FILM · 2001
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
276 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (276)
- #001
Alan Rickman received private instructions about Snape from J. K. Rowling in order to play the character. Rowling even gave him vital details about Snape's backstory that were not revealed until the final novel.
- #002
Richard Harris had difficulty remembering his lines, and Daniel Radcliffe asked him to help direct his lines purely to give Harris more practice.
- #003
To make the school setting more realistic, the child actors in the film were to do their actual school homework.
- #004
Hogwarts' motto, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus," means "never tickle a sleeping dragon."
- #005
The producers initially wanted to use Canterbury Cathedral as a filming location for some Hogwarts scenes, but the Dean of Canterbury refused, saying it was not appropriate to use a Christian church to promote pagan imagery. Gloucester Cathedral agreed to take its place; the Dean of Gloucester, the Reverend Nicholas Bury, admitted he was a fan of the books. However, when it was decided to use the local cathedral as a filming location in Gloucester, there was a large backlash from the media. Protesters wrote sackfuls of letters to local newspapers claiming it was blasphemy and vowed to block the film crew's access. In the end, only one protester showed up.
- #006
Platform 9 3/4 was filmed at King's Cross, but only at platforms 4 and 5. Rowling admitted that she mixed up the layout of London's King's Cross railway station when she sent the Hogwarts Express to Platform 9 3/4, reached by magic between platforms 9 and 10. She had meant the location to be in the station's intercity section, but 9 and 10 are actually among the smaller suburban platforms. The film followed the book: the platforms seen as 9 and 10 were in real life the intercity platforms 4 and 5. However, King's Cross does actually have a "Platform 9 3/4." As a gift to Harry Potter fans, it is located in the walkway between the real platforms 9 and 10.
- #007
Casting Harry Potter was the biggest challenge; they saw 5,000 boys audition and none of them felt right. Producer and director Chris Columbus saw Daniel Radcliffe in the film David Copperfield (1999) and showed it to the casting director, saying Radcliffe was the one and was magnificent. However, he said they could not get him because his parents wanted him to focus on schoolwork rather than acting and to avoid the attention. So they interviewed Harry Potters of different nationalities from all over the world and still could not find him. Columbus was frustrated because his heart was set on Radcliffe. By complete coincidence, the producer and screenwriter of this film went to a theater and Radcliffe and his father were in the front row, so they talked and gradually persuaded him to cast Radcliffe.
- #008
J. K. Rowling chose Robbie Coltrane, Dame Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman for their roles.
- #009
Rosie O'Donnell and Robin Williams were two of the celebrities who wanted to appear in the film for free; in their cases, the roles were Molly Weasley and Rubeus Hagrid respectively. Williams in particular actively campaigned with director Chris Columbus (with whom he had made Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Nine Months (1995) and Bicentennial Man (1999)) for the role of Hagrid, but Columbus had to disappoint both of them because both are American and the author J. K. Rowling wanted the cast to be strictly from the British Isles.
- #010
The Restricted Section scene was filmed in the Duke Humfrey's building of Oxford's Bodleian Library. The library has very strict rules against bringing in flames. The filmmakers were the first people ever permitted to break that rule in hundreds of years.
- #011
Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) was the first person cast.
- #012
The filmmakers went to greater lengths to match the children's appearances to the novel's descriptions, fitting Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) with green contact lenses and similarly having Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) wear fake teeth. The ideas were abandoned, however, when Radcliffe's eyes reacted strongly to the contacts and Watson could not speak clearly with the false teeth in her mouth.
- #013
The floating candles in the Great Hall were created using candle-shaped holders containing oil and burning wicks, suspended on wires that moved up and down on special effects rigging to create the impression of floating. Eventually one of the wires snapped because of the heat of the flame, causing the candle to fall to the floor. Fortunately no one was injured, but since real candles were determined to pose a safety hazard, it was decided to recreate the candles using CGI for the later films.
- #014
Richard Harris, who had been acting for more than forty years by the time this film went into production, said he had never been part of such a close-knit cast.
- #015
Warner Bros. initially considered making the entire Harry Potter film series as a set of computer-animated films, or trying to combine several novels into a single film. The studio's reasoning was mainly concern that the child actors would age quickly, that production of any film would take too long, or that the lead actors might need to be recast if production were delayed between sequels. Author J. K. Rowling vetoed the idea of combining the books and an animated film, so the studio instead decided to shoot all eight films back to back so that the same actors and actresses could play their roles in every film.
- #016
This film and the novel it is based on are known as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" everywhere outside the United States. The reason was that US publisher Scholastic believed American audiences were largely unfamiliar with the concept of the 'Philosopher's Stone' and asked JK Rowling to change her title (and the relevant text in the book) to "Sorcerer's Stone." To keep the film consistent with the book, every scene in the film that mentions the Philosopher's Stone was shot twice (once with the actors saying "Philosopher's" and once with them saying "Sorcerer's") or dubbed (most notably one of the scenes in which Hermoine says it in the library and her face is not shown). J. K. Rowling has since said she regrets allowing the title change but that as a novice author she was not in a strong enough position to fight it at the time (her publisher had even asked her to abbreviate her name to J. K. out of fear that young boys would be reluctant to read a book written by a woman). Fans in the United States often ask her why she did not call it "The Philosopher's Stone."
- #017
Emma Watson's Oxford drama teacher passed her name on to the casting team, and she had to do more than five interviews before getting the role. Watson took the auditions seriously but "never really thought I had any chance of getting the role." The filmmakers were impressed by Watson's confidence, and she outperformed the thousands of girls who applied.
- #018
Contains a major spoiler — show
The inscription around the Mirror of Erised reads: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi". Read backwards, the inscription says: "I show not your face, but your heart's desire."
- #019
Richard Harris agreed to take the role of Albus Dumbledore only after his eleven-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he did not. The role had initially been offered to Patrick McGoohan, but he turned it down for health reasons. Harris later had health problems of his own and died of Hodgkin lymphoma shortly before the premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).
- #020
Set decorator Stephenie McMillan deliberately sought out the ugliest furniture possible to make the Dursleys' house even more unpleasant.
- #021
The surname "Dumbledore" means "bumblebee" in Old English. Also, according to the quiz show QI (2003), the word "Muggle" existed as a "jazz word" used for marijuana smokers from the early to mid-1900s.
- #022
J. K. Rowling explained on her website that she was asked to play Harry's mother Lily during the Mirror of Erised scene but turned the role down, saying she is not an actress and would have "messed it up somehow," and that the part went to Geraldine Somerville instead.
- #023
The scenes in Hagrid's Hut were filmed in London, on a small plot not far from Leavesden Studios. In case fans of the film were likely to overrun it, the hut was demolished once filming was complete.
- #024
The floor of the Great Hall is made of York stone. Production designer Stuart Craig had the foresight to spend a significant portion of the design budget on the stone. Although the decision was questioned at the time, it proved wise because the stone was durable enough to withstand the footsteps of hundreds of actors and actresses, as well as several camera crews, who would film the entire series over the following decade.
- #025
During the Harry Potter films, Daniel Radcliffe used 160 pairs of glasses.
- #026
Producer and director Chris Columbus said in interviews that he was disappointed with this film's visual effects, calling them "rushed" and "never up to anyone's standards," and that he tried to improve them for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). That did not stop this film from being nominated for a BAFTA award for "Best Visual Effects."
- #027
Tom Felton had not read any Harry Potter book before the auditions, and at the audition Chris Columbus asked each contender what their favorite chapter in the book was for the role of Malfoy. When Felton's turn came, he said his favorite chapter in the book was the one at Gringotts, just as the previous contender had said. Columbus caught on very quickly and thought it was very funny.
- #028
To understand how he believed the caretaker Filch's solitary lifestyle was, David Bradley and his cat rented an isolated cottage in Ireland for a month before filming began.
- #029
During filming, Daniel Radcliffe changed the display language of Robbie Coltrane's mobile phone to Turkish. Coltrane had to call hair designer Eithne Fennel's Turkish father to learn the Turkish for "change language."
- #030
Contains a major spoiler — show
The flashbacks in the screenplay showing Voldemort murdering Harry's parents were written by J. K. Rowling. The producers knew she was the only person who knew exactly what had happened.
