Prisoner of Azkaban Foreshadowing the Final Books
by Emilie
“Alfonso had very good intuition about what would and wouldn't work. 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. People are going to look back on the film and think those were put in deliberately as clues.”
J.K. Rowling in Creating the Vision: Interview with JK Rowling and Alfonso Cuaron
J.K. Rowling in Creating the Vision: Interview with JK Rowling and Alfonso Cuaron
Ever since, I watched that interview on the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD, I was intrigued. I wanted to know what exactly Cuaron did that foreshadowed books six and seven enough to give J.K. Rowling. Even now, nearly two and a half years after the final book was published, I am curious. After some thinking (and watching the movie again), I think I may have some possible answers.
First of all, in Dumbledore’s opening speech, when he is talking about the dementors, he says, “It's not in the nature of a dementor to be forgiving. But you know happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light’ (Dumbledore, PoA). The last part seems to maybe be foreshadowing Ron in Deathly Hallows. Ron was in his darkest times after leaving the Harry and Hermione. He found happiness when he "turned on the light" of the deluminator.
Next, is the scene where Harry and Lupin talk about Lily. “The first time I saw you, Harry, I recognized you immediately Not by your scar - by your eyes. They're your mother Lily's….She was not only a singularly gifted witch but an uncommonly kind woman. She had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even -- and perhaps most especially -- when that person couldn't see it for themselves” (Lupin, PoA movie). This seems to foreshadow what we find out about Lily and Snape’s relationship in Deathly Hallows. Snape was an outcast, but Lily was his best friend anyway. She saw the beauty in him, even when he and everyone else- did not.
Then, when Harry is in the hospital wing, just as he is about to wake up, he hears this exchange of words:
RON: Looks a bit peaky, doesn't he?
FRED: Peaky? What d'you expect him to look like? He fell fifty feet.
GEORGE: Yeah, c'mon, Ron. We'll walk you off the Astronomy Tower and see how you come out looking.
This is probably nothing, but it is pretty ironic, knowing that Dumbledore dies by being blasted off the Astronomy Tower.
Towards the end of the movie, when Lupin has just turned into a werewolf, Snape jumps in front of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, to protect them. This seems to be a direct indication that Snape is good and protecting Harry for Dumbledore. In the book, no such forshadowing exists because Snape is unconscious. He only awakes to bring everyone to the hospital wing and to turn Sirius in (and let’s be honest, that wasn’t to protect Harry, that was only to seem like a hero). However, in the movie, it is clear that Snape is doing what he is doing only to protect Harry. There’s a certain desperation in Snape’s eye as he stands in front of them - he knows he must protect Harry at whatever cost.
Additionally, throughout the movie, there are HUGE hints as to Ron and Hermione having a relationship. However, I really do not think that this was what J.K. Rowling was referring to. By the point she said this, Order of the Phoenix had been published, and it was getting really obvious that Ron and Hermione were going to get together.
Overall, I think the most likely foreshadowing was Lupin talking to Harry, and Snape protecting Harry. A lot of the other ideas involved pulling at threads, but the before mentioned two had a lot of evidence supporting them. Watching Prisoner of Azkaban before Deathly Hallows came out, those scenes would not have meant much. Knowing what we do though, the scenes take on a whole new meaning. Both things that the two scenes eluded to large roles in book seven, but Alfonso Cuaron could not have known that. The scenes never happened in the book; they were added in just to make the movie better, and J.K. Rowling had nothing to do with it. If I were her, I too would get goose bumps from the scenes.
We may never know what J.K. Rowling was referring to, but I hope I at least sparked some interest in all of your brains.
Content Management Powered by CuteNews
