News: DVD, Harry Potter’s Ron Weasley almost died

The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 DVD has already spilled some secrets: Ron Weasley was almost killed off halfway through the series.

In a featurette on the DVD and Blu-ray, star Danielle Radcliffe interviews author J.K. Rowling, on whose novels the movies are based, and she spilled the beans on her almost putting the red-haired lead character under the chopping block. The reason: She “wasn’t in a happy place.”

“Funnily enough, I planned from the start that none of [the three lead characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione] would die,” she says in the featurette. “Then midway through, which I think is a reflection of the fact that I wasn’t in a very happy place, I started thinking I might polish one of them off. Out of sheer spite.”

Radcliffe admits that, from the start, he suspected that one of the three would die sometime in the series. Not Harry, surely.

Although Rowling finally admits that she wouldn’t have killed Ron — phew! — she wasn’t shy about killing off other beloved characters, including Albus Dumbledore and Harry’s owl Hedwig. We can be thankful she thought twice about Ron, something the character’s actor Rupert Grint is no doubt also thankful for as well as Emma Watson’s Hermione.

This teaser of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 DVD and Blu-ray is only the beginning of the special features on the discs. Judging by what we’ve seen, we’re excited for the rest. Warner releases the fantasy movie, the last of the series, on DVD and Blu-ray Nov. 11.

Here’s the featurette exerpt: