harry potter cast writes essay

Ron Weasley Clears Up One Hilarious Rumor From The Set Of ‘Harry Potter’

Reporter, HuffPost

When Alfonso Cuarón signed on to direct “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” he had an unusual assignment for his young stars. The director charged each one with writing an essay on their character: Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger.

As the story goes, Watson, in true Hermione fashion, turned in 16 pages. Radcliffe turned in a solid one-page composition. And Grint, well, he didn’t do his.

To clear things up, The Huffington Post asked the redheaded actor if there was any truth to the story.

“Yeah. That is true, yeah,” Grint said, laughing.

Grint had a pretty good reason to shirk the assignment. As the oldest of the three ― then 15 ― he’d been preparing to take his General Certificate of Secondary Education exams, a series of standardized tests taken by British students at high school age. (Radcliffe and Watson were a year or two from the tests themselves.) Grint explained that he was too bogged down with his studies to give the assignment much thought.

“ It’s quite Ron-ish not to do it,” he added. “I think [Cuarón] kind of appreciated that.”

Smart but occasionally careless, with a fondness for snacks, Grint and his “Harry Potter” character may have more in common than he realizes.

When we asked about another Ron-ish story ― whether he’d kept the ice cream truck he bought as a teenager with a freshly minted driver’s license ― Grint responded in the affirmative.

“I’ll never get rid of it,” he said. But finding a place to park an ice cream truck has proven more trouble than not, considering its affect on pedestrians.

“They think, rightly, that you are a legitimate ice cream salesman. And they queue up and expect ice cream, which I don’t have.”

Since the “Harry Potter” film franchise wrapped up in 2011, Grint has moved on, staying largely out of conversations about the new “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” play set to debut July 30 in London, the upcoming prequel “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and fans’ discussions on the Internet.

When we spoke, he’d just learned about a popular theory on his character’s true identity ― fans know it as “Ronbledore.” According to the theory, Ron is actually a time-traveling Dumbledore , as evidenced by physical and temperamental similarities. (Grint needed to do more research before forming an opinion; J.K. Rowling, however, shot it down on Twitter .)

Although he’s stepped out of the “Potter” world, Grint continued to pursue acting, currently starring in a psychedelic space-race flick “Moonwalkers” alongside “Hellboy” star Ron Perlman. An offbeat story peppered with cartoonish violence, the film indulges conspiracy theorists’ ideas about NASA’s 1969 moon landing. Grint’s Johnny is an ungifted band manager looking to make some cash by conning his way into a CIA plot led by Agent Kidman (Perlman) to produce fake video footage of men on the moon with Stanley Kubrick.

Something of an armchair conspiracist himself, Grint was naturally attracted to the script, he explained. He considers the famous photo of a flag waving on the moon ― a windless surface ― particularly suspicious.

“ There was a period when I was quite obsessed with it. I’m quite decided that it definitely happened,” he said. “We did land on the moon.”

Nevertheless, filming made him think twice about that claim, seeing how closely the film set mirrored actual photos of the event.

“It seemed very easy to make a moon,” he observed.

With other non-“Potter” credits including limited-release comedies “ Wild Target ,” “ Postman Pat ,” “ Charlie Countryman ” ― not forgetting 2002′s flatulence-filled “ Thunderpants ” ― Grint seems to be leaning into a more lighthearted genre these days. But he thinks it’d be fun to work with his “Harry Potter” co-stars again in the future.

“ I loved working with them,” he said, “all those 10 years.”

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Harry Potter film review

Have you seen any of the Harry Potter films? Practise your reading in English with this film review.

Do the preparation exercise first. Then read the text and do the other exercises.

Preparation

Film review: the harry potter film series.

The Harry Potter film series is famous all over the world and is loved by children, teenagers and adults. It's based on the books by JK Rowling. The first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was released in 2001. The whole series consists of eight fantasy films. In each film the main character, Harry, is played by Daniel Radcliffe.

The story begins when 11-year-old orphan Harry discovers that his parents were wizards and he starts his education in magic at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There he makes two close friends, Ron and Hermione, who share his adventures.

Each film ends dramatically, often with a battle between Harry and his worst enemy, the evil wizard Lord Voldemort.

The characters

As well as Harry, Ron and Hermione, there's a huge variety of characters, including students, professors, dark wizards, ghosts and fantasy creatures. Non-magic people are called Muggles. The cast is excellent. The acting's outstanding, and even the strangest of characters are totally believable.

The setting

The films are mainly set in Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is in an ancient castle. There are moving staircases, portraits which can talk and move, and a dark forest where strange and dangerous creatures live.

The special effects

The special effects are amazing and make magic seem completely possible! The wizards' favourite sport, Quidditch, is played on broomsticks. Different techniques were used to create the effects that make the actors look as if they're flying.

Critic's opinion

The films are imaginative, funny, frightening and, of course, magical! What makes them so successful is that they combine action, fantasy and friendship.

If you like adventure and magic, you'll love the Harry Potter films!

Do you like the Harry Potter films? What other films do you like? Tell us about them!

I am a fan of Harry Potter. My favorite part is 6.

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Harry Potter is a great movie

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Harry Potter and the Adaptation from Novel to Film

Submitted by: Robyn Joffe

Harry Potter and the Adaptation from Novel to Film  

By Robyn Joffe

For as long as people have been making movies, people have been making movies based on books. Films have also been adapted from several other forms such as television shows, theatrical plays and even other movies. More recently, entire book series have been adapted, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the still in progress Harry Potter series . With six of the seven books written, and five films finished (four of them released), the Harry Potter franchise has a lot to offer scholars interested in the how-to's and the results of adapting books to film.

The Harry Potter films, which started with the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the year 2001, depict the events covered in the books in a more filmic fashion. The films bring Rowling's words to life; however, as is nearly always the case in adapting work of one form to another, the transitions can be less than smooth. As Deborah Cartmell, senior lecturer in English writes, "An adaptation is undeniably an appropriation of the text, and although the plot remains the same, the telling ’ or the interpreting of it ’ radically changes from one generation to the next." 1

From time constraints to a director's need for artistic expression to casting choices to how a film is promoted, the process of transforming a book to a film can be fraught with peril. Other such issues surrounding direction, characterization, pacing and chosen content (among others) can also contribute to a film's eventual success or failure. Though the resulting movie may in fact be a good film, the question that must be asked is whether it is a good film version of the book . Though most published academic works covering the adaptation of a book to a film focus on classic novels, such as those by Shakespeare or Jane Austen, adaptations are not made merely from acclaimed literary masterpieces. What the Harry Potter series lacks in academic acknowledgment, it more than makes up for in mass popular appeal.

For this reason, this essay will dissect the Harry Potter books and their resulting films, paying particular attention to what issues in the process of adaptation were most relevant to each, and see what, if any, perils were encountered in the making of them. In doing so, this essay will make use of both scholarly and amateur sources, because while authoritative texts are more often relied upon (and with good reason) in essays such as this, the opinions fueled by the unquestionable knowledge of the Harry Potter fan base (in regards to the content of both the books and films), are not necessarily any less valid than their more academically informed counterparts.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)

Graham Greene, one of the first major literary talents to show an interest in writing for films (and one who often adapted his own short stories) once described the screenwriter as "a ˜forgotten man' once the film went into production, since after that point other hands might make alterations to the screenplay." 2 In a much more recent book, the same sentiment was expressed: "Despite the excellent compensation, a Hollywood scriptwriter is a low man on the totem pole, and much of his work ’ sometimes all of his work ’ is not used." 3 However, for Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves, working with director Christopher Columbus was an experience in the opposite. In fact, Columbus described their collaboration ’ which went from script development through production ’ as "something of a dream situation' 4 and Kloves further explained that "Chris has been willing to listen to any idea, and he doesn't think it's right until we both agree it's right, which is great." 5

Columbus also went a step further in welcoming the continued involvement of not just the screenwriter ’ but the original novelist as well; "My desire was to remain faithful to the story, the characters and the integrity of those characters ... I realized that I had found a solid collaborator [in Rowling]. And it was important because she knows this world better than anyone else." 6

Producer David Heyman also noted that Rowling "has been given the freedom to exert perhaps more influence on the Potter films than is usual when a book is adapted for the screen." 7 This is no doubt due to the fact that the book series is not yet completed, or as Kloves himself put it; "It's the only time I've ever been involved in a story without an ending ... And you would think [Rowling] would tell me something [about it], since I am writing it. But she won't." 8 Along with script approval, author J.K. Rowling had one other demand: that the actors playing the British characters actually be British. Thus, casting began.

Casting a film that is being adapted from a book can often become very controversial, especially if fans get wind of which actors are being considered beforehand. Because many novels that are made into films are not illustrated, the reader has created a picture of each character in their mind, according to any descriptions from the book, and accepting an actor who may not entirely fit that description or picture is something that many fans find hard to do. On the other hand, it is not always only a matter of a fan being unable to let go of his/her own interpretation of a character. At times, the decision to cast a certain actor in a certain role can be questionable no matter how good they might be.

An example of this would be the casting of Alan Rickman in the role of Professor Severus Snape. Though Rickman is a very talented actor, he was also fifty-five years old when the first movie was released, whereas at the start of the series Snape is supposedly only thirty-two years old. 9 While one might think that the age difference does not matter so long as the appearance is appropriate, the difference ’ particularly as it's more than twenty years ’ has an effect on that as well. In the book, part of Harry's perception of Snape is that "his eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels." 10 Snape's youth, coupled with his demeanor, present a more tragic juxtaposition in the book than they do in the film because in the film that juxtaposition does not even exist. How can it when the embittered contempt that emanates from the character is easily understandable, rather than jarring, in the lined face of an older actor?

The choice to cast Rickman has also lead to another unforeseen side effect among Harry Potter fans: Lust.

The newfound Snapemania was sparked in part by the casting of actor Alan Rickman ’ well-established as "the thinking woman's sex symbol" ’ in the role. Rickman's feline movements and mellifluous voice give the Potions Master a sensuality absent from the page. And beyond the shoulder-length black wig and black contact lenses Rickman wears, no attempt is made to ugly him up. 11

This has even led to Rowling herself questioning whether those who profess their love of the character are talking about Snape, or Alan Rickman, and (as the same thing has occurred in the case of Harry's nemesis, Draco Malfoy) lamenting the humanizing effect that an attractive actor tends to have on the villainous characters he portrays; "Isn't this life, though? I make this hero ’ Harry, obviously ’ and there he is on screen ... but who does every girl under the age of fifteen fall in love with? Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy." 12

Aside from these and other slight deviations, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States 13 ), is remarkably faithful to its source text. In fact, BBC film reviewer Adrian Hennigan wrote that Columbus treated "J.K. Rowling's debut novel with a reverence that wasn't even accorded to the Bible." 14

However, not all deemed such devotion praise-worthy, and the film "was criticized by many as being too faithful to the book." 15 One summed the film up as "an adaptation which paradoxically undermines itself by aiming at a faithful replication of the source text' 16 while others merely declared that "a commitment to fidelity (in response to the perceived demands of readers/viewers) compromises the processes of adaptation." 17 However, on the other side of the spectrum, respected critic Roger Ebert wrote that the film had succeeded in doing "full justice to a story that was a daunting challenge ... During [the film] I was pretty sure I was watching a classic." 18

There are a couple of issues that help explain this broad range of reactions ’ aside from the obvious reality of people having different opinions. One of these issues is that this book and film are the first of a series, and so while the actual plot is one of mystery, it doesn't appear until rather late in the actual story ’ the time up to that point being taken up by Harry's introduction to (and the setting up of) the wizarding world. In fact, in the shooting script for the film, the titular Stone is only very obliquely referred to for the first time on the twenty-second page; "Hogwarts business. Very secret' 19 and once more on the forty-third; "the third floor corridor ... is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death' 20 before the characters are confronted with the actual mystery on page fifty-five:

HERMIONE Didn't you see what it was standing on? [...] It was standing on a trapdoor, which means it's not there by accident. It's-

HARRY Guarding something. 21

This means that the actual plot of the first film doesn't start until fifty-five pages into the script, completely ignoring a rule that is not just for "adaptation, it's a rule of screenwriting in general. You've only got about thirty pages to set everything up. Establish your main characters ... ground the audience in the world where your story takes place, introduce the dramatic problem, and move into the second act." 22 Lagging with the opening could add to any pacing problems that might develop, as well as become the source of accusations of too much fidelity by critics. And yet, because this introduction is not just for this film but for the entire series, it's (arguably) necessary, because the plotline revolving around the Philosopher's Stone might be the focus of the first film, but Harry's place in the wizarding world remains a focus of each of the films that follow. To breeze through it would be inexcusable, making the resulting ambling movement towards the main plot of the film all but unavoidable. However, it is worth it to remember that that introduction is part of what the audience is there to see.