- #031
During auditions, Rupert Grint sent in a video of himself rapping while explaining why he wanted the role of Ron.
- #032
To give Hogwarts Castle an authentic look and feel, much of the filming took place at various locations across England, including Christ Church, Oxford, Durham Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral and Alnwick Castle. The sets actually built for Hogwarts were the Great Hall, the Grand Staircase and the Gryffindor Common Room. Additional sets were built for Hogwarts' various classrooms and other locations in later films.
- #033
In this film, Harry's forehead scar is off-center. This was done at J. K. Rowling's request. Because of the artwork on the covers of her books, many people assumed the scar had to be in the middle of his forehead. However, the books never specify exactly where on his forehead the scar is.
- #034
All of the food seen at the Great Hall feasts is real. Chris Columbus wanted a very detailed welcome feast matching the book's description, consisting of roast, ham, turkey and all the trimmings. Unfortunately, filming for hours under hot set lighting caused the food to develop an unpleasant smell, even though the meats were replaced every two days and the vegetables twice a day. For later films, real food samples were frozen so that molds could be made from them and copies cast in resin.
- #035
The tabby cat used in the film ran away during shooting and returned two days later.
- #036
J. K. Rowling insisted that the main cast be British, but she also allowed Irish actors, which later established a "strictly British and Irish cast" rule for the series. Notable examples falling under this rule are Richard Harris and Fiona Shaw, both of whom are Irish. Although Zoë Wanamaker made her name as a British actress, she was actually born in the United States, but grew up in Britain and officially became a British citizen in 2000. Also, Verne Troyer, who was born in Michigan, played Griphook, but was voiced by a British actor (Warwick Davis); and Chris Columbus's daughter Eleanor Columbus played Susan Bones, though she does not say a single word.
- #037
Nicolas Flamel, known as the creator of the Philosopher's Stone, appeared as a plot device in novels featuring characters such as Batman, Indiana Jones and Robert Langdon, including the book The Da Vinci Code (2006). He was a real alchemist (born in France around 1330) who is (probably) believed by some people to have produced the Philosopher's Stone. Because mysterious circumstances surrounded his death in 1418, he was said to have lived for hundreds of years. The book and film accurately reflect his age. He later appeared in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018).
- #038
Professor Quirrell's (Ian Hart's) classroom was filmed at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, in a room known as the Warming Room. The cauldron seen in the room is not a prop; it actually came with the location. The cauldron is thought to be more than 500 years old and to have been used by cooks who worked for Queen Elizabeth I.
- #039
As of February 2002, this was the second highest-grossing film worldwide after Titanic (1997).
- #040
Aunt Petunia's name is especially fitting given that she and her husband have always resented having to look after their orphaned nephew Harry; in floriography (the language of flowers), petunias represent anger and resentment.
- #041
One of Chris Columbus's daughters had difficulty reading until she read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in two days, and the book opened her eyes to a new world. After reading "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," she asked Columbus to make films of them, but there were already fifty other directors interested. Columbus also fell in love with the first two books and sat down with Warner Bros., telling them how obsessed he was with making this film above all else. Columbus wanted to be Warner Bros.' last director. It took about ten days. Columbus rewrote the script until three in the morning every day. It was already a good script, but Columbus wanted to talk about the visuals. He told Warner Bros. He had rewritten the script for free, and this impressed them because that doesn't happen in Hollywood, where you're supposed to be paid for everything. Columbus made a difference by doing this without any pressure from Warner Bros., and after subsequent meetings and five weeks he got the directing job.
- #042
In the trophy cabinet, to the right of the Quidditch cup, you can see the "Service to the School" trophy with part of "Tom M. Riddle" engraved on it; the trophy and the name on it were confirmed by Ron in a scene cut from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).
- #043
Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) was never supposed to say the words "good luck" to Harry at King's Cross. She wasn't required to say anything, but the editors kept those lines anyway.
- #044
The twin actors James Phelps and Oliver Phelps, who play Fred and George Weasley respectively, both have naturally dark brown hair that was dyed red for their roles. Similarly, Tom Felton's naturally brown hair was dyed blond for the role of Draco Malfoy.
- #045
The wizard's chess set that Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Ron (Rupert Grint) play with in the Great Hall is based on the twelfth-century Lewis Chessmen. It was found in 1831 on a beach on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Ninety-three pieces were recovered in total; eleven are now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and eighty-two are in the British Museum in London.
- #046
Although Hagrid is eight feet six inches tall, in the books he is described as being about twelve feet tall.
- #047
West Anglia Great Northern Trains, which owns "Platform 9-3/4," attached the rear end of the "disappearing" luggage trolley to the wall so that fans could take photos of themselves appearing to vanish into the wall. Network Rail actually owns the station infrastructure. Train operators own the trains. During renovation and new station work, Platform 9 3/4 was moved several times to its final position in the new station concourse.
- #048
Almost all scenes involving Harry and/or the trio were shot in chronological order; the most notable exceptions are as follows: the final scene of this film, in which the trio return home on the Hogwarts Express, was the first scene shot, followed by the scene in which Harry first sees the locomotive at Platform 9 3/4 (the only other scene that required the real train to be present). The Quidditch match was then the last thing filmed, largely because of how long it took the visual effects departments to figure out how to do it.
- #049
Three owls play Hedwig: Gizmo, Ook and Sprout, but mainly Gizmo.
- #050
Contains a major spoiler — show
Although Professor Dumbledore gives him a meaningful look, the film never explicitly reveals who gave Harry the invisibility cloak at Christmas. In the book, the cloak is said to have belonged to Harry's father, who gave it to Dumbledore to keep. Dumbledore then gave it to Harry, thinking his father would have wanted him to have it. Both the books and the films repeatedly imply that Dumbledore gave the cloak to Harry so that he could use it to solve mysteries by secretly investigating and eavesdropping on conversations (which also explains Dumbledore's excessive tolerance of Harry's frequent violations of school rules).
- #051
Recalling his experiences with Macaulay Culkin during the making of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), producer and director Chris Columbus cast only child actors and actresses who did not have "stage parents."
- #052
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This film reveals that the twelfth use of dragon blood is oven cleaner.
- #053
The platform attendant at King's Cross asks Harry, "You think you're funny, do you?" and actually works for GNER. However, he is not a platform attendant but a train manager.
- #054
Contains a major spoiler — show
When the birthday cake Hagrid brings Harry is shown in this film, it reads "Happee Birthdae Harry." In the novel, Hagrid brought Harry a birthday cake, but J. K. Rowling described it as "a large, sticky chocolate cake with 'Happy Birthday Harry' written on it in green icing," noting that Hagrid could spell the cake's greeting perfectly correctly.
- #055
Peeves, the troublesome ghost played by Rik Mayall, appears neither in the film nor in the deleted scenes of the film's home releases. Mayall claimed he did not learn he had been cut from the film until he saw it.
- #056
In interviews, Richard Harris often said he had little hope of making the entire film series. He was quoted as saying, "As long as I enjoy it, as long as my health holds up and as long as they still want me, I'll keep doing it. But the chances of all three of those factors staying constant are pretty slim." Months after completing his work on the second film, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and suddenly succumbed to the disease, still hoping to work on the third film.
- #057
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Neville (Matthew Lewis) received a Remembrall from his grandmother but cannot remember what he has forgotten. Neville is the only student in that scene without robes. He must have forgotten to pack them.
- #058
Dame Julie Walters said that had she known Mark Williams, a fellow Midlander, would play Molly Weasley's husband Arthur in the next film, she would have played up their shared accent, and she felt this would have helped establish their family's perceived uniqueness in the wizarding world.
- #059
While scenes were being shot at Gloucester Cathedral, the cathedral's modern electrical signs, light switches and door locks had to be hidden behind panels painted to match the rest of the stone walls. The stained-glass windows were also altered to conceal the fact that the building is a church; religious symbols were covered with coloured plastic filter paper to blend in with the surrounding glass. One window depicted the naked figures of Adam and Eve; they were given clothes and even the lightning-bolt marks trademarked by Harry Potter on their foreheads.
- #060
David Thewlis, who later played Professor Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), was considered for the role of Professor Quirrell.
