Why John Williams didn’t return to write the Harry Potter sequels

When people think of the Harry Potter movies, they usually think, at least in part, of the music of the legendary John Williams. In terms of how memorable and impactful it is, “Theme Hedwig“up there with”Imperial March” from Star Wars or “He is a pirate” from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, in that anyone can remember and sing it accurately at any time. With such cods on a regular basis, it should come as no surprise that John Williams received more than 50 Oscar nominations. over his career.

So it’s a little surprising that Williams wasn’t actually in most of the Harry Potter movies. Goblet of Fire was composed by Patrick Doyle, Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince by Nicholas Hooper, and both Deathly Hallows by Alexandre Desplat. A keen ear will notice these changes throughout the series, but given how much the first film’s score would be reused and adapted in subsequent films, it’s easy to assume that Williams was there all along.

In a 2010 interviewproducer David Heyman explained why Williams didn’t return for Deathly Hallows, even though they definitely wanted him back. “We wanted to make it work with John, but John’s schedule wouldn’t allow it,” he said, later adding, “We asked him around (film) six. In fact, we talked to him all the time (about coming back to the end), but his schedule wouldn’t allow it … He tried to work with his schedule to try to accommodate him, but it just wasn’t possible.”

Similar to Williams’ reasons for not returning to Deathly Hallows, he left the series after Prisoner of Azkaban in part because he was too busy. Around the same time, he was to write the great epic Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, not to mention War of the Worlds and Munich. And while Williams’ name is associated with “Chamber of Secrets,” he wasn’t as involved in it as he was in that first film. As composer William Ross, who worked extensively on The Chamber of Secrets, explained in a 2013 interview:

(Williams) also explained that he may have a scheduling conflict that may somehow affect his participation in the second film. Although he planned to write new themes and new musical material for Chamber of Secrets, there will be some areas in the new film in which he intended to use and adapt themes from the first Potter score. it’s impossible to know how much work it would entail, as he hadn’t seen the film yet and didn’t know at the time how much scheduling conflicts would be a factor.”

If you were wondering why the Chamber of Secrets soundtrack feels so slightly different from the magic of the first film – including the part of the Quidditch match where the score seems too similar to the score in the Star Wars prequels. is part of why. Williams, who was busy composing great Spielberg movie “Catch Me If You Can” couldn’t devote as much time to the first “Potter” sequel.

The good news is that while Williams never returned to the series after Prisoner of Azkaban, this third film served as a quasi-comeback for him. Chamber of Secrets may have been a bit of a step down, but Prisoner of Azkaban is arguably the best mark of the entire series. (Which makes sense, given that it’s also the best film of the series as a whole.) “Buckbeak’s Flight” and “A Window to the Past” were not only some of his best work, but they were also quite original and not just a continuation of the previous “Potter” music. The entire score for Azkaban had a darker, gothic feel to it, complementing the film’s more mature themes.

Even though Williams only scored two and a half of the franchise’s eight films, he still easily eclipses all composers to come after. This is largely a result of Williams being the one who set the tone for the series from day one, providing a Harry Potter blueprint for all his successors to at least partially work with.

It also helps that nostalgia is an important theme of the film; later series Harry misses the days when his life at Hogwarts was relatively simple, and of course every adult in the series misses the days when Lily and James Potter were still alive and well. When a later Harry Potter film wanted to evoke nostalgia, the easiest way to convey that feeling was to reuse iconic themes from the first film.

The director of “Deathly Hallows” David Yates answered the question about this explained his thought process behind knowing when to bring back the Hedwig Theme: “Anything that felt nostalgic or reflected the past in some way. That’s when we used it,” he said. Of course, a repetition or variation of the Hedwig Theme will be used in every single Harry Potter film. In a lesser franchise, that might seem lazy, but in this case, it’s hard to find a Potterhead that would complained.