These Harry Potter Behind-The-Scenes Movie Facts Are So Magical

The woman responsible for all of the Harry Potter magic nearly showed up in the movies, but ended up opting out. Rowling wrote on her website that she was offered the part of Harry's mother Lily Potter during the filming process for the first movie, but she turned it down, saying she was not cut out to be an actor... even if it was just a small role.

A huge fan of the books, Williams asked to play Hagrid when he found out about the movie adaptation. Unfortunately, one of Rowling's strictest requests for the movies was that the cast only include British actors, so Williams, an American, was not allowed to audition.

Initially, Spielberg was on board to direct the first Harry Potter film, but he dropped out after a few months of working on the movie. Spielberg has said he was not ready to make an all-kids movie and that he did not see the movie as challenging enough for him, so the job went to Chris Columbus instead.

During the casting process for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the film's team went to schools all over England searching for the perfect young actors to play the movie's lead trio. Watson had never professionally acted at that time and was super nervous to be among the group of 20 or so girls at her school to audition for the part of Hermione. She admitted she was intimidated by the other girls, who had more acting experience than her and seemed to bond with the boys auditioning for Harry better, but she felt the part was perfect for her.

One of the biggest undertakings in bringing the world of Harry Potter to life was training owls to deliver mail. The process took months, but the production team was able to reliably get owls to carry letters to the actors. To add even more realism, the production team hand-wrote all of those Hogwarts acceptance letters the owls brought to the Dursley house in the first film.

For being one of the greatest wizards ever, Harry really does not have an impressive showing in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. As wild as it sounds, Harry really does not cast a single spell in the entirety of the first movie. Sure, he makes the glass at the zoo disappear and he learns to fly a broom, but no magic ever comes from his wand.

Felton was not always going to play the bad guy. Originally, he revealed, he auditioned to play Harry Potter and then Ron Weasley, and only landed the role of Draco after both of those lead roles went to Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, respectively.

Potterheads have Felton to thank for one of the film franchise's shining moments. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry uses Polyjuice Potion to transform into Draco Malfoy's crony Goyle, but accidentally wears his own signature glasses, prompting Draco to ask about them. When "Goyle" responds that the glasses are for reading, Draco hilariously says, "I didn't know you could read." Later on, Felton revealed he made that line up on the spot because he could not remember his actual line.

Redmayne stars in the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts series as Newt Scamander, but he actually nearly entered the magical world years earlier. Redmayne revealed that he auditioned to play Tom Riddle for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but did not get a callback.

The most important twist in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is that the name Tom Marvolo Riddle is an anagram saying that he’s Voldemort! " In order to make that wordplay work in languages besides English, Rowling and the movie team gave Riddle different names in several other languages. One of the silliest is that, in French, Tom Riddle's name is Tom Elvis Jedusor, which rearranges to "Je suis Voldemort."

The Hogwarts teacher almost had a totally different look. Hugh Grant was originally cast in the part, but had to step away from the movie, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts with his 2002 rom-com Two Weeks Notice, so Kenneth Branagh instead won the role.

Moaning Myrtle was a forlorn teenage ghost in the Harry Potter movies, but the actor who played her, Shirley Henderson, was actually 36 when she first played the teen ghost.

Azkaban was the first time the franchise changed directors, and Alfonso Cuarón assigned the three leads a perfect task to try to get to know them and their characters even better. Cuarón tasked Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint to write an essay about their own characters. Their responses perfectly mirrored their characters: Radcliffe turned in a one-page essay that got to the heart of Harry, Watson totally overachieved with 16 pages on Hermione, and Grint blew off the assignment altogether, noting it was "quite Ron-ish not to do it."

Harry Potter was able to take the theater world by storm with the 2016 play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, but it almost got the Broadway version much earlier. Rowling revealed that Michael Jackson had approached her with the idea of turning her book series into a musical, but she turned the idea down.

Harry's glasses are part of what makes the character so iconic, and Radcliffe certainly spent a lot of time wearing specks over the course of filming the eight movies. In total, Radcliffe went through 160 pairs of glasses in his time as Harry, and about 60 different wands as well.

If it seemed like Rowling was hiding clues about the future of her Harry Potter series within the earlier movies, it's because she was. Fans noted the Deathly Hallows symbol can be seen on a shelf in Dumbledore's office shortly after he uses his pensieve in the fourth movie. That movie was released in 2005, two years before Rowling would publish the final Harry Potter book and introduce the Deathly Hallows.

When it came to finding a young actor to play Tom Riddle as a child, the Harry Potter casting team did not have to look far. Hero Fiennes-Tiffin portrayed the boy who would become Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and he definitely had the resemblance down, considering his uncle is Ralph Fiennes, the actor who played Voldemort.

One of the most unexpectedly ridiculous moments in the final Harry Potter movie came when Voldemort awkwardly embraced Draco outside Hogwarts. Tom Felton revealed that Ralph Fiennes totally improvised the hug, only doing it in one of the several takes of that scene. Even Felton was shocked by how menacing and strange it was. “I was going like, ‘What the hell is he doing? Why is he hugging me in this weird fashion?’” Felton said at DragonCon in 2011.

After creating a world full of such a sprawling cast of characters, Rowling no doubt has a lot of love for all the witches and wizards. But she does have a favorite. The author tweeted that Dumbledore is her favorite Harry Potter character in response to a 2016 fan question.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione went through a bunch of very different looks throughout the movies, but there’s one particular hairstyle that sticks out for Rupert Grint. He called his long hairstyle in the 2005 Harry Potter film a big regret. "There were some awkward stages, for sure. My hair in film four is one of my biggest regrets. Shoulder length," Grint said. "We went through our puberty on camera. You kind of see it all. It is very cringey."

The name Hermione Granger is so iconic among Harry Potter fans, it’s hard to imagine Hogwarts’ studious witch going by anything else. But originally, Rowling toyed with the idea of naming the character Hermione Puckle. She ultimately decided the name Granger suited the character better.

Spending the entirety of your formative years filming one of the most popular film sagas ever certainly comes with a great deal of pressure. For Grint, growing up in the public eye with constant press cycles and red carpets became overwhelming in his teenage years, and he admitted he seriously thought about quitting the movies toward the end. “I definitely remember thinking during one extended break, ‘This whole thing is so all-consuming, do I really want to go back? Maybe it’s just not for me.’” Ultimately, Grint did return to finish out the series despite his unease.

There aren’t that many on-set romances to talk about in terms of Harry Potter, but the fandom was delighted to discover an unexpected pairing a few years after the films had ended. Evanna Lynch and Robbie Jarvis, who played Luna Lovegood and Harry’s father James Potter in the movies, respectively, briefly dated from 2015 to 2016.

You’d think all the most iconic Harry Potter props should be in a museum somewhere, but actually, one of the most recognizable vehicles in the movies is sitting in a One Direction star’s garden. Back in 2015, Liam Payne revealed he bought the Weasleys’ flying car since he’s such a huge fan of the movies.

Apparently, it was not very easy for actors to take home meaningful props, but Rickman was a master at pocketing stuff. Jason Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy, said Rickman swiped a ton of Gringotts coins from set one day. Rickman also apparently kept Snape's wand, and hinted he may have snuck away with his cloak, as well. Who could blame him? When you're working on a film as magical as Harry Potter, you gotta take what you can get.