- 12 hours ago
Finding Harry The Craft Behind The Magic 2026
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00:15Some stories change us some stories define us
00:24But few stories live with us
00:30Quite like The Boy Who Lived
00:32Soon to be told by HBO Max
00:36Like never before
00:49Harry's story from J.K. Rowling's beloved book series
00:52Is a truly immersive tale
00:56Requiring incredible dedication to realize this mesmerizing
01:01Almost limitless magical world
01:04To create a place so rich, complex and expansive
01:09Building it in our world would be impossible
01:13Until the true wizards get to work
01:22The Harry Potter stories are this extraordinary phenomenon
01:27From 30 years ago
01:29For young people
01:31But it struck a chord with people of all ages
01:35And to reimagine the Harry Potter canon
01:40To let it breathe
01:41To tell a story in eight episodes
01:45Rather than a single two-hour movie
01:47To go down all the wonderful rabbit holes
01:50The story is there
01:52But we get to enact all the things that you know are going on in the wings
01:57But you don't see them
01:58You wait forever to do something that
02:01That means that much to people
02:03And I think this really will
02:06And they have done a brilliant job
02:08Of selecting this extraordinary ensemble
02:20We stopped counting at 40,000
02:22Yeah, but it wasn't a good use of our time at that point
02:25Counts, but we watched all of them
02:26Yeah, we're looking for a child who
02:30He means so much to people in different ways
02:33And so you are looking for a kid who perhaps on the face of it seems quite ordinary
02:37But is ultimately very extraordinary
02:40We wanted to make sure that all kids in the UK could audition
02:43By submitting their first auditions online
02:45And then we went to
02:46Manchester, Scotland, Ireland and
02:49Cardiff
02:50Cardiff, Wales
02:54When we were auditioning children
02:55We knew it was going to be a long process
02:57We started with Harry, Ron and Hermione
03:00And they are really good friends
03:02And so it was a really exciting challenge to find three kids
03:05That you would believe as friends
03:08With these very strong and different personalities
03:10These are all ordinary kids
03:12You know, but they are all extraordinary
03:14There's magic in all of them
03:18We saw Alastair in Manchester
03:20And he was just funny and charming
03:22From the word go
03:24This is him doing his
03:26His story
03:27His little story
03:28Mother doesn't want a dog
03:29She's making a mistake
03:30Because more than a dog
03:32I think she will not want this snake
03:36That was the first day of Alastair
03:38And then Arabella
03:40In London
03:42Hermione
03:43Lack of filter from being an only child
03:45Her superpower is her emotional intelligence
03:47She's got main character energy
03:50So this is Arabella's first audition
03:53Yeah
03:53So she did the poem Invictus
03:55It matters not how straight the gate
03:57How charged with punishment the scroll
03:59I am the master of my fate
04:02I am the captain of my soul
04:05Hermione has to be playful
04:07So we got her in to do a scene
04:08Where she's talking to her parents
04:10About Harry and Ron
04:12And she got the giggles and the little snorts
04:15And that's the take we used to show them
04:17That she's playful
04:18So you're constantly using bits of the audition
04:20That you know is going to help the kid
04:22When you show it to the director and the showrunner
04:24So Arabella's snort was quite crucial in her casting process
04:26Yeah
04:28We met Dominic in Glasgow
04:31What did we have about Harry?
04:32He's skeptical of the adult world
04:34He's got a vulnerability and a melancholy
04:37And a solitary policy to him
04:39He's grown up alone
04:40He's grown up alone and he's...
04:42Survival is his thing
04:45Artful Dodger not Oliver Twist
04:46It's basically find an incredible actor
04:48Basically, yeah, that was the brief
04:50He has so many different qualities
04:52It's so many different qualities
04:53Dominic came in and his piece was a poem about his weekend
04:58That he'd written himself and it was rhyming
05:00And we thought he's so interesting
05:02My Weekend by Dominic
05:05So it started off Saturday morning
05:07I had a football game to play
05:08And I can tell you it went my way
05:11Didn't really have anything to do after that
05:13So I just slept the rest of the day
05:14Dom just had this sort of quiet confidence in himself
05:17Who do you live with?
