Matalas is the showrunner of 12 Monkeys, a huge Back to the Future fan, and friend of Back to the Future co-writer Bob Gale. In a recent interview with Jill Pantozzi of The Nerdy Bird, Terry Matalas told the story of Rowling’s strange encounter with the Time Train. Rowling was there to save it-and she didn’t even have to travel through time, Marty McFly-style, to do it. The classic movie prop has long held a place of honor at Universal Studios next to its time-traveling predecessor, the DeLorean, but it turns out that the Time Train almost met a tragic fate. If you’ve gazed in awe at the glorious time-traveling locomotive from Back to the Future Part III (1990) at Universal Studios in Florida recently, you might have J.K.