Quidditch, the real-life sport inspired by the airborne game played by young wizards in “Harry Potter,” is ditching its whimsical name. Now, athletes will mount broomsticks to play quadball.

US Quadball and Major League Quadball, the sports’ two governing bodies in North America, both announced the new name of “quadball” this week, which is set to go into effect this summer. The International Quidditch Association plans to adopt the new name, too, the organizations said.

There were two reasons for the name change, per the governing bodies: The sport wanted to separate itself from “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and her anti-transgender rhetoric. Also, neither organization owned the “quidditch” trademark. (Warner Bros., which owns the “quidditch” trademark, and CNN share parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Rowling has increasingly shared views that take aim at transgender people, particularly trans women. Her comments have alienated many of her fans and several of the actors who brought her stories to screen, including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who have both publicly supported trans people.

Both organizations denounced her positions, saying that the sport was “one of the most progressive sports in the world on gender equality,” referencing a rule that requires teams to have no more than four players of the same gender on the field at once.

And so, last December, the then-quidditch leaders decided to find a new name for the sport by surveying players. Options at the time included quadraball, quidball and the eventual winner, among others.

“This name change is a game changer for us, and we are looking to make the most of it,” Major League Quadball’s founders said in an open letter to players.

The sport formerly known as quidditch came to the Muggle world in 2005, when two Middlebury College students started playing it on their campus. The game is a mix of rugby and dodgeball, among others, and features hoops that players must hoist balls through. Players must be mounted on broomsticks throughout the game.

Since its founding, the sport has expanded to 40 countries and nearly 600 teams, according to the governing bodies.

The 2022 summer Harry Potter sets are now available for purchase, so let’s take a look at the next one on our review list. In the 76389 Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets from January, LEGO included smaller versions of locations that have already appeared in the modular Hogwarts series. In 76402 Hogwarts: Dumbledore’s Office, we see a more detailed version of a location that has appeared in smaller renditions since 2018. Is it worth the dedicated attention? How does it fit into the modular Hogwarts collection? Let’s dive in and take a look at this set, featuring 6 minifigures and 654 pieces, which is available now for US $79.99 | CAN $109.99 | UK £69.99.

This set is based on a license The LEGO Group has with the Warner Brothers films, not J.K. Rowling directly. The transphobic views expressed by Rowling do not reflect the values of The Brothers Brick or, indeed, those of The LEGO Group. The magical world Rowling created, in which many who felt a bit different could see themselves, meant a great deal to so many people, including those that Rowling now demeans. TBB affirms each individual LEGO fan’s choice to claim a piece of the world for themselves, or to reject it entirely.

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The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Contents and build

As usual, the back of the box highlights the play features of the set with some inset detail shots. Inside, we found one of the new cardboard envelopes protecting the instructions and sticker sheet. These are slowly replacing plastic sleeves and are quite welcome; they feel higher-end than the plastic wrapping as well. We also find 5 numbered bags and one large loose plate. We know we’re not alone in looking forward to paper parts bags making these content shots largely irrelevant, or at least much less full of glare!

Bag one starts with Dumbledore’s office with his desk, some very nice bookshelves, the sorting hat, and a perch for Fawkes – who is represented in the small just-reborn form here, with a welcome new red color of the small bird piece. Interestingly we’re not building from the bottom up, but starting in the middle. The bookshelves are one of the highlights of the building in this set, using a variety of pieces to represent different bindings and textures, several different colors, and several sideways techniques. The result is on par with Creator Expert builds and something worth re-using in your own creations.

The next floor has an alcove for the Pensieve. There isn’t much to say about the structure here – you can clip some turrets to the side to give it a bit of visual interest, and from the outside, it looks like a perfectly good tower section, but not notable for anything. The Pensieve itself uses one of the new opalescent blues, which is a very appropriate and lovely shimmery effect. It should be on the same level as the rest of Dumbledore’s office, but that would take a larger scale than the interior of these modular sections gets.

