10 Harry Potter Easter Eggs You Might Not Have Noticed
J.K.
Rowling is one of the most successful authors of all time, creating the Harry Potter series,
which has now retroactively been re-titled ‘The Wizarding World of J.K.
Rowling’ in an attempt to cash on that Marvel Cinematic Universe cash.
The first in a series of prequel movies, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find them has just been
released and tells of the journey of Newt Scamander, and the adventures that led to
him writing the text book that Hogwarts uses.
A textbook that you can buy in your local bookshop.
With it came numerous easter eggs and call backs to the Harry Potter books and movies,
so we’ve decided to talk about those easter eggs and fun bits of trivia from not just
the newest film, but the books and movies that came before it.
And before we get started- if you want to check out more vids like this one, hit subscribe!
Here are 10 10 Harry Potter Easter Eggs You Might Not Have Noticed
Beware though, there will be spoilers.
Naughty Couple Alfonso Cauron’s Prisoner of Azkaban is
wildly different from the rest of the franchise.
It was a huge shift in tone from the two previous movies which were still relatively light hearted
kids affairs, and was the first of the movies to go for the boring grey colour grading the
rest of the main series would use from that point on.
Despite being a hugely important item in the books, the Marauder’s Map had it’s only
significant appearance in this movie.
The map is a magical item that maps out Hogwarts, all it’s teachers, students and even the
ghosts.
It see’s you all the time, whether you want it to or not.
Like in the credits when it catches some students doing something they probably shouldn’t
be doing.
Werewolf Names Sticking with Prisoner of Azkaban for a moment,
J.K.
Rowling makes references to Roman and Norse Mythology with the names of her franchises
two werewolves.
Remus Lupin, the defence against the dark arts teacher, and Harry’s favourite teacher,
was named after Remus from the story of Remus and Romulus.
Two brothers raised by a wolf, one of whom according to mythology founded Rome, the other
of whom disappeared.
The franchise’s other werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is named after Fenrir, or Fenris Ulf, the
giant wolf from Norse Mythology, one of the three children of Loki.
Fenrir is foretold to kill the King of the God’s Odin when Ragnarok finally comes.
Norse mythology is the root of a great deal of fantasy work and includes not only Harry
Potter, but
Dumbledore’s Sister Much of the plot of Fantastic Beasts revolves
around the Obscurus.
An Obscurus is a child who is forced to suppress their magical power, which drives them insane
and can also be very destructive.
What fans soon worked out very quickly after seeing Fantastic Beasts, was that the movie
had effectively explained what happened to Dumbledore’s sister Ariana without ever
mentioning her.
Ariana matches the description of an obscurus perfectly.
We know that she suppressed her magic powers and we know that she was driven mad by it.
With these movies serving to flesh out the background of the Harry Potter world, we can
only imagine that it won’t be long until it’s explored in full detail.
So who’s looking forward to the three hour duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald over
Ariana?
Leta LeStrange One of the little details included as sequel
bait in Fantastic Beasts was the mention of Leta LeStrange.
While at this stage we know very little about her, we know that she was involved with Newt
Scamander for a number of years, was described as ‘a taker’, and we know that she is
somehow related to Voldemort’s second in command, Bellatrix Lestrange.
Right now she’s pretty much wrapped in mystery, as she does not appear in the books nor is
she even mentioned.
What we do know is that she has been confirmed to appear in the sequels, once again played
by Zoe Kravitz and she is most likely going to be an antagonist.
After all, she does come from a lineage of dark wizards.
5.
Battle of Hogwarts Date Here’s one from the books.
While being very disappointing in the film, the books battle of Hogwarts was truly epic.
Giants, giant spider’s and Buckbeack leading an army of thestrals, not to mention the house
elves fighting, this was truly the best climactic battle to never be properly realised on screen.
What you might not know however, is that the Harry Potter books do not actually take place
in the modern day.
The first book was released in 1997, and in 1998 in America, but was set in 1991.