- #061
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Rupert Grint was actually injured during the chess game after being attacked by the queen. After falling, he is seen hitting the ground and a rock striking his cheek.
- #062
Steve Kloves was nervous when he first met J. K. Rowling, and she admitted she "was really ready to hate this Steve Kloves" because she did not want him to think he was going to "destroy her baby." Recalling their first meeting, she said: "When I first met him he said to me, 'Do you know who my favourite character is?' And I thought, you're going to say Ron. I know you're going to say Ron. But he said 'Hermione,' and I kind of melted."
- #063
Contains a major spoiler — show
The hunchbacked witch statue visible in the corridor leading to Fluffy's room conceals a secret entrance to Honeydukes, a sweet shop in the nearby town of Hogsmeade. The statue and the entrance play significant roles in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but they were left out of the film adaptation Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).
- #064
The Quidditch cup bearing the name of Harry's father also has inscriptions for M. McGonagall and R. J. H. King, the latter a nod to this film's supervising art director, John King.
- #065
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) sees Snape (Alan Rickman) at the head table and his scar hurts, the back of Professor Quirrell's (Ian Hart) head, where Voldemort (Richard Bremmer) resides, is turned towards him. Harry attributed the pain to Snape's presence while Voldemort had been watching him all along. Also note Snape's reaction when he sees that Harry's scar is hurting: he is looking at Quirrell, clearly suspicious of him.
- #066
The role of Harry was initially given to Liam Aiken, but the offer was withdrawn a day later when it emerged that he was not British (Aiken had previously worked with Chris Columbus on Stepmom (1998)).
- #067
At one point, as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) approach Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), Hagrid can be seen playing a wind instrument. He is playing Hedwig's Theme.
- #068
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Harry first meets Professor Quirrell with Hagrid in the pub, Harry extends his hand to shake his, but Quirrell takes care not to shake it. At the end of the film it is shown that Harry's touch causes Quirrell to physically break down because of his connection to the dark arts and Voldemort. Later, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), it is revealed that Voldemort cannot touch Harry because of a magical spell that occurred when he tried to kill Harry as a baby, unless he finds a way around it.
- #069
Contains a major spoiler — show
During Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) first Christmas at Hogwarts, Fred (James Phelps) and George (Oliver Phelps) enlarged and steered their snowballs so that they hit the back of Professor Quirrell's (Ian Hart) turban. In doing so, they were unknowingly striking Voldemort's face.
- #070
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the book, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Draco spend a night in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid as detention, but in the film Ron takes Neville's place. This stems from an unused part of the book in which Ron is bitten by the dragon Norbert and has to go to the hospital wing; Neville is punished in his place because, like Harry and Hermione, he is caught outside for hours, ironically wanting to warn them that Draco was trying to trap them.
- #071
Contains a major spoiler — show
On Christmas Day, when you see the jumper Ron's (Rupert Grint) mother made for him, it has a yellow "R" on it, but in the book his jumper had no letter. In the book George and Fred come into the room and complain that Ron has no letter. "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid. We know we're called Gred and Forge," they said.
- #072
Chris Columbus was amazed at how well Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint matured, both physically and as actors, throughout the Harry Potter series, compared with some child actors who were very cute at first and lost those qualities as they grew up or turned into bad actors and actresses.
- #073
Emma Watson told Seventeen Magazine in 2011 that when she began filming the Harry Potter films at the age of nine, she fell in love for the first time with Tom Felton, who played the lead character Draco Malfoy.
- #074
J. K. Rowling came up with the names of the four houses at Hogwarts on a plane. She wrote them on a sick bag (fortunately empty) so that she could remember them.
- #075
Whatever the time period, all the cars on Privet Drive are Vauxhalls. The Dursleys have a silver 2000 Vauxhall Vectra Estate. All the other cars parked by the drivers are present-day Vectra Estates, and the pre-title prologue features late-1980s Astra, Belmont and Cavalier Saloons.
- #076
Contains a major spoiler — show
Hermione is never seen flying on a broomstick in the film, but in the book she flies on a broomstick with Harry and Ron to catch a flying key.
- #077
Author J. K. Rowling had previously stated that the "t" in "Voldemort" is silent, as it is in the French word for death, "mort" (Voldemort literally means "flight from death" in French). Jim Dale pronounced it that way in the US audiobooks that came out before this film's premiere, in which the characters pronounce the "t." After this, Dale changed the audiobook's pronunciation accordingly.
- #078
Emma Watson said she hated the way her hair looked in this film. In the later films her hair was made less voluminous and more wavy.
- #079
Daniel Radcliffe said he did not expect to play Harry in all the films, because he thought he would grow out of the role. He nevertheless went on to appear in all eight films.
- #080
Ron's opening choice in the final chess match is called the Center Counter Opening (or Scandinavian Defense); because of its asymmetrical nature it is said to be an extremely unpredictable and difficult opening for both sides, and it rarely ends in a draw.
- #081
Snape's costume was the only one that never changed. According to costume designer Jany Temime: "Because, it was perfect. When something is perfect you cannot change it." She joined on Prisoner of Azkaban and changed most of the costumes except Snape's.
- #082
It is now known that Daniel Radcliffe briefly wore green contact lenses so that his eyes would resemble the character in the book. He wore them only in the first scene shot, before they caused him too much pain. The first scene shot was in fact the film's final scene, in which the Hogwarts Express leaves the school. In all the behind-the-scenes photographs from that shoot Daniel is in fact wearing sunglasses, because he was afraid to tell anyone that the lenses irritated his eyes. There is footage of producer and director Chris Columbus on set discussing the scene with Daniel, in which Daniel asks whether he should take off the sunglasses and Daniel hesitantly says he wants to keep them on until they start filming.
- #083
Judianna Makovsky redesigned the Quidditch robes, initially planning to use what was shown on the cover of the American edition of the book, but she considered those "a mess." Instead she dressed the Quidditch players in "preppie sweaters, nineteenth century fencing breeches, and arm guards."
- #084
As Harry prepares to ask the conductor where Platform 9 3/4 is, the woman on the platform holding a girl talking to the conductor is the same person who plays Harry's mother, Lily Potter.
- #085
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the second book of the series, "Nearly Headless" Nick invites Harry to a "deathday" party celebrating the 500th anniversary of his death in 1492 (a fact fans place the entire book chronology in the years 1991-1998). The year 1492 is of course the year Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage to the New World; the production company behind this film is "1492 Pictures," named after the famous namesake of producer and director Chris Columbus.
- #086
The exterior used for King's Cross Station is actually St. Pancras Station just down the road. This was used because St. Pancras's facade is visually more attractive than King's Cross's.
- #087
Harry Potter's birthday is given in the books as 31 July 1980 by J. K. Rowling, who was born on 31 July 1965. Coincidentally, Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon) was born on 31 July 1947. Daniel Radcliffe was reported to have been born on 31 July 1989, but this was only a publicity stunt. Radcliffe was in fact born on 23 July 1989.
- #088
Apart from the poltergeist Peeves, two other minor characters from the book did not appear in this film. The first is Mrs. Arabella Figg, Harry's friendly elderly neighbour across the street described in the book's early chapters. Although she did not appear in the first four films, she eventually appeared in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). The second character cut is Hogwarts's History of Magic teacher, Professor Binns. The book describes him as the only teacher who is a ghost, apparently unaware of the fact that he died in his sleep.
- #089
Producer and director Chris Columbus had wanted Daniel Radcliffe for the lead role ever since seeing him in David Copperfield (1999), before the open casting sessions took place, but Susie Figgis said Radcliffe's protective parents would not allow their son to take the role. Columbus explained that his insistence on giving the role to Radcliffe was the reason for Figgis's resignation. Radcliffe was asked to audition in 2000, when David Heyman and Steve Kloves met him and his family at the London production of Stones in His Pockets. Heyman and Columbus managed to convince Radcliffe's parents that their son would be protected from media interference, and they decided to let him play Harry.
- #090
Although some Christian groups objected to the Harry Potter series, many historic churches in the United Kingdom were used as filming locations for the series, including Durham Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Lacock Abbey, Christ Church College Oxford and, in later films, St. Paul's Cathedral. They even inspired the layout and architectural details of Hogwarts.
