The Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint reached a full circle moment when they filmed the iconic finale moment of the franchise at the King’s Cross Station. The scene that featured a glimpse of the famous train station after 19 years of the Battle of Hogwarts, was an emotional sequence for the Potterheads.
Surprisingly, this scene was almost ruined due to faulty makeup. According to the director David Yates, their attempt to make the cast look older through makeup didn’t go well and the scene almost turned into a laughing joke.
Daniel Radcliffe’s iconic scene was almost ruined
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was iconic due to several factors. It ended one of the most beloved franchises of all time that had a huge contribution to shaping our childhood. In the last scene when we are shown the scene of Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station, it makes us remember the iconic moment from Harry’s first visit to the station from the first movie.
The last scene that took place 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts featured the middle-aged versions of our beloved characters who came to see off their kids. Prosthetics were used to make Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and Tom Felton look older. However, if the initial images are seen, it will be noticed that they look extremely different from the final cut.
In the Blu-ray commentary for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (via Pajasek99), director David Yates revealed that they attempted to make them two decades older through prosthetics. However, the cast looked far older and weird. It led Yates to opt for a reshoot- “I was so concerned about making them look old that I think we made them look too old.”
It was extremely important for David Yates to make the looks of Daniel Radcliffe and his friends accurate so that they could add more to the emotion of the scene. As a result, he went and requested Warner Bros. for another attempt.
The aging makeup was more difficult than doing goblins
As other crew members also had their input, it was revealed that the same creators who created goblins and giants for the franchise faced difficulty in making the cast look older. Makeup designer Nick Dudman explained that aging the stars was their biggest trouble during the filming. It was even more challenging than creating all sorts of monsters and goblins for the Daniel Radcliffe franchise.
“Having done all manner of makeup effects with pointy ears and great big silicon things for giants and goblins, the actual biggest challenge makeup-wise came for this sequence. For a variety of reasons, we actually went a tiny bit too far. It’s incredibly difficult to take somebody and move them through their twenties and into their late thirties without making a statement that’s going to jump off the screen at you.”
Harry Potter producer David Barron added that they also incorporated visual effects into the prosthetics that enhanced the looks. The visual effects made it look more polished in the final cut and made us emotional every time we saw the epilogue scene.
As a series adaptation of the renowned J.K. Rowling creation is also under development, it will be exciting to watch how they figure out these things. Currently, we are yet to get updates about the Max show which will reportedly portray a more source-material-accurate depiction. Meanwhile, the Potterheads can revisit the classics on Max.
