Warner Bros Studio Tour London – The Making Of Harry Potter is bringing back its successfully brilliant Dark Arts event this Halloween.
Fans of Death Eaters, daring duels and Hallowe’en feasts are invited to delve into the Dark Arts this October as Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter hosts a special two-week feature on the darker aspects of the Harry Potter film series.
From Friday 16th October – Sunday 1st November, visitors will be able to try their duelling techniques against a Death Eater after learning wand combat moves in an interactive experience created by Paul Harris. Paul developed the battle scenes involving You-Know-Who’s henchmen in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and is the world’s only wand combat choreographer.
During production, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s followers – the Death Eaters – each wore a unique mask, handmade by the Prop Making Department, and were clothed in embroidered black robes. Their headquarters, Malfoy Manor, is on display at the Studio Tour and the drawing room set comes complete with a 20-foot model of Voldemort’s snake Nagini and a floating mannequin of Muggle Studies teacher Charity Burbage (who was captured in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1).
Visitors will also be able to learn how wands were made during production as members of Head Prop Maker Pierre Bohanna’s team demonstrate some of the methods they used to hand-carve wands for the Harry Potter film series. Thousands of wands were made across 10 years of filming, with some being given distinctive shapes and carvings to reflect their owners’ personalities. For example, Professor Slughorn’s wand is inlaid with silver slug trails and has a slug-shaped handle.
On Diagon Alley, visitors will spot Death Eaters in the shadows of the wizarding shopping street while, elsewhere in the attraction, dark props from sinister antique shop Borgin and Burkes will be showcased, including the Vanishing Cabinet (the Death Eaters’ secret entrance to Hogwarts) and the Hand of Glory (a gnarled artifact that gives light only to the holder).
Platform 9 ¾, which opened as a brand new part of the Studio Tour earlier this year, is home to the original Hogwarts Express locomotive; a working steam engine that is almost 80 years old. One of the carriage’s compartments will be dressed as it was for scenes in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where Dementors board the school train. During production, filmmakers identified how they wanted the soul-sucking creatures to move by floating Dementor puppets eerily through tanks of water.
The iconic Great Hall set, as seen in all but one of the Harry Potter films, will be dressed for the occasion with a section of its long tables laden with a Hallowe’en feast including red apples, pumpkins and cauldrons of lollipops. Eagle-eyed visitors will also spot the costumes of the Grey Lady, Ravenclaw‘s house ghost, and Moaning Myrtle, who haunts the girls’ bathroom in Harry’s second year. Shirley Henderson portrayed Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and, at 37 when she began filming, was the oldest actress to play a teenage Hogwarts student.
The event runs from Friday 16th October to Sunday 1st November and tickets can be bought by clicking this link.
These events are an incredible way to see how ‘Fantastic Beasts’ will be filmed, as well as seeing how certain props like Newt’s wand have been made, so absolutely not to be missed!