- #091
J. K. Rowling allowed Chris Columbus's daughter Eleanor Columbus to play Susan Bones as a "director's trademark" (as he puts her in all his films), on the condition that it be a non-speaking role. This was done to preserve the series' British authenticity and to adhere to Rowling's "British and Irish cast only" principle, since Eleanor is American. Eleanor played Susan Bones without speaking a single word in this film and in the next, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), both directed by her father.
- #092
For much of this film Hagrid's stand-in wore an animatronic head resembling Robbie Coltrane. The head is on display at the Harry Potter Studios in London.
- #093
Chris Columbus described his vision for this film for two hours, stating that he wanted the Muggle scenes "to be bleak and dreary," but the ones set in the wizarding world "to be steeped in color, mood, and detail." He drew inspiration from Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), wanting to use "that sort of darkness, that sort of edge, that quality to the cinematography," and he took the color designs from Oliver! (1968) and The Godfather (1972).
- #094
The word "bloody" appears six times in this film, along with one "arse," one "bugger" and two "blasted." This, and some scenes in the Forbidden Forest, led to the PG rating.
- #095
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the scene where Harry sees his mother and father in the mirror, his whole family was supposed to appear (according to the book). However, when Dumbledore catches Harry spending time alone with the mirror, it is implied that he sees his whole family, because the shot shows the back of the mirror frame. In the book Harry also asks Dumbledore what he sees in the mirror; Dumbledore says he sees himself holding a pair of socks, a gift he would much rather have than all the books he usually receives. Harry then thinks Dumbledore may be joking.
- #096
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone holds the distinction of opening on more screens in the United States than any other film, with 3,762.
- #097
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the book, Hagrid gives Harry the flute at Christmas that he later uses to put Fluffy to sleep.
- #098
The interior scenes at Gringotts were filmed at the Australian High Commission in London. The exteriors are the Silver Vaults, not far from the Australian High Commission.
- #099
This film received the most Oscar nominations of any Harry Potter film, three in total; the only other entry to match this was the series' final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). It is also the only Harry Potter film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
- #100
Sir Patrick Stewart joked that he and Sir Ian McKellen are the two actors from Great Britain who were not wanted for the Harry Potter films.
- #101
Daniel Radcliffe learned he had won the role of Harry Potter while he was in the bathtub.
- #102
This film cost more to make than The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and earned more at the box office that year.
- #103
Troll (1986) features a character named "Harry Potter" who fights trolls and performs magic. It came out eleven years before J. K. Rowling published "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone." J. K. Rowling denies any connection.
- #104
Contains a major spoiler — show
Behind-the-scenes photographs show a different design for the incarnation of Voldemort attached to the back of Professor Quirrell's head. This version had far more animalistic features, most notably a panther-like nose and a large jaw filled with big incisors. It was later changed: Ian Hart provided the face that captured Voldemort's voice and movement, which was then added with computer graphics. Richard Bremmer played Voldemort in the flashback to the deaths of Harry's parents.
- #105
Steven Spielberg was considered for the director's chair, along with Jonathan Demme, Terry Gilliam, Mike Newell, Sir Alan Parker, Wolfgang Petersen, Rob Reiner, Ivan Reitman, Tim Robbins, Brad Silberling, M. Night Shyamalan and Peter Weir. Newell went on to direct the series' fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Gilliam was J. K. Rowling's first choice, but the studio ultimately chose Chris Columbus to direct because he had experience directing child actors. Columbus's daughter also asked him several times to take the job, and he agreed after reading a copy of the book.
- #106
This is the only Harry Potter film in which Mark Williams, who plays Arthur Weasley, does not appear.
- #107
Daniel Radcliffe was reportedly paid £1 million for this film, though he felt the fee was not "that important."
- #108
Contains a major spoiler — show
The fire that traps Harry in the dungeon with Quirrell and Voldemort was not in the book, but it was based on the coloured fire that Harry and Hermione face after winning the chess game in the novel (but not in the film), where seven potion bottles stand before them. This practical effect of fire surrounding the dungeon was created with pipes placed in the floor around the dungeon set that were ignited after Ian Hart snapped his fingers.
- #109
This is the only film in which Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) serves as a supporting hero. Starting with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Hagrid gets less screen time and fewer lines than he does in this film.
- #110
To make Fluffy look more realistic, the heads were designed to move independently and each was given its own personality. One was "smart," one was "alert" and one was "sleepy."
- #111
Contains a major spoiler — show
Ron's victory in the giant chess game is a more impressive feat than it first appears, since he played at a serious handicap. Along with protecting the king, he also had to make sure the pieces represented by Harry and Hermione were not taken, as that would mean they were either seriously injured or killed. Chess essentially involves sacrificing pieces to protect ONE piece, but Ron had to focus on protecting THREE pieces, which was not as easy as it looked, even though he proved willing to sacrifice himself to achieve it.
- #112
Warwick Davis played Flitwick as an old man with white hair. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), the character was redesigned with a new look as "Choir Master." The director of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) liked the new design so much that he brought Davis back as Flitwick.
- #113
Contains a major spoiler — show
After Harry takes the stone, Voldemort's spirit attacks him. The reason Voldemort did not die was the Horcruxes, but J. K. Rowling did not explain this until "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
- #114
Contains a major spoiler — show
Just before Harry, Ron and Hermione encounter Fluffy for the first time, a painting of Anne Boleyn hangs at Hogwarts on the right side of the staircase. Anne Boleyn was Henry VIII's second wife and was beheaded on charges of alleged treason, incest and witchcraft.
- #115
Bruce Springsteen originally recorded an original song for the film titled "I'll Stand By You Always." However, the producers felt the song did not fit the film's story and mood and cut it from the final edit, along with the scene featuring Rik Mayall as Peeves. The song was finally premiered publicly on 10 February 2017.
- #116
In an interview with THE FACE shortly before the film's premiere, screenwriter Steve Kloves said Daniel Radcliffe really impressed him by underplaying his role, since he was "used to American kid actors who are very sitcommy." He called him a writer's dream.
- #117
Contains a major spoiler — show
This is the only Harry Potter film in which Harry does not cast an attack spell.
- #118
James Horner was approached to compose the music for this film, but he could not be reached due to a scheduling conflict. The job ultimately went to John Williams, who had worked with director Chris Columbus on Home Alone (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) and Stepmom (1998). Both Williams and Horner would compete for the Best Original Score Oscar in 2002; Williams for this film and A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), and Horner for A Beautiful Mind (2001). Neither won, as the award went to Howard Shore for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).
- #119
The owls used in this film were brought from Massachusetts.
- #120
Michael Jackson was a huge Harry Potter fan and wanted to turn the books into a musical, but J. K. Rowling refused to give permission.
- #121
In an interview with THE FACE shortly before the film's premiere, Daniel Radcliffe said he was not naturally that sorrowful, but that he drew inspiration from the complex emotions shown in films he loved, such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Dead Poets Society (1989), 12 Angry Men (1957) and What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).
- #122
It was the highest-grossing film of 2001.
- #123
Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg wrote a draft of the script, but it was ultimately rejected by David Heyman in favour of Steve Kloves's draft. Heyman was impressed by his draft, however, and when Kloves stepped away to pursue a personal project, Goldenberg was subsequently hired to write the screenplay for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
- #124
The design of the Great Hall set was based on the hall at Christ Church in Oxford. Oxford University also served as a filming location.
- #125
Rik Mayall took the role of Peeves only because the children at his own school were talking about the books. He later said: "The film, with respect. No, with no respect at all. The film was shit."
- #126
Before landing the role of Draco, Tom Felton auditioned for Harry and Ron.
- #127
Most of the stonework around Hogwarts (except for the areas filmed on location) was actually plaster that had been painted and aged to look hundreds of years old.
- #128
Although Harry performs no spells in this film, he carries out several acts of magic, all of them accidental (such as speaking to the snake). This was designed to show that he is a natural wizard but untrained, and therefore needs to go to Hogwarts. From the second film through the eighth, Harry is forbidden from using magic outside Hogwarts until his 17th birthday, under threat of expulsion from school.
- #129
Tim Roth was one of the leading candidates for the role of Professor Severus Snape. He was initially set to play General Thade in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001) as well as Snape, working on both films alternately. He later decided to commit fully to Planet of the Apes, however, because he thought constantly flying back and forth would be too overwhelming.
