anniversary special — chock-full of behind-the-scenes tidbits juicier than any Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Bean (the non-vomit ones, at least) — finally arrived over the weekend.
HBO Max’s “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts” reunited stars from the eight films, including the core wizarding trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who hadn’t publicly appeared together since the final film hit theaters in 2011. But HBO just so happened to invite another famous Emma to the party.
During one segment, each of the stars reminisce about their “Potter” origin stories. When it was Watson’s turn to walk down memory lane, she described a longstanding kinship with her character Hermione Granger, and a photo of a little girl wearing Minnie Mouse ears flashed across the screen.
Eagle-eyed fans quickly noted that the photo wasn’t actually of Watson.
“GUYS HELP ME THATS LITERALLY EMMA ROBERTS NOT EMMA WATSON,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
Yes, somehow a photo of a young Emma Roberts wound up in the special. A handful of viewers noted that the actor first shared the throwback snap on her Instagram in 2012.
“Minnie mouse ears!” Roberts wrote alongside the photo at the time.
Given that even the most expert wand-wielder couldn’t obliviate the photo from our memories, the producers of the “Return To Hogwarts” special have since admitted to the error.
“Well spotted Harry Potter fans!” they said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly on Sunday. “You brought an editing mistake of a mislabeled photograph to our attention. New version up shortly.”
Neither Emma has commented on the photo error. Besides both actors logging time on screen as teen witches — Roberts cast many a spell on “American Horror Story” — and being around the same age, there is little overlap between the two.
There was actually another blunder in the reunion that the producers seemingly have yet to address.
During an interview segment with Oliver and James Phelps, who played Fred and George Weasley in the films, the twin actors’ names were mislabeled.
“I guess after all those pranks over the years somebody decided to get their revenge 🤨🤣🤷,” Oliver Phelps wrote on Instagram alongside a screenshot. “It was fantastic to be part of the HP reunion. Hope you all enjoyed it.”
One of the biggest revelations to come out of the special was that Watson actually considered dropping out midway through filming the “Harry Potter” series as the pressures of fame began to take their toll.
“I think I was scared,” she recalled to her costars about her desire to exit the franchise ahead of the fifth film. “I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point when you were like, ‘This is kind of forever now.’”
Watson, of course, ultimately decided to stick with the franchise.
“No one had to convince me to see it through,” she said. “The fans genuinely wanted us to succeed, and we all genuinely had each other’s backs. How great is that?”
“Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts” is now streaming on HBO Max.