In an interview by Snitchseeker with Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom in the films, Lewis assures fans that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be a darker and more violent film than the first six outtings.
The previous ones have had a formula: You go to school, bad things happen and he [Harry] sorts it out and jobs a good en’ nice ending. But in this year it’s all completely different. They’re [the trio] not in the school for a start and, literally, it’s such an epic battle. It’s like something from the Lord of the Rings. And David [Yates, director] as well and Steve Kloves [screenwriter] haven’t shied away from the more severe stuff in it that was in the book. It’s bloody and it’s gory and it’s very real. But it’s been cool and it’s not like anything I’ve had to do before. So I think you’re going to enjoy it.
“It’s something that we’ve not tried before. We’re trying to keep as much stuff as they can from the book in the film. We want to hit all the points and no one’s making it into a good film everyone enjoys – we’re going to stick to the book and we’re gonna say, ‘Look, some of it is quite harrowing, some of its quite serious. People do die and you’re just gonna have to …’ It’s not sugar-coated. It’s right there, it’s quite raw and all the performances have had to step up.”
Harry Potter did get darker and more mature as the story went on, which was a wonderful if not intentional maturing of the writer as well as the characters. Conveniently this bids well for the fanbase too.
Seven books later and the series followed Harry from his 10th birthday being introduced to the world of Wizardry, to his 17th year battling Dark Wizards and dropping out of school to save the world from Voldemort. (awesome role model that Harry)
But I am glad to hear the sentiments that they will stick closer to the books as that is the greatest criticism of the following chapters. As the books got longer, they cut more out of the movies. Had to happen. But with The last – and longest – of the books being spread over two feature films, hopefully they can fit it all in.
