Harry Potter Reunion: 15 Biggest Reveals & Secrets From Return To Hogwarts

Warning! SPOILERS for Return to Hogwarts.

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts came out New Year’s Day 2022 and here are all its grand reveals. The movie opening saw the main cast receive Hogwarts invitation letters for an event marking two decades from the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, in 2001. The emotional reunion brings cast members together – some of which haven’t seen each other in years – and opens up discussions about the making of the eight movies throughout 10 years. Some of the topics explored by the cast and crew in Return to Hogwarts are brand new to the viewers.

Throughout the duration of the original Harry Potter franchise, the movies became loaded with prominent actors (that, as it turns out, strongly impressed and intimidated the young cast). Although there are quite a few Harry Potter actors missing, Return to Hogwarts sees several main actors on screen: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione), Rupert Grint (Ron), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), Matthew Lewis (Neville), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), and James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley) included.

HBO Max was able to gather a huge number of people for Return to Hogwarts, and this goes to show just how beloved this series remains to so many people. As the stars gather on the original Harry Potter sets to look back at the franchise’s legacy and the making of the films, they sometimes surprise each other with personal memories from the 2001-2011 decade. Here are all the big reveals and secrets from the Harry Potter era.

1. Chris Columbus Became The Harry Potter Director After His Daughter Made Him Read The Books

For the first time in 20 years, Daniel Radcliffe asks Columbus how he got to be the director of the first two Harry Potter movies. Columbus shares that it was his daughter Eleanor who made him read the Harry Potter books after he refused three times. When Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban came out, Columbus read the three books and immediately envisioned the movies, which, according to him, had never happened to him before. He then flew to Edinburgh to meet J.K. Rowling and discuss his vision for the first film, to which Rowling said, “That’s exactly the way I see the movie.”

2. Daniel Radcliffe’s Parents Didn’t Want Him To Take The Role

While Harry Potter‘s Ron and Hermione were easy to cast (after Rupert and Emma immediately clicked with the casting team), Harry was a real struggle for the saga creators. After months of unsuccessful auditions, Columbus saw young Dan on a BBC version of David Copperfield and instantly thought he found Harry. Columbus and Rowling approached Dan’s parents, but they replied with a hard no, as the deal had to be signed for all seven movies and the filming was to be done in Los Angeles. Dan’s parents argued that this would be a “huge disruption to his life” and, for a moment, it seemed like the team had to continue their search for Harry. Two weeks later though, Harry Potter producer David Heyman had the inspiration to find Dan’s parents at a theater in London and convince them to send Dan to one audition. The rest is history.

3. J.K. Rowling Created A Quidditch Rule Book For The Movies

As the audience had to understand the game rules immediately in order to follow the very dynamic scenes, J.K. Rowling wrote a special book “explaining every detail of the game” for Chris Columbus and Stuart Craig, the production designer who ended up creating an authentic and impressive pitch that’s remembered by millions to this day. Rowling and Craig worked together to help viewers visualize the exciting, but dangerous Wizarding World game.

4. Jason Isaacs Initially Auditioned For Lockhart

Perhaps surprisingly, Jason Isaacs wanted Gilderoy Lockhart’s part, which eventually went to Kenneth Branagh. Columbus then told Jason, “That was great. Would you mind reading a different part?” Jason was initially annoyed at not getting Lockhart’s part, and because he was about to play Captain Hook in Peter Pan (another villain), he turned down the offer to play what has now become one of the greatest (and most skillfully portrayed) villains in Harry Potter. Jason is convinced he got the part because, ironically, he didn’t want it. He read the audition “through gritted teeth, deeply bitter” and, of course, that helped him get the role of Lucius Malfoy.

Both Jason Isaacs and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter) explain that Lucius was an excellent means to explain how Draco is a product of his parents: a sadistic bully that would end up forced into becoming a Death Eater. Tom also confesses he was impressed at how Jason would immediately transform into “the most unfriendly, horrible person” as soon as he heard the cue. However, he would become cuddly and protective of young Tom, as soon as he finished his lines.

5. Daniel Radcliffe And Gary Oldman Were As Close As Harry And Sirius

When Dan first got news of Gary Oldman joining Harry Potter, he told Emma to “be cool because Gary Oldman is a big deal,” projecting his own enthusiasm about it. Gary says that he had a “natural sort of paternal thing” towards Dan, who was 14 at the time of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Sirius Black first appears. Moreover, Harry Potter director Alfonso Cuarón remembers how Gary included Dan in the acting process, immediately forming a bond with him. As the third Harry Potter movie is essentially a coming-of-age film that sees Harry, Ron, and Hermione slowly become adults and embrace the dangerous life ahead of them, Sirius is a key paternal figure to Harry, and so was Gary to Dan in many ways.

6. Alan Rickman Requested Snape’s Backstory From J.K. Rowling

Alan Rickman knew Snape’s whole backstory: his apparently shifting loyalties, his ultimate loyalty to Dumbledore, and his undying love for Lily Potter, which motivates him to help and protect Harry in his quest against Voldemort. He knew of Harry Potter‘s future timeline before anyone else, including the directors, and that is because he went to J.K. Rowling and requested Snape’s history, as he figured out Snape was too complex a character to play him without knowing all the layers. Dan tells Gary about it: “And he never told Chris [Columbus], he never told anyone. Chris would literally say to him, why are you doing that like that? He was like, I’ll tell you later.”