05:18I live with my mum, my dad and my two sisters
05:21Okay
05:22And my dog
05:23And have you done any acting before?
05:25I did with Beth in January
05:28And were you one of MacDuff's sons?
05:30Yeah, I was
05:31You got killed, unfortunately
05:32Sorry to hear that
05:34Okay, that's great
05:35I really feel confident in these kids
05:37I think they're incredible
05:45In a show of this scale
05:47It's easy to get lost
05:48You can go to the Great Hall
05:49It's huge
05:50You can go to the Quidditch pitch
05:52It's massive
05:52You can go to Diagon Alley
05:54And we go back to the sets
05:55And we revisit them
05:56Add in a bit of detail
05:57Sometimes, for example
05:58I'll go to the Gryffindor common room
06:00Or to the tower
06:01And you're in there on your own
06:03And you're looking around
06:04And you're looking at the notes board
06:05And you're looking at
06:05Every little bit of detail
06:07On McGonagall's desk
06:08Of the books
06:09On the spines
06:10And it's goosebumps
06:15The volume of this
06:16Is just so fun
06:19To be able to build
06:20At a scale like this
06:21It's just
06:21A designer's dream
06:23To play in a sandbox
06:25That's this big
06:26We're trying to get in the joy
06:27And the playfulness
06:28Of what it means
06:29To be a magical kid
06:32When the first Harry Potter book
06:34Came out
06:35It really felt
06:36So novel
06:37And exciting
06:37I think everyone
06:39Had that shared
06:40Experience
06:40Of thinking
06:41What an incredible world
06:42It would be so great
06:43To touch
06:45And so we're trying
06:46To capture those moments
06:48Of discovery
06:48That you find within the books
06:50We want you to have
06:51That same experience here
06:53But we are adding
06:55A level of world building
06:57That is even beyond
06:58What the audience
06:59Is familiar with
07:02Harry's introduction
07:03To the physical space
07:04Of the wizarding world
07:05Starts with
07:06The leaky cauldron
07:07And eventually
07:07We come out the back
07:08And go into our
07:10Diagon alley set
07:12The elements that we see
07:13Are all things
07:14That we would recognize
07:15But how they combine
07:17And form
07:17Is gonna be something
07:18Really new and exciting
07:22Privet drive
07:22In our muggle world
07:23We really wanted to be
07:24Rooted in reality
07:25And part of that
07:26I think for someone
07:28As a fan
07:28And an audience member
07:29Is when your muggle world
07:31Is rooted in a reality
07:32That we're all familiar with
07:34It makes that excitement
07:36Of the wizarding world
07:37Just being beyond our reach
07:38All the more enticing
07:42There's really a ton of thought
07:43That's going into this
07:44So that for the die hard fans
07:46We're trying to land it
07:48We've created these spaces
07:50That I think
07:50Are gonna give everybody
07:52A lot of joy
07:53To kind of be in
07:54And experience
07:56It's just so exciting
07:57That everybody's so game
07:58To make these things
08:00Come alive
08:03Walking into the great hall
08:04That first time
08:05Where you go
08:06It's like walking
08:07Into a cathedral
08:08It was so magical
08:10It's so huge
08:11It's so beautiful
08:12And the entrance of the children
08:15Coming in
08:16The first years
08:16Coming in
08:17And then bringing them
08:18Into that hall
08:19Was possibly
08:20My favourite set
08:22In that sense
08:23It was just so iconic
08:24And so kind of
08:27Symbolic
08:27Of right
08:28Here we go
08:28Whole new bunch of kids
08:30Into this world we go
08:31And here we are in Hogwarts
08:33And welcome
08:34And whole new mystery
08:35Is unfolding for you
08:37And sometimes
08:38You're in your dressing room
08:39And you'll be sitting there
08:40And here and there
08:41And then suddenly
08:41You hear this explosion
08:43Of people outside
08:44As the children run in
08:46You're thinking about your work
08:47Or whatever
08:47And they've just
08:48They've just got their own thing
08:49With whatever it is
08:50That's going on
08:50The way children do
08:51It's just
08:52It's a real energy