The top of the tower has a Hogwarts crest on the outside and holds the Sword of Gryffindor on the interior. This is another area that makes sense for exterior detail, but on the inside, should not be a separate floor. The Sword itself has appeared twice before – once with Griphook in the Collectible Minifigures, and again in last year’s 76389 Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets. It’s a great fantasy sword even if you already have one.

Lastly, we go down to the ground floor and build a section of the Hogwarts Library. The section is outfitted with desks, lamps, and of course, many books. The shelves are similar to the ones in Dumbledore’s office, but also incorporate a function to make two of the books levitate or fly out into the room when assemblies on the outside are pushed in. The pieces are disguised on the outside wall as a tree growing from or next to the wall; it’s a good thing that we already broadly accept that the interior and exterior of these modular sections are not connected, since otherwise, we’d really fear for the root damage occurring to the books! The function works reasonably well though it is a little fragile, especially where the books connect by a single clip.

And that’s it! When assembled per the instructions, the exterior makes a nice castle section. The lower two levels include side areas where minifigures can be posed, almost like a display stand.

The Minifigures

Harry and Hermione, with short legs given their ages in the Chamber of Secrets, are understandable but uninspired choices. All of the elements included here have appeared before; the exact Hermione minifigure is in 76387 Fluffy Encounter, and all that makes Harry unique is the Invisibility Cloak.

The Cloak is similar to the one that appeared in the Harry Potter Minifigures line but subtly different. In the photo below, the cloak in this set is on the left, and the previous version is on the right. The new one has a border which is quite attractive, though the borderless version might be closer to the source material. It’s tough to tell, though, given that the dang thing is, you know, invisible. The new one also feels a bit more substantial. It isn’t stiff like a starched minifigure cape, but the collectible minifigures cape does feel a bit flimsy by comparison. If you already have the older one there isn’t any must-have upgrade here, but it’s a very attractive accessory.

Next are three of the four included Hogwarts staff members. Snape has appeared before with these exact pieces and many similar variations. Dumbledore gets another unique print, gold details on an attractive dark red base. The star of the show, though, is the never previously seen in minifigure form Madame Pince, Madam Librarian (Maaariannnn!… oh, sorry, wrong movie). She has a lovely sand green print and a new hat + hair mold, with a square instead of a round brim.

Dumbledore minifigures often have lovely printing on the front of the torso that’s almost entirely obscured by his beard, and this one is no exception. Here’s a look at the unobstructed front of the figure, where you can see the design continued nicely between the torso and legs. There’s nothing that makes this only a Harry Potter print, and no flesh color of any sort, so it’s a versatile print to make your own wizard or otherwise elegantly robed characters.

Argus Filch is the final character and staff included, along with his beloved cat Mrs. Norris. Filch has appeared before but this version has all-new printing for the torso and legs, giving him a reddish-brown outfit; all of his previous outfits have been dark gray. The head also appears to be a new print. Mrs. Norris brings a new unique color and print to LEGO cats, which is sure to be popular well beyond Harry Potter fans. Between Mrs. Norris and Crookshanks in 76408 12 Grimmauld Place, the Harry Potter theme is doing feline fans a major service in providing diverse fur colors!

Finished Build and Recommendation

The impression of this set may come down to how you feel about books. I really enjoyed the bookcase construction and the variety of colors and textures. They’re relatively small parts of the overall model, but they left me with a good feeling about the build experience. And the overall build is nice. It’s perhaps generous to call it four stories, but it’s reasonably substantial, especially on the outside.

The instructions include an illustration of what you can do with many of the modular Hogwarts sections combined. The example looks great and makes good use of the modularity – the sets aren’t just stacked next to each other, but pieces are swapped around here and there to make an impressive whole. Below are some photos of this set combined with 76401 Hogwarts Courtyard: Sirius’s Rescue, the other modular section in this wave. The possibilities aren’t quite as broad with just these two sets, but it still shows the possibilities. Certainly, as an eight-year-old, I would have been all over mix-and-match towers to populate with all kinds of knights and wizards.

