Since the announcement of HBO's Harry Potter series, fans have had differing thoughts and opinions over the show’s existence. While some have been cautiously optimistic on the new casting, just with some understandably have stipulations for certain character designs. However, outside of the golden trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione, Voldemort has also been the subject for conversation, and I had no idea so many others felt this way.
If you’ve watched the original Harry Potter movies then of course you know this villain, who was played by Ralph Fiennes, is just as important as The Boy Who Lived. Both are crucial aspects to the book series as a whole, and considering so many in the Wizarding World are even afraid to say his name, the Dark Lord should look just as menacing. But according to a thread on Reddit, not everyone saw 'He Who Shall Not Be Named' the same way.
“Personally, I thought they missed the mark for Voldemort in the movies. He never seemed menacing to me, and didn’t quite match what the books illustrated.”
While the design choices for Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies was meant to minimize the use of CGI, the noseless look ended up becoming kind of a joke and meme. Apparently a collection of fans did actually find issues not just with the design, but also some of the acting choices Ralph Fiennes went with for the character.
- I def agree with the visual representation of him needing improvement. I think it’s a fine line between what’s in the book and him starting to look too much like a Marvel villain. To me he should almost look alien like. I do want to see the sunken cheeks and the red eyes this time around though for sure. I think there are ways to do the eyes that wouldn’t look too cgi and marvel-y.
- Fiennes is a great actor, but his acting in later Harry Potter movies feels “off” to me. While Voldemort is dramatic, he seems overdid it.
- He should be eternally cloaked and hooded. Show sides of his face: his hands, his cheeks, a part of his eye. Never reveal him fully, just show the audience glimpses, always from the side or the corner of the frame, like the camera itself is terrified to look at him. A visual metaphor for wizards refusing to say his name.
- Fiennes was... Ok. He wasn't scary. I hated his voice. And I agree that he seemed so weak and frail physically. I want to get the feeling of a major villain the way I feel when I see Darth Vader just standing there. He just didn't have much presence as the big bad.
- His portrayal always felt very off to me. He’s so terrifying that people don’t even say his name, even after he’s (supposedly) gone, yet he just feels like some dude in the films
Across a lot of the comments, many people attributed some of the issues with Voldemort to the lack of time the movies had to flesh him out. Some stated that his portrayal in the early movies before Goblet of Fire to be closer to how readers saw him portrayed in the books.
- I just think we didn’t get enough Voldemort in the movies to truly see the character as he is supposed to be portrayed. TV will have more time to flesh him out.
- Voldemort is supposed to be physically very frail, being described as “tall and skeletally thin”, his body “feeble and shrunken”. His portrayal was perfect in the first movie, sinister, cloaked, and hooded.
- Movie 1 & 2 did Voldy perfectly. But 4 onward? He was downright lame. His voice was all off, he wasn't nearly cruel enough
As a longtime fan of the Wizarding World since I was old enough to read, I can also admit that I was never the biggest fan of how he was portrayed in the later films. While I myself think some of the design choices were perfectly fine, I just thought if one or two things were tweaked, he would feel more menacing. At times, Voldemort just felt like a weird creepy guy than the Dark Lord, though this is not to say Ralph Fiennes did a bad job.
On the subject of who would play Voldemort in the HBO series, Fiennes has spoken in the past about how didn’t want anyone else to play Voldemort for Fantastic Beasts. However, recently he has shown his support for Cillian Murphy succeeding him, though that is far from an official announcement to who will play 'He Who Shall Not Be Named'.
Regarding casting, we recently got the announcement that John Lithgow has been selected to play Albus Dumbledore. That's it as far as actor news so far, as HBO has been quite sporadic with any updates about the series, so we’ll be sure to keep you updated as soon as more news starts flooding in.
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