You missed one

In honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this week, I'll be doing some Harry Potter posts. Obviously, the movies have been cast, and there's never going to be a do-over (at least not in my lifetime). I feel like they've been cast perfectly... at least the characters who were cast. Because the books are so large, cuts had to be made to the story, and several characters got left by the wayside.

Today I'm talking about the shoulda-woulda-couldas of the Harry Potter world. Those characters who would have been outstanding to see on screen, but basically got cut for time.

Starting in book one, we meet Peeves the Poltergeist, a recurring character who is really one of the funniest, and undoubtedly the most annoying character in the whole series. He's not really a ghost, but is semi-corporeal (Lupin is able to jam gum up Peeve's nose; had Peeves been a ghost, it would have shot right through him). I would love to have seen one of the other Monty Python guys, Eric Idle, take this on.

rutles.org

 

By the way, for a good laugh, I strongly suggest you go Google images of Eric Idle. Good times.

Fast forward to book four, and Ludo Bagman gets cut from the story. This was a sad one to me, because Bagman is one of the more likable characters in the story. He's an old quidditch player who ended up in the Department of Magical Games, and he spends a bunch of time trying to help Harry cheat at the Triwizard tournament. Because of his quidditch playing days, he's something of a celebrity, and laps up the attention he gets everywhere he goes. I know Bagman is described as being a bit wide around the middle, but there's something boyish about him. And that boyishness, the smiling, not-a-care-in-the-world charm and irresponsible nature keeps me coming back to Hugh Grant. Is that terrible? But he just seems like the "I'm too famous and cool to worry about the rules" sort of guy, right?

blogvedete.com

Now, in book six there's a whole bunch of characters cut, most notably the Gaunt family. The Gaunt family are actually Voldemort's mother's family, a  family of pureblooded wizards who live in what can only be described as squalor, insisting that their pure blood and heritage of Salazar Slytherin are all they really need. The first in the family is Marvolo, the patriarch as it were. He's an angry little man; proud and prone to violence. He's been abusing his kids, but particularly his daughter. He should have been played by somebody able to take on the dichotomy of the role; proud family heritage, disgusting current circumstances. Could there be anybody better than Bob Hoskins?

art.allayers.com

 

Next, we have Merope Gaunt, Marvolo's daughter and Lord Voldemort's mother. She's been emotionally and physically abused by her father and likely her brother. She's a bedraggled, wet rat of a girl, and in my head I saw the girl in overalls from that cheerleading/ bank robbery movie Sugar and Spice. I couldn't find a picture of her, and she's too American anyway. So instead, my shoulda-woulda-coulda vote goes to Emilia Fox. She has a sort of haunted look about her eyes that I think could pull it off.

bbc.co.uk

 

Lastly, we see Morfin Gaunt, the completely crazed, psychotically violent older brother. He ends up with a pretty long list of violent crimes towards innocent people to his name, so I think the more disgusting and creepy this guy looks, the better, eh? How about Darren Morfitt? Any guy whose most famous work according to IMDb is Dog Soldiers ("Jaws, Alien and Predator with a werewolf twist!") has got to have the psychotic-factor down, right?

bbc.co.uk

 

Who else is so excited for this weekend?!?