Rowling

The Hogwarts Express has arrived in Perris, Calif.

The Southern California Railway Museum has temporarily turned into Platform 9 3⁄4 to host “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.” The one-hour theater performance takes place on a moving train and features singalongs, spellcasting and House cheers. Tickets cost between $72.25 and $93.25 per passenger.

The experience is the first of its kind in the United States, said Jarrette Ireland, vice president and general manager of Colorado-based Rail Events Inc., and Kathleen Wallis, vice president of global themed entertainment at New York-based Warner Bros. Discovery.

As of July 23, the experience sold just under 11,000 tickets in pre-sales.

The train event commences as the Harry Potter franchise’s author, J.K. Rowling, continues to draw criticism for her opposition toward transgender women. She has long been criticized for transphobic commentary on X and for funding organizations that fight to exclude trans women from public life.

In Perris, local LGBTQ+ activists urge for a boycott. Ashley Williamson, lead director of R.I.S.E. Perris Pride, said that financially supporting the experience — and anything to do with a Harry Potter trademark — funnels money to Rowling, who puts that wealth toward initiatives targeting trans rights.

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1. The cast performs with magic wands in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.” 2. A passenger holds a Platform 9 3/4 ticket. 3. The Hogwarts Express conductor performs in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.” (David Fouts / For The Times)

“What’s really terrifying is that influence. It’s already being felt in the United States,” Williamson said. “There’s a trans genocide happening. It’s very serious.”

Williamson, who is nonbinary and identifies under the trans umbrella, said it is “already very scary being openly queer in Perris,” where the Harry Potter experience is hosted. She, her children and other queer and trans folks in their circle have experienced hateful slurs, home vandalism and other queerphobic prejudice.

Asking the public not to purchase anything Harry Potter related, they said, is “the most we feel that we can do for our community.”

Responding to general concerns about Rowling, Wallis said, “We feel privileged to create these experiences for the fans who love the stories, and there’s a very deep fandom out there. A lot of these kids, my own included, grew up with these movies and stories, and they love to experience them in new ways.”

Warner Bros. Discovery did not respond to a request for comment about local advocacy at the time of publication.

Ireland said Rail Events “is really proud to welcome all guests to a great experience” and later clarified that it doesn’t have “a personal connection” to Rowling.

But Warner does. For instance, its new Harry Potter television series will air this Christmas.

There was no mention of Rowling during a recent preview of the train experience, which is geared toward children. Passengers travel through “Platform 9¾” and board the train, where four Hogwarts students belonging to each House greet them.

A cast member carries Fred Weasley’s Basic Blaze Box.

Passengers watch the performance in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.”

“Are you a Hufflepuff?” one of the Hogwarts students asked a visitor.

For those unfamiliar with the Harry Potter universe, each House embodies a trait: courage for Gryffindor, loyalty for Hufflepuff, wisdom for Ravenclaw and ambition for Slytherin.

When the train takes off, the students make these personality differences known. The Gryffindor and Slytherin maintain a traditional rivalry, the Ravenclaw nerds out about magical history and the Hufflepuff attempts to mediate them all.

To successfully complete their journey, each student must embody a virtue that belongs to a different House. The Gryffindor must hone wisdom, the Hufflepuff courage, the Ravenclaw ambition and the Slytherin loyalty.

Throughout the ride, the students put their new traits to the test: confronting a hippogriff blocking the tracks, capturing runaway chocolate frogs and facing off a soul-sucking dementor. By the end of the journey, they overcome their House stereotypes and learn they aren’t so different from one another after all.

A dementor puppet moves through the train in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.”

According to the experience’s website, the train travels along a route through the neighborhoods of Perris and starts and ends at the same place. When visitors disembark the train, they head to an area inspired by Hogsmeade, a village that sits outside Hogwarts. Here, they can purchase themed drinks, food and merchandise.

Navigating the logistics of “putting theater tech into a train” was a “real adventure,” Ireland said. Inside, TV screens replaced the overhead luggage compartments, and a strip of lights lined the carriages’ walls from front to back. Gray shades embellished with a circular “Hogwarts Express” logo covered all the windows, so visitors can’t see outside.

These elements aided the storytelling. The TVs played scenes from the Harry Potter films and helped suspend disbelief where magical creatures were involved, and the lighting system aided in spellcasting.

Streaks of light fly down the carriage in one dueling scene, and in the show’s climax, the lights go dark when a dementor — played by a hooded actor puppeteering the creature strapped to their torso — floats down the aisle.

It was the Hufflepuff who, with the help of passengers, vanquished the dementor.

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1. The cast showcases floating feathers after performing a levitation spell. 2. A cast member carries a box of chocolate frogs through the train.

“Everyone, repeat after me!” the Hufflepuff called, wand pointed at the creature. “Expecto Patronum!”

As passengers chanted the incantation together, white light flashed through the carriage, and music swelled from the speakers. Defeated, the dementor drifted down the aisle and out of sight.