The other issue that must be highlighted when discussing the expectations of both fans and critics is the overwhelming, ever-growing Harry Potter phenomenon that accompanies the release of every single bit of news even remotely relating to the series. As Suman Gupta wrote in a chapter of his book entitled Movie Magic : "Very seldom have films been so preordained to be blockbusters, received so much media attention before they appeared ... been anticipated with so much informed readiness." 23

Perhaps Professor Philip Nel put it best when he wrote that "the film does no violence to readers' imagined versions of characters and events, but it does not offer its own creative vision." 24

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

This film, like the first, was directed by Christopher Columbus and written for the screen by Steve Kloves. Because most of the creative team was the same, most of the commentary towards the process of creating this film is similar as well. However, there are some significant differences and additional issues unexplored in the topic for the previous film that warrant its own ’ albeit shorter ’ discussion.

Structurally, the second film is quite different from the first, as the introduction to the entire Harry Potter universe isn't necessary this time around. As Rowling put it; "The first one is episodic ... And Chamber is a more linear structure so it was easier to translate to screen." 25 However, it is also the longest Harry Potter film (though, to be fair, it only beats Goblet of Fire by four minutes), and the pacing suffers for it. As one critic wrote, "You get the sense that its makers have tried to film a novel instead of make a movie' 26 while another pointed out that "watching the film, I mostly felt sensory overload as one special effect was piled atop another. In fact director Chris Columbus has scrupulously avoided anything like genuine emotion." 27

To be fair, he was worrying about other things - namely, his young stars.

Casting these kids at the beginning of Sorcerer's Stone was, in a way, horrifying. I spent the first two weeks on that film trying to get them to look away from the camera, stop smiling and be able to utter one line so I could cut around it. 28

The experience (or lack of same) of his actors contributed in a large way to how Columbus was able to shoot both of the Harry Potter movies he filmed. As none of the child actors had ever done anything professional before ’ aside from Daniel Radcliffe, who had only had a few small roles ’ the movie had to be shot and edited around them. The first two Harry Potter films owe their less-than-sophisticated look to the fact that prolonged camera shots and wide angles were simply not possible in most cases involving the young stars ’ and neither was the endless repetition that can otherwise be associated with film-making. In fact, Columbus "rehearsed very little with the children since ... he didn't want to lose their spontaneity." 29

In Columbus' words; "When we wrapped on Chamber of Secrets , their performances had improved immensely, and they had become seasoned professionals. I felt my job was complete' 30 and with his job complete, so was the second film.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

It is in the discussion of the third film in the Harry Potter series that a more intricate and varied discussion on the pros and cons of the adaptation process can truly commence. This is not to say that discussing the first two films is without merit, but that as the books get longer (indeed, the third one is the first of the series to break 300 pages), and the plots grow more complex, the resulting portrayals on film offer more topics to debate.

Another reason that this progression reflected so obviously on the film series was that Christopher Columbus, director of the first two films, stepped back into the role of co-producer (with David Heyman and others) on this film, leading to Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón being hired to direct. Having previously brought his unique visual style to films like A Little Princess (and consequently proving he could work with children), Cuarón was drafted to lead the Harry Potter series in a new direction: "My approach was that I wanted to do a character driven piece, with cool visual effects, rather than a visual effects movie with some characters running around." 31

At the same time, Cuarón was conscious of the fact that he was stepping into an already-established universe, admitting that "it was one of [his] hesitations" before accepting the position. 32 He solved that dilemma by resolving to serve the material: "and the material meant before anything else the book, and then secondly the position of this film in the franchise of Harry Potter." 33

His overall success may be debatable, but what cannot be questioned is the dramatic change made in the look of this third film. As Columbus remembers: "Most of our sets were already built, but Alfonso had a desire ’ as did our production designer Stuart Craig ’ to open up the picture." 34 Using more wide-angle and tracking shots to heighten the sense of drama, 35 Cuarón was intent on facilitating the overall flow of the film, as well as creating lasting visual connections throughout. 36 Particular focus was paid to images relating to time (Harry spends several scenes in and around a large clock tower at Hogwarts), and identity (there are numerous scenes that start or end on a close up of a character's eye), in keeping with the themes Cuarón had chosen to highlight. The use of darker colours, more haunting music and dramatic lighting ("high contrast, more shadows") also contributed to the "very different look and feel from the previous films." 37

Perhaps the most important decision made to create this result, however, was one that was more philosophical than technical: "One of the things we decided was that in order for the magic to spring forward more naturally, it had to come from a real and honest place ... What we sought to create was a sense of reality in which the characters interact with each other." 38

Cuarón felt that choosing Michael Seresin for the film's cinematography would help to achieve that goal:

One thing that I felt was perfect for Michael was that we have this magical universe that he could really ground. Because he has got that grittiness, and that grittiness comes from the fact that he is a single-source light cinematographer. He's very naturalistic in that sense. I felt it would be a good marriage with the material. 39

And he seems to have succeeded. As Sloan de Forest, editor and contributor to Scribbulus , writes: "[In] the third film, I saw an immense, imposing Hogwarts drained of its warmth but injected with a unique style and grainy realism not present in the first two films." 40 The film was lauded by both critics and fans as being "the closest any of the films has gotten to capturing the enormously pleasing essence of the Potter books' 41 and there seemed to be a tentative collective agreement that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was a truly great movie. But that does not mean it was a great movie of the book , and as this is the difference that this essay seeks to highlight, more in depth examination is necessary.

The unique thing about the book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , is that it is arguably not a story in and of itself ’ but the story of a story, which gradually unfolds throughout the book, finally leading to its climactic reveal and the ensuing repercussions. The book covering Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts is not about Harry Potter's third year at all, but about the events leading up to his parents' deaths twelve years before.

It is fitting, then, that with this book comes the introduction of several new characters, including two of particular importance: Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Remus Lupin, and the escaped titular Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black. One interviewer notes that their "connection with ... Harry's parents is a major factor in Azkaban's back-story' 42 but though most of that quotation is true, it is the use of the word "back-story" that is the problem.

As Amy Z wrote in her essay An Elegantly Woven Tapestry: Plotlines in Prisoner of Azkaban , "it's true that there is no single central plot in [the story], because one candidate (Quidditch) lacks gravitas, and another (Sirius [versus] Harry) proves to be an illusion." 43 Instead, in the absence of an obvious main storyline, it is the so-called "back-story" that takes centre stage; "while Harry is going about his life ... there is another drama mostly invisible to him (and to us, until the second reading): that of Lupin, Black, Snape, and, if you think about it, Pettigrew." 44 In Prisoner of Azkaban the back-story becomes the main plot, as even though the events transpired twelve years previous, they are unfolding to Harry in the present and the story's climax happens when the truth is finally revealed to all. In that way, there was no conclusion to the events in the past, instead, it was as if those involved were put on hold, held in stasis until Harry's third year at Hogwarts when they were at last able to play it out:

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter' said Lupin, nodding. "I believed it myself ” until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's Map never lies... Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus' said Black, who was still watching Scabbers's every desperate move. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"Harry' said Lupin hurriedly, "don't you see? All this time we've thought Sirius betrayed your parents, and Peter tracked him down ” but it was the other way around, don't you see? Peter betrayed your mother and father ” Sirius tracked Peter down ”" 45

As Amy Z writes: "We think the story is about Black trying to kill Harry, so the plot seems focused on that; but that's not what the story is about. It's about Sirius in a whole different way, and it's as much about Pettigrew." 46 With the misunderstandings cleared up and the truth of the events of twelve years before revealed, the climax of their story becomes the climax of the book itself ’ one which ultimately ends in near disaster, allowing the fallout to finally occur.

In discussing how she has conceptualized the third book, Harry Potter fan Kelly Parker writes:

I think the third book is more about setting up the series for later on and dealing more with the past and how it is affecting Harry and the entire wizarding world now. It's not so much about his schooling ... his schooling takes a back seat to finding out about his godfather and dealing with all of that. I personally think this is one of the most pivotal books in the series. 47

Unfortunately, Alfonso Cuarón apparently did not see it in exactly the same way: "This film is concerned with confronting [the characters'] innermost fears ... It's [also] a journey of a character's seeking his identity and accepting who he is. To step out of the shadow of his father, for instance, is one of the themes." 48 Putting aside the question of whether or not this is true, the difference of opinion as to the main focus of the story obviously resulted in the exclusion of certain things.

One of the most often cited examples of such an exclusion is the actual back-story of Harry's parents and their friends. Included in this example are several key pieces of information that are either missing from the film entirely, or mentioned in vague generalities that are easily glossed over. The most important piece of information that is introduced in this story is the betrayal of Harry's parents that led to their deaths. It is in this book that we learn that Voldemort could not just go and attack the Potters, and that they would have been safe had they not trusted the wrong person, because of the preparations they had taken before going into hiding:

"Dumbledore told them that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm."

"How does that work?" said Madam Rosmerta, breathless with interest. Professor Flitwick cleared his throat.

"An immensely complex spell' he said squeakily, "involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find ” unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it. As long as the Secret-Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search the village where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his nose pressed against their sitting room window!" 49

The fact that Sirius Black was thought to be the Potters' Secret-Keeper, and therefore the only person capable of betraying them, is rather central to how he became the titular Prisoner , having been sent to Azkaban without a trial. The fact that Peter Pettigrew was the actual Secret-Keeper, and therefore the only possible betrayer of the Potters: " ˜ Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it,' Black hissed ... ˜I thought it was the perfect plan... a bluff... Voldemort would be sure to come after me ... It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters,' " 50 is also central to understanding the story. However, interestingly enough, the word "Secret-Keeper" is never spoken even once during the entire film, and the importance of the role is instead glossed over, when it is referred to at all: "Well, now, years ago, when Harry Potter's parents realized that they were marked for death ’ do you remember? ’ they went into hiding. Few knew where they were. One who did, was Sirius Black ’ and he told You-Know-Who!" 51

Aside from being factually wrong, as it was Harry and not his parents who was marked for death, the use of the word "few" and the phrase "one who did" instead of " the one who did" would imply that more than one person knew where the Potters were hiding. This would, in turn, mean that more than one person would have been able to betray them, rendering Sirius Black's immediate condemnation inexplicable ’ and potentially Peter Pettigrew's later one as well.

Although it minimizes the betrayal of the Potters, the vagueness that resulted from the absence of the word "Secret-Keeper" could still have been explained had another piece of information been included:

Sirius here played a trick on [Snape] which nearly killed him ... [he] thought it would be ’ er ’ amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree-trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me ... if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf. 52

The knowledge that Sirius Black, at sixteen, sent a fellow classmate to his death without remorse (later saying it was just a prank), would have gone a long way to explaining why of the "few" who "knew where [the Potters] were", he was the most likely suspect: " ˜ Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen,' [Snape] breathed. ˜You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me ?' " 53 And although this might be considered a deviation from the central plot, or potentially slow exposition in a genre where showing is prized above telling , film as a visual medium allows for both to happen at once. This enlightening bit of back-story could easily have been accompanied by either a flashback or a montage of images, illustrating what was being said. However, this did not happen, and unfortunately, it is not the most important piece of information left out of the final film, by far.

The fact that Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter are the same Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs who created the map Harry is coincidentally given by his friends is never mentioned, even when ample opportunity arises ’ as seen in the following comparative examples:

Prisoner of Azkaban (the book):

"I happen to know that this map was confiscated by Mr. Filch many years ago. Yes, I know it's a map' [Lupin] said, as Harry and Ron looked amazed. 54

Prisoner of Azkaban (the film):

PROFESSOR LUPIN I don't know how this map came to be in your possession, Harry, but I'm astounded that you didn't turn it in....

Harry walks silently. 55

While this might seem a small, relatively unimportant piece of information, it would only be considered so in isolation. However, this is not so. The connection of each man to his nickname not only solidifies the reality of their once close friendship, but it also connects each to his animal form and the fact that three became Animagi for the fourth: "My three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month ... I was terrified they would desert me ... [but] they didn't desert me at all. ... They became Animagi ... They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals. A werewolf is only a danger to people." 56

The connection to Animagi is important because of the role that each man's form plays in the overall story. Peter Pettigrew is able to fake his own death and hide for twelve years as Ron's pet rat; Sirius Black is able to both keep his sanity while in and finally escape from Azkaban as a large dog; and Harry is able to discover and reclaim a part of his father, which he finds within himself, when his Patronus takes on the form of his father's stag. And while the first two are obvious in the film without the nickname connection, the fact that James Potter was an Animagus is not, and therefore the significance of Harry's Patronus is lost. This is particularly ironic considering that it is James Potter as Prongs who is arguably the link between the opinions of the fans already stated as to the main storyline of the book, and director Alfonso Cuarón's interpretation: "It has to do with Harry coming to terms with his male energy, his father and what his father is." 57

The absence of this information is notable not only because it details exactly "what his father is", but also because the information was there in the shooting script, but still didn't make it to the final cut:

PROFESSOR LUPIN Before I go, tell me about your Patronus.

