You’ll have to excuse a bad pun, but the Harry Potter franchise is nothing short of magical.
It awakened our inner child and, most importantly, taught us the value of love and friendship.
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Below are 10+ random facts about the Harry Potter movies that fans didn’t know. Grab your quills and parchment, you’ll want to write this down…
1. Robin Williams campaigned hard to play Hagrid.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. The film had a strict intention to only cast British actors in the roles. Which unfortunately left Robin out in the cold.
Can you imagine how incredible he would have been as Hagrid?!
2. Steven Spielberg was signed on to direct the first film.
“I just felt that I wasn’t ready to make an all-kids movie and my kids thought I was crazy. And the books were by that time popular, so when I dropped out, I knew it was going to be a phenomenon.”
3. Harry doesn’t cast a single spell in *Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone*.
He certainly does magical things: like learn how to ride a broom, and make the glass of a snake’s cage disappear.
But we never see him cast a spell. The closest he gets is when he buys his wand inside Olivander’s.
4. Tom Felton auditioned to play both Harry and Ron before being offered the role of Draco Malfoy.
“I’m very grateful that a) I’m in the film at all, but even more grateful that I got the character of Draco,” Tom said during an interview.
He goes on to say that there was no jealousy between the boys and that they all acted as if they were on a team.
5. Tom Riddle’s name changes with the language.
Tom Marvollo Riddle is an anagram for “I am Lord Voldemort.” But that only works in English. Therefore, his name changes depending on the country and respective language.
For example, in the French version of the film, his name is Tom Elvis Jedusor or “Je suis Voldemort.”
6. Hugh Grant was originally cast to play Gilderoy Lockhart.
According to Hugh’s agent at the time , “Sadly Hugh had to turn down the part because he’s committed to doing a movie with Sandra Bullock next February.”
In all honesty, Hugh Grant would have been my dream casting for the role. No offense to Kenneth Brannagh, but he’s no Hugh Grant.
7. Russia was seriously unimpressed with Dobby the House Elf.
Apparently people started to notice that Dobby the House Elf bears a striking resemblance to a certain Russian President .
There was nearly a lawsuit over the likeness but in the end, the case was thrown out.
8. Michael Jackson wanted to turn *Harry Potter* into a musical.
According to an interview between J.K. Rowling and Oprah:
“Michael Jackson wanted to do a musical . I said “no” to a lot of things. For me, I love the films, I love the books and there’s elements that I love around it… like the theme park. But I only wanted to do it because I knew it would be incredible.”
9. Alan Rickman would rob Gringotts Bank on a regular basis.
According to Jason Isaacs, who plays Lucius Malfoy,
“It was very difficult to steal things because Alan, God love him, he nicked all of the Gringotts coins on the very first day… and swiped in and out like a supermarket.”
10. They tried to match Daniel Radcliffe’s eyes to the color of Harry’s.
However, this proved impossible. The contact lenses caused a strong reaction with Daniel’s eyes. From that point onward it was decided that they’d forgo this glaring oversight.
Why didn’t they just CGI Daniel’s eye color? Wouldn’t that make the most sense?
11. The first film broke all the rules.
The Restricted Section of Hogwarts’ Library was actually filmed in the Duke Humfrey building at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Some of these texts are hundreds of years old and there’s a strict “no flame” policy.
The flame that you see Daniel Radcliffe carrying is real and he was the first person to carry one in this library in over a century.
12. Rupert Grint has a severe case of arachnophobia in real life!
As you can probably imagine, he didn’t have to act very hard during the scenes with the giant spider.
Rupert admits that he even goes so far as to check his shoes before he puts them on his feet.
13. We don’t see Harry, Ron, or Hermione change out of their Hogwarts robes until 3rd year.
In the first two films, all of the students at Hogwarts are always shown wearing their school robes while at school. Even when it’s the weekend or after class.
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , the team decided to shake things up to better reflect the personalities of each character.
14. There’s a reason why they shot Daniel Radcliffe’s dance scenes from the waist-up.
Unlike his fellow cast members who had upwards of three weeks to prepare for the Yule Ball scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , Daniel had only four days.