The reason for this isn’t completely clear, but it’s pretty interesting when you consider
that the final battle in the final book takes place in the same year that Harry Potter and
the Philosopher’s Stone was rebranded and published in America.
Deathly Hallows Symbol Surprise Appearance One thing that sets the Harry Potter films
apart from the majority of other movie adaptations, is J.K.
Rowling having heavy involvement in the development of the movies.
Including only giving permission and never giving the rights to the movies, Rowling was
able to have a huge influence on the movies.
In fact, she even made sure that certain symbols, such as the deathly hallows symbol appeared
in the Goblet of Fire movie, despite the hallows not even being known until the final book.
While two of Hallows themselves, Harry’s invisibility cloak, Dumbledore’s wand had
already appeared, the movies were setting up the Deathly Hallows before the books even
were.
Its details like this that makes us wish that there were more authors being heavily involved
with the adaptation of their books.
While authors like Gillian Flynn and Susanne Collins wrote the screenplays for the adaptations
of their movies Gone Girl and The Hunger Games respectively, it’s still a rarity and we’d
like to see it happen more often.
Multiple Uses of 7 J.K.
Rowling, not unlike Halo developer, Bungie has a real love the number 7.
It’s considered a lucky or magic number in many cultures and the number 7 can be seen
all over the harry potter universe.
In universe the number 7 actually has magical properties that make magic more powerful,
which is why Voldemort chose to make seven horcruxes.
Not only that but there are 7 years of School at Hogwarts, 7 players on a Quidditch team
and in the movies Harry’s player number is 7.
When Harry Potter and his allies all drank polyjuice potion to look like Harry it resulted
in 7 Harry Potter’s flying around on 7 broomsticks.
Not only that but when kidnapped by Barty Crouch Jr., Alistair Moody was kept in a magic
chest that had 7 locks.
And of course we have to mention that the main series of Harry Potter of course features
seven books.
Snape Talking in Code Generally speaking, Professor Snape is a bit
of a jerk and literally the first thing he does to Harry is give him a nonsense question.
Asking what he would get if he added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood.
He does it intentionally to make Harry seem dumb and unimportant, however if you know
Victorian Flower language, you’ll now that asphodel is a type of lily, and means “my
regrets follow you to the grave”, and “wormwood” means absence.
This means that Snape is literally saying to Harry that he regrets what happened to
Harry’s mother.
While Snape’s history with Harry’s mother is made fairly clear in the first book, its
not until much later in the film series that we finally learn what Snape’s deal is.
Which makes this a pretty cool detail that most people aren’t going to notice unless
they’re familiar with a very obscure code.
DVD Easter Eggs On the DVD for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone, disc 1, if you move your cursor up the owl and highlight it, you will be taken
to Harry Potter’s letter of acceptance.
This alone is a pretty cool Easter Egg, but it’s not the only one.
On Disc 2 one of the ways you can get to the 6 deleted scenes you can click the owl in
the main menu and perform a series of puzzles going from Diagon Alley, to Gringots, Ollivanders
and even the Hogwart’s Castle and the Mirror of Erised.
This will give you access to 7 deleted scenes… of course if you can’t be bothered with
that you can just get it wrong four times and you’ll get them anyway.
DVD Easter Eggs are growing less and less common as the years go by, so it’s nice
to look at some old DVDs that still include these easter eggs and mini games.
No Dragons Were Harmed Harry Potter is a franchise well known for
its use of dragons, so you’ll be pleased to know that Warner Bros always ensures that
the safety of these dragons are paramount.
Which is why in the credits for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we are treated to
a message that says “No Dragons Were Harmed in the Making of This Film”.
It’s a nice little nod, and a well needed bit of humour in a movie franchise that was
growing ever darker.
Come to think of it?
How would you even begin to go about harming that Hungarian Horntail?
That’s all we’ve got time for and there are tons more that we could have mentioned.
What ones would you like to see us do in the future?
Leave a comment and let us know!
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