HollywoodIdiocy.com

Worse than his showdown with the Half-Blood Prince or the Deathly Hallows, the biggest challenge facing Harry Potter is the publication this weekend of the final book in the seven-book series by J.K. Rowling. For the first five Harry Potter films adapted from the series, fans have had the mystery of not knowing how all their favorite characters will end up, in the end.

That ends this weekend. With the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, all guessing games come to an end. It will be there in print for everyone to read. Will Harry, Ron and Hermoinie live? Or die? Is Snape ultimately good, or is he in league with Valdemort?

All the answers - or at least, all the answers Potter fans are ever going to get - will be known just as soon as the fastest reader can skim through the book this weekend. Unless, of course, they are lazy journalists who’ll flip to the last chapter or so and write up a news story that spoils the fun for everyone.

While millions of readers may be locking themselves away from TV, radio and Internet from the moment they pick up the book until they finish reading the last page, Potter’s movie-goer fans are in for a much longer wait; isolation for the next 2-3 years is simply not a realistic option.

Imagine the horrors Warner Brothers is facing. Almost 2-3 years before they release the book version of Deathly Hallows on the world, wrapping up the acting stints of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint on the series, fans worldwide will know how the last film is to end.

Because of the finality of the seventh book, keeping a clamp on spoilers is a bigger concern than ever before. If, for example, Harry … or one of the other “big three” characters … does die, consider the impact such foreknowledge might have on the box office receipts of the last two films.

There will always be a core of Potter fans who will faithfully attend the final two movies; but what about the rest? Can the more casual fans keep up their enthusiasm if it becomes confirmed that Harry or someone else dies in the end?

It doesn’t take financial reporting software to figure out that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix might be the last “huge box office” outing for Harry, Hermoinie and Ron. If one of those big three die in the last book, the more casual Potter fans may skip Half-Blood Prince altogether, though they may return for the movie adaptation of the death of a major character (or two… or “more than two,” as Ms. Rowling is fond of saying).

That would mean a box office nightmare for Warner Brothers. Don’t be surprised to see some studio exec insist that the film version, “won’t have the same ending as the book.” Another Idiot move, that…

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Sometimes there is good news out of Hollywood. This is such an occasion. EOnline.com is reporting that Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have all signed on to reprise their roles of Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger for the last two movies of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the yet-to-be-published Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which marks a definitive end to the series.

Rumors abound that Deathly Hallows could feature the death of Harry himself, though that is entirely uncertain at this writing. While it would make the best literary resolution, Rowling has a generation of readers to consider and while she may give into the temptation to off Harry in much the same way Arthur Conan Doyle attempted to off Sherlock Holmes, it may all be part of the hype machine to build anticipation for the final book. Will Harry live or die? What better marketing gimmick could there be?

Of course, the media is sure to blow the whistle on how the series ends at first opportunity, and there is the movie franchise to consider; if the ending is revealed a couple years before the movie is released, and it proves unpopular, it could devastate box office receipts for the final films.

Personally, I’d rather not know what happens until I either read the book or walk into the theatre; but that’s not bloody likely. Trust Hollywood and the media to blow a good thing. But at least we know there won’t be any 11th-hour recasting of the principle leads in the film. At this point, if the cast were redone, combined with the ending of Deathly Hallows likely being revealed within a couple hours of the book’s July 2007 release, that would create the perfect storm to kill of the series.

With the way the page counts are increasing in each book released, it’s a good thing the series is ending at seven books, or future releases would become so weighty it would take a load of computer memory just to store it. However, whatever happens to Harry, Hermione and Ronald, at least it’ll happen to the cast audiences around the world have grown so fond of.

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