Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: Special Events & Changing Exhibits

I mentioned in my last post about the Afternoon Tea experience at the Harry Potter/Warner Bros Studio Tour London that I’ve been at least six times… what I didn’t mention is that also included two visits in eight days 🫣.

Yes, I went the week before the Afternoon Tea for a Twilight Tour. You might be thinking, “Shae, seriously, how different could it have been?” The answer may surprise you.

Warner Bros Studio Tour London is already filled to the brim with more Harry Potter costumes, props, sets, facts, videos, interactors (the employees), snacks, gift stores and experiences than you can enjoy in one visit, just from a baseline about the making of the movies. But for the last few years, they’ve started focusing on a new movie each year, with specialty props, costumes, experiences, and even artistic displays that bring iconic moments to life. They’re also adding various extra experiences like the Afternoon Tea and Twilight Tours. AND they’re adding seasonal changes like Dark Arts for the fall and Hogwarts in the Snow for winter.

When you take all that into account, it can be a VERY different experience each time you visit if you go a few times a year or even year to year. Even while checking for links for this post I’ve noticed NOX and now I’m having serious FOMO. So, let me tell you a little about the three other experiences (in addition to the Afternoon Tea) I had while at the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour London during my two most recent visits.

Twilight Tour

The primary reason for two visits in a week was that Stephen booked a girls trip for a belated birthday gift for me with my UK bestie, Stef. She wasn’t easily available until mid-September, but the Goblet of Fire (Book and Movie #4) is my favorite book and the summer special display for it ended September 8th. We tried to see if we could make the visit work so we could do both Goblet of Fire AND the girls weekend with Afternoon Tea in one visit, but it just wasn’t possible. So Stephen offered to drive with me down to London to see the Goblet of Fire exhibits before the 8th.

When looking for tickets, I noticed that there was something called a Twilight Tour. Now, when you’ve been as often as I have you really notice when there’s something special or different to make your visit new and exciting. Frankly, I’m a big enough fan that I happily go and take pictures of the same things every time too (you don’t want to see how many of the same pictures I take visit to visit). But, something new is always welcome.

The Twilight Tour is described as “a 20 minute drinks reception in the Great Hall, a partially guided tour and then you’re free to see the rest of the exhibits on your own.” I loved the idea of getting more time in the Great Hall with fewer people. It’s at the start of your tour, but it’s limited in the time you get there for photos and fun and we’re not in a position financially to have Dinner in the Great Hall since tickets would be £275 per person (~$370pp).

I was also excited about the idea of a guided tour. I learned early on that if you talk to the interactors, you learn all kinds of behind the scenes info AND very occasionally they have fun little giveaways to bestow on super fans. In addition to all of this new stuff, it was still Goblet of Fire time, so I was going to be able to see a bunch of behind the scenes stuff from that film. Needless to say, I turned up ready, with my Goblet of Fire purse, to enjoy every second for my 7pm tour. I would have until the tour closed at 10pm to see anything extra.

You may be wondering why Stephen drove me down but didn’t come with me on the tour. I could either have him join me, or spend the second ticket amount on The Twilight Tour since it’s £99 per person (~$133) rather than the traditional studio tour price of £56 (~$75). Stephen is supportive of my love of of Harry Potter, but doesn’t feel the need to revisit the studio tour as often as I like to and since he was “just” there in 2022, he wasn’t that bothered. So I decided on the more expensive option to enjoy the full experience by myself and met up with him and Truffles at the hotel later.

The time in the Great Hall was fantasic. Not only were there fewer people, it included a drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic sparkling wine) and they had a display of the chocolate feast from the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire. Hannah gave a short talk about it and we saw some special effects of Mad Eye Moody turning up in the Great Hall. The entire team associated with the Twilight Tours were fantastic, but I do have to give a special shout-out to Hannah and to my tour guide, Kieran. They were both kind, fun and full of knowledge, as well as being willing to answer questions and indulge a super fan like myself.