7. Emma Watson Had A Crush On Tom Felton From The First Film

During tutoring on the set of the first Harry Potter, the actors were given the task of drawing what they thought “God looked like.” Tom drew a “girl with a backward cap on a skateboard” and that made Emma fall in love with Tom. She would then get very excited if she would see his number on the call sheet, and look forward to every moment spent with him on set. Emma was 10 at the time, and Tom was three years older, so he always regarded her as a younger sister. Tom says he became “very protective of her,” and in Return to Hogwarts, both Emma and Tom profess their unromantic love for each other, a love that carries on to this day.

8. Ralph Fiennes’ Nephews Made Him Take Voldemort’s Role

Ralph Fiennes confesses it was his sister Martha’s children (who were around 10-12 at the time) who overheard him telling Martha he wasn’t sure about playing Voldemort and immediately told him, “You’ve got to do it.” When Ralph saw the character design, he quickly got into the role, explaining that he saw Voldemort as (not human but) “the essence of evil.” Even though Ralph does have a nose, he got into the role so well, he was frightening to watch even for Jason Isaacs., who admits he was “terrified of him” whenever the directors called action.

9. Mike Newell Was The First Director To Treat The Main Cast As Adults

Mike Newell was the third Harry Potter director and he only stayed for one film, The Goblet of Fire. Newell skillfully continued Cuarón’s job of gradually turning Harry Potter into darker, more mature movies. The Goblet of Fire sees Voldemort return and Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) die, which Newell explains comes as a cold shower to Harry and his friends, as they realize they have now become adults tasked with confronting Voldemort: “Suddenly, you realize that this movie is not about life, it’s about death.”

Newell knew this revelation would come at the cost of Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s childhoods, and he brought this into real life, treating Daniel Radcliffe and the rest of the young Harry Potter cast like adults, according to Matthew Lewis, which was a first for them in terms of film directors. Rupert Grint describes Newell as a very energetic man who was almost like a real Hogwarts character. He might not be wrong, as Newell broke a few ribs teaching James Phelps how to fight his twin brother.

10. Daniel Radcliffe Had A Crush On Helena Bonham Carter

When Helena Bonham Carter reunites with Dan on screen, she is quick to show him something he wrote her when they finished shooting for Harry Potter: “Dear HBC, it was a pleasure being your co-star and coaster, in the sense that I always ended up holding your coffee. I do love you. And I just wish I’d been born 10 years earlier. I might’ve been in with a chance.” Dan is slightly embarrassed reading this, but Helena says she will always treasure that message, and that she has it in her toilet.

11. Emma Wanted To Leave Before The Order Of Phoenix

In a big reveal, Emma tells Dan and Rupert she considered quitting the Harry Potter franchise after her fame skyrocketed and she began feeling increasingly alone on set. She tells her co-stars: “I think I was scared. I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point when you were like… ‘This is kind of forever now’.” Rupert agrees these are feelings he had, too, “kind of all the way through,” but he carried on, knowing he has to be Ron and stick together with his friends till the end of the saga. Eventually, Emma convinced herself to carry on as well, and her friendship with Dan and Rupert helped a lot.

12. Evanna Lynch Became Rowling’s Pen Pal Before Being Cast As Luna

When she was 11, Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter) started writing to J.K. Rowling to thank her for her books, saying she “would find life a bit hopeless without Harry Potter.” Rowling replied to her, and eventually, she auditioned for the role of outsider Luna Lovegood and got the part. Evanna recalls forgetting to say her lines in front of Dan, as she was used to watching him on screen, not in person. She says this probably “contributed to the whole Luna Lovegood vibe because she is a bit spacey.”

13. Helena Bonham Carter Stole A Lot Of Props

Helena meets Tom in the Slytherin Common Room and reminisces about stealing “quite a lot” from the set, including her terrifying Bellatrix Lestrange teeth. Tom replies he wishes she would have told him at the time, as he was trying to steal Draco’s wand but didn’t go through with it (also because he was worried he would lose it). Helena Bonham Carter was given a lot of freedom to play her sinister character, as Bellatrix was as playful as she was evil. This made it fun for her to shoot – even if, at times, this would prove annoying to Jason Isaacs – and perhaps it was precisely this playfulness that led her to steal her favorite Harry Potter props.

14. Ron And Hermione’s Kissing Scene Was The Most Horrifying Scene For Emma To Shoot

Emma tells her castmates, “us kissing was the most horrifying thing either of us have ever had to go through,” to Dan’s surprise. Of course, her statement needs to be put in context: Hermione and Ron meet when they are 11 years old. Ron is always eating, and Hermione is a know-it-all who impresses but annoys Ron. Their romance builds up by adding tension between two people who refuse to admit they like each other until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Return to Hogwarts shows footage of Emma in distress as director David Yates tells her they must shoot the Ron and Hermione kissing scene that week. The scene was particularly hard to shoot for Emma and Rupert who kept breaking into laughter in the Chamber of Secrets. They couldn’t take it seriously because they grew up together and saw each other like siblings, with no romantic feelings whatsoever.

15. The Cast Found It Hard To Break Character

Rupert Grint said he “lost track of who he was” towards the end of the Harry Potter saga, as he came to merge his identity with Ron’s throughout the years. Dan admits he felt the same: “Who am I? Like, what do I like to do?” were questions he would ask himself after the wrap. It came as a shock to the main cast that the saga ended and that they weren’t going to “do this forever.” A decade has passed since the last Harry Potter movie, and all actors have done a lot since then, but in Return to Hogwarts, the cast admits that the strong connection they feel to each other will never go away, as they spent their youth together and went through similar things at the same time.

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