- #130
The film contains nearly six hundred visual effects shots involving a large number of companies.
- #131
The street Harry and Hagrid walk down on their way to the Leaky Cauldron is the same street where Sir Sean Connery's car is parked as he waits for Catherine Zeta-Jones to come out of the antique shop in Entrapment (1999).
- #132
Three-headed dogs feature prominently in Greek and Roman mythology and are also known as hellhounds, chief among them Cerberus, the Guardian of the Underworld. In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, however, Hagrid says he bought Fluffy from "an Irish feller" rather than "a Greek chappie," losing the original reference. Screenwriter Steve Kloves stated that he originally used "a Greek chappie," but does not know how the line was changed.
- #133
Despite having less than a minute of screen time and only two lines of dialogue, the unnamed Head Goblin at Gringotts appears prominently on the American theatrical poster, directly below the faces of Ron and Harry. Many believe this is due to his rather striking appearance.
- #134
In the storage section of the National Railway Museum in York, there is a sign reading "Platform 9 3/4" in white on orange, apparently original and suitably pitted and rusted, in the style used by British Railways in the 1950s and 1960s.
- #135
In the book series, the forest outside Hogwarts is called the "Forbidden Forest." In the first two films it is called the "Dark Forest." In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), Voldemort calls it the "Forbidden Forest."
- #136
Warner Bros. initially planned to release this film on the weekend of July 4, 2001, which would have made the production schedule so short that several proposed directors withdrew themselves from consideration. The date was pushed back to November 16, 2001 because of the time constraint. The likely premiere date for the next film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), was held at November 15, 2002, which explains how the first two films were released only a year apart.
- #137
Daniel Radcliffe admitted: "Alan Rickman terrified me. How can you not be affected by that voice? Even when you hear that voice, you forget how low it is until it resonates inside you. I was very scared of him in the first three films. I was very scared of him and I said, 'This man hates me.' At a certain point he saw that I really wanted to do this and work at it." He added, "He cut short his holiday in Canada and came to see me in Equus. He saw every piece of stage work I did while he was alive. He would then take me out and we would talk about it. He was one of the first people to say, 'You should look into voice coaching and research all this.' I'm very lucky. It's really lovely to hear him say that. Thank you for showing me that."
- #138
This film and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) are Chris Columbus's two biggest financial successes.
- #139
The cast includes an Oscar winner: Dame Maggie Smith; and four Oscar nominees: Richard Harris, Sir John Hurt, Dame Julie Walters and John Cleese.
- #140
In this film, John Cleese played "Nearly Headless" Nick, a knight whose head barely remains attached to his body after being almost decapitated. Ironically, one of the many characters he played in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) was the Black Knight, who had every part of his body except his head cut off.
- #141
Crabbe (Jamie Waylett) and Goyle (Josh Herdman) have no dialogue.
- #142
In the original draft, there was a cameo by Drew Barrymore, who declared herself a Harry Potter fan.
- #143
John Williams composed a piece of music specifically for the film's trailer without watching a single frame of the film, and this music appears on the soundtrack as "The Prologue." As of March 2002, he had done this only once before, for Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991). (However, on the collector's edition of the Jaws (1975) soundtrack, a previously unreleased track titled "Shark Attack" appears, and this track was used only in that film's trailer in 1975.)
- #144
This was Emma Watson's (Hermione Granger) theatrical film debut.
- #145
Contains a major spoiler — show
Although Ralph Fiennes later played Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, he does not appear until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).
- #146
The appearance of the three-headed dog Fluffy is physically based on a Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
- #147
Although the main musical theme composed by John Williams, 'Hedwig's Theme' (which can also be heard in all the other films), is present, Harry's owl Hedwig is never named in this film.
- #148
Filming began in September 2000 and ended on 21 March 2001.
- #149
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the film it is mentioned that the dragon Hagrid raised, Norbert, was sent to Romania. Although it is not stated directly, as in the book it was most likely sent to Ron's brother Charlie, who works with dragons there. Additionally, in the final novel "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," during Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding, Charlie mentioned to Hagrid that Norbert was actually a female dragon and that her name had been changed to Norberta. Because this was not included in the film version of the wedding in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), and Norbert is never mentioned again in the films, her true identity as a female dragon was left out entirely.
- #150
Hatty Jones auditioned for Hermione Granger before Emma Watson. She and Emma were the last girls to audition.
- #151
Tom Felton's grandfather plays an uncredited extra as a Professor sitting next to Lee Jordan (Luke Youngblood) during the Quidditch match.
- #152
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Snape is seen muttering a spell during the Quidditch match, Quirrell can briefly be seen saying a spell as well. It is revealed that Snape was using a counter-curse and that the spell was his own at the moment Quirrell's concentration was broken when he was knocked down in the stands.
- #153
Several rumors stated that Joe Sowerbutts (who voiced Harry Potter in the video game of the same name, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)) was brought in to voice a few of Daniel Radcliffe's lines in several scenes of the film after his voice began to break during filming. However, a spokesperson from the studio denied this claim.
- #154
Chris Columbus initially planned to use animatronics and CGI to create the magical creatures, including Fluffy.
- #155
The locomotive that portrays the "Hogwarts Express" in the film, a 1937 4-6-0 "Hall" class steam engine numbered 5972, originally belonged to the Great Western Railway and was named "Olton Hall."
- #156
Terry Gilliam was not only very interested in directing the film, he was also J. K. Rowling's first choice. He was disappointed when Warner Bros. turned him down.
- #157
Dancing with the Stars (2005) professionals Mark Ballas, Derek Hough and Julianne Hough appeared in uncredited minor roles as Hogwarts students.
- #158
Tom Felton said, "I got some very strange letters [from fans]. One man wanted to adopt me. He had legally changed his name to Lucius Malfoy and wanted me to change my name to Draco Malfoy and to be legally adopted by him. I refused!"
- #159
In the book, the only reason Harry is allowed to go to the zoo for Dudley's birthday is that his neighbor Mrs. Figg is unavailable to look after him. Mrs. Figg would later appear in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
- #160
The film was released as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States as well as in India and the Philippines. In the rest of the world, however, it was released under its original title, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."
- #161
Simon Fisher-Becker says he signed a four-film deal to play the Fat Friar, but this was the only film he made and almost his entire role was removed in post-production.
- #162
Some have noticed that Robbie Coltrane's costume and character in Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988) have an almost identical look to the role of Hagrid. J. K. Rowling also said that Robbie Coltrane was always planned for the role of Hagrid in the films, and suggested that this particular film may have partly inspired the creation of Hagrid, both while building the world of the books and in the costume and casting of the Harry Potter films.
- #163
The Great Hall's ornate ceiling (including the beams) was created entirely using CGI. In reality, the ceiling was nothing more than studio stage lighting.
- #164
Scenes from Chris Columbus's script for Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) were used in casting the young actors.
- #165
Despite being called a great wizard by Hermione, Harry does not perform a single spell throughout the film (deliberately). He accidentally removes the glass at the zoo and causes several incidents at Ollivander's while trying to get a wand, but he never successfully and intentionally performs any magic during the film.
- #166
Looking at old 17th-century maps of London, Muggle Street can be seen near the Shakespeare Theatre, a possible influence on the word.
- #167
Contains a major spoiler — show
Seamus Finnigan (Devon Murray) is known for blowing things up throughout the film series. This becomes significant in the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).
- #168
Steve Kloves described the book as not lending "itself to adaptation as well as the next two books," but called it "tough."
- #169
Verne Troyer, who played Griphook, was the only American actor in the film, but his character's voice was provided by British actor Warwick Davis.
- #170
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Harry loses control of his Nimbus 2000 during the Quidditch match, Hermione focuses her binoculars on the spectator tower where the teachers are sitting. If the binoculars are watched closely while Snape mutters the counter-curse, Quirrell's eyes can be seen fixed on Harry's broom (possibly using a non-verbal jinx).
- #171
When they began the first shoot, Daniel was 11, Emma was 10 and Rupert was 12.
- #172
Chris Columbus wanted to work with cinematographer John Seale and asked the studio to hire him, but at the time Seale was committed to shooting Timeline (2003). Production delays on the second film, however, made Seale available during this film's shooting period.
