Harry Potter and Things You Need to Know

As a staple in pop culture, Harry Potter is a franchise that has spawned seven books, eight movies, and several other spin-offs. It’s arguably one of the most influential series that deals with Wizards and Magic.

Harry Potter and Things You Need to Know

In this article & video below, we’ll be taking you deeper into the world of fantasy and magic that is Harry Potter by exploring several things that you need to know about the series, either as a die-hard fan or a muggle that wants to dabble in the dark arts.

1. J.K Rowling and Harry Potter share the same birthday.

The main character of the entire series and the author of the books share the exact date of birth. Both of them were born on July 31, with J.K Rowling being born in 1965, and according to the books, Harry was born a little later in 1980.

2. Struggles in Publishing

It took J.K Rowling a whopping 12 rejected attempts with the original Harry Potter Pitch before Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom accepted it. Imagine what could have been if she stopped sending in the pitch for the books. The world would have been so different without the existence of the world of Harry Potter.

No Hogwarts, no Harry, no Dumbledore, nothing. What a scary thought.

3. Competition for the Role.

Speaking of Harry, his actor Danielle Radcliffe had to go through rigorous auditions to beat 300 other children that applied for the Role, and even Haly Joel Osment, who was already a child star at that time after having played Cole Seer, the child from the hit movie The Sixth Sense.

4. Interesting Auditions

More on the auditions side, Emma Watson, who plays the smart and cunning Hermione Granger, auditioned for her school gym’s role. She auditioned a total of eight times before being accepted for a position that many have come to love over the years.

Rupert Grint plays Ron Weasley – the kind-hearted best friend of Harry and awkward son of Arthur and Molly Weasley. Grint, who was still ten at that time, auditioned through video in a very unusual way.

He made a video of himself pretending to be his drama teacher, a girl, and did a rap of how he wanted to be Ron. He proudly sent it off after having written his script and everything.

5. Finale First

In an interview, Rowling recalls that in the first few days, or at least the first year of coming up with the idea of Harry Potter, she wrote the very first chapter of what she felt the Deathly Hallows would be and kept it locked away.

Although a lot of changes had come along the way and the first sketch for the final chapter is different from how things panned out, it’s still interesting to think that she had thought of a way things would end even when she wasn’t sure where to take the rest of the story to yet.

6. Dementors and Depression

According to Rowling in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the foulest creatures in the world of Harry Potter that feed on human happiness and generate feelings of depression and despair are based on her own experiences of depression during her 20s. She says they were based on the feelings of hollowness and the cold absence of feelings.

7. Commitment to Cinema

When preparing for the 3rd and one of the most notable movies of the franchise, director Alfonso Cuarón wanted the three main actors, Danielle, Emma, and Rupert, to write about their characters.

According to Cuarón, the three responded very much in character. Danielle Radcliffe submitted a single-page essay, Emma wrote ten pages, and well Rupert didn’t offer anything. He didn’t do anything because he didn’t think Ron would turn in an essay either. Also, he was busy with real schoolwork at the time, and it was a convenient excuse.