HARRY Well. At first I thought it was a horse, or perhaps a unicorn, but I think it was ’

PROFESSOR LUPIN A stag.

PROFESSOR LUPIN Your father used to transform into one. That's how he was able to keep me company when I became... sick. ... There are stories about him and your mother, you know. Some are even true. But I think it's safe to say, in the end you'll know them best by getting to know yourself. 58

As the final cut of the film is decided on by the director (and the editor, at his direction), it is particularly peculiar that none of the dialogue in this excerpt ’ all of which would go towards emphasizing Cuarón's apparent vision ’ appears in the finished version. This would not be a problem were it not for the fact that in losing these aspects of the story, the viewer is treated to a film that is incomplete ’ not only in and of itself, but also as a part of the ongoing series.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

As with the third film, the fourth in the Harry Potter series invites a more detailed discussion on the difficulties and competing interests involved in adapting a book to a film. Fortunately for this essay, most of the issues raised in this discussion differ significantly from those presented in each previous film. One reason for this difference was the inclusion of a new director, filmmaker Mike Newell of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame, who, in his own words, had "never made a film like this before and [had] never made a film even a quarter as big as this before." 59 Unlike the other films in the series thus far, this film presented a directorial challenge even before shooting began. At 636 pages, Goblet of Fire is more than double the size of Prisoner of Azkaban (the longest of the previous three), and Warner Bros. Studio originally intended to split the story in half, shooting the two films back to back, and releasing them close together ’ similar to what had been done for the second and third films of the Matrix trilogy. 60 Mike Newell, however, thought this unnecessary: "As far as I'm concerned it's absolutely possible to do it in one. I think it would be slightly embarrassing to do it in two." 61

Aiming to avoid this, Newell pitched his conception of the story to the producers; "I said to them, I said, I can only make this if you will agree that what we're making is a thriller and we will ruthlessly take out stuff that doesn't go to that' 62 later adding that the whole point of the story was that the villain "needs one tiny, tiny little thing from the boy: three drops of blood." 63 As the first British director in the series, Mike Newell felt that he had the insider expertise necessary to bring an authenticity to the films that they were previously lacking ’ particularly in regards to the British school system: "It wasn't possible for them to get that right. They'd never been to such a school' 64 Newell said, further explaining:

I went through this sort of education. ... I wasn't at a boarding school ... but there's an enormous body of literature books ... and I had read all of those, and I'd been to a school just like it where you were beaten with a cane. I remember some of the teachers being really quite violent ... and it had a headmaster of whom one was likely terrified and then a descending order of authority figures, and then there was... and then there was us. ... I don't see how anybody who hadn't gone through that, who wasn't English, could possibly have suspected that. 65

There are two facets of this quote that require further examination, the first being Newell's view of Hogwarts as being just like all of the typical British boarding schools he never attended. Shaun Hately, author of the essay Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Context of the British Public Schools , writes that "Hogwarts is not a perfect exemplar of the Public School tradition ’ while there is a substantial influence, it cannot be assumed that Hogwarts always follows Public School traditions." 66 Further on in the paper, in discussing corporal punishment, Hately demonstrates that "At Hogwarts, such methods seem to have fallen into disuse' 67 citing a quotation from the first book in the Harry Potter series; "Oh yes... Hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me... It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out." 68

Additional evidence presents itself in the book from which Newell made his own adaptation, when Professor Moody transfigures a student into a ferret and proceeds to bounce him up and down, catching the attention of Professor McGonagall:

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall weakly. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah' said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock ”"

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!" 69

To J.K. Rowling, the "worst, shabbiest thing you can do" as a teacher "[is] bully children' 70 and corporal punishment has no place in Harry's world. And yet Newell, who admits that even real English schools have changed now, still felt the need to "[rewrite] a scene to add a glint of schoolboy mischievousness and the corporal punishment it provokes, in which dour Professor Snape ... bonks Harry and Ron in the head with a book for goofing off during a study period." 71 Snape does not appear at all in the scene in the shooting script for the film, 72 so it is obvious that this was a directorial decision. His selection is also unfortunate for the fact that his character is not one to be considered slapstick, nor is his hatred of Harry something in which to find comic relief. However, this twisted characterization appears to be a sort of specialty of Newell's, which is the second facet of the previous long quotation in need of examination.

As with the school he runs, Newell has also assigned headmaster Albus Dumbledore to a role in the film that is not in keeping with any other information readily available about him. His idea of Dumbledore as "a headmaster of whom one [is] likely terrified' 73 is directly at odds with J.K. Rowling's assertion that Dumbledore is instead "the epitome of goodness." 74 Indeed, Hately's essay specifies how the character "as presented in the Harry Potter books seems to fit neatly into the mould of the great benevolent public school Headmaster' 75 and as James A. Morone wrote in his article Cultural Phenomena: Dumbledore's Message , "[he] practically awards bonus points for breaking the rules' 76 citing this quotation from Chamber of Secrets as proof: "I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules ... Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words." 77

The issue of the character and characterization of Dumbledore is a difficult one for numerous reasons. The choice of actor to play the role is very much tied up in that ’ especially because it was made twice. Richard Harris, a veteran of over seventy films, was initially cast in the role, which he played for the first two films. Critics wrote that his selection "was perfection; he had that twinkle in his eye and he conveyed that Dumbledore was as solid as a rock and as wise as readers of J.K. Rowling knew him to be. There was a certainty about him." 78

However, when Richard Harris passed away shortly before principal photography was to begin on the third film, a new Dumbledore had to be found. Michael Gambon made his Dumbledore debut in Prisoner of Azkaban , and his performance in both it and Goblet of Fire has garnered several comments ’ though, unfortunately, few have been complimentary: "I have to say that I thought Gambon's performance lacked some of the warmth and humour that Harris provided." 79 Newell, on the other hand, thought he was perfect:

I think that he had not wanted to be the same figure that Richard Harris had been, a figure of enormous Olympian authority who's never caught on the hop. He wanted something to do, simply because he isn't Richard Harris, and what he found in this one is that Dumbledore is fallible, not omnipotent, and indeed is behind the game. A great deal of what he does is about being inadequate rather than super-adequate, which is obviously much more interesting to play. 80

More interesting to play, perhaps, but woefully inaccurate. Even leaving aside the fact that if Gambon did not want to be the same figure Richard Harris had been, his decision to take over the role seems suspect; Dumbledore has been known throughout the series for being the only one Voldemort has ever feared. However, as de Forest points out:

for this fear to be plausible, Dumbledore needs to appear sharp-witted and not cross the line from affable eccentric to preposterous crackpot. ... How can [Newell] expect us to believe that anyone in the wizarding world reveres a panicky, absentminded grump who ... impulsively attacks his favourite student, throttling little Harry about the shoulders and neck? 81

And to Newell's argument that a fallible, inadequate, and behind-the-game Dumbledore creates a more interesting and more humanized mentor for Harry, M.Y. Simms asks in her essay Action! Harry Potter from the Page to the Screen :

Why would the greatest wizard in the world suddenly appear to suffer from chronic anxiety? I understand that things got serious in Goblet of Fire, but consider this: would Yoda, Merlin, Gandalf or Obi-Wan have freaked out when things got serious and danger loomed? ... I think not. ... Where did the ˜magic' of Dumbledore go? 82

In fact, far from being behind-the-game, J.K. Rowling's Dumbledore continues to run steadily ahead, even at the end of Goblet of Fire , after Harry's confrontation with Voldemort has already taken place:

"He said that my blood would make him stronger than if he'd used someone else's' Harry told Dumbledore. "... And he was right ” he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face."

For a fleeting instant, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore's eyes. 83

Unfortunately, one repercussion from Newell's decision to have Gambon portray Dumbledore in this mistaken manner ’ a decision that is proved to be directorial rather than scriptural, due to the calmer version of the character evidenced in the shooting script 84 ’ is more detrimental than having raised the ire of fans; that being the effect it will have on the next installment of the franchise.

One of the main issues that Harry must deal with in the fifth book is his relationship with Dumbledore and how it has, inexplicably (to him), become estranged. This separation, or distance, that Harry feels causes him great distress as he wonders why the headmaster doesn't seem to care about him anymore. This leads to continued misunderstandings which result in the death of a main character and the discovery of a prophecy. Unfortunately, due to the portrayal of these relationships in the fourth movie, Harry would be unlikely to wonder if the headmaster cared about him in the first place, nor would it really matter to him either way. And the revelation given to Harry at the end, that Dumbledore "cared about [him] too much" and did all he had done because he "acted exactly as Voldemort expects [the] fools who love to act' 85 would scarce be believable from Gambon's discredited caricature. Of course, as Newell has not even read the fifth book, his failure to set it up properly is unfortunately explained.

What's not as easily explained is his failure in setting up even his own film, as he did read the fourth book in preparation. 86 As one critic wrote:

If the film version of [Prisoner of Azkaban] was missing some major plot points, and therefore felt like it was missing a vital organ or two, this one was like finding a skeleton that had been stripped of every conceivable scrap of flesh, leaving only the bare bones behind. Many character motivations were fuzzy at best; my mother, who hadn't read the book, had a million questions for me after we left the theatre. 87

But perhaps this weakness can be understood in reading Newell's approach to creating the film, in his own words: "What you do is you pack it with references and suggestions and so forth which, of course, you have taken from the book. So that a reader coming to the film goes, "Oh, I see. I get it. They did it that way." 88 The idea that fans would be appeased by a few references to aspects of the book, no matter what the quality of storytelling, is problematic at best, insulting at worst, and condescending either way. "The movie ticks through critical plot points like it's checking them off a list' 89 writes Anita Burkam in the article From Page to Screen: Mike Newell's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ; "All that's missing is reasonably paced and plotted moviemaking." 90 That, and the so-called "human truth" that Newell apparently prized above all else: "You become more interested in [Harry's] interior processes, his emotions, than just what goes on' Newell asserts, 91 though it is difficult to understand why he is convinced of this when he, as director, seems more interested in what he can do with Harry's external world than in how to express the character's internal one. "It's one of the most powerful and dramatic scenes' 92 producer David Heyman says, in praise of Newell's work. And which scene is he talking about? The maze in the third task, which, as Dumbledore mysteriously informs each champion, changes people? The graveyard where Harry watches Voldemort's rebirth, duels with him, and comes face to face with the ghost-like shades of his long-dead parents?

No, of course not, that would make sense . Instead, as Heyman clarifies, "We departed from the book a little bit in the sense that the dragon breaks free of the chain that ties him and it leads to a dramatic chase through Hogwarts. Let's just say it doesn't necessarily meet the happiest of ends." 93 Never mind the fact that, as no one dies and Harry completes the task successfully, it does actually meet the happiest of ends, Heyman is talking about a scene in which Harry faces off with the dragon during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. This is a scene which takes exactly two pages in the book (which includes the detailed description necessary of the medium), but in the film, it clocks in at nearly three minutes ’ a ridiculously long length of time on screen, particularly for Newell, who has said that "all of [these effects] would count for nothing if [audiences] simply didn't feel it." 94

Yet, as de Forest notes, "when a film jumps wildly from scene to scene, frantically flinging in new characters and situations willy-nilly, the seeds of authentic emotional reaction don't have time to be sown and flourish naturally ... the natural rhythm of reaction is massacred." 95 All of this leads to an ending of equal ruination, in what de Forest terms "a thrown-together mess of a conclusion. It seems unsure whether to end on a hopeful note, a tragic note, a portentous note, a humorous note or a poignant note, so it compromises by fizzling out with a flat uncertainty. ˜Everything's going to change now, isn't it?' asks Hermione. Yup. Sure is. Well. Will you sign my yearbook?" 96

While several critics enjoyed the film ’ and several film audiences, too ’ the question of whether or not Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was a good film is not the one that is asked in this essay. Instead, the question of whether or not it was a good film of the book must be considered, and while Mike Newell's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire might be considered a fun, and even wild ride of a film, it remains on the surface, granting only a superficial and distorted glimpse into the story of Harry's fourth year. J.K. Rowling's Dumbledore warned; "You have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy." 97 It is unfortunate that Mike Newell did not heed this advice.

