When the first Harry Potter movie arrived, it didn’t just introduce us to a young boy with a lightning scar. It opened the door to a whole new world. Suddenly, we were walking through the halls of Hogwarts, laughing at Ron’s funny expressions, admiring Hermione’s sharp mind, and watching Harry’s bravery as he faced deadly villains.
Over 8 films, we watched these characters grow up right in front of us and their story became a part of our lives. But what fans don’t realize is that the magic didn’t just stop here.
Behind the scenes, the whole cast and crew created moments that were funny, weird and sometimes even more surprising than the story itself. In this article, we’ll share some fun facts about the Harry Potter movie series that fans don’t know about.
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In the movie series, the Hogwarts Great Hall was a real set.
The Hogwarts Great Hall in the Harry Potter movie series was not a real castle. It was a large set that the crew built at Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden. The design team, led by production designer Stuart Craig, based it heavily on the real Great Hall at Christ Church College, Oxford. They used similar tall ceilings and long tables.
The set also had some magical details. In the first movie, the floating candles were real candles hanging on wires, but later, they used CGI because real flames were not safe. The enchanted ceiling that shows the sky was also created with special effects.
2. Daniel Radcliffe used over 160 pairs of eyeglasses while filming.
The English actor wore more than 160 pairs of Harry’s round glasses while filming the Harry Potter movies. He needed so many because the glasses often got damaged during action scenes, stunts, and long hours of shooting. Different pairs were also used for different types of shots like special effects or close-ups. Because of this the costume team kept many extra pairs ready throughout the series.
3. Alan Rickman knew the truth about Snape’s destiny long before the final books were written.
The “Die Hard” actor learned Snape’s true story very early because JK Rowling personally told him the characters’ full backstory. She explained Snape’s secret love for Lily Potter, his promise to protect Harry and the fact that he was not truly a villain.
Because Rickman understood Snape’s real motivations from the start, he acted with small and meaningful expressions that hinted at the truth. Sometimes directors asked him why he played some moments a certain way, but he couldn’t explain, as Rowling had asked him to keep the secret.
4. Robbie Coltrane was the very first actor to be cast in the movie series.
The Scottish actor who played Hagrid was the first adult actor chosen for the Harry Potter movies. JK Rowling imagined him in the role and personally wanted him. She even turned down Robin Williams and didn’t follow her rule of casting only British actors.
Robbie Coltrane already knew Harry Potter stories because he had read the books to his kids so he understood the character well.
5. Emma Watson considered quitting the Harry Potter movie series.
The “Beauty and the Beast” actress thought about leaving the Harry Potter movies more than once. She was very young when the series started and the work schedule was long and tiring. After the first two movies, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue because she wanted to focus on her studies. Also, she felt a lot of pressure from suddenly becoming famous.
Later, during Goblet of Fire, she felt lonely and worried that acting in the movie series might take over her whole life. She was unsure if she wanted to commit to all the remaining movies.
Even with all these challenges, Emma decided to stay. The support from her fans and her understanding of how important the series was to people helped her in making this decision.
6. Hogwarts may be set in England but much of the inspiration came from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Although the Harry Potter story takes place in England, many of JK Rowling’s ideas come from Edinburgh, Scotland. She wrote large parts of the series in Edinburgh cafes and the city’s streets and graveyards inspired several character names and magical places.
For example, Victoria Street helped inspire the Diagon Alley and Greyfriars Kirkyard influenced names like Tom Riddle.
7. Jason Isaacs originally didn’t want the role of Lucius Malfoy.
The “Peter Pan” actor was not interested in playing Lucius Malfoy at first because he was worried about being typecast as a villain, especially after auditioning for the role of Gilderoy Lockhart.
But his agent and his excited nephews and godchildren who wanted to visit the set, convinced him to accept the role. In the end, Jason found Lucius more interesting and added his own ideas to the character’s behavior and looks.
8. JK Rowling came up with the idea of Quidditch after a heated fight with her then-boyfriend.
The British author has said that she thought of Quidditch shortly after a big fight with her then-boyfriend in a small hotel in Manchester. Because of this she felt like creating a sport that would be confusing and a little annoying to men.
She also wanted a game that would bring the wizarding world together, so she designed Quidditch with unusual rules, such as the Golden Snitch being worth a very high number of points. This made the sport feel odd or frustrating to some people.
Rowling expressed, “It infuriates men, in my experience (why is the Snitch so valuable etc), which is quite satisfying given my state of mind when I invented it.”
9. Steven Spielberg was first in talks to direct Harry Potter but creative disagreements with JK Rowling brought those discussions to an end.
The American filmmaker was first in discussions to direct the first Harry Potter movie but he and Rowling did not agree on how the film should be made. Spielberg was interested in using Haley Joel Osment as Harry and some reports say he even thought about making the movie animated.
