Hey everyone, today we’ll be discussing a handful of Harry Potter book characters who are nothing like their movie counterparts.
As a general rule, fans of book series know to watch movie adaptations of the novels they love without expecting too much, for it is extremely rare that a filmmaker’s vision will match the fictitious world that a fan has created in their own mind.
After all, how could you expect every single person to interpret a book the exact same way, from the appearance of the characters to how the world looks around them?
And even if there was some sort of consensus on how a character was supposed to look, there’s also the fact that it’s incredibly unlikely for there to be an actor or actress out there who perfectly resembles that character, is the right age, has the correct dialect, and so on.
Of course, this seems even more impossible when applying the concept to an entire cast of characters, like in Harry Potter.
When the first movie adaptation of the Harry Potter series, The Philosopher’s Stone, was released in 2001, it goes without saying that fans of the books knew things wouldn’t be perfect.
However, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that the films would at least try to accurately reflect the people and places that fans had read on the pages of the first few books, and in many ways, it did, especially that first film.
However, as more and more movies were made, there were some pretty glaring differences between the books and the films, in particular with some of the main characters of the series. Here are five book characters that I think are NOTHING like their movie counterparts.
1. Hermione Granger
Ah, the infamous Miss Know-It-All. At least in the books, from her first introduction in The Philosopher’s Stone and beyond, Hermione Granger is described in the novels as a somewhat nosy, rather bossy young witch who, let’s be clear, is not an immediate friend of Harry’s.
She is incredibly well-read and has a lot of initiative, having read much of the reading material ahead of the start of the school year. She also has wildly frizzy brown hair and overly large front teeth. She is not meant to be traditionally attractive.
Of course, over the years she becomes more tolerable and lovable, especially in the case of Ron, particularly in the way that she shares her knowledge. However, a lot of her personality traits and just about all of her physical traits, with the exception of her large teeth, remain the same.
In the movies, however, both Hermione’s appearance and personality are completely different. While the actress who portrayed her, Emma Watson, was the correct age and had brown hair, that was where the similarities stopped.
Emma’s hair is not by nature frizzy, and so for the first movie, it was teased out to be bushier than normal. But as the movies progressed, Emma’s hair got flatter and smoother, and by the end of the films, she basically just had wavy hair. Emma’s Hermione also never had the large teeth.
However, we can hardly fault the actress for this, especially considering that she did try to wear fake teeth to incorporate this feature, but as a young actor, found it too difficult to speak her lines with them in.
In terms of the movie Hermione’s personality, she does start off somewhat similar to her book counterpart, but this changes drastically over the course of the movies. She does little to developmentally mature. Instead, she simply becomes an overly perfect witch in just about every way.
2. Ron Weasley
If you’ve never read the Harry Potter books and are only a fan of the movies, then you likely think of Ron Weasley as a bit of a goof who’s really afraid of spiders. But anyone who’s read even one of the novels knows that Ron Weasley, at least in book form, is so much more than that.
For starters, being the only one of the golden trio who grew up in a wizarding family, Ron is constantly educating both Harry and Hermione (yes, Hermione) on the ways of the wizarding world. In fact, in the books, Ron is portrayed as quite intelligent and quick-witted.
He often receives similar grades to Harry and is equally as able to form the types of spells and magic as the boy who lived. Compare this to the clumsy, oafish version of Ron in the films, who can barely cast his Patronus and whose intelligent lines were almost entirely given to the character of Hermione.
In the books, Ron is also incredibly brave, which is certainly not how he’s portrayed in the films. There are a number of examples of him standing up for and protecting Harry and other characters throughout the novels. Whereas in the movies, some of his most courageous moments are, once again, given to other characters.
Film Ron, played by Rupert Grint, is also not all that similar in appearance to Book Ron, despite the red hair. In fact, I’d argue that the ginger hair is the only thing the two have in common.
In the books, Ron is described as tall, long, and lanky, with bright red hair and freckles. Rupert Grint is not particularly tall, long, nor lanky, and he certainly doesn’t have freckles.
3. Ginny Weasley
While in appearance actress Bonnie Wright’s portrayal of Ginny Weasley was spot on, there is so much that is different between book and movie Ginny, particularly in terms of her personality. This, of course, is no fault of Bonnie Wright’s, but rather due to the exclusion of certain storylines from the films.
In the novels, Ginny becomes a real powerhouse of a young witch. She speaks her mind, stands up for herself and others, is an exceptional Quidditch player, and is talented with her magic.
Bat-Bogey Hex, ring a bell anyone? Sadly, due to not enough screen time, Ginny’s character was never really fully realized in the films. Instead, she came across as quiet and demure.
Yes, she still played on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and was part of Dumbledore’s Army, but fans never really got to see her true badass self in the movies.
4. Bellatrix Lestrange
Despite returning from her stint in Azkaban more gaunt than she’d been before, the Bellatrix Lestrange of the books is described as a witch who is classically beautiful, with an air of arrogance to her beauty. She is tall, with dark, heavy-lidded eyes, a strong jaw, and long black hair.
As a loyal Death Eater, Bellatrix spent time in prison rather than renounce her devotion to Voldemort, and throughout the books, she is willing to do dark and terrible things in the name of serving the Dark Lord.
While much of this is well adapted to the movie version of Bellatrix, there are some glaring differences which make the two characters extremely different from one another. For starters, while Book Bellatrix is clearly a psychopath, she’s also quite put together.
Throughout the novels, we witness her tactfully manipulate those around her and use her intelligence to her advantage. In the movies, however, she’s more of a caricature of Bellatrix than anything.
Actress Helena Bonham Carter does a marvelous job making her Bellatrix a straight-up basket case, but this depiction of her is rather unlike the complex Dark Witch who graces the pages of the books.
5. Severus Snape
Where to start with Severus Snape? While there are a few similarities between Book Snape and Movie Snape, the most glaring dissimilarity between the two versions of this character is definitely their age.
At the beginning of the novel series, Professor Snape is meant to be in his early thirties. However, because the filmmakers wanted Alan Rickman for the part (which I totally get, don’t get me wrong), Movie Snape ended up being closer to 40.
This resulted in the film adaptation of Snape being somewhat more mature than his book counterpart, which dramatically affected several of his personality traits. For example, in the books, Snape is fairly spiteful, snarky, and petty, and his hatefulness towards Harry rarely feels justified.
In the movies, he comes across as simply dark and a little ominous, and a lot more likable. Movie Snape also has many more moments of comic relief, which seems to lend to his likability.
And although Alan Rickman’s Snape had shoulder-length black hair, I’d argue that his appearance wasn’t that accurate of a depiction of Book Snape, who is described as thin with greasy black hair and a large hooked nose.
And with that, we’ve come to the end of today’s blog. What did you think? Did I miss anything? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