Harry Potter and the End of This Essay (2007)

"Books have one of the highest ratios of conversion from development to film of any source, including original screenplays' 98 and yet the process of adapting the Harry Potter book series into films is unique in many ways. Perhaps the most important cause of its uniqueness is the fact that the seven book series is being adapted one novel after the other, and yet the seven book series is not yet complete. With the intense secrecy surrounding the story and revelations still to come from the original author, filmmakers must attempt to adapt each of these films from an incomplete overall source text. This only heightens the difficulty and the scrutiny that are already present in the adaptation process. That is why the question of fidelity, though it "cannot be considered a valid yardstick with which to judge any adaptation' 99 must figure in more heavily than it might otherwise. John Tibbetts and James Welsh wrote that "movies do not ˜ruin' books, but merely misrepresent them' 100 as "the accumulation of minor details can create a markedly different experience between a book and a film' 101 and while usually that may not create any problems, Mike Newell's Dumbledore aptly demonstrates that in an ongoing ’ and unfinished ’ series, certain changes have far-reaching effects.

Still, while fidelity holds more importance in this case than in others, "changes made by the screenwriter and director might not necessarily destroy the original. In the best adaptations, narratives are translated and effectively transformed into the medium of film." 102 With the seventh, and last, Harry Potter novel being released this summer, perhaps the remaining films will have a better chance of achieving this transformation.

Mireia Aragay writes in Reflection to Refraction: Adaptation Studies Then and Now , that the real aim of adaptation is

to trade upon the memory of the novel, a memory that can derive from actual reading, or, as is more likely with a classic of literature, a generally circulated cultural memory. The adaptation consumes this memory, aiming to efface it with the presence of its own images. The successful adaptation is the one that is able to replace the memory of the novel. 103

Although Harry Potter is not widely considered a classic of literature, the same philosophy can apply. An adaptation must be more than a filmed novel, without compromising the text it is meant to represent. A good film does not make a good adaptation, and though the Harry Potter film series had a promising start, future directors would do well to keep those words in mind. Notes 1. Cartmell, "Shakespeare on Screen' 33.

2. Tibbetts and Welsh, Novels Into Film , 279.

3. Havens, Genius Behind Buffy , 24.

4. Elrick, "Chris Columbus talks¦."

5. McNamara, "When Steve Met Harry."

6. Elrick, "Chris Columbus talks¦."

7. Hopkins, "Behind the Scenes¦."

8. McNamara, "When Steve Met Harry."

9. Vander Ark, "The Ages of Snape and the Marauders."

10. Rowling, Philosopher's Stone , 102.

11. Millman, "To Sir, With Love' 43.

12. Rowling, "Edinburgh Book Festival."

13. Scholastic editor Arthur Levine, suggested that Rowling change the title of the book for its American release as he felt it was "too esoteric' and the change would convey "more immediately the sense of magic that's in the book" (Heiberger). This, despite the fact that the Philosopher's Stone is an object of legend, often found in myth and folklore (Anderson), and referred to in many areas of study, including religion, alchemy, the occult ¦ while the Sorcerer's Stone means nothing.

14. Hennigan, "Films ¦ Philosopher's Stone ."

15. Krevolin, How to Adapt¦ , 52.

16. Aragay, "Reflection to Refraction' 20.

17. Cartmell and Whelehan, "Fidelity Debate' 37.

18. Ebert, "Sorcerer's Stone."

19. Kloves, Sorcerer's Stone, 22.

20. Ibid., 43.

21. Ibid., 55-56.

22. Krevolin, How to Adapt¦ , 54.

23. Gupta, Re-Reading Harry Potter , 143.

24. Nel, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bored."

25. Mzimba, "Conversation with¦."

26. Nel, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bored."

27. Butler, " Potter has the stuff¦."

28. Spelling, "Leaving School' 44.

29. Elrick, "Chris Columbus talks¦."

30. Spelling, "Leaving School' 44.

31. "Y tu Harry¦' 22.

32. Ibid, 19.

34. Spelling, "Leaving School' 44.

35. Puig, "Harry hits his teens."

36. Nazarro, "The New Magician' 39.

37. Puig, "Harry hits his teens."

38. Nazarro, "The New Magician' 38.

39. Trout, "Alfonso Cuarón Interview."

40. de Forest, "Fractured Fairy Tale."

41. Turan, "Prisoner of Azkaban."

42. Nazarro, "Alfonso Cuarón Interview."

43. Z, "Elegantly Woven Tapestry."

45. Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban , 257-68.

46. Z, "Elegantly Woven Tapestry."

47. Kelly Parker, e-mail message to author, 12 April 2007.

48. Puig, "Harry hits his teens."

49. Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban , 152.

50. Ibid., 271.

51. Kloves, Prisoner of Azkaban .

52. Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban , 261.

53. Ibid., 286.

54. Ibid., 213.

55. Kloves, Prisoner of Azkaban , 80.

56. Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban , 259-60.

57. Nazarro, "The New Magician' 38.

58. Kloves, Prisoner of Azkaban , 125.

59. Fischer, "Exclusive Interview."

61. Geri, "News: Mike Newell¦."

62. Fischer, "Exclusive Interview."

63. Ibid., "Interview: Mike Newell."

64. Associated Press, "Newell puts the Brit¦."

65. Fischer, "Exclusive Interview."

66. Hately, "Hogwarts School of¦."

68. Rowling, Philosopher's Stone , 181.

69. Ibid., Goblet of Fire , 182.

70. Fraser, Conversations with J.K. Rowling , 21.

71. Associated Press, "Newell puts the Brit¦."

72. Kloves, Goblet of Fire , 66-67.

73. Fischer, "Exclusive Interview."

74. Solomon, "J.K. Rowling Interview."

75. Hately, "Hogwarts School of¦."

76. Morone, "Cultural Phenomena."

77. Rowling, Chamber of Secrets , 243.

78. Simms, "Action! Harry Potter¦."

79. Aloi, "Grown Up Magic."

80. Whitehead, "Interview: Mike Newell¦."

81. Witherwings, "Fractured Fairy Tale."

82. Simms, "Action! Harry Potter¦."

83. Rowling, Goblet of Fire , 604.

84. Kloves, Goblet of Fire , 32.

85. Rowling, Order of the Phoenix , 739.

86. Fischer, "Exclusive Interview."

87. Moondaughter, "Under the Microscope."

88. Geri, "Newell discusses¦."

89. Burkam, "From Page to Screen."

92. Geri, "Update: Heyman talks¦."

94. Nathan, "This boy¦' 90.

95. Witherwings, "Fractured Fairy Tale."

97. Rowling, Goblet of Fire , 628.

98. Hopkins, "Behind the Scenes¦."

99. Aragay, "Reflection to Refraction' 20.

100. Tibbetts and Welsh, Novels Into Film , xvii.

101. Nel, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bored."

102. Tibbetts and Welsh, Novels Into Film , xx.

103. Aragay, "Reflection to Refraction' 20.

Bibliography

Aloi, Peg. "Grown Up Magic." Witch Cinema 19, 5 June 2004. http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_article.html?a=usma&id=8491 .

Anderson, Hans Christian. "The Philosopher's Stone (1859)." Hans Christian Anderson: Fairy Tales and Stories . 25 September 2006: http://hca.gilead.org.il/p_stone.html .

Aragay, Mireia. "Reflection to Refraction: Adaptation Studies Then and Now." Books in Motion: Adaptation, Intertextuality, Authorship . Ed. Mireia Aragay. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. 11-34.

Associated Press. "Newell puts the Brit back in Harry Potter ." MSNBC , 21 November 2005. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10054009 .

Burkam, Anita L. "From Page to Screen: Mike Newell's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." The Horn Book, Inc . http://www.hbook.com/resources/films/harrypotter4.asp .

Butler, Robert W. " Potter has the stuff but not the spirit." The Kansas City Star . 23 November 2001.

Cartmell, Deborah. "The Shakespeare On Screen Industry." Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text . Eds. Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Whelehan. London: Routledge, 1999. 29-37.

Cartmell, Deborah and Whelehan, Imelda. "Harry Potter and the Fidelity Debate." Books in Motion: Adaptation, Intertextuality, Authorship . Ed. Mireia Aragay. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. 37-49.

Ebert, Roger. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." RogerEbert.com: Movie Reviews , 16 November 2001. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011116/REVIEWS/111160301/1023 .

Elrick, Ted. "Chris Columbus talks about directing Harry Potter ." DGA Magazine: Directors Guild of America 27:5, January 2003. http://www.dga.org/news/v27_5/feat_columbus.php3 .

Fischer, Paul. "Exclusive Interview: Mike Newell for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ." Dark Horizons 24, October 2005). http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/goblet1.php .

”””. "Interview: Mike Newell for Mona Lisa Smile and Harry Potter 4 ." Dark Horizons 9, December 2003. http://www.darkhorizons.com/news03/mona2.php .

Fraser, Lindsey. Conversations with J.K. Rowling . New York: Scholastic Press, 2001.

Geri. "Newell discusses the challenges of ˜ Harry Potter '." HPANA , 30 November 2004. http://www.hpana.com/news.18430.html .

”””. "News: Mike Newell won't split ˜ Goblet of Fire '." HPANA , 30 January 2004. http://www.hpana.com/news.17863.26.html .

”””. "Update: Heyman talks about first task and Fiennes." HPANA , 11 Oct. 2005. http://www.hpana.com/news.18913.html .

Gupta, Suman. Re-Reading Harry Potter . New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . Directed by Christopher Columbus. Burbank: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2002.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire . Directed by Mike Newell. Burbank: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2005.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . Directed by Chris Columbus. Burbank: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2001.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban . Directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Burbank: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2004.

Hately, Shaun. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Context of the British Public Schools." HP InkPot , 13 December 2005. http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/shaun_hately/HSOWAWATBPS01.html .

Havens, Candace. Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy . Dallas: BenBella Books, 2003.

Heiberger, Sara. "Harry Potter and the Editor's Pen." Brown Alumni Magazine Online , November/December 2001. http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/storydetail.cfm?ID=421 .

Harry Potter Archive

Harry Potter Essays

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Essays on Harry Potter

Writing an essay about Harry Potter can be a fun and engaging way to explore the themes, characters, and impact of this beloved series. Whether you're a student or just a fan looking to dive deeper into the magical world of Hogwarts, writing an essay about Harry Potter can help you sharpen your critical thinking skills and express your love for the series.

When choosing a topic for your Harry Potter essay, consider what aspect of the series you are most passionate about. Whether it's the themes of friendship and bravery, the complex characters, or the world-building, there are plenty of topics to explore. For an argumentative essay, you could analyze the ethical dilemmas faced by the characters or debate the impact of the series on popular culture. For a cause and effect essay, you could explore how the events in the series lead to certain outcomes or how the series has influenced readers. For an opinion essay, you could share your thoughts on the controversial aspects of the series or discuss your favorite characters and why they resonate with you. For an informative essay, you could delve into the history of the series, its impact on literature, or the cultural significance of the wizarding world.

• The theme of love and sacrifice in Harry Potter demonstrates the power of compassion and selflessness.
• The character development of Hermione Granger in Harry Potter challenges traditional gender roles and empowers young readers.
• The magical world of Harry Potter serves as an allegory for the struggles and triumphs of adolescence.
• The Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling, has captured the hearts of readers around the world with its enchanting blend of magic, friendship, and adventure.
• As a symbol of resilience and hope, Harry Potter has become a cultural phenomenon that continues to inspire and captivate audiences of all ages.
• From the moment Harry discovers he is a wizard, the world of Hogwarts opens up to readers, inviting them to explore the complexities of good versus evil and the power of love.
• The Harry Potter series has left an indelible mark on popular culture, reminding readers of the enduring power of love, friendship, and bravery.
• As we bid farewell to the wizarding world of Harry Potter, we are left with a sense of wonder and appreciation for the timeless themes and characters that have touched our hearts.
• The magic of Harry Potter lives on in the hearts and minds of fans, reminding us that the power of imagination and storytelling can transcend time and space.

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The Problem of Evil in The Harry Potter Series

The huge franchise of harry potter, the similarities between j. k. rowling's harry potter and the sorcerer's stone and the deathly hallows, the deconstruction of concepts of life and death in harry potter series, the questionable nature of the monsters in harry potter universe, j.k. rowling’s depiction of the personality of severus snape as illustrated in harry potter, j. k. rowling's harry potter and the sorcerer's stone: book review, the relationship between harry potter and the sorcerer's stone and economics, the last book about harry potter, and logistics, destiny and choice in never let me go and harry potter and the half-blood prince, harry potter and the sorcerer's stone: plot summary, the lord of the rings vs. "harry potter and the sorcerer's stone", grandfather paradox in j.k. rowling's "harry potter", analysis of j. k. rowling’s book, harry potter and the goblet of fire, from jane eyre to hermione granger: progression of female characters, philosopher's stone and graveyard book: the representation of magical and supernatural, gabriel and young's study about reading a piece of narrative, harry as the sacrificial lamb in harry potter, a reaction to the kairos moment in the goblet of fire as highlighted in the j.k. rowling's novel series, the role of magical animals in harry potter and the sorcerer's stone.

