Harry Potter Movies Straight Up Ignored the Books’ Most Tragic Character

Summary:

• Over the years of their existence, Harry Potter ’s movies have repeatedly shown that they’re quite different from the original books as some major storylines were brutally ignored in there.
• Harry’s relationships with Sirius Black initially have a much more profound meaning in J.K. Rowling’s books than in the movies.
• The franchise was obviously centered on the fight between Harry and Voldemort thus not being able to dwell on Sirius’ personal drama.

Throughout the years of its existence, Harry Potter’s movie franchise proved itself to be a bit inaccurate regarding some characters’ portrayal which radically differed from the way they were presented in J.K. Rowling’s books.

Though the notion that it should be really hard to cram all of the books’ possible details into a two-hour-long film still makes a lot of sense, Harry Potter’s films still unwillingly suffered from losing several major storylines’ development, and one of them has a direct influence on Harry’s family background.

The main character’s personal tragic story got a chance for its expansion in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry was finally introduced to Sirius Black. Initially thinking of him as a reckless criminal, Harry later on finds out that he was quite delusional in his suspicions about Sirius who turned out to be his father’s closest friend.

As both characters get to spend more time with each other, it becomes quite clear that Sirius always considered Harry’s father James his brother. Over their years in Hogwarts, Sirius and James created a special, unbreakable bond that would stay with the former forever even after the latter died.

Having finally met Harry, Sirius found a way to fill in the void in his heart left by James’ passing. During all those years that Sirius spent in Azkaban, the only thing that he was able to do was plotting a revenge for Peter Pettigrew who betrayed James and Lily, and, at the time of his escape from Azkaban, he still hasn’t reconciled with the thought that James was gone.

The franchise’s next movie, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, proves it when Sirius exclaims “Nice one, James!” during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries where he fought alongside Harry.

The fact that Sirius still saw no difference between Harry and James so many years after the latter’s death is something that gets a pivotal meaning in the book series, but not in the movies.

With all the flicks putting their focus on the huge tension between Harry Potter and Voldemort (which makes sense too), the franchise still missed out on an opportunity to dive deeper into Sirius’ tragic story and his bond with Harry that was in fact much more profound than the films were able to show.