Rowling wanted the story to stay true to its British setting and insisted on a fully British cast. Because of all these creative differences, Spielberg left the project. Chris Columbus then became the director and agreed to Rowling’s vision, which led to Daniel Radcliffe being cast as Harry.
10. Hermione’s buck teeth were dropped in the movies.
In the books, Hermione is described as having buck teeth but this detail was mostly left out of the Harry Potter movies. Emma Watson tried wearing fake teeth during filming but they made it hard for her to speak naturally, so the idea was dropped.
The fake teeth do appear briefly in the last scene of Philosopher’s Stone after a magical accident but after that the movies no longer include this. In the books her teeth are later corrected magically but the movies never show this storyline.
11. Voldemort’s nose was removed digitally in the Harry Potter films.
In the Harry Potter film series, Ralph Fiennes did not wear a fake nose to play Voldemort. Instead his real nose was removed using digital effects. During the shooting he wore small markers on his face so the visual-effects team could track his expressions.
In post-production, artists used those markers to carefully erase his nose and replace it with Voldemort’s snake-like slits in every shot.
12. Evanna Lynch went from Harry Potter fan to Luna Lovegood.
Evanna Lynch was a fan who read the books closely, wrote fanfiction and exchanged letters with JK Rowling. When she saw an open casting call for Luna Lovegood on a fan website, she decided to audition. Her performance was so great that she was ultimately chosen for the role.
13. Arthur Weasley was originally supposed to die in Order of the Phoenix, not Sirius.
JK Rowling has said that she first thought about killing Arthur Weasley in Order of the Phoenix after the snake attack but she later changed her mind. She felt Arthur was an important father figure in the story and his death would hurt the Weasley family too deeply.
Instead, she chose to kill Sirius Black to create a major emotional loss for Harry. Rowling also explained that other deaths like Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks in the final book balanced the changes she made to her original ideas.
14. The Hogwarts Express was a real working train.
In the Harry Potter movies, the Hogwarts Express was not a fake train. It was a real steam engine called “Olton Hall,” a GWR 4900 Class locomotive that was repainted red for the films. Although this engine wasn’t used for the real-life train rides in Scotland, it was the one shown on screen.
15. Many magical plant names in Harry Potter come from real plants.
In the movie series, many magical plants are inspired by real plants or old stories. For example, Wormwood, Mandrake, Wolfsbane, and Gillyweed all have roots in real botany or folklore. Rowling used these real names and added magical powers to them so that the wizarding world feels more mysterious.
16. Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore, died shortly after shooting the second film.
The Irish actor who appeared as Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies died in October 2002 from complications of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His death came soon after he finished shooting Chamber of Secrets. Because he passed away, the role had to be recast. Michael Gambon then took over as Dumbledore for the rest of the series. Harris was 72 years old when he died.
17. JK Rowling nearly chose two other titles for the final book.
The author almost gave the last Harry Potter book two different names. Before choosing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, she thought about calling it Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.
18. The bus in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is real.
The Knight Bus in the third film wasn’t just computer-made, it was a real bus. The filmmakers built a triple-decker bus by modifying real London double-decker buses. They added an extra level, beds, and extra weight at the bottom to keep it stable.
They also created different versions of the bus, such as one that could drive on the road and another for stunts. Although CGI was used for magical moments, the main structure in the film is a real prop.
19. Book length doesn’t match the movie length in the Harry Potter series.
The Harry Potter books and movies don’t match in length. The longest book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has 766 pages but its movie is one of the shortest at 138 minutes.
On the other hand, the shortest book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Ston,e has only 223 pages, yet its movie is longer than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, which is the shortest at just 130 minutes.
20. Bellatrix Lestrange’s role was first offered to another actress.
One of the most famous villains in the Harry Potter series, Bellatrix Lestrange, first appears in the 5th film, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix. Helena Bonham Carter played her perfectly but she wasn’t the first choice. The part was initially offered to Helen McCrory.
However, she had to leave the role because she was expecting at the time. She later returned as Bellatrix’s sister, Narcissa Malfoy, in the 2009 film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
21. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was almost split into two films.
In the early planning stages, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was thought to be split into two movies because the book is very long and has many important events. However, Warner Bros decided not to do this.
They felt it was too early in the series to release a two-part film. This trend was used later with Deathly Hallows. The screenwriter also said that dividing the story was difficult because the events in the movie fit together as one complete storyline.
Director Mike Newell said in 2004, “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.”
22. In the first film, real food was used for the Great Hall feasts.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the food in the Great Hall was real because the filmmakers wanted it to look just like it does in the books. But the hot studio lights made the food spoil very fast, and it started to smell. The actors were even warned not to eat it.
So in later movies, they stopped using real food. Instead, they used fake food made from rubber and resin, which they painted to look real. They only used small amounts of real food when the camera needed close shots.
