'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' Movie Accidentally Spoiled Storylines to Come

First Look At "The Polar Express" Trailer In Times Square
First Look At "The Polar Express" Trailer In Times Square / Scott Gries

While Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón wasn’t exactly sold at first on the idea of helming the third Harry Potter film, Prisoner of Azkaban, it proved to be a major success and a favorite for many Potterheads. And it wasn’t only fans who loved the director’s approach to the installment, as even JK Rowling praised his choices. During an interview featured on the film’s DVD, the acclaimed author explained how intuitive Cuarón was.

"Alfonso had very good intuition about what would and wouldn't work,” Rowling said. “He's put things in the film that, without knowing it, foreshadow things that are going to happen in the final two books. So, I really got goosebumps when I saw a couple of those things and I thought people are going to look back on the film and think those were put in deliberately as clues."

Rowling did not specifically say which moments she was referring to, but there are a few possibilities. Among many ideas Beyond Hogwarts speculates, one that seems the most likely is in regards to the scene between Harry and Professor Lupin on the bridge. This part is not in the books, but it allows Lupin to open up in detail on Lily and James Potter in the film. One line in particular, in which he tells the Boy Wizard, “You're more like them than you know, Harry. In time you'll come to see just how much,” seems to foreshadow his move to sacrifice himself in the final book, Deathly Hallows.

There’s no debate that Prisoner of Azkaban is one of the best movies of the entire Harry Potter series, even scoring the second-highest rating, after Deathly Hallows Part II, on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s great to see Cuarón’s work even affected Rowling in a special way.

[h/t: Yahoo!]


This article also appears on Mental Floss.