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[00:00.80]This is What's Trending Today.
[00:04.32]Fans of the "Harry Potter" books and movies
[00:07.40]got to know actor Emma Watson,
[00:09.76]who played the character Hermione.
[00:13.04]But a new stage play has cast British actress
[00:18.52]Noma Dumezweni as Harry's friend, Hermione.
[00:23.76]Dumezweni is black, and her family is from Swaziland in Africa.
[00:30.92]Dumezweni has an impressive list of credits in theater, film and television.
[00:37.80]She won a major award for a role in "A Raisin in the Sun"
[00:43.44]and performed in a number of Shakespearean roles.
[00:47.16]You can see her work in these videos,
[00:50.12]where she reads sonnets, or poems, by Shakespeare.
[00:55.16]Dumezweni will appear in a London play
[00:58.36]called "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child"
[01:00.92]that follows the famous characters 19 years after the books ended.
[01:06.60]All the actors playing Harry, Ron Weasley and Hermione are adults.
[01:13.04]It is scheduled to open next July.
[01:15.84]The name Hermione appeared over 225,000 times on Twitter on Monday.
[01:23.28]Dumezweni was endorsed by J.K. Rowling, the creator of the series.
[01:27.96]"White skin was never specified," Rowling replied to a tweet on Twitter.
[01:33.96]That reply was re-tweeted over 50,000 times.
[01:37.72]People lined up all week just to see, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
[01:42.72]The film set a box-office record for a new movie over the weekend.
[01:47.36]Star Wars sold almost $250-million in tickets since it opened Thursday night,
[01:53.20]beating the record set over the summer by "Jurassic World."
[01:57.24]Around the world, the movie set a record with $529 million in ticket sales.
[02:03.88]It is an impressive number, considering the film does not open in China until January.
[02:09.40]The Chinese market added $90 million to "Jurassic World's" sales,
[02:13.84]and "Star Wars" should reach at least that number.
[02:17.16]One media analyst called the opening
[02:19.68]"the Super Bowl, the World Series and the Kentucky Derby
[02:24.04]all rolled into one perfectly realized movie event."
[02:28.88]Most fans and reviewers were happy with the film,
[02:32.04]giving it a 94 percent "fresh" score on the website RottenTomatoes.com.
[02:38.24]Even Hillary Clinton got in on the Star Wars frenzy.
[02:41.40]At the debate among Democratic presidential candidates Saturday,
[02:45.88]she ended with "may the force be with you."
[02:49.56]That is possibly the most famous line from all the Star Wars movies.
[02:54.48]And that's What's Trending.
[02:56.67]I'm Dan Friedell.