So it’s a nice set, but is it a good value? $80 for about 650 pieces, with six minifigures but only three of them being substantially new, and only one unique character, feels very expensive. Even 76403 The Ministry of Magic, which we found ultimately disappointing, seems better value for parts and figures, with 990 pieces and 10 largely unique minifigures for $100. There are some large pieces for the walls and roofs, but not a huge number. There are no large animals or other big specialized molds. Perhaps this is the new normal with recently announced price increases, but our recommendation is that you probably want to wait for a discount on this one.

76402 Hogwarts: Dumbledore’s Office contains 654 pieces and 6 minifigures. It is available  now from the LEGO Shop and worldwide for US $79.99 | CAN $109.99 | UK £69.99 or from Amazon. It may also be available from third-party sellers on eBay.

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The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Check out the gallery for even more images:

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(Pocket-lint) – Harry Potter fans rejoice! The reunion that you’ve been waiting for is actually happening: Return to Hogwarts sees Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson joining filmmaker Chris Columbus and cast members from across the Harry Potter films heading back to Hogwarts.

Similar to the Friends Reunion, you’ll be able to tune in, join the cast and relive some of the greatest moments from the Harry Potter movies.

Return to Hogwarts when can I watch it?

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts will be broadcast on 1 January 2022. That’s right, it will be shown on New Year’s Day, giving you some perfect viewing nostalgia.

In the US it was available at the stroke of midnight, and it’s also available in the UK now too.

How and where to watch Return to Hogwarts

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is on HBO Max in the US and it will be available to stream, as we said, from midnight on New Year’s Day.

In the UK, you’ll be able to watch Return to Hogwarts on Sky or through Now. It is available now on Sky Max.

This is basically the same arrangement as with the Friends show recently.

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Who will appear in Return to Hogwarts?

While most of the attention will be on Harry, Ron and Hermione (Radcliffe, Grint and Watson), we have a list of confirmed participants:

• Helena Bonham Carter – Bellatrix Lestrange
• Robbie Coltrane – Hagrid
• Ralph Fiennes – Lord Voldemort
• Jason Isaacs – Lucius Malfoy
• Gary Oldman – Sirius Black
• Imelda Staunton – Delores Umbridge
• Tom Felton – Draco Malfoy
• James Phelps – Fred Weasley
• Oliver Phelps – George Weasley
• Mark Williams – Arthur Weasley
• Bonnie Wright – Ginny Weasley
• Alfred Enoch – Dean Thomas
• Matthew Lewis – Neville Longbottom
• Evanna Lynch – Luna Lovegood
• Ian Hart – Professor Quirrell
• Toby Jones – Dobby (the voice of)

This isn’t as exhaustive list as we expect other characters will also appear. Producer David Heyman will also be joined by directors Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and David Yates in the show.

Is there a Hogwarts Reunion trailer?

Yes, there is both a teaser and a trailer. The teaser doesn’t reveal too much about what we’ll see in the Harry Potter reunion, but a tease did show some of the characters candidly receiving invitations to Hogwarts.

The trailer gives a much better look at what to expect and will certainly raise the pulse of any Harry Potter fan. You may even cry (along with the cast). But seriously, here we get to see some snippets of the conversation between our favourite characters and what looks like a spectacular Hogwarts setting for the reunion. It was actually filmed at the Warner Bros Studio Tour London – a must visit for any Harry Potter fan.

How can I catch up on the Harry Potter movies?

There are plenty of options for watching the films and Christmas is a great time to watch them, as Christmas plays a part in most of the movies, so there is something slightly festive about them.

You can catchup on the Harry Potter movies on HBO Max in the US and the entire collection will also be available on Sky, with a pop-up channel from 19 December including the two Fantastic Beasts movies too.

To brush up on the best order to watch the movies, check out our viewing order – including the latest addition, The Secrets of Dumbledore.

