10 Reasons The Harry Potter Movies Were A Massive Waste Of Potential

Making Harry Potter a "Chosen One" could have been the undoing of the franchise. Although there'd always been something special about the character, with the weight of expectation from his family name looming over his early adventures, to put any success down to magic (and not just magical skills) could have ruined how relatable Harry was. However, J.K. Rowling did something brilliant - in introducing the prophecy in The Order Of The Phoenix she made him both a foretold saviour and accidental hero.

You see, unlike Star Wars, The Matrix, Highlander, Snow White And The Huntsman and pretty much every other movie to turn its characters into obvious Jesus metaphors, Harry Potter introduces the idea of the Chosen One in a way doesn't simply have the protagonist destined to be the hero; Trelawney predicts that someone will be born who will be able to defeat the Dark Lord, but due to the fluidity of her Divination skills it's unclear if she's referring to Harry or Neville Longbottom, leading to an additional clause that allows Voldemort himself to choose the lucky/unlucky candidate.

Instead of making Harry some otherworldy being, this plays into his struggle to grow into himself (and they even play with the traditional idea through the eyes of others). Unfortunately, this is so unclear in the movies, with the wording and meaning of the prophecy glossed over in The Order Of The Phoenix, that some people actually state the idea that Neville could have been the Chosen One as just a fan theory, as if it wasn't explicitly spelt out by the series creator herself.