Voldecmort was a pretty terrifying-looking villain, but it turns out he could have been even more horrifying if the filmmakers for the first Harry Potter movie had used the original design for the character.
A picture of an unused mold was shared in the Harry Potter subreddit and it looks like the film’s creators got pretty close to using it. The look differs quite significantly from the one we ultimately see in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It features a more lizard-like mouth with larger and sharper teeth, which would have given Voldy a more demonic face.
Definitely the stuff of nightmares.
Some fans proclaimed the horrific design to be more book-accurate and therefore better, however, we can see why the studio wouldn’t want this face in a film mostly targeted at young adults. But the book does describe Voldemort as having snake-like features, so it’s possible that J.K. Rowling had envisioned the villain to look more like the original mold for his live-action debut.
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by u/Pasalacqua-the-8th from discussion The Voldemort I always imagined
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However, others were quick to point out that while You Know Who was said to have snake-like features, the books, especially the first one, never described his mouth the way the mold depicts it. Also, how would have Professor Quill managed to fit his head and such a large protruding face under his turban?
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by u/phenomegranate from discussion The Voldemort I always imagined
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by u/ImReverse_Giraffe from discussion The Voldemort I always imagined
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Though some preferred the more monstrous first draft, the majority were in favor of the final look of the character in the film as it aptly conveyed the identity and status of Voldemort at that point in the story.
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by u/AdNormal5424 from discussion The Voldemort I always imagined
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Apparently, the filmmakers ditched the design due to it being too terrifying for a younger audience. It definitely seems like they made the right call as the one used in the film is still pretty nightmarish but not too over the top. It also meant that Ralph Fiennes wouldn’t need to be buried in prosthetics, so that’s also a win.