- #173
For nearly two hours of the film, Hermione is not seen wearing anything other than her uniform.
- #174
Contains a major spoiler — show
The chess match between Harry and Ron during the Christmas holiday foreshadows the outcome of the giant chess match at the end of the film. During the Christmas match, Harry loses his knight to Ron's queen. This mirrors the outcome of the giant chess match, in which Ron sacrifices himself as a knight to the opposing queen piece.
- #175
Hagrid initially mistakes Dudley Dursley for Harry Potter, prompting Dudley to say that he is "not Harry." This was not in the book and, since Dudley is played by Harry Melling, is probably an inside joke.
- #176
Neville Longbottom is seen boarding the train to Hogwarts with his grandmother.
- #177
The film's 2020 re-release helped it cross the $1 billion mark, making it the third film to reach that milestone thanks to a re-release, after Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) and Jurassic Park (1993).
- #178
Chris Columbus sold the screenplays for Gremlins (1984) and The Goonies (1985) to Steven Spielberg, but his career did not truly take off until the major successes of Home Alone (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), which paved the way for the even greater success of the Harry Potter series.
- #179
The events of the film take place in 1981 (the opening scene and the flashbacks) and then from mid-1991 to mid-1992.
- #180
This was the first of three Harry Potter films to be the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide. The next two were Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).
- #181
When Hagrid and Harry first approach the Leaky Cauldron, the pub's sign is completely black as Hagrid takes Harry to buy his school supplies. As they get closer to the sign, the name becomes more visible, and it is fully visible when they stand in front of the door.
- #182
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the film Harry watches Quirrell die, whereas in the book Quirrell was unconscious when he died. This created a plot hole regarding Harry's ability to see the skeletal horse-like Thestrals in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), since he initially could not see them until he witnessed Cedric Diggory's death in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). The truth, however, is that the film crew could not possibly have known this fact at the time, because the novel "Order of the Phoenix" was first published in 2003, two years after the film's initial release.
- #183
In the opening scene, Dumbledore uses his own invention to put out the lights on Privet Drive. This device would become very important in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010).
- #184
John Williams composed the score at his homes in Los Angeles and Tanglewood before recording it in London in August 2001.
- #185
In an interview, Rik Mayall (the voice of Peeves) said he had not read the book and claimed to his agent that he had, and that the book was one of his favorites. When he was asked to read his lines on set, his uncontrollable voice kept making the children laugh, and he was asked to turn his back to the children while reading, which did not work. They then asked him to go to the other end of the cathedral and shout his lines, which also made them laugh. According to him, Peeves was in the film, but a few weeks later they decided to remove his scenes. He said that when his children saw the film and came home, they told him: "That was bloody good make-up. You didn't look like yourself at all. It was really good." He said they had confused him with Hagrid.
- #186
This is Daniel Radcliffe's second film.
- #187
There once really was a man with a deformity of a second face on the back of his head, and according to the story, he believed this face whispered to him diabolically until he chose to end his life.
- #188
If you start watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at 22:33, Ron Weasley will say "Merry Christmas" at midnight.
- #189
In the troll scene in the girls' bathroom, Daniel Radcliffe is actually not on the troll's neck, because the movements could have broken his neck. For this reason, his body was added digitally.
- #190
Five actresses played Pansy Parkinson across the series: * Katherine Nicholson - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), uncredited in both * Genevieve Gaunt - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) * Charlotte Ritchie - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), uncredited * Lauren Shotton - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), uncredited * Scarlett Hefner - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).
- #191
Although Rik Mayall's scenes were cut from the film, he was paid in full. He later said it was the most exciting film he had ever worked on, because he played a character who did not even appear in the finished film while still getting paid.
- #192
Contains a major spoiler — show
The Sorting Hat and the entire Harry Potter series could have qualified for the final film. The Hat seems very eager to place Harry in Slytherin, believing it would send him to "greatness." Harry actually carries a piece of Voldemort's soul inside him, which is why the Sorting Hat compared him to Voldemort when choosing his house.
- #193
John Coppinger stated that the magical creatures that had to be created for this film needed to be designed multiple times.
- #194
It was the highest-grossing film in the series both domestically and worldwide until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) surpassed it.
- #195
It grossed 90 million dollars domestically in its opening weekend, achieving the biggest opening weekend gross in history and breaking the record held by The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). It was also the first non-sequel film to break a record since Jurassic Park (1993).
- #196
This was Bonnie Wright's (Ginny Weasley) debut.
- #197
International Master Jeremy Silman (uncredited) created the chess position for the wizard's chess scene. Ron could have checkmated White faster by sacrificing Harry at c5, but instead chose to sacrifice himself to save Harry. Harry's move is not actually checkmate but mate on the next move, because the queen can block at e3, but Harry can then capture it and mate on the following move (see the jokes).
- #198
When Neville's Remembrall turns red, he is not wearing his robes.
- #199
Fiona Shaw, who plays a woman in this film who scoffs at the supernatural and wizardry, had ironically played a powerful witch in True Blood (2008).
- #200
People often tell Daniel Radcliffe that his American accent sounds like it comes from Ohio. He believes this stems from his early experiences working with Ohio-born director Chris Columbus.
- #201
Snape's costume is the only one that never changed throughout the films. According to costume designer Jany Temime, "it was perfect. When something is perfect you cannot change it." She joined on Prisoner of Azkaban and altered the other costumes to match its darker tone.
- #202
Emma Watson was not the first choice to play Hermione Granger. Another actress, Hatty Jones, was also a candidate for the role. Unlike Watson, Jones already had acting experience and had risen to fame in 1998 starring in the film adaptation of the children's book series Madeline (1998). Of the many girls who auditioned for Hermione Granger, only Watson and Jones reached the final stage. The producers and the casting team were impressed by both auditions and saw potential in Jones, but they thought she was too old for the role, which led to Watson winning it.
- #203
Daniel Radcliffe was paid a total of 111 million dollars for the Harry Potter series.
- #204
Daniel Radcliffe became the third child actor, after Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood, to be paid 1 million dollars for a single film.
- #205
According to call sheets, the scenes shot on Stage A at Leavesden Studios were: the Gringotts vaults, the Gryffindor common room, the Gryffindor boys' dormitory, the troll fight in the girls' bathroom, and some Quidditch scenes, including the one in which Hermione sets Snape's cloak on fire.
- #206
In the wizard pub, the Leaky Cauldron, Harry and Hagrid go up to the bar and the bartender says to Hagrid, "usual, I presume." This is probably a nod to the books, in which Hagrid frequently gets drunk.
- #207
Sociologists have argued that in real life Hogwarts would probably not be the magical and happy place it is depicted as. Like most boarding schools, Hogwarts meets every definition of a total institution: people living in the same place, under the same authority, sharing tightly scheduled activities down to the hour, subject to an explicit set of formal rules imposed from above, and without the freedom to leave of their own will. Given that students at Hogwarts are sorted into groups according to their personalities and that competition between the houses is fiercely encouraged, Hogwarts is likely to be a perfect breeding ground for a bullying culture.
- #208
Caio César, the well-known Brazilian voice actor who dubbed Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and other films, was also a military policeman and died in 2015 at the age of twenty-seven after being shot in the neck in the Complexo do Alemão favela in Rio de Janeiro.
- #209
While filming the Transfiguration class scenes, Tom Felton could not stop giggling. He was about to be thrown off the set, but Dame Maggie Smith spoke up in his defense.
- #210
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the very start of the zoo scene, you see a group of children in green uniforms coming out of the reptile house. This detail, which shares the same colors as Slytherin, foreshadows the Hogwarts houses and Harry later being a Parselmouth.
- #211
Gabriel Thomson was considered for the role of Harry. Zoë Wanamaker, star of My Family (2000), plays Madame Hooch.
