Is The Cursed Child Canon? Not According to Harry Potter Fans, It Isn't

There's no denying that the Harry Potter series remains one of the most popular and beloved books for teens, even though the last book in the cycle was published well over a decade ago. Despite this, the franchise is still evolving, with the Fantastic Beasts movies and news of an upcoming HBO reboot of the saga keeping fans' attention even in 2023. Still, it looks like at least one installment of the story is really hated by fans - Cursed Child.

A play featuring older versions of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco premiered in the West End in 2016, earning J.K. Rowling millions in ticket sales. However, the so-called 8th installment of the Harry Potter saga managed to really piss off fans, and here's why.

Not Canon

As we all know, Harry Potter fans are very concerned about canon, and even accuse the movies of deviating from Rowling's original story. That's why Cursed Child proved to be such a divisive project for many fans, as the author herself broke canon in one of the play's most important storylines.

One of the main heroes of the play is Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, who decide to travel back in time with the help of the Time-Turner. However, this object behaves very differently in the game than it did in the books.

In the original story, the Time-Turner can help you travel back in time, but it only allows you to relive the events of the past, not to change or alter them.

So it was quite confusing to see how Albus and Scorpius were able to change the past so much that they found themselves in a world where Lord Voldemort ruled England and Harry was killed during the Battle of Hogwarts.

And although Rowling tried to salvage the situation by introducing alternate realities into the story, fans did not buy it and considered Cursed Child to be mere fanfiction, not a canonical story.

That's why we'll never see Cursed Child as a movie, because the fans just don't want it.