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)

J.K. Rowling

Fantasy Novels

Fantasy Fiction, Drama, Young Adult Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Bildungsroman

Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, Lord Voldemort, Professor Albus Dumbledore, Professor Severus Snape, Luna Lovegood, Rubeus Hagrid, Dobby, Bellatrix Lestrange, Neville Longbottom, Professor Minerva McGonagall, Sirius Black, Pansy Parkinson, Newt Scamander, Remus Lupin, Ginny Weasley Gellert Grindelwald, Sorting Hat, Cho Chang, Dolores Umbridge, Peter Pettigrew, Fred Weasley, Dudley Dursley, Lucius Malfoy, Nymphadora Tonks, Hedwig, Lily Evans Potter, Albus Severus Potter, Nagini, Oliver Wood, Narcissa Malfoy, James Potter, Moaning Myrtle, Fleur Delacour, Alastor Moody, George Weasley, Dean Thomas, Argus Filch, James Sirius Potter, Lily Luna Potter, Molly Weasley, Vernon Dursley, Seamus Finnigan, Regulus Black, Winky, Sybill Trelawney, Peeves, Lavender Brown, Astoria Greengrass

Even though there is no actual Harry Potter in real life, J. K. Rowling drew her book inspiration based on a boy who lived just four doors down when she was a child. The boy's name was Ian Potter.

The most important symbol is the scar on Harry's forehead, which stands for the past, present, and the future. The scar is also a representative of Harry Potter's link to Lord Voldemort. The eternal fight between the good and evil.

Love is the main theme throughout the books because if you truly love someone, it cannot be taken away. The true love lasts forever as Harry Potter finds his identity and learns to fight against the tyrannical rule by Voldemort. It is an educational book where there is much more to that than it actually seems. Another great lesson is that true friendship can get you through anything. It is not the magic or being a wizard, but being a true friend and staying there for the ones you love.

It all starts when Harry Potter, an eleven year old English orphaned boy, learns that he is the son of two powerful wizards and has certain magical powers of his own. Joining Hogwarts, an English boarding school for wizards, he embarks on a magical journey, which helps him to find true friends and discover the truth about his parents.

• J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter share the same birthday date
• The author already had the sketch of the final chapter of the final book when she only had the first book written down.
• Struggling with depression after her mother's death, Rowling came up with the concept of the dementors.
• The Quidditch has been created after a fight with her boyfriend.
• The Philosopher's Stone has nearly become "Harry Potter and the School of Magic" in the United States.
• Haley Joel Osment of "The Sixth Sense" fame could have played Harry Potter.
• J.K. Rowling has acknowledged it herself that Harry and Hermione pairing could have worked.
• "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." ― Albus Dumbledore
• "It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live." ― Albus Dumbledore
• "Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes." — Albus Dumbledore
• "It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." ― Albus Dumbledore
• "We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." — Albus Dumbledore

The main message of the book is defeating evil with the power of love, sincerity, and friendship. The love grants protection, the logic and being smart helps to find the way and open the locked doors. It is more than just an entertaining story that reminds us once again that true friendship will stand through everything and that as long as you have your friend's back, you will challenge even the worst evil there is.

It is one of the most essential books for children and adults today, which makes it a great essay topic when we want to talk about friendship, care for each other, reaching for your dreams, and staying true to who you are. It is also the battle between good and evil and using magic just simply by staying kind and helping your friends.

Relevant topics

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Harry Potter Books and Movies Compare & Contrast Essay

One of things that make life fascinating is the diversity and variance that different people and things exhibit. These differences may be obvious or deeply disguised requiring one to take a critical look at the item in order to notice them.

In this paper, I shall set out to compare two items; J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” the Book and its movie adaptation. By so doing, I shall demonstrate that there do exist significant differences as well as similarities between the two items despite them appearing to be wholly similar.

A Comparative Analysis

Both the book and its film adaptation share the character set. The lead character is the hero Harry Potter, a famous wizard whose adventures are the central focus of the book and the movie. In the wizard world, Harry Potter is engaged in a prolonged fight to defeat the immensely powerful and evil wizard Lord Voldemort. Harry potter is assisted in his noble quest by his two best friends Ron and Hermione. These two characters play significant roles in the plot development of both the movie and the book.

The magical school that Harry and his friends attend so as to learn about wizardry is represented in an identical manner in both the book and the movie. The school building is a gigantic and daunting castle which is inaccessible to non-magical people. According to the book, the castle has a lake, extensive grounds and a forest.

The Movie properly depicts this as a lake can be seen as the students arrive at the school by use of a train. The imposing nature of the castle is evident and in many scenes from the movie, Harry Potter and his friends venture out into the fields and forests that are part of the school grounds.

However, the representation of one of the lead characters Hermione in the movie is not a true depiction of what she is in the book. In the book, Hermione is described as a brightest girl in the school. Her know-it-all attitude alienates her from the rest of the students.

Nothing to the book indicates that Hermione is an attractive girl and she is in fact describe as having large protruding teach and bushy brown hair. However, the movie presents Hermione as a physically attractive and likable character. This is inconsistent with the image that one builds form reading the novel.

In the book, the prisoner of Azkaban, the character Sirius Black who is Harry’s godfather, plays a minor role despite him being central to the plot of the book. His appearances in the book are relatively few considering that he is the focal point of the book.

The book instead focuses on developing the story around Sirius and therefore, despite his not being mentioned every now and then, one can sense his involvement throughout the book. In the movie, Sirius plays a more predominant role and he is afforded relatively more screen time than one would expect from the book.

The movie adaptation contains numerous omissions of events that are recorded in the book. This is to be expected considering the relatively small length of the movie compared to the size of the book. Harry Potter’s exchanges with his uncle’s family are left out and one can therefore not correctly gauge the nature of the relationship from watching the film. From the book, it is clear that Harry Potter hates staying with his relatives who despise him.

In this paper, I set out to compare two items so as to highlight their similarities and differences. From my comparison of the book “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and its movie adaptation, it is clear that there are a lot of similarities and differences between the two. Nevertheless, both the movie and the book prove to be equally entertaining despite their differences.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 31). Harry Potter Books and Movies. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-comparison-of-j-k-rowlings-book-harry-potter-and-the-prisoner-of-azkaban-and-its-movie-adaptation/

"Harry Potter Books and Movies." IvyPanda , 31 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/a-comparison-of-j-k-rowlings-book-harry-potter-and-the-prisoner-of-azkaban-and-its-movie-adaptation/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Harry Potter Books and Movies'. 31 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Harry Potter Books and Movies." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-comparison-of-j-k-rowlings-book-harry-potter-and-the-prisoner-of-azkaban-and-its-movie-adaptation/.

1. IvyPanda . "Harry Potter Books and Movies." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-comparison-of-j-k-rowlings-book-harry-potter-and-the-prisoner-of-azkaban-and-its-movie-adaptation/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Harry Potter Books and Movies." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-comparison-of-j-k-rowlings-book-harry-potter-and-the-prisoner-of-azkaban-and-its-movie-adaptation/.

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35 Things You Might Not Know About Harry Potter

By erin mccarthy | mar 3, 2023, 5:10 pm est.

Think you know all there is to know about the Boy Who Lived? Think again. Read on for what you need to know about the Harry Potter books and films. (Spoilers below!)

1. J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter share a birthday.

They both blow out candles on July 31. And that’s not the only influence Rowling had on her characters: She’s said that Hermione is a bit like her when she was younger, and her favorite animal is an otter—which is, of course, Hermione’s patronus. Plus, both Dumbledore and Rowling  like sherbet lemons  (Rowling has said that the wizard’s “got good taste”).

2. J.K. Rowling invented the names of the Hogwarts houses on the back of a barf bag.

In 2000, Scholastic gave schoolchildren across the U.S. the opportunity to ask Rowling questions about Harry Potter. When one student asked her, “What made you think of the people’s names and dormitories at Hogwarts?” Rowling responded, “I invented the names of the Houses on the back of an airplane sick bag! This is true. I love inventing names, but I also collect unusual names, so that I can look through my notebook and choose one that suits a new character.”

3. J.K. Rowling’s education came in handy for writing the Harry Potter books.

At university, she minored in classics, and she put that education to good use, peppering the books with Latin . “It just amused me, the idea that wizards would still be using Latin as a living language, although it is, as scholars of Latin will know,” she said in 2000 . “I take great liberties with the language for spells. I see it as a kind of mutation that the wizards are using.” Expelliarmus , for example, combines expellere , meaning “drive out” or “expel,” with arma , meaning “weapon,” and knocks weapons from an enemy’s hands. Incendio , which lights a fire, comes from incendiarius , or “fire-raising.” And Hogwarts’s motto is Draco Dormiens Numquam Titillandus —“Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon.”

4. Early on, J.K. Rowling wrote a sketch of the final chapter of the final book.

Rowling calls the idea that she had the first chapter of Deathly Hallows written and locked away in the safe “rubbish.” But there was a small element of truth to it: “I had, very early on—but not the first day or anything, probably within the first year of writing—I wrote a sketch for what I thought the final chapter would be,” she told Daniel Radcliffe, who played Potter on the big screen, in an interview for the Deathly Hallows Part 2 DVD extra features. “I always knew—and this was from really early on—that I was working toward the point where Hagrid carried Harry, alive but supposedly dead, out of the forest, always. I knew we were always working towards a final battle at Hogwarts, I knew that Harry would walk to his death, I planned the ghosts—for want of a better word—coming back, that they would walk with him into the forest, we would all believe he was walking to his death, and he would emerge in Hagrid’s arms.”

And that mental image is what kept Hagrid alive, despite the fact that he “would have been a natural to kill in some ways,” Rowling said. “But because I always cleaved to this mental image of Hagrid being the one carrying Harry out … That was so perfect for me, because it was Hagrid who took him into the world, and Hagrid who would bring him back … That’s where we were always going. Hagrid was never in danger.”

5. The Dementors in Harry Potter are based on J.K. Rowling’s struggle with depression after her mother’s death.

Rowling’s mother, who had multiple sclerosis, died in 1990, after which Rowling suffered a period of depression. She would use the experience to characterize Harry Potter’s dementors, creepy creatures that feed on human emotion. “It’s so difficult to describe [depression] to someone who’s never been there, because it's not sadness," Rowling told Oprah Winfrey . “I know sadness. Sadness is to cry and to feel. But it’s that cold absence of feeling—that really hollowed-out feeling. That’s what Dementors are.”

6. J.K. Rowling created Quidditch after a fight with her boyfriend.

“If you want to create a game like Quidditch, what you have to do is have an enormous argument with your then-boyfriend,” Rowling said in 2003 . “You walk out of the house, you sit down in a pub, and you invent Quidditch. And I don’t really know what the connection is between the row and Quidditch except that Quidditch is quite a violent game and maybe in my deepest, darkest soul I would quite like to see him hit by a bludger.”

7. The plants in Harry Potter come from a real book.

“I used to collect names of plants that sounded witchy,” Rowling told 60 Minutes , “and then I found this, Culpeper's Complete Herbal , and it was the answer to my every prayer: flax weed, toadflax, fleawort, Gout-wort, grommel, knotgrass, Mugwort." The book was penned in the 17th century by English botanist and herbalist Nicholas Culpeper; you can read it here .

8. A proposed title for the American version of Philosopher’s Stone was Harry Potter and the School of Magic.

Rowling turned that down, saying, according to American publisher Arthur Levine , “No—that doesn’t feel right to me … What if we called it the Sorcerer’s Stone ?” (The French edition, Levine points out in J.K. Rowling: A Bibliography , is called Harry Potter a l'Ecole Des Sorciers .)

9. J.K. Rowling made complicated outlines for the books.

The author’s outline for Order of the Phoenix  has chapter titles, a general outline of the plot, and then more specific plot points for certain characters. (Based on this outline, it looks like Rowling thought about calling Dolores Umbridge “Elvira Umbridge” instead!)

10. Arthur Weasley was supposed to die.

In a battle between good and evil this epic, not everyone would make it through alive—that would have led to “very fluffy, cozy books,” Rowling told Meredith Vieira . “You know, suddenly I [would be] halfway through Goblet of Fire and suddenly everyone would just have a really great life and … the plot would go AWOL.”

Which is not to say that Rowling knew exactly who was on the chopping block. She thought about killing Arthur Weasley after he was attacked by Nagini in Order of the Phoenix , but instead opted to save him, partly because “there were very few good fathers in the book. In fact, you could make a very good case for Arthur Weasley being the only good father in the whole series.” (She also “ seriously considered ” killing Ron, then thought better of it.)

Instead, Lupin—a character she had no intention of killing when she began the books—and Tonks died during the final Battle of Hogwarts. “I wanted there to be an echo of what happened to Harry just to show the absolute evil of what Voldemort’s doing,” she said. “I think one of the most devastating things about war is the children left behind. As happened in the first war when Harry’s left behind, I wanted us to see another child left behind. And it made it very poignant that it was [Lupin and Tonks's] newborn son.”

