The Harry Potter books and movies saw the deaths of many beloved characters, most of them during the Battle of Hogwarts, and among those were Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks – but why did J.K. Rowling decide to kill them? With time, the Wizarding World has become one of the most extensive and beloved universes in the fantasy genre, and it all began in 1997 with the publication of J.K. Rowling’s debut novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. This was the first entry in a series of seven novels, which became a worldwide phenomenon and made way for a highly successful movie saga.
The Harry Potter novels and movies tell the story of “the boy who lived” and Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard of all, who had dangerous plans for both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds and a personal vendetta against Harry, who he failed to kill when he was a baby. Now, when it was time for the books to make the jump to the big screen, many characters, events, and elements had to be left aside for different reasons, but in general, the Harry Potter movies were quite loyal to the source material, and something they didn’t change much was the many tragic deaths throughout the series, especially those during the Battle of Hogwarts.
Although the Harry Potter stories are aimed at a young audience, they address some pretty dark topics and have some truly heartbreaking and at times scary moments, and Rowling didn’t seem to care much about the number of characters she killed nor about how close to Harry they might have been. Harry’s life was actually marked by death and tragedy from an early age, with the death of his parents at the hands of Voldemort and later the murder of his godfather, Sirius Black, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix thanks to Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry became very close to his father and Sirius’ best friend Remus Lupin and his wife Nymphadora Tonks, but even that came to an end when both were killed during the Battle of Hogwarts, leaving readers and viewers heartbroken and wondering why Rowling did that to Harry.
J.K. Rowling made a tradition of apologizing for a character’s death on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, and in her 2016 apology was Lupin’s turn. Now, at some point, Rowling actually planned to kill Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but she realized that Arthur’s death would have had a serious impact on Ron’s arc, so she decided against it – but someone had to take his place, as she had already planned to get rid of respectable parents at the end of the book series. Rowling then chose Lupin, as well as his wife Nymphadora Tonks, as their infant son, Teddy, would be left an orphan, which mirrored Harry’s tragic past. Speaking to Today in 2007, Rowling explained that one of the “most devastating things about war is the children left behind”, as happened in the first war with James and Lily Potter’s death, so she wanted to show “another child left behind”. Of course, Teddy’s fate was very different from that of Harry, as he had his grandmother and godfather (Harry) to look after him.
Rowling even added on her apology for killing Remus Lupin that she “didn’t enjoy doing it” and that the only time her editor saw her cry was over the fate of Teddy Lupin, but ultimately, she made sure he had a much better life than Harry did by actually leaving him with family members that cared about him and Harry Potter himself looking out for him. Harry Potter fans were surely relieved that Arthur Weasley wasn’t killed, but the cost of having him live was also very painful.