The experience will run at the Southern California Railway Museum through Sept. 27.

Ireland said future stops will be announced in the fall, with plans to expand throughout North America and, ultimately, to the United Kingdom.

A pivotal moment early in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” arrives when Harry’s suburban house is swarmed and flooded with letters of acceptance for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry’s aunt and uncle have been preventing such dispatches from reaching the young wizard-to-be, but the boarding school’s messenger owls are having none of it.

Letters flood in from the fireplace, windows and nearly seem to cause the house to burst. And while watching the film recently at Inglewood’s Cosm, home to an all-encompassing high-definition spherical screen, I half expected a letter to fall upon my lap. Cosm specializes in sports, but has released three collaborations with Warner Bros. for what it deems “experiential film.” A framed screen displaying the original 2001 work from director Chris Columbus is untouched, but surrounding it are newly added digital animations designed to envelop guests.

And in this early “Sorcerer’s Stone” scene, letters were a-flying any which way I looked. Up, down, left and right — mail missives were rocketing toward the center screen. As the world closed in on Daniel Radcliffe’s Potter and family, it did so, too, at Cosm. I’ve seen Cosm’s take on “The Matrix” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” so I knew a letter wouldn’t come zapping my way, but one could be forgiven for protecting their cocktail — themed, of course — from being knocked over.

The famed “sorting hat” scene at Cosm’s interpretation of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

(Cosm)

Such is the power of Cosm’s curved screen, which brings a sense of dimension, and even at times movement, to the film. Think of Cosm, perhaps, as a mini version of Las Vegas’ Sphere, but smaller doesn’t mean any less sweeping. No, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in Cosm’s hands is often quite grand, as the first glimpse of Hogwarts Castle inspired cheers from the opening night audience, its cliffside towers, a romanticized spin on medieval architecture, towering above us in such a way that we will crane our necks. Only in Universal’s theme parks does the palace seem more real and welcoming.

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” arrives at Cosm during what is a big year for the franchise. It’s the 25th anniversary, of course, of the first film in the series, and later this year on Christmas Day a new television series based on author J.K. Rowling’s popular book series is set to premiere on HBO Max. This summer, Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure will open at the Southern California Railway Museum for guests to experience the Wizarding World rite of passage aboard a real moving train in the Inland Empire.

All of this activity is happening as Rowling has become the center of heated debate for her controversial views on trans women. None of it, however, has seemed to curtail fan interest in the series. The 2023 video game “Hogwarts Legacy” became a massive hit despite calls for a boycott, and Universal Studios last year opened in Florida a brand new theme park land based upon the franchise at its Epic Universe park, with its centerpiece ride, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, often commanding some of the longest waits at the park.

At the film’s early May premiere at Cosm, Rowling was mentioned little, and wasn’t among the massive list of names being thanked by studio and Cosm execs. “Harry Potter” in 2026 is perhaps best viewed as a franchise that has outgrown its creator to take on a life of its own, and Cosm’s approach is that of a love letter to its many fans, recognizing that this is a magical, enchanting world that generations have long wished to find themselves immersed in.

A climatic scene in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” is outfitted with additional effects at Cosm.

(Cosm)

To that end, I’d rank “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” as the most successful of Cosm’s three cinematic interpretations. Certainly the subject matter plays a role, and while Cosm has been successful in matching the high-energy of “The Matrix” or the trippiness of “Willy Wonka,” here Cosm and its partners — experiential firm Little Cinema and effects house MakeMake — can simply luxuriate in atmosphere. The train to Hogwarts, for instance, is especially well done, seemingly stretched to infinity. The famed “sorting hat” scene, too, as Cosm’s wizards contrast the internal anxiety of being assigned a role with the external one of doing so in front of an audience, bringing to exaggerated life the cavernous Hogwarts assembly hall.

Cosm works best when it’s able to use its venue to create the illusion of no longer being a spectator, when the space itself starts to feel like a living theater. Feel this, for instance, when Harry and pals traverse the moving staircase. The frame of the screen may move, creating a slight sense of disorientation as the stairs themselves shift. The portraits on the wall, whose characters occasionally come alive, start to envelop us. Cosm used some restraint here, keeping us guessing as to which framed pictures may seek to speak or nod our way.

If there’s any qualm in Cosm’s work it’s that at times there could be a tinge more self-control in order to let the film do its work. Stepping into the hidden magic nook of London’s Diagon Alley is a showcase moment in Columbus’ film, and at times it is in Cosm’s interpretation as well. Out on the street, the shops circle around us, further conveying the cramped nature of the neighborhood. It feels, more than ever, like a real-life space. Inside an intimate pub, however, filling out the scene with empty tables could distract from the hurried, nervous nature of the filmmaker’s original intent.

But we live in an immersive age. Art, increasingly, is maximized to encompass us, and Cosm understands this moment well. Once again, the venue has made the argument that cinema can feel like communal, live entertainment.