Twenty Facts for Twenty Years of Magic with Harry Potter
Twenty years ago J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” cast a spell over all who read the enchanted tale.
Many grew up with the boy who lived, cherishing the childhood memories of staying up past 9 p.m. for two occasions only: New Year’s Eve and the midnight release of a new Harry Potter book. At the age of 11, hoards of children waited anxiously for their sealed letters from Hogwarts, crashing back to reality as the days passed with no owl arriving (nor Hagrid knocking).
Yet, the magical world that captured the hearts of millions lives on in all, each person carrying a bit of the magic that makes life just a little brighter (without the incantation lumos needed). So in honor of 20 years of magic, here is a list of twenty facts unknown to the general masses (unless you’re a self-ordained Potterhead).
- Over 450 million copies have been sold worldwide, and the estimated value of the franchise is $25 billion!
- Fourteen Ford Anglias were wrecked in the filming of the Whomping Willow scene.
- The Group Who Shall Not Be Named (TGW) is the largest Harry Potter fan association in the world with over 2,000 members. They are located in New York and meet once a month along with having special events for many occasions.
- Rowling first started writing the Harry Potter series at Edinburgh’s Elephant House in the UK.
- So as not to spoil the plot for the seventh book, Scholastic orchestrated the whole process of its deliverance to stores under strict contracts and guidelines. There were unconfirmed rumors that the workers in the factories worked in pitch black conditions, so as not to catch a glimpse of the books.
- Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe did not become good friends offset until a few years into filming.
- Due to child labor laws stating children can only work for four hours at a time, the Goblet of Fire took 11 months to film.
- Albus Dumbledore was outed as gay by Rowling in 2007 at Carnegie Hall.
- The first ever Harry Potter fanfiction story was recorded on Fanfiction.net in 1999, titled “Harry Potter and the Man Unknown.”
- Rowling confirms in an interview with Time Magazine that Harry and Hermione are meant to work at the Ministry, Ginny becomes a full time Quidditch player, and Ron helps his brothers at the joke shop.
- Universal Studios opened up the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in April 2016 in Orlando.
- The dementors are based off of Rowling’s struggle with depression after her mother’s death.
- Watson auditioned for the role of Hermione Granger in her school gym. Yet Rupert Grint took the unconventional method of sending in a video of a rap song and a video of him pretending to be the drama teacher from his school.
- The reason why Potter’s eyes aren’t “bright green” in the movies is due to Radcliffe having a bad reaction to the contacts he wore for the first day. He was also allergic to the glasses and had severe breakouts from them.
- Radcliffe went through 180 pairs of Harry’s round spectacles and had his lighting bolt scar reapplied over 5,000 times in the course of all eight movies.
- The Hogwarts motto is “Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus” translated from Latin, it advises all to “never tickle a sleeping dragon.”
- Fred and George were born on April Fools’ Day.
- The historic Duke Humpfrey’s Library made the first exception in hundreds of years for Harry Potterand the need to bring flame into the library. It was usually strictly against the rules but was needed to film the restricted section scene as Harry carries a torch.
- Rowling’s official Harry Potter site, Pottermore, is the only official way to be sorted into a house (at least for Muggles). The website is also updated with many “deleted scenes,” information on other wizarding schools, and much more.
- The Harry Potter section on Fanfiction.net contains at least 87,000 entries, all making sure Harry Potter lives on forever.