- #212
When Chris Columbus wrote the screenplay for Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), the film bore similarities to his later involvement with the Harry Potter film series: the young Watson resembles Harry Potter; school experiments; Draco Malfoy's rivalry with Harry resembles Holmes's rivalry with another student, Dudley; Draco and Dudley come from wealthy parents; cavernous libraries; sweets; train stations; the word privy or Potter used in the novelization; students who are injured and need to see the school nurse; teachers and students eating in the Great Hall; Holmes, Watson and a third character solving mysteries at school, just as Harry, Ron and Hermione do at Hogwarts; staircases; Harry, Holmes and Watson sneaking through a school library at night; both Watson and Hagrid say "sorry about that"; the end of the school term; the threat of expulsion; Harry has no family he can return to even at Christmas; Harry has a scar on his forehead and Holmes has a scar on his cheek; seemingly innocent faculty members turning out to be the opposite; head boys, and so on.
- #213
At the end of the film, actress Emma Watson can be seen showing off her false teeth as she leaves Hogwarts on the train. This was consistent with the book version of Hermione, who has large front teeth.
- #214
Simon Fisher-Becker signed a four-film deal to play the Fat Friar. However, he appears in only one scene in this film and does not appear in the others.
- #215
According to call sheets, the scenes featuring the actors who played the ghosts were shot in front of black velvet screens on Stages A and I at Leavesden Studios.
- #216
SR West Country class 21C127 Taw Valley was initially accepted as the locomotive chosen for the Hogwarts Express and was briefly repainted red with Hogwarts Express nameplates to promote the Harry Potter series. However, the engine was rejected by film director Chris Columbus, who said it looked too modern for the film. GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall was ultimately chosen in its place.
- #217
This film remained among the top 10 highest-grossing films worldwide for ten years, until its own sequel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), finally pushed it off the list.
- #218
Contains a major spoiler — show
Body count: three, including Harry's parents in the flashback.
- #219
Madam Rolanda Hooch uses a Royal Navy boatswain's pipe as a whistle while teaching Quidditch.
- #220
Neither Richard Griffiths (Mr. Dursley) nor Fiona Shaw (Mrs. Dursley) had any children in real life.
- #221
The Handyside Bridge at King's Cross railway station, as seen in the film, has since been moved to Ropley railway station in Ropley, Hampshire, England.
- #222
It was included on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of 250 films nominated for AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.
- #223
There is a lost webtoon released as a tie-in on the Harry Potter website, voiced by Grey DeLisle. A 2002 document concerning Grey's filmography confirmed its existence.
- #224
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Sir Ian McKellen publicly stated that he turned down the role of Albus Dumbledore because of comments Richard Harris had made. McKellen recalls that Harris was homophobic. McKellen also said he had no intention of accepting the role of Professor Dumbledore.
- #225
Daniel Radcliffe and Ian Hart appear together again in Escape from Pretoria (2020).
- #226
This is the second film in Tom Felton's career to feature a character with the surname Potter. His first was The Borrowers (1997), in which he starred alongside John Goodman as Ocious P. Potter.
- #227
The only film featuring the Saunders triplets: baby Harry Potter (1999) and the twins Fred and George Weasley (born 1986).
- #228
When Draco Malfoy introduces himself, he says "I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." This is a homage to James Bond, who says "The name's Bond, James Bond."
- #229
According to call sheets, the scenes shot on the Flight Shed (Stage L) at Leavesden Studios were: Diagon Alley (a complete set), the interior of Hagrid's hut, the stairwell beneath the Devil's Snare, the key room, the giant chessboard and the final room where Harry defeats Quirrell and Voldemort.
- #230
When Chris Columbus wrote the screenplay for Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Watson believed Holmes was obsessed with a case even at Christmas because, unlike other children his age such as Harry Potter or Kevin McCallister, he had no family to go home to. Columbus has ties to both the Harry Potter and Home Alone series.
- #231
Among the many directors interested in taking on this film were Simon West, Brad Silberling, Robert Zemeckis, Jonathan Demme, Jan de Bont and Joel Schumacher.
- #232
Sir John Hurt played Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings (1978), making him the only actor to appear in both the "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings" film series. Only two other actors appeared in both series in another capacity: Bill Nighy and Sir Stephen Fry. Nighy played Samwise in the 1981 BBC radio adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings" and Rufus Scrimgeour in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010). Fry played the Master of Laketown in "The Hobbit" trilogy and narrated the British audiobooks and video games of "Harry Potter."
- #233
According to call sheets, the scenes shot on Stage F at Leavesden Studios were: the Hut on the Rock, the moving staircases and the Devil's Snare room.
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According to call sheets, the only scenes shot on Stage I at Leavesden Studios were some of the Quidditch scenes.
- #235
Chris Columbus released Home Alone (1990) on 16 November 1990, exactly eleven years earlier.
- #236
Contains a major spoiler — show
Gellert Grindelwald is first mentioned in the book on Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog collector card. It said he became famous for defeating Grindelwald in 1945. That was the year the Second World War ended. This means both the Muggle world and the wizarding world had their own intertwined wars. The Allies were fighting the Axis but also fighting Grindelwald's regime.
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Richard Harris and Sir John Hurt had previously appeared together in The Field (1990). It was also the first film of Brendan Gleeson, who went on to play Mad-Eye Moody in the Harry Potter sequels.
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When the cast (made up almost entirely of British actors) said something between "Happy Christmas" and "Merry Christmas," some American moviegoers were confused. This is largely because in the United Kingdom "merry" is a euphemism for being drunk.
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Ian McNeice was considered to play Hagrid.
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Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid) and Geraldine Somerville (Lily Potter) both appeared in the film Cracker (1993).
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According to call sheets, the scenes shot on Stage H at Leavesden Studios were only some of the forest scenes, specifically the scenes in which Harry encounters the dead unicorn.
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Although Harry celebrates his 11th birthday, Daniel Radcliffe was 12 years old when the film was released.
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Model Lucy Elgee-Taylor appeared in the background of the scene in the Great Hall.
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Tom Felton reprised the role of Draco Malfoy in "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" in 2025. It was his Broadway debut.
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Two of the balls used in Quidditch, which Beaters can redirect with their bats, are known as Bludgers. Bludger is a real word meaning one that imposes: a person or thing that forces.
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Actors who auditioned for the role of Harry included Jamie Campbell Bower, Nicholas Hoult, William Moseley and Jack Whitehall.
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Sir Christopher Lee was offered the role of Professor Albus Dumbledore, but could not accept it due to scheduling conflicts with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. After Richard Harris's death, the role was offered to him again, but he declined.
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Daniel Radcliffe does not actually wear glasses. He wore fake ones throughout all eight Harry Potter films.
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This is the only film in the series in which Harry lives under the stairs, as he moves into Dudley's second bedroom in the second film.
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Chris Columbus turned down Spider-Man (2002) in favor of this film.
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Chris Columbus wanted to cast David Bradley as Argus Filch because he thought he resembled a character from Sir David Lean's Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), both adaptations of Charles Dickens novels.
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This is the only Harry Potter film in which the voices of Harry, Ron, Draco, Seamus, Fred and George sound like children's. This is because, starting with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), all their voices matured, and actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Devon Murray, James Phelps and Oliver Phelps grew deeper as they got older.
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Rupert Grint was injured during the chess scene in which Ron falls off the horse, when a stray piece of rock lodged into his right cheek below his eye. The injury is visible in the final cut.
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According to call sheets, the Great Hall scenes were the only scenes shot on Stage B of Leavesden Studios.
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It is the first of eight films based on J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series.
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It marks the debut of Maude Hirst (Hogwarts Student).
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Katy B auditioned for the role of Hermione Granger.
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It was the most searched film on Google in 2001.
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J. K. Rowling borrowed many names and plot points from J. R. R. Tolkien. In the first book these include Neville Longbottom, whose name comes from Longbottom Leaf (or "pipeweed"), a type of tobacco, and the Mirror of Erised, which closely resembles Galadriel's Mirror. Among the film's cast are John Hurt, who voiced Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, and Maggie Smith, whose former husband Robert Stephens also voiced Aragorn in a BBC Radio play.
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Thomas Brodie-Sangster auditioned to play Ron Weasley.
- #261
Because of its size and proportions, the Troll had to be brought to the screen as a digital creation combined with a number of practical attachment models: a pneumatic rig designed by John Richardson swung the Troll's club. Nick Dudman's team also made a pair of silicone 'Troll trousers' representing its legs, which former rugby player Martin Bayfield wore during filming.
