The world of Harry Potter will continue to expand now with a TV series that will adapt all the books, and thanks to this, it can fix the most disappointing change in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In 1997, readers all over the world met Harry Potter, the young boy who was actually a wizard, and one who would go on to face the biggest threat in the wizarding world: Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard of all. Harry Potter’s adventures were covered in seven books that became a worldwide phenomenon, leading to their film adaptation between 2001 and 2011.
Given how rich the universe of Harry Potter is, the movies were expected to make changes to the books and leave characters, events, and details aside, either for time, narrative, or visual reasons. While most of these changes worked for the benefit of the Harry Potter saga, there were others that were heavily criticized by fans of the books, as some elements should have been kept in the movies. Such is the case for one scene from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but the upcoming TV remake can finally do justice to it.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth book and movie in the Harry Potter novel series and movie saga. In it, Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger are in their sixth year at Hogwarts, but the story takes a darker turn compared to the previous books and movies. In addition to some personal problems in their relationships with other characters, Harry has to retrieve a memory from Professor Slughorn that’s key to defeating Lord Voldemort as it’s about his Horcruxes.
After that, Harry accompanies Dumbledore to a cave to destroy another Horcrux (Slytherin’s locket), while at Hogwarts, the Death Eaters prepare for Dumbledore’s murder. Draco Malfoy was chosen by Voldermort to kill Dumbledore, but as he hesitates to do it, Snape arrives and kills Hogwarts’ Headmaster, as Harry watches while hiding. Hogwarts students and staff mourn the death of Dumbledore and raise their lit wands to honor the beloved headmaster and one of the most powerful wizards. While this became one of the most memorable moments in the Harry Potter saga, it actually replaced an even better scene from the books.
In the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book, Dumbledore was given a proper funeral, and it’s one of the best scenes in the novel. The funeral was held at Hogwarts, where all classes and exams were postponed so all students and teachers (except Snape) could attend. They were joined by the Ministry of Magic delegation, Madame Maxime from the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth, centaurs, merpeople, Hogwarts’ ghosts, and many, many more. The movie adaptation of Half-Blood Prince left all of this out, but now the TV remake can finally do justice to it.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince completely left Dumbledore’s funeral out and replaced it with the above-mentioned scene with the lit wands, which doesn’t have the same emotional impact as the funeral. Director David Yates told Hypable back in 2012 that Dumbledore’s funeral was “in and out” and “felt weirdly book-ended”. Yates explained that it felt “less about the man and more about the pomp of the ceremony” so, rhythmically, it didn’t feel right. Although concept art for the scene was made, it was never filmed, so viewers can only imagine what it would have been like.
The way Dumbledore’s funeral is described in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince novel makes it one of the most beautiful scenes in the entire series, but also one of the most important ones. Dumbledore was one of the greatest wizards to ever live and the only one Voldemort truly feared, and he was a beloved and respected man in the wizard community. His funeral was the biggest proof of how important Dumbledore was and the impact of his legacy, bringing together wizards from all over the world and even magical creatures.
A Harry Potter TV remake has a lot more advantages than the movies. The longer format of a TV show allows the writers to cover more than the movies could due to time restrictions, thus being able to bring to life most, if not all, of the characters and events that didn’t make it to the movies. A TV show also has a different rhythm than a movie, fixing Yates’ “problem” of Dumbledore’s funeral not fitting into the movie. The Harry Potter TV series can give Dumbledore’s funeral the time it needs, covering it in its entirety.
In addition to that, a TV format allows the Harry Potter remake to explore other sides of the wizarding world and other relationships between the characters, as are those between Dumbledore and other wizards and magical creatures, thus showing why they attended his funeral. There are many scenes the Harry Potter TV remake can fix, and Dumbledore’s funeral should be one of them.
Source: Hypable.