J.K. Rowling read an excerpt from Peter Pan during the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.
The ceremony took place at the Olympic Stadium in London on 27 July 2012. Rowling appeared in a segment celebrating children’s literature and read from J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. The production also featured large representations of children’s literary villains, including Lord Voldemort, before performers playing Mary Poppins arrived.
Peter Pan was an especially fitting choice for a ceremony centered on British culture and storytelling. Barrie’s play and novel about the boy who refuses to grow up are closely associated with London, particularly through the setting of the Darling family’s home and the story’s imaginative connection to the city.
The reading was not an excerpt from Harry Potter. Rowling participated as a prominent British author, while the ceremony’s wider literary sequence brought together characters and themes from several generations of children’s fiction.