Count Dracula was originally intended to appear in a Harry Potter movie, but was left on the cutting room floor for a far less interesting replacement. The infamous horror creature, who first appeared in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula has a long and storied history in movies, and this intended inclusion in JK Rowling's Wizarding World would have been the most meaningful involvement of vampires in Harry Potter's universe.
Vampires are confirmed to exist in the Wizarding World and there are various second-hand tales of encounters with the neck-biting monsters. Hagrid encounters one in 1995 in Minsk on his way to parley with the giants during the early events of Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, for instance, and Gilderoy Lockhart relates a story about a fearsome vampire left unable to eat anything but lettuce after he's through with it. There is also, infamously, a Society for the Tolerance of Vampires mentioned in wider Wizarding World lore. But actual appearances by the garlic-fearing neck-biters of yore are entirely absent from the books and films.
Had the original plans for Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban been followed through, that wouldn't have been the case as there would have been a crossover between Count Dracula and Harry Potter. The iconic vampire character was in an early draft of the scene in which Professor Lupin teaches his Defence Against The Dark Arts class how to defend themselves against a Boggart. The intention was to have Count Dracula appear as the form of Parvati Patil's Boggart and transformed into flamboyant Brazilian Broadway star Carmen Miranda when the Boggart-Banishing Charm was used against it.
Ultimately, despite actor Yana Yanezic apparently being cast, Dracula didn't make the cut, and Parvati's Boggart in the finished film is a giant cobra and not the blood-stained mummy that appears to her book counterpart. Thus, the film was robbed of a great little fan-baiting moment.
As it stands, the closest the films come to an actual vampire encounter comes in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, despite the creatures' existence (and official categorization as a Being). There is some argument to suggest Lord Voldemort's part-possession of Professor Quirrell makes him a vampire - particularly as he forces his assistant to drink unicorn blood - but it's a stretch at best. Avoiding the possibility of muddying the waters of what Voldemort actually is by bringing in vampires was also a smart move.
Still, it would have been a hellish Harry Potter crossover if it were allowed to happen as intended.
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August 06, 2020 at 05:07AM
