Ralph Fiennes' brilliant performance as Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies is how a huge portion of the fan base came to know the character, but the cinematic saga actually made the same mistake with You-Know-Who in every single installment. HBO's upcoming TV show, also based on JK Rowling's literary source material, finally has the chance to fix that error thanks to the live-action reboot.
Production has begun on the Harry Potter TV show, with season 1 expected to revisit The Sorcerer's Stone. However, the first episode isn't scheduled to air until 2027. From there, the show will run for a decade, mirroring the length of time it took Warner Bros. to produce all eight of the current movies.
The upcoming small-screen adaptation is reportedly going to be even more faithful to the Harry Potter books than the movies were, which makes sense given how much longer the show will be by comparison. That said, the detail that the movies got wrong about Voldemort could easily have been avoided, as it wasn't actually a victim of the specific medium in which the story was being told.
Voldemort's name is pronounced incorrectly in every Harry Potter movie
While there are other forms of Harry Potter media with audio elements, the movies remain among the most popular installments across the entire franchise. As a result, many words and names that Rowling created while writing the books are pronounced by fans in a way that reflect the feature-length adaptations. For the most part, this doesn't create any notable discrepancies. However, the way Voldemort's name is pronounced in the movies isn't correct, and Rowling herself has confirmed it.
The author has also admitted she's probably the only person to uphold this pronunciation on a regular basis. In short, the "t" at the end of Voldemort's name is supposed to silent, and therefore not pronounced at all. Instead, it should sound like "Voldermore." The reason for this stems from the fact that "mort" is French for "death," and the "t" in "mort" is supposed to be silent when said correctly.
Regardless, none of the movie characters who use the Dark Lord's chosen name follow Rowling's preference in this regard. It's obviously not something that's easy to pick up on when reading the books, but it's unmissable when hearing actors saying it on a movie screen. No footage of the upcoming TV show has yet been released, so it's not clear whether this will also be the case for the HBO project.
The Cursed Child proves how Voldemort is "supposed" to be pronounced
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is set within the same continuity as the other seven books rather than the movies. The stage production picks up events almost two decades after the final book, building on the flashforward of Harry and the others as they send their children off to Hogwarts. Voldemort is already fully defeated in the script, but he does show up in alternate timelines thanks to The Cursed Child's divisive time-travel sensibilities.
So, while Voldemort isn't directly involved in The Cursed Child, he is mentioned out loud. When his name is uttered — or at least when I saw the production — everyone pronounces i with a silent "t." With the play being an extension of the literary source material, it's pretty hard to argue against the fact that this is the correct way to pronounce it.
So, everyone in the movies was getting it wrong. Alternatively, with the movies being set in a separate canon, it's reasonable to assume the characters aren't actually making a mistake. Maybe that's just how it is supposed to be pronounced within the world of the movies. I'm curious to know which path HBO will take with the TV show.
The unfortunate truth of Voldemort's name after the Harry Potter movies
From the sound of things, Rowling had a distinct way of pronouncing Voldemort's name when she was penning the Harry Potter books. Regardless, her original intent in this respect has now been completely eclipsed by the beloved feature-length adaptations of her work. Voldemort is such a famous villain now that I'm sure almost anyone could point him out, even those who aren't active Harry Potter fans.
A side-effect of that notoriety is that now, the vast majority of people saying his name are doing so in a way that differs from Rowling's original intent. For a TV show to come along, especially one that will probably have to fight extra hard to win over fans of the movies, and expect everyone to accept a change in how Voldemort's name is pronounced, is a pretty big ask.
If I had to guess, I'd say HBO won't bother with trying to return to the original way of pronouncing Voldemort's name. At at certain point, it becomes something of a futile endeavor to go against the grain in this way. While pronouncing the "t" ignores the well-crafted etymology of the name, it doesn't really matter a whole lot if people choose to pronounce it. If anything, it's arguably more strange to keep it silent at this point. Only time will tell what HBO will choose to do with this choice, among many others, while re-adapting the Harry Potter books.