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JK Rowling reveals one of her Harry Potter characters was almost called Gary

JK Rowling reveals one of her Harry Potter characters was almost called Gary

It just feels wrong...

Huw Fullerton

Published: Wednesday, 24 August 2016 at 1:47 pm

Even years after the last Harry Potter book came out, it turns out we STILL don’t know everything about the world of the Boy Who Lived – because JK Rowling just revealed that one of the book’s characters originally had a completely different name.

Now, we had some idea that Rowling had tried a few different monikers out for her characters before the final versions – Hermione’s surname was originally supposed to be Puckle instead of Granger, for example – but we had no idea that any of them ended up changing quite as drastically as the original name for Gryffindor student Dean Thomas, who the author revealed yesterday was originally called “Gary” after responding to a fan confused about one of her early sketches for the book series.

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Apparently Rowling decided to change the name to honour an old acquaintance, and Gryffindor history was made.

Alfred Enoch as Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter films

Just don’t be surprised if an AWFUL lot of fan-fictions about the “lost” Hogwarts character Gary start springing up over the coming months…

Authors

Radio Times commissioning editor Huw Fullerton. He sits in front of a shelving unit, looking at the camera and smiling. He wears glasses and has a moustache

Huw FullertonCommissioning editor

Huw Fullerton is a commissioning editor for Radio Times magazine handling comedy, entertainment and specialist drama. In a previous regeneration, he covered all things sci-fi and fantasy for RadioTimes.com.

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