Harry Potter: Return to Hogwarts — 7 Best Moments
The Harry Potter Cast Take a Magical Trip Down Memory Lane in the Return to Hogwarts Special
7
Beyond the fame and acting experience they gained, the cast are most grateful for their memories with one another. Together, the cast built a family consisting of new actors and British film royalty, including Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Richard Griffiths, Kenneth Branagh, Timothy Spall, and Robbie Coltrane.
"[Richard Griffiths's] passing was the one that has affected me most because he was generous with knowledge and just wanted to share everything with you," Radcliffe said of the late actor ahead of a tribute section that paid homage to late Harry Potter stars like Helen McCrory, Alan Rickman, and John Hurt.
"I feel like being a Weasley is the best part of being in Harry Potter."
For the remaining cast, the families they've built on set continue to hold a special place in their hearts even 10 years after the final Harry Potter film's debut. "I feel like being a Weasley is the best part of being in Harry Potter," Bonnie Wright said. "We had our Hogwarts family, but I felt so special having an actual extra family . . . Julie Walters, who played my mother, Mrs. Weasley, was just so wonderful and brilliant to me. She really kind of took me under her wing, and she was like the perfect mother figure."
Over the course of a decade, the films gave the cast a space where everyone belonged and everyone could be themselves, making the franchise just as valuable to the cast as it is to its fans. "There's something about Harry Potter that makes life richer," Watson said. "When things get really dark and times are really hard, stories give us places we can go where we can rest and feel held."