08:55Sometimes on a really
08:57Tiring day
08:58I always go
08:59Close your eyes
09:00Open them again
09:01And look around
09:03Wow
09:03You walk onto a set
09:05And you think
09:05Wow
09:06And it just ups your game
09:09Because it's all just so
09:10Beautiful
09:11Beautiful
09:17In the initial conversations
09:18With Mark and Francesca
09:19About the core values
09:20Of our show
09:21There was this kind of
09:22Inherent desire
09:23To be rooted in naturalism
09:25Also in this idea
09:27At the core of Harry Potter
09:29Nature is the root of magic
09:31And so magical realism
09:34Rooting things in principles
09:36That we find
09:37In nature
09:38And the phenomenon
09:40Of the natural world
09:43If we could harness those things
09:45That's what magic is
09:47These ideas of naturalism
09:50Being this core principle
09:51Within the wizarding world
09:52Is something that we're
09:53Integrating into a lot of our sets
09:55We have to bring the natural world
09:57To them
09:58And to think that I'm
10:00At the helm of this
10:01It really is incredible
10:05This project is so exciting
10:06That there's so much overlap
10:08And play between
10:09Different departments
10:10To really capture
10:11These concepts and themes
10:12And express them
10:13On so many different levels
10:16As we designed
10:17These practical
10:18And visual effects
10:19We wanted there to be
10:20A deeply rooted logic
10:22To what was happening
10:23Even though magic
10:24Is not logical
10:25For us it's more
10:26Of these like
10:26Consequences of magic
10:28That we're interested in
10:30For every expression
10:31Of magic
10:32We're trying to do
10:33That critical analysis
10:34Of how does this
10:35Tie back into
10:36What we're saying
10:37Magic actually is
10:39And we really wanted
10:40To celebrate it
10:41As a moment
10:41To do things
10:42A little bit differently
10:46This is one of the most
10:47Exciting conversations
10:49I've had as a designer
10:50Diving into
10:51The science of something
10:52That should be
10:53Unexplainable
10:55The joy of working
10:56On a project like this
10:58Is that we have
10:58So many really creative
11:00And exciting department
11:01Heads
11:01It really is such a pleasure
11:03To work with such
11:04High-level craftsmen
11:06Who also
11:06Are genuinely excited
11:08About this
11:09I can proudly say
11:11You did a good job
11:12Thank you
11:13A very good job
11:14Cheers
11:14Cheers
11:15Appreciate it
11:20My father
11:22My father actually designed
11:23And painted
11:24The very first
11:25Quidditch box
11:26From the first film
11:27And here I am
11:2926 years later
11:30Painting the new
11:32Quidditch box
11:33For the HPA production
11:40I actually worked on
11:42Harry Potter 3 and 4 film
11:4325 years ago
11:44And I was actually
11:45The trainee
11:46To some of the guys
11:47That are working here
11:50Every creature we build
11:51Within creature effects
11:52Whether it's an owl
11:54A rat
11:55Whether it's a creature
11:56Or a human being
11:56All starts with the same process
11:58Basically
11:59Extensive research into nature
12:04Observing and looking at
12:05How an owl might move
12:06They just look incredible
12:08And it's our job
12:09To try and copy that movement
12:10And repeat that
12:11With the use of animatronics
12:13And creature effects
12:13You can see
12:14Within the animatronics
12:15You've got all these
12:16Pivot points
12:16And pieces of metal
12:18And plastic
12:18And servo motors
12:20And our job
12:21Is to try and make that
12:22Feel organic
12:27We are looking at essentially
12:29The culmination
12:30Of a lot of teamwork
12:32These are some early
12:33Prototypes we did
12:35Of how we would
12:36Create this
12:37Incredible neck movement
12:38That you have
12:38Within owls
12:39How they move so much
12:40This almost 360 movement
12:42The up and down
12:42The turning
12:43That we put together
12:44In fabrication
12:45And then we
12:46Hand these over
12:48To the wonderful
12:49Feather team
12:49To do all their
12:51Beautiful work
12:52Over so that
12:52We can fill these voids