11. Stephen King thought Dolores Umbridge was a great villain.

In his review of Order of the Phoenix for Entertainment Weekly , King said, “The gently smiling Dolores Umbridge, with her girlish voice, toadlike face, and clutching, stubby fingers, is the greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter” [ PDF ].

12. To keep Deathly Hallows from leaking early, Bloomsbury gave it code names.

You probably wouldn’t have been so interested in reading Edinburgh Potmakers or The Life and Times of Clara Rose Lovett: An Epic Novel Covering Many Generations .

13. Haley Joel Osment could have played Harry in the Harry Potter films.

When Steven Spielberg was attached to direct the film adaptation, he wanted Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment to play Harry. But the director eventually left over a creative clash with Rowling, and new director Chris Columbus had to find his star. Some 300 kids tested for Harry Potter over a period of seven months; Jonathan Lipnicki ( Jerry McGuire ) even expressed interest. “There were times when we felt we would never find an individual who embodied the complex spirit and depth of Harry,” Columbus said .

Then, one night, producer David Heyman went to the theater with screenwriter Steve Kloves (who ended up penning all but one of the Potter scripts). “There sitting behind me was this boy with these big blue eyes. It was Dan Radcliffe,” Heyman told HeroComplex in 2009 . “I remember my first impressions: He was curious and funny and so energetic. There was real generosity too, and sweetness. But at the same time he was really voracious and with hunger for knowledge of whatever kind.” He persuaded Radcliffe’s parents to let their son audition, and the rest is history.

14. Rupert Grint’s audition was unusual.

Nine-year-old Emma Watson’s first audition for the role of Hermione took place in her school gym ; she auditioned a total of eight times . Grint, then 10, sent in a video audition, and went in a rather unusual direction: “I found out that you could audition by sending a picture of yourself and some information to Newsround,” he said in 2002 . “I did my own video with me, first of all, pretending to be my drama teacher who unfortunately was a girl and then I did a rap of how I wanted to be Ron and then I made my own script thing up and sent it off.”

He had some competition, though: Tom Felton auditioned for both Ron and Harry before ultimately being cast as Draco Malfoy.

15. There’s a good reason Harry’s eyes aren’t green in the movies.

In the books, Harry’s eyes are described as “bright green”—but Radcliffe’s are blue. When Sorcerer’s Stone was in pre-production, Heyman called Rowling and told her their options: They’d tried green contacts; they could also trying making Radcliffe’s eyes green in post-production. How important was it, he wondered, for Harry’s eyes to be green?

Rowling said that the only thing that was really important was that Harry’s eyes looked like his mother’s eyes, so whoever played Lily Potter would need to have some resemblance to Radcliffe. This was a relief for Radcliffe, who had an extremely adverse reaction to the contacts. (He was also allergic to the glasses, which made him break out in acne.)

16. The brooms used in the Harry Potter movies aren’t regular brooms.

They were made by modeler Pierre Bohanna using aircraft-grade titanium. “People think of them as a prop the kids are carrying around, but in reality, they have to sit on them,” Eddie Newquist, chief creative officer of the firm Global Entertainment Services, which put on “Harry Potter: The Exhibition,” told Popular Mechanics . “They have to be mounted onto motion-control bases for green-screen shots and special-effects shots, so they have to be very thin and incredibly durable. Most of these kids weighed 80 pounds, 90 pounds [at the beginning]. Now they’re all adults, so they’re up over 120, 130 pounds, and you have to really make sure your brooms can withstand that.”

17. The role of Peeves was cast and filmed—then cut from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone .

British comedian Rik Mayall was cast as Hogwarts’s prank-happy poltergeist in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone . He showed up and shot the scenes, which were later cut when director Chris Columbus decided he didn’t like the look of the ghost. Mayall described the experience in a 2011 interview:

“I got sent off the set because every time I tried to do a bit of acting, all the lads who were playing the school kids kept getting the giggles, they kept corpsing, so they threw me off.

“Well, they asked me to do it with my back to them and they still laughed. So they asked me to do it around the other side of the cathedral and shout my lines, but they still laughed so they said they’d do my lines with someone else. So then I did a little bit of filming, then I went home and I got the money. That’s significant. Then a month later, they said: ‘Er, Rik, we’re sorry about this, but you’re not in the film. We’ve cut you out of the film.’ … But I still got the money. So that is the most exciting film I’ve ever been in, because I got the oodle and I wasn’t in it. Fantastic.”

He didn’t tell his kids his part had been cut, though, and when they went to see it, “they came back and they said: ‘Bloody good make up. You didn’t look like yourself at all dad,’” Mayall said. “They thought I was playing Hagrid, Robbie Coltrane’s part.”

18. Moaning Myrtle has an interesting inspiration.

Rowling wrote on Pottermore that the whiny, bathroom-dwelling ghost was inspired by “the frequent presence of a crying girl in communal bathrooms, especially at the parties and discos of my youth. This does not seem to happen in male bathrooms, so I enjoyed placing Harry and Ron in such uncomfortable and unfamiliar territory in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .”

19. The actress who played Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was older than a student.

Shirley Henderson was 36 when she played the bathroom-haunting ghost of a 14-year-old student who was killed by a basilisk’s stare in Chamber of Secrets . Playing a ghost was tougher than playing a real person, she told the BBC , “because of all the technical stuff it involved. I had to be strapped up to this harness so it looked as if I was flying and so I could be pushed through the air and twisted and turned over and over again. It’s physically very tiring on your body. It also requires a lot of concentration, because there’s all kinds of people shouting stuff like 'Turn, do this, look at this’ so they can do all their stuff with the computer effects while I’m trying to act it out. But once you block all that out, it’s great fun. Really good fun.”

20. Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuarón asked Watson, Grint, and Radcliffe to write essays about their characters.

Alfonso Cuarón wanted Watson, Radcliffe, and Grint to write essays about their characters from a first person point of view. According to Heyman , “they all responded very much in character … Dan wrote a page, Emma wrote 10 and Rupert didn’t deliver anything.”

Grint told Entertainment Weekly , “I didn’t do mine, because I didn’t think Ron would. Or that was my excuse. At the time, I was actually quite busy with the real schoolwork involved with my exams, and I just didn’t do it. But in the end, it felt right because that’s what Ron would have done.”

21. J.K. Rowling shot down one of Alfonso Cuarón’s ideas.

Rowling wasn’t precious about all of the details of her books (see: Harry’s eye color). “Inevitably, you have to depart from the strict storyline of the books,” she told Radcliffe. “The books are simply too long to make into very faithful films.” But that didn’t mean she’d let everything slide: “Sometimes I would dig my heels in on the funniest things,” she said. “I’d say yeah, change the costume, that’s not a problem … And then all of a sudden I’d say, ‘Why would they do that spell? They wouldn’t do that there.’”

Take, for example, one shot that Cuarón wrote into Prisoner of Azkaban , which Rowling called “rather bizarre.” “I think Flitwick was conducting, and there were miniature people in an orchestra inside something,” she told Radcliffe. “I said to him, but why? I know it’s visually exciting, but part of what I think fans really enjoyed about the literary world is that there was a logic that underpinned it. There was always a logic to the magic, however strange it became. And I know it’s intriguing to go through the mouth of whatever it was and see these little people, but why have they done it? For you to film it, that’s just what it feels like. Normally, with the magic, there’s a point. So we had a bit of discussion.”

22. J.K. Rowling tipped Alan Rickman off to Snape’s motivations.

“I told him really early on that Snape had been in love with Lily, that’s why he hated James, that’s why he projected this amount of dislike onto Harry,” Rowling told Radcliffe. “So he knew that. Then you told me that he’d been saying … ‘I just don’t think Snape would do that, given what I know.’” She laughed, continuing, “And I thought, ‘Alan, are you really milking this now?’”

She also told Radcliffe about Harry’s (partial) fate after seeing him in Equus . Radcliffe asked her, point-blank: “Do I die?”

“You get a death scene,” Rowling told him.

“I saw you double-take,” Rowling said. “Neal, my husband, afterward, said, ‘What did Dan ask you?’ And I said ‘He wanted to know if he’s going to die.’” When he asked what she’d said, Rowling told him, “I’m not telling you!” Though her husband knew Dumbledore's fate ahead of time, Rowling kept Harry’s ultimate fate a secret till the end.

23. The Harry Potter actors couldn’t play contact sports.

Instead, they played golf. ''[At Leavesden Studios], Rupert Grint and my brother [James] and I would hang out at the driving range downstairs quite a bit,” Oliver Phelps, who played George Weasley, told EW . “I mean, I say driving range, but it was a mat and a 150-yard cone at the other end. Golf was one of the only sports we were allowed to do in our contract because it was relatively quite safe. We couldn’t do any contact sports.”

24. The Harry Potter movies featured some high-tech visual effects …

Visual effects artists were tasked with bringing many of the fantastic magical elements of Harry Potter to life, including everything from fire-breathing dragons and club-swinging giants to zombie-like Inferi and Voldemort’s snake-like face (which was created by using practical makeup and digitally removing Ralph Fiennes’s nose). One of their most challenging sequences came early in Deathly Hallows , when members of the Order of the Phoenix arrive at Privet Drive to whisk Harry away to a safe spot. Multiple Harrys, Mad-Eye Moody says, will confuse the Death Eaters on their trail—so some of the wizards chug Polyjuice Potion and transform into Harry.

The transformation was tough for visual effects artists to pull off. "We needed to have a little bit of the attributes of Harry, and a little bit of the attributes of whoever we started with—George, Fred, Ron, Hermione," Nicolas Aithadi, VFX supervisor at Moving Picture Company, told Popular Mechanics . "The tricky part is you have to be able to read the Harry part and the George part. What we keep from each of these characters has to be perfect." They accomplished it by coating the actors’ faces in UV paint, then having them make faces in the Mova Contour Reality Capture system, which had 29 cameras and can capture 50,000 points of information, creating a 3D mesh cloud they could use as a basis for the transforming faces.

According to Phelps, it was completely different than anything they’d ever done before. “There are probably 30 different facial expressions they tried to get you to do,” he told Popular Mechanics . “I never realized how wide I could open my mouth until we did that scene, so that was quite cool.” Because of the UV paint, the VFX artists had one piece of advice, Phelps said: “They were quite keen to say, ‘Just don’t go to any nightclubs tonight, because you’ll look like a floating head.’”

25. … But not all the effects in the Harry Potter movies were computer generated.

Animatronics were made for the actors to interact with on set, including baby mandrakes, Hedwig, the Monster Book of Monsters , and Buckbeak, which was used on-set for close ups. “He could stare at you, his eyes could follow you, he could bow, and every one of his feathers was dyed and put in by hand,” Newquist told Popular Mechanics . “There are tens of thousands of them, and they look absolutely gorgeous. ”Other creatures were built to give the animators reference for lighting, like the giant Jack-in-the-Box from Prisoner of Azkaban and house elf Kreacher.

26. The Harry Potter makeup artists applied Harry’s lightning bolt scar thousands of times over the course of eight films.

Five thousand eight hundred times , to be exact. In our 2014 interview with Radcliffe, he told us , “The lightning scar, on the first two films, we essentially painted it on, and after that we used Pros-Aide, which was like a glue [to put it on]. It was very simple.” The scar was applied to his face thousands of times; the rest went on film and stunt doubles. Radcliffe also went through 160 pairs of Harry’s round-frame glasses.

27. Helena Bonham Carter kept her Bellatrix teeth.

“I loved my [fake] teeth!” the actress told EW . “I kept them because they’re not going to fit anybody else. I keep them in a blue plastic thing in the bathroom and bring them out when I miss [Bellatrix].’”

28. There could have been an official Harry Potter musical.

Rowling has turned down a lot of proposed Harry Potter ideas—including, she told Winfrey , a musical that Michael Jackson wanted to do. Harry did get his Broadway moment, though, via Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , which debuted on the West End in 2016 before making its way to Broadway two years later.

29. Dumbledore was gay.

Rowling has shared a number of revelations since the Harry Potter books and films wrapped up—including the fact that Dumbledore was gay.

In 2007, when asked by a fan whether or not Hogwarts’s favorite headmaster had ever been in love, Rowling responded , “I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” She revealed that he had fallen in love with Grindelwald, “and that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was.”

Rowling said she found the reaction to the news very interesting. “To me it was not a big deal,” she told Radcliffe. “This is a very old man who has a very terrible job to do. And his gayness is not really relevant. Very relevant to him as a character, because I always saw him as a very lonely character. And I think that there is in fact a hint of it in [ Deathly Hallows ] because of the relationship he has with Grindelwald. He fell very hard for this boy ... And don’t you think it was perfect that Dumbledore, who is always the great champion of love … his one great experience of love was utterly tragic.”

