Some Harry Potter fans have slammed a controversial Voldemort downgrade made by Warner Bros. As Harry Potter fans await word of who will play Voldemort in the upcoming HBO TV series, some fans have reflected on how well the movies adapted the character. Most Harry Potter fans agree that Ralph Fiennes delivered an iconic performance of the character, though sometimes this character was let down by other aspects outside the actor’s control. For example, the lack of screen time.
When the Harry Potter movies originally released, one of the many talking points was how Voldemort was progressively made less and less terrifying. Whether this was by design or not, who knows, but the character’s look no doubt evolved over time. And at the time it was noticed, and many Harry Potter fans reflected that the character was made less terrifying and ultimately less compelling as well. And it seems fans still agree with this many years later.
In particular, when Voldemort fully debuts in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire it is a spine-chilling moment. There are several contributing factors to this, but the character’s design is no doubt one of the biggest contributors. In Goblet of Fire, Voldemort looks less human than he does in later movies. More than this, over time the character loses his eldritch qualities and almost becomes campy in later movies.
Tapping into this, one of the top posts on the Harry Potter Reddit page this week is a post identifying this downgrade, noting the character was more terrifying in the fourth Harry Potter movie than the movies that followed.
“Kids just watched it. They freaked and had to shut this part off,” reads the top comment on the post. “Everything about this moment of Voldemort was terrifying compared to subsequent films. His features, the way he is created, and his actions are just wild and he is out for blood.”
Another popular comment adds: “Yeah they got his design right here. He looked too pearly in the 5th one and in the last two looked too human and just became comical for some reason.”
Elsewhere in the comments, Harry Potter fans point out it is not just Voldemort that is great at this moment in Goblet of Fire, but the whole scene. And this is true. The graveyard scene isn’t just a consequential scene, it is one of the best scenes in the movies.
“The graveyard sequence is a master class in adaptation, which is funny since the majority of the 4th film is some of the weakest,” reads a third comment. “It’s so close to how I imagined it first reading the book. The tone, the visuals, everything is genuinely some of the best work they did in the whole series in my humble opinion.”
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This discussion raises an interesting question: how will the HBO series realize Voldemort? This alone should reveal the tone of the series, and how much the show is aiming to appeal to children versus adults.
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