Entertainment Weekly nabbed an early copy of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 DVD/Blu-ray and watched the one on one conversation between J.K. Rowling and Dan Radcliffe.
From this interview we already know that Rowling revealed she originally planned on killing Ron, and now we’re getting other juicy tidbits!
Rowling reveals that from the start, she always knew that the final chapters of the last novel would include these beats: That Harry would walk willingly to his death; that he would be joined by the spirits of his parents and other loved ones during that death march; and that Hagrid would carry Harry’s (apparently) lifeless body out of The Forbidden Forest. Rowling tell Radcliffe that the image of Hagrid cradling “dead” Harry — a bookend moment to the beginning of the series, when Hagrid brought infant Harry to the Dursleys – stuck with her the entire time she wrote the books and she never let it go. If she had, Rowling says Hagrid would have been a “natural” target for elimination. “That image kept him safe,” she says.
Rowling also reveals that in her original “sketch” (her word) of the series climax, one of the most beloved characters in the Potter canon survived: Remus Lupin — tragic werewolf, former Defense Against The Dark Arts professor, and husband to the metamorphmagus and auror, Nymphadora Tonks. (Gotta love the wordplay and names.) The seventh book tells us that before their deaths during the Battle of Hogwarts, Lupin and Tonks had a child. On the DVD, Rowling shares with Radcliffe that when she created Lupin’s character, she planned for him to survive the events of the finale. While the author has said as much in other interviews, here, she elaborates, explaining that she changed her mind when she realized that her last Harry Potter story was really about war, and that “one of the most horrifying things about war is how it leaves children fatherless and motherless.” The most powerful way she could dramatize that idea, she says, was to kill a set of parents that were dear to readers. “I had no intention of killing [Lupin],” says Rowling. “But then it dawned on me he had to die.”
We’re so glad to see that Rowling really went into some great book discussion! It’s been a while since we’ve gotten interesting analysis from her.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 will be released on DVD/Blu-ray later this month.