As Albus Dumbledore said, it does not do well to dwell on dreams, but that hasn’t stopped Harry Potter fans from praying for a movie reboot.

Since the eight-movie series wrapped up in July 2011, speculation about a future relaunch of the beloved films has never really stopped. It also seemed like fans might get their wish in January 2021 when reports circulated that HBO Max was developing a live-action TV series based on the books by J.K. Rowling, but the network later denied that any such project was in the works.

In November 2021, however, HBO Max announced a reunion special featuring original stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and many others. Titled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, the special became available for streaming in January 2022.

Though the original cast have mixed feelings on the ideas of a reboot, many of the actors remain close to one another, sharing photos of occasional reunions via social media. “I was just actually recently shooting a project with James and Oliver [Phelps], like, a couple of weeks ago in Iceland, and it was just so lovely to be back with them,” Wright exclusively told Us Weekly in September 2021, referring to the real-life brothers who played Fred and George Weasley. “On top of just being an older kind of Hogwarts family, I had this literal family onscreen, which I felt so happy to be a part of.”

In November 2019, Wright reunited with Watson, Felton, Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), sending Harry Potter fans all over the world into a frenzy. “Season’s greetings from my school mates,” Felton wrote via Instagram at the time, sharing two photos of the group posing together in their holiday finest. “@mattdavelewis & I mid debate x #gryfindorVSslytherin.”

While a remake of the original eight films seems like a distant possibility, the larger Wizarding World is just getting started. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third film in the spinoff series that began in 2016, is finally set to premiere in April 2022 after the coronavirus pandemic delayed shooting. Hogwarts Legacy, a highly anticipated video game set at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1800s, is also due out in 2022.

During a 2016 documentary, Radcliffe reflected on the movies’ enduring popularity with young and old fans alike. “The time in most people’s lives when they discovered it meant that it has an incredibly important place in a lot of people’s childhoods, and they still feel very protective over it,” he explained, adding that he enjoys the fact that the films have become a favorite hangover cure for fans of a certain age.

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“One of my favorite fates that we could never have ever imagined for the Harry Potter films, but that I have been told by several friends, is that they are fantastic when people are hungover and feeling really crappy about themselves,” the Swiss Army Man actor said. “They will just watch a few movies back to back and it just takes them to a place of warmth and comfort. That is so lovely to me. That is the real-world effect that a film can have on someone’s life. I think that is great.”

Keep scrolling to see what the Harry Potter cast have said about their thoughts on rebooting the franchise:

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