The Harry Potter 20th anniversary reunion special, Return to Hogwarts, hit HBO Max on Jan. 1st, and it reduced Potterheads everywhere to emotional wrecks. The nostalgic look back at the making of the eight-part movie saga, featuring many of the franchise’s cast coming together for the first time since the series ended, proved to be extremely moving, as the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson opened up about how much the Wizarding World means to them.
But one specific moment in the reunion resulted in some unexpected laughs instead of tears. At one point in the special, Watson speaks about her love of the books when she was a young kid prior to her casting as Hermione Granger. For some visual aid, a photo of an infant Emma with Minnie Mouse ears is shown on-screen. Unfortunately, fans soon realized that this photo was of the wrong Emma. It’s Emma Roberts, not Emma Watson!
As pointed out by @vee_delmonico99 on Twitter, the photo comes from Roberts’ Instagram feed. Check out the proof below:
It’s kind of hilarious that this major gaffe not only ended up happening in the first place but then made it all the way through production until it was broadcast. Presumably, someone just googled “Emma Watson as a child” and the search engine offered up this Emma Roberts image instead. To be fair, the two Emmas aren’t the most dissimilar people in the world, so at first glance, it’s easy to mistake Roberts for Watson. Not that Harry Potter fans were fooled for long.
Luckily for HBO, streaming makes it easy to correct these kinds of errors, like the infamous Game of Thrones coffee cup or jeans guy in The Mandalorian, both of which were removed once the internet noticed them. It might not be long before an appropriate pic of Watson is added instead, then, even though it would be entertaining if HBO never does anything about it and Emma Roberts gets to have a tiny unexpected cameo in the special forever.
Catch Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts on HBO Max now.