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The Troll was brought to life by Todd Wilderman and a team of five animators. "The Troll was a walking bulldozer," said Eric Armstrong, a member of the crew. "Knocking down a wall was like knocking over dominoes for him. We imagined him as being like a four-year-old child. At that age a child's reactions are all very simple; they're either very happy or very upset - and the Troll was just like that; simple but extreme."
- #263
Julianne Hough, known for winning Dancing with the Stars twice, had a brief role in the Quidditch scene.
- #264
Baz Luhrmann was approached to direct but declined, choosing Moulin Rouge! (2001) instead. He admitted that at the time he was not aware of the books.
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Fluffy's relatively simple design was created by Robert Bliss based on the appearance of Rottweilers; the design was then turned into three dimensions with a resin maquette that served as a reference for Nick Dudman's team in building the digital model. A claw animatronic was designed by Dudman and his team to interact with the child actors. However, Legato aimed to bring Fluffy to the screen as a digital creature because of its unique anatomy (three necks joining into a single spine). Carrying Fluffy's fur coat was a complex task given that its scale had to be understood. The digital effects team managed to "cheat" the scale by copying textures to cover the surface of the digital model. The animation of the three-headed dog was given to a team led by Paul Jessel. The main inspiration behind the character animation was, of course, real dogs, with dog behaviors (such as ear twitches and facial tics) adapted to the creature's anatomy. The animators also faced the question of whether to synchronize the heads' movements. Animation supervisor Eric Armstrong commented: "At one point we see Fluffy asleep and Chris Columbus wanted Fluffy to snore. That raised the question: do all three of Fluffy's heads snore at the same time? We concluded that Fluffy has three heads but one chest and therefore one pair of lungs, so all the heads snore at the same time." To further detail the character animation, the digital effects team decided to give each of Fluffy's heads a different, subtle personality expressed through its movement. Armstrong said, "Since Fluffy has three heads and therefore three brains, we decided to give each head a different personality." "Fluffy's leftmost head was the leader; it was more calculating but reacted less because it thought more. The rightmost head was the aggressive one - it wasn't as quick to perceive but was very quick to attack. The middle head was the dumb one and always took a little time to understand what was going on." Particular attention was paid to Fluffy's eyes. Visual effects supervisor Jim Berney explained: "When I started this project, the first thing that came to mind was that CG eyes always looked fake to me. We discussed this with all the modelers and physicists and decided that what CG characters are often missing is the lacrimal caruncle, the tear ducts! Below the tear duct there is also the semilunar membrane, then a thin meniscus layer that creates a highlight at the point of contact between the eye and the eyelid. Usually all of these are missing in CG and instead you see a perfect cut around the eye. That's why most CG characters look dead."
- #266
Design work on the Mountain Troll for Sorcerer's Stone was begun by Robert Bliss and Paul Catling. "Stuart Craig's designers were well cast to the film," visual effects supervisor Rob Legato said. "They were great at creating dark and fantastical creatures. The troll was both. We wanted him to be savage but also to give a slightly dumb look with his eyes, so you both hate him and don't hate him at the same time." Bliss and Catling's drawings were turned into maquettes by Nick Dudman's creature effects team. White resin casts were used to be scanned digitally, and a fully painted model was created as a reference.
- #267
In the book, Seamus Finnigan asks Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington why he is called Nearly Headless Nick. In this film, the person who asks the question is Hermione.
- #268
"Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings" are credited with reviving interest in fantasy films, which had fallen out of favor with studios and audiences since the 1980s. In the 2000s and 2010s, several more film adaptations of fantasy novels were made, such as "The Chronicles of Narnia" (2005-10), Eragon (2006), The Golden Compass (2007), Inkheart (2008) and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010).
- #269
Sir John Hurt and Dame Julie Walters are both listed in the main credits even though each appears in only one scene.
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John Goodman was considered for the role of Uncle Vernon Dursley, but they did not cast him, because he is an American-born man and for this film they hired only actors born in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
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It was released in theaters in 2026 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its original release.
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After Alan Rickman's death in 2016, Daniel Radcliffe spoke about their relationship: "He encouraged me enormously both on set and in the years after Potter. I'm sure he came to see everything I did on stage, both in London and New York. He didn't have to do that. I know other people who were friends with him for much longer than I was, and they all say: 'If you call Alan, it doesn't matter where in the world you are or how busy he is with the work he's doing, he will get back to you within a day.'".
- #273
A full-size animatronic Troll representing the creature after it is knocked out was built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Shop supervisor Jamie Courtier explained: "We scaled up the maquette and sculpted our three-and-a-half-metre Troll in clay. The sculpting was carried out by Jan Whittaker and Steve Jolley. Our Troll was only seen lying down, but we sculpted him standing so he could be shot upright if Chris Columbus wanted." The Troll's skin was moulded in silicone. Courtier continued: "The natural displacement of the silicone caused the flesh to sag naturally either way." "Kenny Wilson led the making of the silicone covering. Graham High and Marie Fraser then produced an internal structure and gave it a state-of-the-art animatronic head, made by Adrian Parish and Dan Burnett, connected to the Henson Performance Control System. This gave the Troll the facial and finger movement Chris wanted, so that it could twitch and show signs of life that would make you think it was about to wake up." The Henson Troll was used as reference by the Sony Imageworks team to bring the character's digital version to life. The visual effects sequences were supervised by CG supervisor David Smith. Visual effects supervisor Jim Berney said: "As soon as Henson had an eye or a piece of skin, they would send it to us for our modellers and shader writers to play with. Luckily, we didn't have to match theirs exactly, so we added an enormous amount of detail to our digital version with wrinkles, polyps and big, spiky warts." Using medical photographs as reference, Smith gave the Troll's skin a carbuncle and a layer of dirt, adding dirt into the wrinkles and warts so that light would interact with the sub-surface layers. Hair was also added to certain points of the body. "We added little pimply tufts on top. His head," said Smith, "gave him ear hair, armpit hair and a treasure trail running down his belly. Actually, nobody knew what he was going to wear. At one point he was going to have a waistcoat that became an elaborate patchwork with big stitches; but he ended up with a simple loincloth, so Todd Pilger did a nice simulation of his belly jiggling."
- #274
Contains a major spoiler — show
Hagrid says he is not allowed to do magic, foreshadowing the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery introduced for the franchise, which forbids students under 17 from performing magic outside Hogwarts under threat of expulsion.
- #275
Paul Catling tried to stay close to the creature's description when designing Norbert for the film adaptation, emphasising in particular the proportions of its head, legs and wings relative to its body and the size of its eyes relative to its head; Catling focused on giving the character "an odd awkwardness". Because the creature is a baby, the producers decided that the ridgeback of the same name would not yet be developed. Creative licences included a colour scheme more varied than the simple black of the new version. Once the final design was chosen, Catling turned it into a maquette used as reference for the digital model. Richard Hollander and his team at Rhythms & Hues modelled the creature digitally from scratch. Wrinkled skin and muscle simulations were designed by Mark Rodahl and Will Telford. Norbert had a subtle iridescence on its back and in other details. Hollander said: "It had a little bony ribcage and a nice iridescence on its back, little chicken feet, wet and leathery bat wings, a lizard-like body. We gave it double eyelids over its eyes, a row of horns at the back of its head, a small pointed tongue, a nice tail it could wag and a very flexible neck." On set, John Richardson puppeteered a large prop egg from under the table by directing air jets. In the hatching shot, the egg is replaced by a digital copy that cracks open with a small gas explosion. Hollander commented: "First you see an arm shoot out of the eggshell, then it comes out, wobbles, staggers, steps on a piece of eggshell, starts to sniffle, then sneezes, creating a fireball that singes Hagrid's beard. Chris Columbus wanted us to play the scene like a little kid peeing and people thinking it's cute. Even though Norbert is a dragon, he's very sweet and innocent and Hagrid just loves him." The animation process was supervised by Craig Talmy and carried out at Voodoo. Houdini and Vmantra were used by Pauline Ts'o to light and render the dragon; the elements were then composited in Icey by Harry Lam.
- #276
During the Renaissance, the artist Alessandro Allori created a painting of the monster Scylla from Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey" showing her with multiple dog heads, just like Fluffy. The difference is that Scylla has twice as many heads as Fluffy: Scylla has 6, Fluffy has 3.
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