It’s only been a few days since Netflix started streaming The Gray Man, its most expensive film to date, but the company has already announced plans to turn it into a major franchise. A sequel is in the works with star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo returning. Netflix didn’t say when the follow-up is expected to arrive.

A spin-off from Zombieland and Deadpool screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese is in development too. Netflix says that movie will explore a different aspect of The Gray Man universe, but it’s keeping quiet on the details for now.

While critics by and large had a lukewarm reaction to The Gray Man, the film appears to be a hit with viewers. It has a 91 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It debuted as the number one movie on Netflix in 92 countries when it was released last Friday. By Sunday, viewers had collectively streamed 88.55 million hours of the movie, Netflix said.

Whether that apparent success translates into helping Netflix retain subscribers and attract new ones remains to be seen. The company lost almost a million subscribers last quarter, though the attrition wasn’t as bad as Netflix feared.

Netflix spent a reported $200 million to make The Gray Man. So, along with moves the company is making elsewhere, it’s not a huge shock that Netflix is turning it into a franchise. Sequels to other Netflix Blockbusters are in the pipeline, including follow-ups to Extraction and Army of the Dead. Netflix also snapped up the sequels to the terrific murder mystery film Knives Out.

In case it’s not clear, Netflix is very eager to build beloved franchises of its own. “We want to have our version of Star Wars or our version of Harry Potter, and we’re working very hard to build that,” the company’s vice president of original series Matthew Thunell told Reuters last week.

Netflix does have a few hit franchises already. A Stranger Things spin-off series and stage play are in development. The company has made a Korean version of La Casa de Papel and is working on a spin-off. It’s expanding Squid Game, Bridgerton and The Witcher beyond the core shows as well.

Update 7/26 3:43PM ET: Added first-weekend viewership figures for The Gray Man.

They needed an actor to play a younger version of Albus Dumbledore.

It sounds as if the folks making 2018’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” — the second Wizarding World adventure set decades before author J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” saga — didn’t exactly have to beg Jude Law to take on the role of the powerful wizard.

“I mean, it was kind of a no-brainer: ‘Would you like to play Albus Dumbledore?’ ‘Yes, I would,’” Law says during a virtual news conference for the follow-up to “Grindelwald,” “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” which lands in U.S. theaters this week. “I felt like I’d been in preparation, subconsciously, from the minute I started reading the (“Potter”) books to my children.

“Gosh, there’s just so much in the character to mine and to investigate as an actor — that’s before you even get into this extraordinary world of magic.”

“The Secrets of Dumbledore,” co-written by Rowling, continues the story launched with 2016’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” It features series mainstays Eddie Redmayne, as magizoologist Newt Scamander; Dan Fogler, as baker and Muggle Jacob Kowalski; Alison Sudol, as mindreader Queenie Goldstein; and Ezra Miller, as Credence Barebone, a powerful but disturbed wizard who was revealed in “Grindelwald” to be a member of the Dumbledore family.

(The movie also features Katherine Waterson, an Auror from America and Newt’s love interest, but only briefly. The actress did not take part in the news conference.)

It sees Mads Mikkelsen in the role of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, the actor taking over from the departed Johnny Depp. Grindelwald continues to build support in the magical world for a war against the Muggles, whom he finds quite distasteful.

Early on in the movie, viewers will begin to learn more about these “Secrets of Dumbledore,” starting with just how intertwined his past is with Grindelwald’s.

“I always imagined that being Dumbledore was always quite a lonely place, being that he was brilliant and outstanding at a very young age — to the point that he probably felt somewhat isolated,” Law says. “Then, suddenly, he meets someone who is as brilliant and matches him and inspires him, and that kind of connection is very, very, very powerful — more so when you’re at a young age.

“I think it’s important, then, to also remember what their time together would have been like — incredibly dynamic, incredibly cherished and special,” he continues. “And then this awful moment (arrives) where you realize you’re on a different path; you’re actually moving away from each other. But that doesn’t necessarily take away from the explosive kernel, the firework that went off initially.”