They show him from the waist up to avoid his flailing footwork.
15. Tom Riddle is the nephew of Lord Voldemort in real life.
Ralph Fiennes is the actor who plays Lord Voldemort throughout the franchise.
His nephew , Hero Fiennes Tiffin, plays the 11-year-old version of Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .
16. The actress who plays Moaning Myrtle is a lot older than she looks.
The young woman’s name is Shirley Henderson . At the time she began playing Moaning Myrtle, she was actually 37 years old!
Which makes her the oldest student to ever attend Hogwarts by nearly two decades!
17. Actor Jason Isaacs played a big role in formulating the physical traits of Lucius Malfoy.
Jason was the one who had suggested that Lucius should have a long mane of silver-blonde hair.
He also is the one who suggested that Lucius should conceal his wand within his walking stick.
18. Richard Harris never saw the theatrical release of *Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets*.
Sadly, tragedy struck at Hogwarts and Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore) passed away.
This happened only a few short weeks before the film was due to hit theaters, so Richard never got to see his final film on the big screen.
19. Daniel Radcliffe broke a lot of wands.
Daniel and the prop department couldn’t have gotten along very well with one another. Apparently, he had an expensive habit of using his wands as if they were drumsticks .
He’s said to have broken more than 80 wands over the course of the franchise.
20. No two wands were alike.
Just like in the book, the wands used throughout the franchise are unique and catered to each individual actor.
Just as they are in the books, each wand ranges from between 13-15 inches in length.
21. The broom sticks were custom made.
Both Rupert Grint and Emma Watson stated in the same interview that they had to get moldings of their hindquarters made for the films.
These were then used to craft bicycle seats that could be mounted on the brooms.
22. Director Alfsonso Cuaron actually assigned his three lead actors homework.
Alfonso directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban . Supposedly, he wanted to help himself get better acquainted with his actors by assigning them an essay on their character.
I guess he’d never heard of Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit?
As you can imagine, in true Hermione form, Emma Watson totally over-achieved.
She handed in a whopping 16 pages ! I would presume it to also have been hand-written, in the most glowing and beautiful cursive you could ever imagine.
Would you expect anything less from Hermione?
Daniel Radcliffe handed in a much more modest version of the assignment.
It was a full one page, which again is very in keeping with Harry’s personality and attitude toward his studies . He was never the best but far from the worst.
A solid B- is what we’d expect and Daniel delivered.
Rupert Grint, however, decided to take things in an entirely different direction.
Rupert felt that doing an extra credit assignment in order to impress his director wasn’t exactly a very Ron thing to do.
So Rupert didn’t hand his in at all!
23. Alfonso Cuaron literally couldn’t curse.
There was a clause written into his contract that forbade him from swearing or using curse words in front of the children on set.
It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it? A movie about witches, wizards, and magic, but the director can’t “curse”?
24. Gary Oldman helped teach Daniel Radcliffe how to play the bass guitar.
It’s a little known fact that Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) is quite a bassist. On Daniel’s 14th birthday, Gary showed up with a guitar in hand.
He sat down with Dan and taught him the bass line to “Come Together” by The Beatles!
25. *Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire* was the first film in the franchise to receive a PG-13 rating.
All others up until this point had been PG. In keeping with the books, the films also get gradually darker as the years go on.
This was a considerable leap of faith taken on behalf of the creators, as they risked alienating a huge portion of their viewing audience.
26. Parseltongue is an actual language.
Fans of the franchise will no doubt remember that Parseltongue is the language of serpents. It’s only spoken/understood by direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself.
Dr. Francis Nolan consulted on the film and helped devise the linguistic structure of the ancient tongue.
27. Dolores Umbridge was seriously evil in *Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix*.
So much so that the Master of Modern Horror, author Stephen King , even took notice! He has been quoted as saying Umbridge is “the greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter.”
That’s what I call a tasty compliment!
28. The films never once won an Oscar Award.
This is surprising, considering every single film in the franchise received several nominations , save for two.
I, for one, am baffled as to how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 didn’t manage to take home Best Visual Effects?
