Harry Potter: 12 Best Supporting Characters
From house-elves to teachers to enemies, the Boy Who Lived's ensemble has plenty of great players.
It's been almost a decade since Harry Potter bowed out with a bang on the big-screen and audiences worldwide bid farewell to Hogwarts. Of course, the Fantastic Beasts franchise has ensured a return to the wizarding world since, but for all intents and purposes, the Boy Who Lived's story finished on the big screen nine years ago this summer.
With the world on lockdown providing a perfect opportunity to revisit the series, we've decided to put together a list of the dozen best supporting characters across the Harry Potter canon - and say just why they proved an integral hit both on and offscreen.
For our list, we've kept our focus on the movies, meaning book-only players are exempt from the reckoning. Likewise, we've broadened the definition of a main character to anyone who earned half-an-hour of screen time across the series, which means - outside of the central trio - there's no room for Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley and Lord Voldemort on this countdown too.
And lastly, we've assessed it on just how key a role these individuals have played on the big-screen in comparison to their arcs in the novels. Plenty of great players - such as Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dean Thomas, Kreacher and even Molly Weasley - fell somewhat by the wayside compared to their book counterparts, which means they've been edged out of the running here.
Without further fanfare, here's who we reckon makes the cut.
12. Arthur Weasley
The Weasley family patriarch may not be the most eye-catching creation in JK Rowling's world but he provides one of the few things in Harry's life that the latter is in desperately short supply of; a caring and present father figure who actively looks out for his welfare as much as he does for his own kids.
If his wife gets the showier, more emotional role in both book and film as something of a surrogate parent to Harry, then Arthur is the understated rock upon which the Weasley family dynamic is built, something which Mark Williams conveys smartly underneath his eccentric exterior, despite limited minutes onscreen.
(Side note: the character cheated death twice in Rowling's original drafts, having been provisionally penciled in to meet his maker in both Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows.)