The Wizarding World last year celebrated its 20th anniversary — Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (titled “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in this country) was released in 2001 — and “Dumbledore” director David Yates now has been at the helm of the last seven films, dating to 2007’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

Yates says he values the ever-expanding collective of talented folks that has grown out of the continuing endeavor.

“When you make a movie, it’s a huge logistical enterprise, and it’s tough creatively, logistically, technically,” Yates says. “So going into that experience with people you respect and admire but who also can take the strain of it with some real dignity and some real humor is essential. And (those are) the qualities I’ve found in many of the people I’ve worked with in front of the camera and behind the camera.”

There’s a real sense of family, he says.

“We use that word quite a bit, but it’s important because that doesn’t (always) happen in our industry because it’s a tough business.”

Yates is then asked why, in his view, the movies are so enduring.

“They’ve become a safe place to go for lots of people,” he says. “They celebrate certain values — loyalty, love, friendship, empowering the outsider/the person you always underestimate — things that resonate for a lot of people in the real world, as they do in this magical space. It’s a beautiful thing to be part of stories that create a safe space for some people when they go to the movie theater to watch them. I’m very proud of that.”

“The Secrets of Dumbledore” reveals the magical sides to previously unseen locations, including a forest in China and Germany’s Ministry of Magic.

Says producer Tim Lewis, “One of the exciting things — certainly for the audience and certainly for us filmmakers — is we get to open up the magical world and go to completely new areas.”

However, he acknowledged the movie also returns fans to some favorite spots, none more beloved than the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Its future headmaster, Dumbledore is a professor there at the moment, as is Jessica Williams’ Charms Professor Eulalie “Lally” Hicks, a newcomer to the franchise.

“Oh yeah, I got chills,” she says of being on the Hogwarts set. “I started reading those books in the third grade, and a lot of those books hadn’t come out yet.”

She found being in the Great Hall especially meaningful.

“And then seeing the kids in their robes, their wizarding uniforms … I wanted to cry,” she says. “You know the sensation of wanting to squeeze something cute? I wanted to just squeeze a lot of the kids and just shake them.

“But then I realized I was an actor, and it’s a liability, so I didn’t squeeze the kids. But the sensation was there,” Williams adds. “It was totally a pinch-me moment, and it was really surreal.”

Returning to the subject of his portrayal of Dumbledore, Law is asked whether he needed to rewatch the “Harry Potter” movies to match up the portrayals of the character as an older wizard, first by Richard Harris and then by Michael Gambon.

“The major lure was to fill in gaps and go back and explore themes and sides of his character that were hinted at in the books and suggested in the films,” he says. “Yeah, any excuse to go back and rewatch — I was probably caught rewatching them over and over saying, ‘I’m doing research! I’m studying!’

“Honestly,” he continues, “It was kind of important, we felt, to free ourselves from the Dumbledore we knew because he wasn’t quite that man yet. But, at the same time, there were definite qualities that both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon gave the character that I wanted to steal, I suppose — the humor and the relish of life and impish behavior. Both of them have a sort of gravitas, a soulfulness, that I thought was really beautiful and complicated.”

Speaking of “complicated” things, Yates uses that word, with a laugh, to describe the plot of “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” and he says it took the filmmakers a while put all the pieces together.

“So with this story in particular, we wanted it not only to be emotional, but we wanted it to be enjoyable and for it to be a real treat — and for it to lean into the values of some of the earlier ‘Potter’ films that had whimsy and charm, humor and humanity.”

To that last quality, Yates recalls a private screening a few weeks earlier in which a single youth was among the select few in attendance.

“Everyone turned to him when the lights went out and said, ‘What do you think?’” Yates says. “And he looked at me, and he said, ‘I liked it. It’s really human.’ And I thought, ‘We’ll take that.’ We made a film with all this extraordinary stuff in it, and the one thing he takes away from it: ‘It’s really human.’ That’s a testament to the performances and the story and everything.”