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Abstract
Fans are recognized for their passion concerning a beloved story and the culture they create surrounding the respective canon. True to this attribute, after experiencing the Cursed Child stage play, many Harry Potter fans are outraged over a story they found to be anomalous to the urtext as well as J. K. Rowling’s claim that this “eighth story” is canonical despite its significant inconsistencies and change in authorship. Rowling granted Jack Thorne writing privileges for the Cursed Child script, and Thorne’s script lacks the consistency necessary to be effective transmedia storytelling. As one of the enraged fans, I analyze in this thesis how Cursed Child is anomalous to the Harry Potter canon and I explore fans’ growing role in canon formation. I describe how the play retcons Rowling’s established rule systems and damages the cohesive story in the source material. Additionally, Rowling, who regularly engages with fans, has addressed seemingly no Cursed Child content which furthers dissonance between her and the fandom. In this thesis, I propose adopting a canon tier system that fans from different spheres of influence have already suggested. Historically, fans have the reputation as mere consumers or iii dedicated followers. However, through the emerging scholarly branch of fan studies, I learned the idea of fans as contributors is developing. Fans often understand the canon material incredibly well, as demonstrated by their extensive discussions and detailed theories, that they mirror scholarly work. Authors, fans, and producers have a reciprocal relationship, and therefore all parties should be involved in defining canon. While searching for how to rectify an anomalous canon, I discovered the deeper issue is the exclusion of fans in the conversation of canon.