The Harry Potter movies were incredible, but they made one aspect of Daniel Radcliffe’s character look a little too gimmicky. Surprisingly, the films did not even fix this issue all the way till the end. From the looks of it, however, HBO’s upcoming television take on Harry Potter is finally going to rectify that one long-standing complaint.
Not a lot of long-running movie franchises, regardless of how popular their source materials are, are able to sustain a high level of storytelling throughout their runtime. The Harry Potter movies, however, defied the norm and proved to be exceptions by consistently raising the bar for fantasy filmmaking.
With that said, the Harry Potter films were not flawless. Their limited runtimes often forced them to make massive changes to the source material’s main story threads and character beats. They also seemingly made one thing about Harry’s appearance look too cartoonish, but the show can avoid treading the same path.
Harry’s Scar In The Movies Was Criticized For Being Too Cartoonish
It Did Not Even Look Like An Actual Scar Or Lightning Bolt
The Harry Potter movies seemingly emulated the scar depicted on many original book covers. They portrayed Harry with a massive “N” shaped mark on his forehead to highlight how his identity was forever intertwined with Voldemort’s biggest failure and his status as the Boy Who Lived. Since fantasy movies are expected to lean into striking visual symbols, this creative decision made some sense.
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However, according to many viewers, this choice of exaggerating the mark on Harry’s head made it look a little too gimmicky. Instead of coming off as a metaphor for Harry’s trauma, destiny, and legacy, it often felt like a branding tool, almost making the real Harry look like a cosplayer of himself in many sequences.
In many ways, the seemingly cartoonish scar contrasted with the grim tone of the latter movies in the series.
What made this visual aesthetic even more distracting is that it often did not even look like an actual scar. The Harry Potter movies become significantly more serious with each new installment and adopt darker thematic elements. In many ways, the seemingly cartoonish scar contrasted with the grim tone of the latter movies in the series.
The HBO Show Is Going For A More Grounded Depiction Of Harry’s Scar
Harry’s Scar Seems More Natural In The Show’s First Look
HBO’s Harry Potter show recently revealed a first look at the new Harry Potter star, Dominic McLaughlin. In the image, the new Harry seems to have a more realistic-looking scar on his head that looks more like a lightning bolt and less like the “N” from the movies.
A closer look at it also reveals that it almost represents a Lichtenberg figure, which leans into the book-accurate idea that it is a magical burn or curse left by an overpowered evil force. While only time will tell how HBO’s Harry Potter show will eventually turn out, these new details seem to highlight how it is attempting to enhance some aspects of the movies.
It is still fair to be a little skeptical about the upcoming show, given how the Harry Potter movies did an incredible job of bringing J. K. Rowling’s books to the big screens. However, so far, it seems like the HBO series is on the right track towards delivering a compelling adaptation and creating a separate identity for itself instead of being compared too much to the films.
