9 moments from the Harry Potter books that should have been in the movies

2. Neville Longbottom and the Chosen One Prophecy

The filmmakers had a responsibility to sell Harry Potter as the perfect embodiment of the Chosen One trope, and they did it well. But the books contain a more nuanced explanation of Sybill Trelawny’s prophecy, one that could’ve changed the entire trajectory of the story.

After a then-loyal Death Eater, Severus Snape, eavesdropped on Trelawny and Dumbledore and delivered Trelawny’s foretelling about a Chosen One to Voldemort, the Dark Lord picked the newborn Harry to be his adversary. He failed to kill him and lost his body as well as the war.

But there was a second part to the prophecy that Snape did not hear. It explained that the one Voldemort would “mark as his equal” would be the one to vanquish him. Unknowingly, Voldemort marked Harry as his mortal enemy, the one who would end up killing him in the future.

Neville Longbottom was the other child born “as the seventh month died,” on July 30, 1980, to a couple who had defied the Dark Lord thrice, just as the prophecy said. As Dumbledore explains later, had Voldemort decided to go after Neville, he would have been the Chosen One and not Harry.

So no one was born to kill Voldemort, exactly; there were just two kids with brave parents who had the courage to do what needed to be done. It was Voldemort who brought his downfall upon himself by singling out and attacking one of them.

In Deathly Hallows, Neville proved that he would have been capable of stepping up had he needed to defeat the Dark Lord. This would’ve been a great addition to the movies, both to show Voldemort’s fallacy and Neville’s bravery.

1. Lord Voldemort’s death

Many Potterheads take issue with the way Voldemort’s death was shown in the Harry Potter movies.

In the film, after a chaotic battle all around Hogwarts, Harry and Voldemort duel one last time in the open courtyard. The Dark Lord’s striking green Avada Kedavra hits Harry’s red Expelliarmus. Harry’s spell overcomes Voldemort’s and brings about the dark wizard’s end. For cinematic appeal, his corpse was seen dramatically disintegrating into shreds and floating away in the air.

Things go down differently in the book. When it comes to Voldemort’s death, the Elder Wand makes all the difference.

Voldemort had wrongly assumed that Severus Snape was the owner of the Elder Wand, and that when he killed Snape, ownership transferred to him.

If all went according to Snape and Dumbledore’s original plan, the power of the Elder Wand would’ve died when its owner willingly accepted death. But in an unforeseen scuffle, Draco managed to disarm Dumbledore before Snape could cast the spell, thereby becoming the new owner of the Elder Wand. Later, when Harry disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor, the ownership transferred again. Since Harry willingly allowed Voldemort to kill him in the Forbidden Forest, the wand remained loyal to him.

In the book, Voldemort and Harry had their final battle in the Great Hall, with everyone standing around. Harry does not overpower Voldemort with his spell, but rather the Avada Kedavra cast using the Elder Wand backfires and kills him as it would never betray its true master. Instead of turning into ash, Voldemort collapses to the ground, “his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snake-like face vacant and unknowing,” like a regular human being.

Which other Harry Potter moments do you think should have been included in the movies?

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