This led to one very necessary tweak to the Half-Blood Prince script. “In an early draft of that script, Dumbledore said to Harry … ‘I remember a young woman with eyes of flashing whatever, raven-haired…’ and I read this and I scribbled on my copy of the script, ‘Steve, Dumbledore is gay,’ shoved it up the table,” she said. “And Steve [said,] ‘Oh.’ So that’s why that line didn’t make the film.”

30. J.K. Rowling acknowledged that a Harry/Hermione pairing might have worked.

In an interview with Emma Watson for Wonderland magazine in 2014, Rowling said that “I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment,” saying that they ended up together “for reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it … The attraction itself is plausible but the combative side of it … I’m not sure you could have got over that in an adult relationship, there was too much fundamental incompatibility.”

She noted that “in some ways Hermione and Harry are a better fit,” and that she felt that “quite strongly” when she wrote a particular scene in Deathly Hallows , where Harry and Hermione are in the tent. “I hadn’t told [Steve] Kloves that and when he wrote the script he felt exactly the same thing at exactly the same point,” she said.

31. According to J.K. Rowling, the Malfoy family once hung out with rich Muggles.

“Until the imposition of the Statute of Secrecy in 1692, the Malfoy family was active within high-born Muggle circles, and it is said that their fervent opposition to the imposition of the Statute was due, in part, to the fact that they would have to withdraw from this enjoyable sphere of social life,” Rowling wrote on Pottermore. In fact, one Malfoy might have had designs on the British Throne: “There is ample evidence to suggest that the first Lucius Malfoy was an unsuccessful aspirant to the hand of Elizabeth I, and some wizarding historians allege that the Queen's subsequent opposition to marriage was due to a jinx placed upon her by the thwarted Malfoy,” Rowling writes. The Malfoys gave up their Muggle fraternizing when the Ministry of Magic, “the new heart of power,” was founded.

32. Muggles can’t make potions.

And that’s because you can’t make potions without wands . “Merely adding dead flies and asphodel to a pot hanging over a fire will give you nothing but nasty-tasting, not to mention poisonous, soup,” Rowling wrote on Pottermore. Though her least favorite subject in school was chemistry, she admitted that “I always enjoyed creating potions in the books, and researching ingredients for them. Many of the components of the various draughts and libations that Harry creates for Snape exist (or were once believed to exist) and have (or were believed to have) the properties I gave them.”

33. There was one Harry Potter question J.K. Rowling feared the most.

It was “What was Dumbledore’s wand made of?”

“That would have been quite a telling question,” Rowling told Time . “Because I had this elder thing in my mind, cause elder has this association in folklore, it’s the death tree. I thought, ‘What am I going to say?’” Thankfully, no one ever asked.

34. You can spot a crumple-horned snorkack in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

It’s on the second story of the Magical Menagerie . Luna’s father, Xenophilius Lovegood , claimed it was a real creature, but it was never found. Rowling said that Luna, who became a naturalist, had to eventually “accept that her father might have made that one up.”

35. … as well as Arthur Weasley’s flying car.

The flying Ford Anglia—which Harry and Ron flew into the Whomping Willow and later saved them from Acromantulas in the books—was found in line for the now-closed Dragon Challenge roller coaster , just over the bridge and before entering the castle.

A version of this story ran in 2015; it has been updated for 2023.

48 Harry Potter Writing Prompts (+ Free Printable Pack)

It’s been 20 years since the first Harry Potter movie came out in cinemas. To celebrate Harry Potter’s 20th Anniversary, we have created these 48 Harry Potter writing prompts to inspire you with the magic of Hogwarts and more. Our list contains a mix of creative writing prompts, as well as journal prompts relating to the Harry Potter franchise. 

From the busy streets of Diagon Alley to the mystical creatures found in the forbidden forest, explore the world of Harry Potter with these fun writing prompts. Plus keep on reading to get your printable Harry Potter writing activities pack.

Fan of Harry Potter? Then you’ll love this Harry Potter Name Generator ! It’s great for generating character names for your Harry Potter-inspired story or fan-fic! You might also want to see our post on over 110 Harry Potter quotes on life, love and friendship . For more fantasy-theme prompts, check out this list of over 70 fantasy writing prompts .

Harry Potter Writing Prompts

This list of prompts is great for anyone looking to write Harry Potter fanfiction or for teachers looking for some interesting writing prompts to use in the classroom. See the full list of Harry Potter writing prompts below:

• With Lord Voldemort gone, something more evil is coming. What evil is coming? Is it another dark lord or some sort of creature? What makes this ‘evil’ worse than Lord Voldemort?
• If you could choose Hogwarts house, which would it be and why? The houses include Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin.
• As the new head of Hogwarts, you decided to create a fifth house. What would you call this house? Draw a picture of the house’s coat of arms or logo. What traits would a person be selected for this house? What are the house colours? What animal symbolises the house?
• You have been hired as a Quidditch coach at Hogwarts. Your job is to help Hogwarts win the Quidditch championship against other schools. Make a list of at least 10 tips you can provide to your players.
• The Harry Potter franchise is filled with loads of amazing spells. Can you invent your own spell? What would this spell do? What are the consequences of casting this spell incorrectly? For example, the  Bat-Bogey Hex was a spell invented by Miranda Goshawk. The spell transformed bogeys into bats that come flying out of the victim’s nose.
• Write a day in the life story about being a student at Hogwarts. What classes would you attend? What would you do during your break? What would you eat at lunchtime?
• Boggarts take the shape of a person’s worst fears. In Harry Potter, most Boggarts took the form of Lord Voldemort, as he was feared the most. If you encountered a Boggart what form would it take and why?
• Which Hogwarts professor is your favourite and why?
• Desperate to find a book on transformation spells, you sneak into the Hogwarts library after hours. You find that all the books in the restricted section of the library have been thrown off the shelves. You look at a couple of these books and notice that page 394 is missing in all of them. 
• Walking through the Forbidden forest you encounter an Acromantula (a giant spider). Write a battle scene in great detail between you and this creature. 
• Write down four character descriptions of four very different students at Hogwarts. Each student belongs to a different house at Hogwarts. 
• Imagine you are a ghost roaming through the corridors of Hogwarts. You eavesdrop on a conversation between Harry and Hermoine. Hermoine is furious about something. Write down this conversation that you hear between the two characters.
• Write a story about a muggle who mistakenly receives an invitation to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
• Imagine you are walking through the Forbidden Forest. Describe what you see, hear, smell and feel in great detail.
• Imagine if Harry Potter joined Slytherin instead of Gryffindor and became best friends with Draco Malfroy. What would Harry’s first year at Hogwarts look like?
• Somewhere hidden in Hogwarts is a new, unknown creature. Describe this creature in great detail. What does it look like? Does it have any special powers or abilities? What would you call it?
• Describe the busy, bustling streets of Diagon Alley in great detail. Think about what you hear, see, smell and feel as you walk through the busy street.
• Make your own list of the top 5 scariest creatures In Harry Potter. For each creature explain why you think they are scary.
• Walking through the halls of Hogwarts you notice a door that you have never seen before. You open the door to discover…
• What class at Hogwarts would be your favourite and why?
• After years of mastering your skills at Hogwarts, you are finally ready to take revenge on the Muggles that abused you as a child. 
• Imagine you work at Sugarplum’s Sweets Shop in Diagon Alley. Your task is to come up with a new magical sweet to amaze your customers. 
• Write a story using this story starter: It was a brand new day at Hogwarts. You hoped that this day was going to be better than yesterday. 
• After mastering transformation, you transform yourself into Harry Potter’s doppelganger and return to Hogwarts many years later. What happens next?
• A Patronus in Harry Potter is essentially a spirit animal that fends off evil. It is unique to the wizard that conjures it. Harry Potter is able to conjure a stag Patronus to fend off dementors in Prisoner of Azkaban. If you were able to cast the Patronus Charm spell what would your spirit animal look like and why?
• After 7 years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you will graduate at the top of your class. What do you do afterwards? What job do you get?
• The Mirror of Erised is a mirror that shows someone’s deepest desires and wants. For example, when Harry Potter stood in front of the mirror in 1991, he saw both his parents alive. If you stood in front of this mirror, what do you think you will see and why?
• You are on a quest to find a potion that turns anyone who drinks it into a dog. Why is this potion important?
• Write a diary entry of your first day at Hogwarts. What did you enjoy? Did anything bad happen? What was the highlight of the day?
• Tired of crime in the Muggle world, you decide to use your magic for good and become a ‘superhero’.
• Write a how-to guide on how to ride broomsticks correctly.
• There are many types of quills used in the Harry Potter franchise. An example includes the auto-answer quill which automatically writes down the correct answer to a question. If you could invent your own magical quill, what would it do and why?
• Which Harry Potter book or movie is your favourite and why?
• Would you rather own the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone or the Cloak of Invisibility? Spells cast by the Elder Wand are the most powerful. The Resurrection Stone allows the holder to bring back a deceased person. While the Cloak of Invisibility makes the wearer invisible. 
• You are a poor student at Hogwarts and can’t afford to get the items on the Hogwarts supply list. You decide to rummage in dumpsters behind the shops in Diagon alley looking for some free items. As you go through the garbage, you find…
• My friend Harry Potter is a wizard, but he is a horrible person. Write a story from the perspective of a fellow student who dislikes Harry Potter, and wants to ruin his time at Hogwarts. 
• Someone has cursed your entire house with the Curse of the Bogies. Now you and your friends have an extreme cold. You must find out who did this and why?
• Create your own curse spell. What would it do? And what will you call it?
• A squib is someone who is born into a magical family but has no magical abilities yet. Write a story about a character who is a squib trying to develop their magical abilities.
• Who are your top three favourite characters in Harry Potter and why?
• You walk into your room at Hogwarts and discover that your roommate is performing a forbidden dark magic spell. What do you do next?
• In a battle between a Basilisk and an Acromantula who would win? You could even write down a detailed battle scene between the two creatures.
• Your character creates a new club at Hogwarts called Green for Life. It is an environmental club about protecting the planet. How can wizards help protect the environment? What kind of spells could they cast?
• Imagine you are a muggle-born. A child is born with magical abilities but their parents are muggles. You never receive your invite to Hogwarts, but know that you can be a powerful wizard. Continue this story…
• You are responsible for hiring professors at Hogwarts. You need to hire a new professor to teach the potion class. Write a job description for this role. Think about the skills and traits this person will need to teach this class.
• Tell the story of a student that becomes the ultimate creature carer and tamer at Hogwarts. Beyond all belief, this student is able to tame the toughest of creatures. 
• Write down a potion recipe for creating a new potion. What will this potion do, once it’s used? What ingredients would you need to make it?
• You have become the master of a house-elf like Dobby. What kind of tasks would you give this house-elf? How would you treat it?

Thank you for reading this post! To reward you here is the free Harry Potter writing activities pack as promised!

What did you think of these Harry Potter writing prompts? Did you find them useful? Let us know in the comments below.

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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Harry Potter reunion: When director Alfonso Cuaron assigned the cast homework and Emma Watson outshone Daniel Radcliffe

During the filming of harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban, director alfonso cuaron assigned the three leads some homework, and each cast member reacted exactly how their character would..

When the Harry Potter films began filming, the three main cast members - Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , and Rupert Grint - were pre-teens. So, it’s no wonder that some of the early directors in the franchise treated them like kids. In the 20th anniversary special Harry Potter: Return to Hogwarts, the cast member revealed what happened when director Alfonso Cuaron actually assigned them homework on the sets of the third film.

The first two films in the franchise were directed by Chirstopher Columbus and Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron came on board to direct the third film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2003. The cast revealed that in a bid to get to know the cast members and their understanding of the characters, he actually assigned them homework. Daniel Radcliffe recounted, “He wanted to get to know us so he set up this exercise where he asked us to write an essay in character.” His co-star Rupert Grint added, “He was like, you know these characters at this point better than I’ll ever be able to understand who they are, so you tell me.”

However, the three leads - Daniel, Rupert, and Emma - went very differently about their assignments. Daniel recalled, “After about half a side of A4 (size paper), I was like, ‘right, I have pretty much covered everything. I mean Joan (JK Rowling) has written 500 pages about this, but I feel like this one pretty much sums this up. Great!’ I was proud of that and brought it in.” However, to his surprise, Emma - true to her character as the studious Hermione - had outdone him. “Of course, Emma writes 12 pages that are beautifully written,” said Rupert.

Director Alfonso Cuaron said that each of the three cast members did that essay exactly how their characters would have, to the extent that Rupert Grint didn’t even submit his. “Rupert didn’t deliver anything. I said, ‘Rupert where is your assignment?’ and he says, ‘I thought Ron wouldn’t do it’,” he said with a laugh.

