The final moments of the last Harry Potter movie, The Deathly Hallows Part 2, were serenely happy. In a flash-forward, Harry, Ron and Hermione attended their children’s first year getting on the Hogwarts Express and watched the next step of their lineages begin. But before that, there were some casualties along the way, including Remus Lupin, Fred Weasley, and Severus Snape to name just a few.
But JK Rowling also workshopped the idea of killing off Ron Weasley because she was in a “bad place”.
Throughout the seven books and eight films, Harry, Ron and Hermione were rarely met with much pain or adversity. Sure, there were some instances of the gang being attacked, injured, or captured – but their lives were never truly in danger.
And author Rowling has revealed this was actually by design.
She said: “Funnily enough, I planned from the start none of them would die.” But things quickly changed when her mindset did.
Rowling explained how, during the writing of the final few books and films in the series, she changed how she was thinking.
She said: “Then, midway through [writing the series] – which I think was a reflection of the fact that I was not in a very happy place.”
During this unhappy period, Rowling decided to change things up for the three heroes in the story.
She added: “I started thinking about polishing one of them off.”
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Hermione eventually married Ron, and the pair went on to have two children – Rose Weasley and Hugo Weasley.
Although this would have devastated Hermione, JK Rowling took on a more brutal decision for the final book.
The Deathly Hallows saw the death of Remus Lupin and his wife, Nymphadora Tonks. The husband-and-wife duo also had a child who was mentioned often.
On this decision, Rowling explained how she wanted the final book to feel like a real “war”.
Rowling explained: “One of the most horrifying things about war is how it leaves children fatherless and motherless.”
She added that the most “powerful” way she could illustrate this, was to kill off a set of parents. She said: “I had no intention of killing [Lupin]. But then it dawned on me he had to die.”
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