The final fight between Voldemort and Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is changed from how the battle is depicted in the novel. After seven movies of adventure and magic, the war between Harry and the Death Eaters under Lord Voldemort culminates in one last duel between the eternal foes. Harry and Voldemort have never battled each other one-on-one before — anytime there have been wands drawn, one is disarmed somehow, or someone comes to Harry’s aid. The finale of The Deathly Hallows - Part 2 changed their inevitable clash significantly from the books, and not all of these changes worked.
Available To Stream On HBO Max
The film adaptations of the Harry Potter series made changes to character deaths, moments, and motivations in order to fit the original, epic-length novels into theatrical movies (a challenge the upcoming HBO Max Harry Potter series can avoid). Even splitting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into two parts is not enough to entirely depict every event from the book. What’s more, scenes that work in a novel don’t always translate well to screen. As the final book of the famed series, every scene is difficult to cut or alter. The last duel between Voldemort and Harry was always necessary to the story, but director David Yates still needed to make some alterations to better mesh it with the movie.
Why Harry And Voldemort’s Battle Was Changed
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 picks up right after Harry and his friends escape Malfoy Manor. Most of the movie focuses on the Battle of Hogwarts. Depicting a written battle on-screen is much more difficult and costly than detailing one in a story, and David Yates makes creative changes in order to accurately portray J. K. Rowling's words. In HBO's Return to Hogwarts anniversary special, Yates says, “I really wanted something earthier and more intense and more visceral than [the book battle].” It was not an accident; the director made a purposeful decision to stage Voldemort and Harry's duel much differently than it's written.
Despite being mortal enemies and tied to each other through history and even blood, the pair do not actually meet each other face-to-face that often in the franchise. For this monumental ending of The Deathly Hallows - Part 2, Yates realized he had to make sure audiences understood the gravity of Voldemort and Harry Potter meeting on equal footing. Yates opted to represent their deep connection physically as two people merging together through an apparition. This addition to the book's scene gives the characters more time between just the two of them and allows the movie to give a bird's eye view of the major setting one last time.
How Harry And Voldemort’s Battle Differs From The Book
The end result of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is the same as it is in the novel, but the path to get there is different. In the book, Harry and Voldemort have a dialogue about the true owner of the Elder Wand, an excellent but not particularly cinematic scene. The knockdown fight between Voldemort and Harry represents this back-and-forth in the book. In modern film and TV, bodies left whole tend to be resurrected. David Yates’s final change, having Voldemort disintegrate rather than die as a man is the right decision in order to assure the audience that the Dark Lord is gone for good.
The HBO Max Harry Potter Series Can Get Harry And Voldemort's Duel Right
The final battle between Harry and Voldemort has been an epic moment in Harry Potter regardless of the medium. While the movie version was a fitting end to the film series, it significantly deviated from many — as the most devout Harry Potter readers see them — essential elements. This is especially true of Voldemort's death, as time is spent in the book to explain what's done with his body and why. These changes made sense as they were to condense the saga-length novel into two digestible movies. The upcoming Harry Potter HBO Max series will reboot the franchise and can create a more accurate Harry vs Voldemort final battle simply due to the longer runtime afforded by its medium.
There are many elements of the Harry Potter books which were watered down for the movies through necessity. It is these themes, characters, and moments — the final battle between Voldemort and Harry included — that HBO and WB can bring to the fore to maximize the benefits brought by telling Harry Potter's story across multiple seasons and episodes. There's also something to be said from HBO learning from their Game of Thrones finale mistakes. The final battle between Harry and Voldemort will be the culmination of literal years of TV by the time it airs in the future, and it's one that already comes with significant fanbase expectations. Hopefully, if any changes are made, they'll be as thought out and understandable as the one made for Harry and Voldemort's final battle Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.