Not every Harry Potter star made it through all eight movies.
A few of them were switched out for a wide range of reasons, including death, run-ins
with the law and embarrassing scandals.
Here are some of the major Harry Potter characters who were ultimately recast between films,
and the stories of how those transfigurations came to be.
Although there are still plenty of Potter fans who prefer Richard Harris' depiction
of Dumbledore, the role was nonetheless recast ahead of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban, after the two-time Oscar winner passed away in 2002 from Hodgkin's disease.
Harris had expected that he might not be able to carry on in the role forever, which he
first took to please his granddaughter.
He told the press that:
"I'll keep doing it as long as I enjoy it, my health holds out and they still want me,
but the chances of all three of those factors remaining constant are pretty slim."
The part would eventually go to Michael Gambon, who starred in all six following films.
But Gambon wasn’t the only British star invited to don the heaping wig and decadent
cloaks.
Years after the fact, Sir Ian McKellen revealed that he, too, had a shot at becoming Albus
Dumbledore, but turned it down.
“I couldn’t.
I couldn't take over the part from an actor who I'd known didn't approve of me.”
Harris had reportedly been unimpressed with McKellen’s career, implying that he was
a "passionless" actor.
Despite all this, McKellen added that he sometimes saw himself on posters which featured Gambon
as Dumbledore.
When Lord Voldemort first appeared on-screen in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,
there wasn't a lot for the actor portraying him to do.
After all, he was mostly hidden behind Professor Quirrell's turban throughout the story, and
even when he did emerge his face was superimposed on the back of Quirrell’s skull.
Richard Bremmer did what he could with the role, but wasn't surprised when he wasn't
invited back to reprise his part in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Bremmer told This Is Northeast:
"The producers spent a long time fighting to get me so I'm very proud to have been the
first.
But the role is now being played by Ralph Fiennes, who is an old mate, in the fourth
film.
I've been in the business a long time and it didn't surprise me they just went for a
bigger name, being Hollywood led, and I'm happy to pass it on to Ralph."
Fiennes was already an A-lister by the time Sorcerer’s Stone was released, having won
Oscar nominations for Schindler's List and The English Patient, so it's no surprise that
the filmmakers didn't seek him out for that brief CGI appearance.
Jamie Waylett did an apt enough job as Draco Malfoy's pastry-loving henchman Vincent Crabbe.
Like many of his contemporaries in the series, the young actor was completely new to the
world of film when he suited up as the Slytherin sycophant, but was gradually given more and
more screen time throughout his six-film tenure.
By the time Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows arrived, however, Crabbe’s other half Gregory
Goyle was seen standing next to a new Malfoy lieutenant: Blaise Zabini.
Crabbe was completely out of the picture, and while the role itself wasn't recast, the
character was shuffled out of sight to make room for Zabini.
This all stemmed from Waylett's off-camera run-ins with the law.
Waylett was arrested in 2009 after he was caught growing marijuana plants in his mother's
home.
That incident alone was enough to lose him his prime position in the Potter world, and
the troubles would only continue from there, the actor was later arrested again in 2012
for participating in a riot, and this time he faced jail.
Waylett’s co-star Jessie Cave would later publicly rise to his defense, but the damage
was still done, and the actor hasn't worked on a film since.
When the Gryffindor common room portrait known as the "Fat Lady" first appeared in Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, it was celebrated actress Elizabeth Spriggs who portrayed her.
However, Spriggs' portrayal was brief and rather rigid in blithely asking for the prefect's
password, so before the character would return in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,
the actress was replaced with Dawn French.
French brought a more comedic element to the character as she desperately tries to impress
the Hogwarts student body with her glass-breaking operatic skills.
"AAAAAAAA ah amazing, just with my voice!”
French earned the role after her Harry Potter spoof for charity caught the attention of
director and producer Christopher Columbus.
Columbus told the BBC:
"I think she's incredibly funny and her Harry Potter spoof for Comic Relief was pretty amazing."
The casting of the Harry Potter films was entirely limited to British thespians, a rule
so strict it even forced producers to turn down Robin Williams for the role of Hagrid,
but Verne Troyer became the rare exception when he was cast as Gringotts banker Griphook
in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Troyer was the only American actor with a major role in the film, but the character
was voiced by his English co-star Warwick Davis, who also portrayed Professor Flitwick
and another bank teller in the film.
But by the time Griphook became more significant to the story in Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows, Davis had taken over the role completely.
“Griphook has so much more depth to him than I've ever been able to get into my work
as Professor Flitwick so I went in and read for Dave Yates."
Though it was never reported as the reason for Troyer's replacement, the actor had been
caught up in a number of embarrassing scandals following the first film's release.