When it comes to the character of Lord Voldemort, Warner Bros did an excellent job at bringing the villain to the big screen. He's become somewhat iconic over the years, with JK Rowling setting the bar for evil rather high, while Ralph Fiennes has deserved many plaudits for his performances in The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix, The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Rightly so, in our opinion.
However, with such limited time to work with, not every detail about the Dark Lord could make it into the movies. In fact, fans of solely the eight films will have missed many snippets about him that were laid out in the books. So we'll now take a look at 10 things that were never revealed during the movies.
His Mother Was Bullied
In the Half-Blood Prince book, Harry and Albus Dumbledore take a trip down memory lane via the pensieve inside the Hogwarts headmaster's office. They do this on occasions in the movie of the same name but one of the flashbacks omitted comes from a Ministry of Magic worker named Bob Ogden. There, Harry witnesses Voldemort's grandfather Marvolo and Uncle Morfin bullying his mother Merope in their tiny shack of a house, making her do everything while they put their feet up.
Rowling, in doing this, makes us feel a tad sympathetic towards Voldemort. That is until we remember he's a deranged dark wizard with no care or consideration for anybody else but himself. He gets his revenge, anyway, framing Morfin for the murders of his father Tom Riddle Sr and his grandparents. Marvolo, meanwhile, dies behind the cold metal bars of Azkaban prison.
His Mother Bewitched His Father
In Ogden's flashback, Harry sees Merope look longingly at Tom Riddle Sr while he's out riding a horse with a lady friend. This makes the Boy Who Lived ponder how the pair could ever end up together given they're two very different types of people, with extremely contrasting backgrounds.
Afterwards, however, Dumbledore theorizes that a love potion was involved. The Hogwarts headmaster is rarely ever wrong and he expresses his belief that Merope used her limited skills as a witch to convinced Riddle Sr into falling in love with her, something that would never normally happen. She eventually grew tired of doing this and lifted the curse yet Tom didn't stay around, instead moving back into his family home. This is a decision he'll come to regret, with his son coming to murder him many years down the line.
He Worked At Borgin and Burkes To Hunt Horcruxes
As Harry and Dumbledore dive into the past during the Half-Blood Prince book, more and more details about the Dark Lord's backstory come to light. And one memory, obtained by a House-Elf named Hokey, shows exactly what the Dark Lord did upon leaving Hogwarts. He had all the talent and intelligence to rise up the ranks at the Ministry of Magic but, instead, he took up a position at Borgin and Burkes.
This is because of his hunt for Horcruxes. Voldemort, through a rich lady named Hepzibah Smith, manages to obtain both Salazar Slytherin's old locket and the whereabouts of Helga Hufflepuff's cup. He then murders Hepizabah and leaves poor Hokey to take the blame, with the House Elf suspected of wrongdoing for the rest of his days in the years that follow.
He Was Rejected By Albus Dumbledore
In the sixth book, Harry is actually invited to peer into Dumbledore's own memory. The Hogwarts headmaster reveals that Voldemort actually turned up to Hogwarts for a job interview, despite spending his time after bringing chaos and devastation to the magical world. The Dark Lord is, rather inevitably, seeking the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. However, Dumbledore rebuffs him and sends the villain on his way.
The real reason Voldemort turned up to his old school was so he could hunt for something that formerly belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw. He's successful, hiding her old diadem inside the Room of Requirement. And he jinxes the Defence Against the Dark Arts post, too, meaning Dumbledore is unable to keep anybody for longer than a year afterward - explaining the failings of many, many witches and wizards.
He Was Told Little Information About The Prophecy
Despite being significant in the books, the Prophecy doesn't get much of a look-in when it comes to the Potter movies. In The Order of the Phoenix, Harry and Dumbledore only briefly touch upon it and what it means for his ongoing battle against Voldemort. But things are far more detailed in the source material.
It's actually revealed that Voldemort was told very little about Professor Trelawney's prophecy, instead only getting tidbits that were overheard by an eavesdropping Severus Snape. Had Snape heard the whole thing, the Dark Lord could feasibly have gone after Neville Longbottom instead - meaning Harry would have grown up with parents Lily and James around. Unfortunately, because of what Voldemort heard, he decided to make the Potters his No 1 target instead.
How He Met Quirrell
Throughout The Sorcerer's Stone, Harry suspects Severus Snape to be the one attempting to obtain Nicolas Flamel's stone. However, he's shocked towards the end of the blockbuster when it's actually revealed to be Quirinus Quirrell instead, with the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching working on the orders of Voldemort.
The villain doesn't elaborate on how they met in the movies - but he does in the book. Voldemort tells of how he encountered Quirrell while the teacher was traveling around Albania, full of ideas about right and wrong. It's then Tom Riddle who shows him a darker world, one where he'd be a key figure. This convinces Quirrell into working for Voldemort - who then moves into the back of his head following Quirinus' unsuccessful break-in to Gringotts Bank.
He Won A Hogwarts Award
In The Chamber of Secrets movie, Tom Riddle is revealed to be the person behind the attacks on muggle-born students within the school. Surprise surprise. Fans get to see him frame Rubeus Hagrid and Aragog, ensuring the half-giant is expelled from Hogwarts and has his name tarnished across the magical community.
It doesn't show, though, the award Tom wins for special services to the school. Ron Weasley is forced to countlessly clean his trophy during detention with Argus Filch, a task made trickier by the fact he can't stop belching up slugs. This scene ended up being included in the deleted scenes on the DVD and Blu-ray editions of the movie but, if you've not checked them out, then you'd be none the wiser about the trophy's existence.
He Ordered The Hit On Barty Crouch Sr
During the events of the Goblet of Fire film, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stumble across the body of Barty Crouch Sr while out for a stroll of the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid.
Fans can be forgiven for assuming that Barty Crouch Jr, impersonating Alastor Moody, was behind the act because he wanted revenge for being sent to Azkaban many years previously. But this actually isn't the case. Instead, he murders Crouch because Lord Voldemort orders him to - deeming the Ministry of Magic to be a giant risk to his plan of fiddling with the Triwizard Tournament. It's also not disclosed that David Tennant's character transfigured his father's body into a bone and buried him inside the Hogwarts grounds, ensuring he's never found.
He Used Kreacher To Test His Horcrux's Defences
The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 sees Kreacher agree to help Harry in his mission to discover the location of Salazar Slytherin's old locket.
However, it doesn't really explain why the House-Elf performs a u-turn. The book does, of course, with Kreacher deciding to help after opening up on the horrors the Dark Lord subjected him to. Regulus Black tried to protect him but failed and Kreacher had to put up with torture and the death of his friend in a creepy old cave by the beach. Put it this way, it's not a place we'd like to go for a holiday.
He Tried To Kill Molly Weasley
In the Deathly Hallows book, Lord Voldemort's rage is at its peak when he discovers Harry is still alive. And, after losing his chief lieutenant Bellatrix Lestrange in battle, he then turns his wand on Molly Weasley.
Fortunately Harry, after ensuring all his loved ones are protected, is able to jump in and save the day by defeating the Dark Lord for good. It would have been awful to lose Molly, especially given how Voldemort was behind the deaths of Sirius Black, James Potter, and Lily Potter. This was one Potter loved one who got away…