12:53And have amazing feathers
12:54That all glide
12:55And move
12:56And create that
12:57Incredible motion
12:58That an owl's neck
12:59Has
13:00So we then insert
13:02Each and every feather
13:04Individually
13:04In the net
13:05And glue it down
13:06And it's about
13:0736,000 feathers per owl
13:10And we made about
13:1110 owls for this shirt
13:16Because technology's moved on
13:17And we've actually got
13:18Stronger and faster motors
13:20That we can actually
13:21Fit inside
13:21We can actually pick the rat
13:23And push it around
13:24And bully it around
13:25When Ron holds the animatronic
13:27It actually pushes it aside
13:28Rather than it feeling like
13:29A stuffed scabbers
13:30Dan's actually put that into
13:32This animatronic here
13:33Where as you push the feet down
13:35It actually compresses
13:36And I can actually move this around
13:38You can see here
13:39So it doesn't feel too robotic
13:41And rigid
13:42Which I think
13:43Really helps
13:43The performance
13:44Of a young boy
13:46Who's probably
13:46Never held an animatronic
13:47Before in his life
13:49And then of course
13:50When you put it into
13:51The sort of context
13:52Of down on the floor
13:54Like that
13:55It's really believable
13:59And we also made a biting scabbers
14:01That Charlotte's
14:01Going to bring in now
14:02Put a finger in his mouth
14:03And wriggle it around
14:05That's it
14:07There you go
14:09Thank you very much
14:12This is a dug bog
14:13Which is a character
14:14That hasn't been seen
14:15In any of the films before
14:16It's based on a toad
14:19That has movements
14:20That we've taken directly
14:21From nature
14:22From toads
14:22Where the eyes pull in
14:23Retract inside
14:25We've got a mechanical tongue
14:27Nose movement
14:29Nostrils
14:31We added this detail on top
14:35So the kids could actually
14:36Snap the back off
14:37And pull these mollusks off
14:38So it doesn't feel
14:39Damaging for the creature
14:43Such an amazing opportunity
14:45For us to all come together
14:47All departments
14:47All disciplines
14:48Whether it was creature effects
14:50Special effects
14:51Visual effects
14:52Model making
14:53Set deck
14:54We also created
14:56These flubber worms
14:57And characters like this
14:59That we didn't tell
15:00The kids
15:01That we were actually
15:02Going to be able
15:03To pick them up
15:04And add slime
15:06And we had these
15:08Fire crabs
15:09That was actually
15:10Working closely
15:12With special effects
15:13And these two
15:14Would actually
15:14Blast fire out
15:16Of their backsides
15:17To each other
15:18So we've got
15:19A self-contained animatronic
15:21Here
15:21Where all the motors
15:22Are inside
15:23And someone's
15:23Actually operating that remotely
15:30I'm shaking right now
15:31Just being in this room
15:32Like this is
15:32This is crazy
15:34I was the right age
15:35And it was always there
15:36And I sort of
15:37It was something
15:37I really bonded
15:38With my siblings over
15:40I think my cousin
15:41First introduced me to it
15:42So we used to
15:43I mean we used to run
15:44Home from primary school
15:45And change out of our
15:47Primary school clothes
15:48And into our Hogwarts robes
15:52We're set in 1991
15:54And we did a full study
15:56Of what people were wearing
15:57In 1991
15:58And we tried to make the muggles
16:01Feel as true
16:03As we possibly
16:04Could make them
16:05We really sort of
16:06Drawn out
16:07You know
16:08Tried to sort of
16:08Create real contrast
16:10The muggle palette
16:11Is pastel orientated
16:13Very cold colours
16:15And there's a big emphasis
16:16On synthetic fabrics
16:17As you can see here
16:18It's really
16:19The period of shell suits
16:20I don't
16:21We call them shell suits
16:22They're these crinkly
16:23Tracksuit tops
16:25I think in terms of
16:27Finding Harry's look
16:28He lives in a world
16:30Where everyone
16:31Is following the fashions
16:33He hasn't ever had
16:35The luxury
16:35Of choosing his clothes
16:36He's given
16:37He's given
16:38These old cast offs
