Harry Potter fans are devastated over the news Emma Watson has retired from acting

According to reports, Emma Watson’s publicist has come up with a new term for an actor who’s decided to step out of the limelight. Like an orchid resisting the impulse to flower, Watson has “gone dormant” and "is not taking new commitments." To us, it sounds as though the concept of “retiring” has undergone a rebrand.

Watson became a household name when she appeared in the first of eight Harry Potter films in 2001, so arguments that, at just 30 years-old, Watson is too young to retire don’t really apply to a woman who’s been working since she was nine years old. Most recently, she starred in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women, playing Meg, the eldest March sister. In between those two iconic roles, Watson added new films to her CV at an average of one a year, playing Belle in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast and Sam in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.

Still, it’s the role of Hermione Granger that made people fall (and stay) in love with Watson — as evidenced by the outcry on social media this morning as fans thanked the star for the films they loved so much. 

Others, however, are in deep denial about the possibility of a Hollywood without Emma Watson.

Watson has made a go at a “normal” life before, heading to  Brown University to get a college degree in 2009. Before completing her studies, however, she chose to return to acting, though refuted stories that she quit over bullying and instead shared that she’d been in denial. ”I wanted to pretend I wasn’t as famous as I was. I was trying to seek out normality, but I kind of have to accept who I am, the position I’m in and what happened.”

The woman who gave us the original Hermione Granger is currently living in Los Angeles after a stint in Ibiza with her partner Leo Robinton, a cannabis entrepreneur. 

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