10 Harry Potter Facts You Probably Don’t Know

1. The character of Natalie McDonald was created after a real girl with that name sent a letter to J.K. Rowling. She was dying of leukemia and wanted to know how the events of Goblet of Fire would play out. Unfortunately, by the time J.K. Rowling was able to get in touch with her, Natalie had died. So Rowling named a student after her. Nearly Headless Nick claps for her when she sits down at the Gryffindor table about a third of the way into Goblet of Fire.

2. Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander) designed his own wand for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Originally, the prop designers wanted the handle to be made of leather, but Eddie thought that would be inappropriate since his character was an animal handler. They settled on sand shell. (Would you rather design your own wand, or be gifted one for Christmas?)

3. Filmmakers of the Harry Potter movies would often shoot multiple takes of a single scene. Since many scenes involved waving their wands, this led to the actors developing what the medics referred to as “wand elbow.” The repetitive movement resulted in joint soreness.

4. The wand acting in Fantastic Beasts was pretty sophisticated. To make his wand movements look interesting and masterly, Jude Law (Dumbledore) studied videos of the famous painter Picasso. Eddie Redmayne hired a wand movement coach.

5. The shortest Harry Potter Book (Chamber of Secrets) became the longest movie. This is because many of the action scenes were short in the book, but would have looked silly onscreen unless they were drawn out.

6. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes place in New York City in the 1920’s. Filmmakers didn’t want to use CGI for everything, but most of the old NYC architecture had been replaced. (Yay, progress!) So instead of using computer graphics, they shot most of the film in England.

7. Horror writer Stephen King absolutely loved the Harry Potter series. Over the years he’s written several easter eggs into his books that reference HP. He’s also stated how he thinks Dolores Umbridge is one of the greatest villains of all time.

8. J.K. Rowling created the game of Quidditch after getting into a fight with her then boyfriend at a small hotel in Manchester. She’s mentioned in a few interviews how she wanted to hit him with a Bludger.

9. If a visitor wishes to gain access to the Ministry of Magic, they need to enter a five-digit code. In the books it is 62442. If you typed this out on your phone, the numbers correspond to letters that spell: MAGIC.

10. Stephen Spielberg and M. Night Shyamalan both turned down the opportunity to direct the first Harry Potter movie. The job went to Chris Columbus, who had experience directing children in movies like Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire. (Would you rather…direct a Harry Potter movie, or act in one as an extra?)