I was so impressed by the part of the tour experience that was guided by Kieran. He shared all kinds of facts that I never knew – and that’s saying something. From wigs, to the seven layers of green of Voldemort’s costume that gets progressively fewer layers throughout the last two films (IYKYK), to green screen legs on the staircases, why the red curtains in Gryffindor’s Common Room were originally purple and so much more.

One thing I took away from the guided part of the tour was how much the Producers, Props, Costumes, etc. all tried to spread the money out for the films to businesses all across London, not just by having a completely British cast. At the end of the tour, Kieran sought me out to tell me a few more fun facts about the Forbidden Forest before I set off. I was so grateful for that extra initiative on his part. It made my experience an 11 out of 10 stars, or at the very least 9 3/4!

I spent the remaining two hours checking out all of the remaining exhibits, finding out how I could get warm butterbeer (similar to what’s on offer at Universal Studios during the winter season), learning the secrets of the underwater task – did you know that Daniel Radcliffe spent something like 41 hours in the water for that!? – and so much more.

I even found a shirt I’ve been searching for for years. It’s a SUN-ACTIVATED version of the Marauder’s Map. When you go into the sun, footprints turn up throughout the map. I had one years and years ago and outgrew it (I wish I could say I outgrew it because I got taller but alas), and I’ve only ever been able to find it as a youth size. But this time – success! So I have my favorite shirt once again in addition to all the other fun I had!

Goblet of Fire Summer Special Exhibition

Having come for the Prisoner of Azkaban Summer Special Exhibition last year – it’s my favorite of the movies – I knew to expect cool things, but they’ve added live dancers to the mix who come out every half hour or so to bring the movement and moments of the films to life. Watching the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students enter, do an exhibition, and then come together on stage was a really neat effect. I hope by the time Prisoner of Azkaban comes back around again they’ll have live Dementors!

Here are a few other fun things from the Goblet of Fire Summer Special Exhibition for you to check out.

Dark Arts Special Exhibition

As we know, the Dark Arts are synonymous with Death Eaters and Dementors.

Speaking of Dementors – THEY HAVE TAILS!! What!??? I KNOW! Crazy! We saw them in the Forbidden Forest during the Dark Arts Special Exhibition. Excitedly, by going for Afternoon Tea when we did, we were there for the new exhibition the first week it premiered this year. There was a special Dementor talk in the Forbidden Forest and we spotted the tail sticking out of the Dementor’s cloak.

We went back to ask the interactor (I wish I could remember her name now) and she said they did indeed have tails. The design of the Dementor is supposed to make it seem like it “swims” in the air. By giving it a tail similar to a shark, it would add to the menacing nature of that swimming effect.

Another delightful interactor, who can’t go unmentioned, is Katie. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her here over the last year or two, she was very familiar and really knew her stuff.

We got chatting to her after Colin (another interactor) came to her with our question, seeking her expert knowledge. We told her we were excited to see the demonstration and she encouraged us to invite others to join in on the fun. I don’t think she knew that Stef and I would take this job VERY seriously. We rounded up at least 20 guests to participate. At the end we celebrated with Katie what a fun and successful display that was and she kindly gave us a little treat for helping her out – it was a letter replica. It’s possible I may have passed mine on to another young fan on her first visit since I already have one from my first visit years ago – it has pride of place in my wall display from years of Harry Potter Wizarding World adventures. You gotta spread the magic to the next generation!

Here’s a few of the other amazing things we experienced during Dark Arts at Warner Bros Studio Tour London.

I always enjoy my time at Warner Bros Studio Tour London and recommend it for any Harry Potter fan – even if you’re only marginally interested – because it all really does come to life there. Just as a reminder, we here at NHJR love Harry Potter and the whole Wizarding World, but we don’t agree with the transphobic views expressed by JK Rowling.

Are you interested in coming to see a bunch of cool Harry Potter sites in the UK and want to hang with me? Did you know I have another travel company called Page Turner Tours where we offer 1-10+ day Magical Memories tours? Come book your adventure with me today!