Harry Potter's Not Opening, and They're Not Over It

Thu., Nov. 20, 2008 10:02 PM PST by Joal Ryan

Warner Bros

The fan petitions are still growing. The movie is still not coming out.

Friday was supposed to be the day Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opened. Instead, over the summer, Warner Bros. rescheduled the franchise's latest adventure for next July, a move that caused a fan upset that hasn't entirely settled.

"I think most fans are disappointed more than angry, and definitely skeptical of the real motive behind the delay," said Sara Greer, editor of the Harry Potter fan site MuggleNet.

A fan identifying herself as Jen Stewart said in an email she felt the studio was "pandering" when it pointed out the reschedule—attributed, in part, to fallout from the writers' strike—meant a shorter wait between Half-Blood Prince and the first part of the two-part finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

"I don't know about everyone but I am still just as upset as I was over the summer," Stewart said.

Interestingly, the recent release of the new Half-Blood Prince trailer doesn't seem to have appeased the most seriously aggrieved. Dozens and dozens of new names are still being added to one popular online petition that's more sounding board than call to action.

"Ahhh. I can't wait until next year! I want it this year," one signer wrote Thursday.

The post's emoticon tag—:(—left no doubt as to how badly the signer wanted it.

Greer even compared the new trailer to a "bit of torture."

"The new trailer was a treat, sure, it just made a lot of us more impatient to see the film," she said in an email. "Especially since all the Twilight fans will get their fangirl on instead!"

Ah, yes, Twilight...

In one more painful twist, the Half-Blood Prince trailer is attached to prints of Twilight, the based-on-a-best-seller movie that is opening Friday because Half-Blood Prince isn't. (Originally, Twilight was going to hit theaters in December.)

"A former MuggleNet editor commented she was probably going to see Twilight just for the new trailer in all its big-screen glory," Greer said. "I think I'll just reread the books and wait for summer."

At least her emoticon tag—;)—was upbeat.