16:39By Petunia
16:40Which are Dudley's
16:41Old clothes
16:43His clothes
16:44Just hang off him
16:45And they're just
16:46Greyed out
16:47Actually everything
16:48That he wears
16:48We found original
16:50Beth found original pieces
16:51Which we then
16:52Meticulously recreated
16:55We're finding real
16:57Clothes
16:58Sort of trawling
16:59Many vintage yards
17:01And wholesale scrap yards
17:02And just finding it
17:03And the amount
17:04We've amassed
17:05Because we've costumed
17:06Thousands
17:07And the more we found
17:09This palette
17:10Came naturally together
17:11These are the colours
17:12Of 1991
17:14We want to time travel
17:16We get to dive in
17:18And out of different
17:18Time frames
17:19Different styles of costuming
17:20And you can't time travel
17:22If they're not exactly
17:23The right thing
17:26Our uniforms
17:27Are all made of
17:28British wool
17:30Organic cotton
17:31Shell buttons
17:32Wooden buttons
17:33Scottish tartan
17:35Natural cloth
17:36Is something
17:37That is almost rare
17:38It's quite a radical act
17:39Just to wear a jumper
17:40That's made of
17:41Sheep's wool
17:42Even though you know
17:43We live in a country
17:43That's like full of sheep
17:50For magical people
17:52We had to find
17:53How we present them
17:54That feels somehow
17:55A little bit other
17:56What Francesca and Mark
17:58Really wanted us
17:59To be bringing into
18:00The design
18:00With lots of nature
18:01That's that
18:02When we decided
18:04To use all this
18:05Very imperfect
18:07Natural processes
18:08Like leaf printing
18:10Like hand painting
18:11Like marbling
18:12Marbling
18:14When you print with leaves
18:16There is this natural
18:17Magical process
18:18That happens
18:19You don't know
18:19What you're going to get
18:20Depending on the leaf
18:21You just have to go
18:22With what you get
18:24For Dumbledore
18:24We wanted to use leaf printing
18:26Because we wanted to do
18:27This camo fabric
18:28For him to wear
18:29And we wanted to create
18:31The sense of
18:31This natural
18:34Immediate
18:35Unruly process
18:37It's the imperfection
18:39That brings the beauty
18:39It's not kind of like
18:42High fantasy
18:43It's really rooted
18:45In the real
18:45And I think
18:46That would hopefully
18:47Make people think
18:48Maybe it is
18:50Around that corner
18:50Or look at a person
18:52Walking down the street
18:53And think oh
18:54I remember we kept
18:56Saying
18:56I've just seen
18:57A magical person
18:58I've just seen
18:59A magical person
19:00And we were
19:01Photographing people
19:01Like on the tube
19:02Or the bus
19:02That we'd identify
19:04As sort of
19:04A magical person
19:05So it's this idea
19:07That magical people
19:07Do exist
19:08And they are around
19:09And we wanted that
19:10To be within
19:12All of them
19:12Just a sort of
19:15Combination of elements
19:17That just made you look
19:20And by complete contrast
19:22We have created
19:23An inky, moody
19:26Natural palette
19:28For the magical people
19:29So that's one way
19:30That we've created
19:31A dichotomy
19:34Everything is rooted
19:36In reality
19:38Our Dumbledore
19:39He is a little bit
19:40Like Edwardian gentleman
19:43Because that's what we thought
19:44Knowing how old he is
19:46We kind of work out
19:47That's his height
19:48His heyday
19:49A little bit of
19:50Scottish tweed here
19:51Embroidered
19:52As you can see
19:53In a very unruly
19:54Not too perfect way
20:00I mean I love Harry Potter
20:01Because I picked up the book
20:02When I had my children
20:04And I got really into reading
20:06The books with my son Eric
20:08Who just loved them
20:12He could really project himself
20:14Into the story
20:15And I think it was so good for him
20:18And I could see how much he was loving it
20:20And we were loving it together
20:22Our thing where we'd sit down together at night
20:24And read very intricate stories
20:28With quite complicated plots
20:29And lots and lots of things happening
20:31And he said to me
20:33Mummy is there a school
20:34That I can go to like this?
