Muggles will be able to dive in to a week of wandmaking, spell casting and wizarding duels at The Making of Harry Potter in February.
The attraction at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London at the Leavesden studios where the films were made, will feature special effects and choreography experts from the Harry Potter film series and visitors will discover how fight scenes were developed and the incredible amount of planning that went into each wand movement.
Original moulds, concept art and wand designs will be showcased in the attraction and, for the first time, Mr Ollivander’s costume will be on display at the entrance of his famous wand shop.
For a taster of what’s to come, here are some Wand Secrets the attraction has shared with Your Hols:
- In the first and second films, the wands looked quite plain. This was drastically changed in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when the wands were given distinctive shapes and carvings, reflecting the owner’s personality.
- Once the look of each wand was decided, a master copy was made – which often involved a search for special materials such as precious woods with burrs or interesting shapes. A mould would then be made so that it could be replicated in resin. Duplicates were made in case a wand broke and rubber versions were made for stunt work.
- 17,000 hand-decorated and hand-labelled wand boxes filled the Ollivanders set during filming.
- Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter (above), wore out over 60 wands during the making of the film series.
Wand Week will take place from Feb 16 to 24 and admission is £29 for adults and £21.50 for children aged 5-15.
