The Strange Harry Potter Character We Never Got To See In The Movies
After the Harry Potter books, written by British author J.K. Rowling, hit shelves in 1997, they became an international phenomenon, and major film adaptations followed pretty quickly. In 2001, the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, was released to worldwide fame and acclaim, and over the next decade, the films and books completely took over pop culture, becoming one of the biggest literary and onscreen sensations of all time.
As much as fans loved every single aspect of the books, it does make sense that not every single character from the Harry Potter books ultimately made it onto the big screen. In the end, a handful of beloved Potter characters never found a place in the films, and even though scenes were even filmed with some of them, those moments ended up on the cutting room floor when push came to shove. If you haven't read the Harry Potter books, here's the extremely strange character — Peeves the Poltergeist — we never got to see in the movies.
Peeves the Poltergeist never made it into the movies
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is full of ghosts, and many of them, including Nearly-Headless Nick (John Cleese), The Grey Lady (Kelly MacDonald), and Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson), do appear in the films. However, one spectre that roams the school's hallowed halls hit the cutting room floor: Peeves the Poltergeist. Though a few scenes with Peeves were actually filmed for the first film with British comedian Rik Mayall, they were cut, and sadly, Mayall died in 2014, with his scenes still unreleased.
Peeves isn't technically a ghost, but as a poltergeist, his sole purpose in the world is to cause mischief and chaos whenever he goes. When Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends first meet Peeves in the first book, he's already wreaking havoc in Hogwarts' halls, and his behavior doesn't improve over the years, as he spends his time assigning rude nicknames to students and faculty, destroying ancient artifacts, and just generally making life irritating and difficult for anybody who crosses his path.
However, Peeves does have one shining moment in the books. When the Fred and George Weasley, played in the movies by James and Oliver Phelps, decide to leave Hogwarts forever during their seventh year, they stage a showy and daring spectacle to infuriate Hogwarts' temporary and terrible headmaster, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton). In the books, the twins, who loved pranks and tricks, tell Peeves to "give her hell from us," and as Harry notes, "Peeves, whom Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset."
There were plenty of Harry Potter characters left on the cutting room floor
Peeves — and Mayall's likely hilarious performance — never made it onto the big screen, but at least he's not alone. Sadly, a handful of important characters were cut from the movies, making them unrecognizable to fans who haven't read the original books.
Fans of the Potter films are familiar with Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones), a house-elf who allies himself with Harry, but they never got to meet Winky, a fellow house-elf who doesn't love her freedom quite as much as Dobby does. One of Hogwarts' professors, Cuthbert Binns — a ghost who teaches History of Magic, is also left out of the films, with his one important moment handed to Minerva McGonagall (Dame Maggie Smith). Weirdly, one of the Weasleys, Charlie, who works as a dragon trainer in Romania, also never appears in the films, which feels particularly strange considering that the Weasleys are Harry's surrogate family throughout the series.
Adapting an enormous book series is definitely a struggle, but it's always difficult when beloved characters, including Peeves, don't make it into the film adaptations. The entire Harry Potter film series is coming to Peacock soon.