Also read: Harry Potter reunion: Emma Watson says it was ‘horrifying’ to kiss Rupert Grint, he reveals he ‘kind of blacked out’

Harry Potter’s 20th anniversary special Return to Hogwarts begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video in India from January 1 afternoon. It marks two decades of the release of the first film in the franchise.

Dedicated professionals who write about cinema and television in all their vibrancy. Expect views, reviews and news. ...view detail

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Short Essay And Paragraph On Harry Potter For Students

Here you can read a five-paragraph essay about the Harry Potter books in serious terms. The following selected paragraphs are valuable for learning purposes, especially for young students.

Table of Contents

A Paragraph About Harry Potter

1. Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels by J.K. Rowling. The series tells the adventures of the young wizard Harry Potter and his friends Ron Wesley and Hermione Granger, who are all students of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and want to conquer the world.

3. They have also been criticized for their negative portrayal of certain groups, such as the Slithery, and for promoting witchcraft and wizardry. Even so, the series has become one of the most popular in history, and its influence on popular culture is undeniable.

4. So here’s a quick rundown of the Harry Potter franchise: Whether you’re a fan or not, there is no denying that these books have had a huge impact on the world. Did you know? The final book in the Harry Potter franchise, Deathly Hallows, was published in 2007 and became the fastest-selling book in history. In the first 24 hours of its publication, 11 million copies were sold.

5. The Harry Potter series has been translated into over 60 languages and made into eight blockbuster films. Rowling said she got the idea for the series while on a train ride from Manchester to London. Soon after, she began writing the first book. Harry Potter is often credited with reviving the children’s book genre , which made reading popular among young people again. Research has shown that it encourages children to buy books by other British authors, such as Roald Dahl and Diana Wynne Jones.

500 Words Essay On Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels written by British author J.K. Rowling. The series chronicles the life of a young orphan boy named Harry Potter, who discovers on his eleventh birthday that he is a wizard. He is taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a magical boarding school in Scotland, where he makes friends and enemies, and learns about magic and the magical world.

The series is made up of seven books, with the first book, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” being published in 1997 and the final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” being published in 2007. The books were later adapted into eight successful films, with the final film being released in 2011.

The Harry Potter series has become one of the most popular and successful book and movie franchises of all time. It has been translated into over 80 languages and has sold over 500 million copies worldwide. The series has also been credited with revitalizing interest in reading among young people and has been used as a tool for teaching reading and critical thinking skills in schools.

One of the reasons for the series’ success is its relatable and well-developed characters. Harry Potter, the protagonist of the series, is an orphan who is forced to grow up too quickly, and the series follows his journey from a neglected and mistreated child to a brave and confident young man. His friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are also well-developed characters, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. The series also features a wide variety of memorable and dynamic villains, such as Lord Voldemort, the main antagonist of the series, and his followers, the Death Eaters.

Another aspect of the series that has contributed to its success is its rich and detailed magical world. Rowling’s imagination and creativity are on full display in the series, as she creates a world filled with a wide variety of magical creatures, spells, and magical objects. The series also features a complex and intricate plot, with many subplots and twists that keep readers engaged and guessing until the end.

In conclusion, the Harry Potter series is a masterpiece of modern literature that has captured the hearts and minds of millions of readers and viewers around the world. It has become one of the most popular and successful book and movie franchises of all time, and its relatable characters, rich magical world, and complex plot are just a few of the reasons why it has stood the test of time. It is a story of friendship, love, and the power of good to triumph over evil that will continue to be enjoyed by people of all ages for years to come.

Hello! Welcome to my Blog StudyParagraphs.co. My name is Angelina. I am a college professor. I love reading writing for kids students. This blog is full with valuable knowledge for all class students. Thank you for reading my articles.

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‘Harry Potter’ books to be recorded as full cast audio productions

• Updated: Apr. 27, 2024, 12:20 a.m. |
• Published: Apr. 26, 2024, 3:48 p.m.

Seen in the 2001 Warner Bros. film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," Daniel Radcliffe, in the title role of the boy wizard; Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as Hermoine Granger. The "Harry Potter" books will be recorded as full cast audio productions. Innovation Arts & Entertainment SYR

• EmilyAnn Jackman | [email protected]

Good news for “Harry Potter” fans.

Several of author J.K. Rowling’s original, best-selling “ Harry Potter” books are set to become a huge new audiobook series.

Stories by EmilyAnn Jackman

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Original Harry Potter Stories to be Released as Full-Cast Audio Productions

Pottermore Publishing, the global digital Wizarding WorldTM publisher, and Audible today announced a brand-new co-production of the original Harry Potter stories, revisiting the beloved listening experience for the first time ever. Scheduled for late 2025, these full-cast audio productions will bring these iconic stories to life as never heard before, offering immersive audio entertainment through high-quality sound design in Dolby Atmos , stunning scoring, a full range of character voices, and real-world sound capture.

Watch the official announcement video below.

Each of the seven English language audiobooks will be released sequentially for a global audience, and will sit alongside and complement the iconic single-voice English language recordings by Jim Dale and Stephen Fry. The Harry Potter audiobooks were first published in 1999 and have been unprecedented in their popularity since they launched on Audible in 2015, with 1.4 billion global listening hours now reached.

Bob Carrigan , CEO of Audible, said: “Beloved the world over, Harry Potter stories have captivated and enchanted fans of all ages for nearly three decades. With millions upon millions of Audible listeners devouring Harry Potter at an astonishing rate, we are thrilled about the opportunity to be part of this next chapter–delighting new and old fans alike with a reinvigorated listening experience that Audible is expertly positioned to create.” Carrigan continued, “Together with Pottermore Publishing, best-in-class producers, and over one hundred actors, we will introduce a groundbreaking new soundscape for the Wizarding World, as well as performances that will inspire our listeners’ imaginations and redefine these quintessential characters for a new generation.”

Neil Blair, Chairman of Pottermore Publishing said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Audible on what will be a ground-breaking audio edition of the beloved Harry Potter stories. J.K. Rowling’s storytelling lends itself perfectly to the application of new audiobook technologies, and we’re certain this sophisticated, immersive audio experience will not only add a new listening dimension for existing fans but will introduce a whole new generation of listeners to the wizarding world.”

The complete Harry Potter audiobook collection on Audible also includes The Tales of Beedle the Bard performed by Jude Law, Harry Potter: A History of Magic performed by Natalie Dormer, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them performed by Eddie Redmayne, and Quidditch Through the Ages performed by Andrew Lincoln.

Audible Brings Immersive Audio Experiences to Listeners with Dolby Atmos

The growing catalogue offers Audible listeners more than 40 cinematic listening experiences—and offers Audible creators another powerful tool for entertainment and innovation.

The Harry Potter Series Reaches a Listening Landmark

As Pottermore celebrates ten years of digital publishing, Audible listeners have helped the Harry Potter books reach an incredible milestone— one billion hours of listening!

A-List Cast Stars in Audible's “1984“ Audio Thriller, Premiering April 4

Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Tom Hardy, and more lead Audible's “1984,” directed by Destiny Ekaragha, with a score by Muse's Matthew Bellamy and Ilan Eshkeri. Global release on Audible set for April 4, 2024.

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All Seven ‘Harry Potter’ Books to Be Recorded as Full-Cast Audio Productions With More Than 100 Actors, Will Release Exclusively on Audible

By Todd Spangler

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Listen up, Potterheads: J.K. Rowling’s seven original Harry Potter books are getting a massive new audiobook series.

Amazon’s Audible and Pottermore Publishing , the global digital publisher of Rowling’s Wizarding World, will co-produce a brand-new audiobook series for the original seven Harry Potter stories. The new audiobooks are scheduled to premiere in late 2025, with each of the seven English-language titles to be released sequentially for a global audience, exclusively on Audible.

Popular on Variety

Further details about the new Harry Potter audiobooks — including content and production, global release dates, voice casting, and how to access the audiobooks — will be released later. The project is unrelated to the eight Warner Bros. movies chronicling the saga of the boy wizard.

“Beloved the world over, Harry Potter stories have captivated and enchanted fans of all ages for nearly three decades,” Audible CEO Bob Carrigan said. “With millions upon millions of Audible listeners devouring Harry Potter at an astonishing rate, we are thrilled about the opportunity to be part of this next chapter — delighting new and old fans alike with a reinvigorated listening experience that Audible is expertly positioned to create.”

Audible’s complete Harry Potter audiobook collection includes “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” performed by Jude Law; “Harry Potter: A History of Magic” performed by Natalie Dormer; “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” performed by Eddie Redmayne; and “Quidditch Through the Ages” performed by Andrew Lincoln.

Watch the video announcement of the new Harry Potter audiobooks:

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New Full-Cast Harry Potter Audiobooks Set For 2025 Audible Launch

New, full-cast audio productions of all seven original Harry Potter books will be released on Audible beginning late next year, offering for the first time the full range of character voices, real-world sounds and musical scoring for the recorded stories.

The project marks a partnering of Audible with Pottermore Publishing. Each of the seven English language audiobooks will be released sequentially for a global audience (the previous single-voice audiobooks, recorded by Jim Dale and Stephen Fry, will remain available. The Harry Potter audiobooks were first published in 1999 and since launching on Audible in 2015 have reached 1.4 billion global listening hours.

Bob Carrigan, CEO of Audible, said: "Beloved the world over, Harry Potter stories have captivated and enchanted fans of all ages for nearly three decades. With millions upon millions of Audible listeners devouring Harry Potter at an astonishing rate, we are thrilled about the opportunity to be part of this next chapter – delighting new and old fans alike with a reinvigorated listening experience that Audible is expertly positioned to create."

Carrigan continued, "Together with Pottermore Publishing, best-in-class producers, and over one hundred actors, we will introduce a groundbreaking new soundscape for the Wizarding World, as well as performances that will inspire our listeners' imaginations and redefine these quintessential characters for a new generation."

Neil Blair, Chairman of Pottermore Publishing said: "We are delighted to be collaborating with Audible on what will be a ground-breaking audio edition of the beloved Harry Potter stories. J.K. Rowling's storytelling lends itself perfectly to the application of new audiobook technologies, and we're certain this sophisticated, immersive audio experience will not only add a new listening dimension for existing fans but will introduce a whole new generation of listeners to the wizarding world."

The complete Harry Potter audiobook collection on Audible also includes T he Tales of Beedle the Bard performed by Jude Law, Harry Potter: A History of Magic performed by Natalie Dormer, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them performed by Eddie Redmayne, and Quidditch Through the Ages performed by Andrew Lincoln.

Watch the official video announcement of the upcoming series below.

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Harry Potter Audiobooks Are Getting a New Full-Cast Production for Audible

More than 100 actors will bring the series to life for listeners.

• Named a Tech Media Trailblazer by the Consumer Technology Association in 2019, a winner of SPJ NorCal's Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2022 and has three times been a finalist in the LA Press Club's National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards.

Audible is reimagining the Harry Potter audiobooks with a full-cast production.

The Harry Potter books are coming to life in a new way, with full-cast audio productions of the series arriving on Audible in late 2025, Pottermore Publishing and Audible said Thursday.

"These full-cast audio productions will bring these iconic stories to life as never heard before," the companies said in a joint release, "offering immersive audio entertainment through high-quality sound design in Dolby Atmos, stunning scoring, a full range of character voices, and real-world sound capture."

Read more: Harry Potter Gifts Perfect for Any Aspiring Wizard

All seven English language books will be released consecutively around the world, and "will sit alongside and complement the iconic single-voice English language recordings by Jim Dale and Stephen Fry," Audible says -- meaning those popular recordings aren't going anywhere. 

Since the first Harry Potter book was published in 1997, the series has enchanted generations of readers, listeners and viewers of the films. It's only grown in popularity over the years -- despite recent  controversy surrounding author J.K. Rowling -- by tapping into  nostalgia and the expansion of the Wizarding World in the form of the Fantastic Beasts movie franchise  and Hogwarts Legacy game , both prequels to the Harry Potter series. 

The Harry Potter audiobooks were first published in 1999 and launched on Audible in 2015. Audible's Harry Potter collection also includes  The Tales of Beedle the Bard , voiced by actors including Jude Law and Bonnie Wright;  Harry Potter: A History of Magic  performed by Natalie Dormer;  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  performed by Eddie Redmayne; and  Quidditch Through the Ages  performed by Andrew Lincoln.

It's not yet been announced who the voice actors will be for the new audiobook endeavor. "Together with Pottermore Publishing, best-in-class producers, and over one hundred actors, we will introduce a groundbreaking new soundscape for the Wizarding World," said Audible CEO Bob Carrigan, "as well as performances that will inspire our listeners' imaginations and redefine these quintessential characters for a new generation."

Read more: The Best Book Adaptations to Stream Right Now

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