J.K. Rowling says she's had second thoughts about one of the 'Harry Potter' romances
In an interview conducted by 'Potter' actress Emma Watson, Rowling said she's wondered whether she should have paired two of the characters, Ron and Hermione, romantically.
The 'Harry Potter' film series stars Rupert Grint (l.), Emma Watson (center), and Daniel Radcliffe (r.).
Reuters
Some “Harry Potter” fans were pleased with the ending of the series in which some of the characters ended up married with children.
(Spoilers for the “Potter” books follow…)
But in a recent interview, “Potter” author J.K. Rowling told actress Emma Watson, who portrayed bookish Hermione Granger in the movies, that she’s had second thoughts about the ending she wrote in which Hermione and Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley got married.
“I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment,” Rowling told Watson in an interview for Wonderland magazine, which Watson was guest-editing. “That’s how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron.”
The author said she hoped she wasn’t offending fans by admitting that.
“I know, I’m sorry,” Rowling said. “I can hear the rage and fury it might cause some fans, but if I’m absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility. Am I breaking people’s hearts by saying this? I hope not.”
Watson herself seemed to agree with the writer.
“I think there are fans out there who know that too and who wonder whether Ron would have really been able to make her happy,” she told Rowling.
According to the Sunday Times, Rowling and Watson both agree during the interview that Hermione being paired romantically with Harry himself might have been a better fit.
What will fans’ reaction be to the interview? It seems, oddly enough, like everyone can be happy now. Those who wanted Harry and Hermione together romantically or never liked Ron and Hermione being paired can feel vindicated, but those who liked the original romance still have the solace of the book and movie series.