20:39And I thought I need to find this school
20:42And if I can't find it
20:43I need to try and create this school
20:45It definitely feels like a big responsibility
20:48I think it's a big responsibility
20:50To get it right, isn't it?
20:52To honour what has gone before
20:55But to hopefully like find more detail
21:04I think I was literally the same age as the kids in the book
21:10You know?
21:10I think the first one came out in 97
21:12I was seven
21:14And I was definitely at the age
21:16Where like the books were still coming out
21:18When I was at school
21:19So it was actually really intense
21:21I remember reading those books
21:23And you wouldn't be able to talk to your mates at all
21:26Because like if someone was reading faster than you were
21:29They weren't going to tell you what was going to happen
21:30And like these stories were so important at that age
21:32It wasn't worth like the conversation with your mates
21:36Because at that age
21:38You imagine yourself being a kid at Hogwarts
21:40Or you imagine yourself being in Harry's shoes
21:44I remember on one day
21:46I came in to see Mark
21:49And they were shooting the scene on platform nine and three quarters
21:53And just walking in and seeing the real train
21:56It was like being thrown into the book
21:58It was like being thrown into it
22:00It was real
22:06So as you can see
22:08Though the world of Harry Potter is already legendary
22:10Its legacy is still growing
22:14As a new generation discovers its magic
22:17An exciting new era is upon us
22:22I knew that while I did the first season of Harry Potter
22:26I would be turning 80 years old
22:30That meant that I would age to about 88 before it was all over
22:35This is an extremely difficult thing to contemplate
22:42They're just an amazing ensemble
22:46All of them Arabella
22:47And Alistair
22:49And Dom
22:51What do you think?
22:52You're excited
22:53Do you want to come and sit down?
22:55Yes
22:55And they all adore each other
22:58I'm really excited to see how they grow
23:00And how their artistry grows
23:02And what kind of people they grow into
23:06They're going to grow up in this
23:12And I'm going to grow older with them
23:17Theoretically we could be working for many years together
23:20And they'll be young adults by then
23:23We want them to grow up thinking
23:25Wow
23:26It might have been hard
23:27It might have been difficult
23:28It might have been tiring
23:28But boy it was good
23:30I'm so glad I did it
23:31It was so exciting to be a part of it
23:37And here we are
23:39What better place to end this journey into the heart of Harry Potter
23:43Than where he begins his journey to Hogwarts
23:46Here we're surrounded by both unbelievable scale
23:49Along with the little things that make it all feel so real
23:54Talking about mind blowing detail
23:56Come and have a look at this
23:57A tiny taste of what's to come
24:05So all aboard
24:07You might want to hold your ears
24:09You're about to get very loud
24:17This feels like my cue
24:44So my dad was a prop master in all of the eight original movies
24:48and I'm here to carry on the legacy the next generation of fans being something very important
24:54to me because my son is a big Harry Potter fan and so I cannot let the little guys down
25:02cannot
25:03let the new generation of fans down I know it's really important my family worked on the original
25:09Harry Potter I get to carry on the legacy what a dream I met my wife on the third Harry
25:15Potter
25:15and now my son works for me so it's it's been our life really I started my Harry Potter experience
25:23in 1999 and 27 years later I'm still here I remember the first day that I was filming we
25:31were on set on on Privet Drive we had to get Harry's hour with him I just sort of looked
25:35around it was
25:36such a pinch me moment there's been too many good moments to count to be honest it's it's been a
25:42year
25:43of highlights
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