The Harry Potter film series wasn’t safe from controversies, and one of the weirdest ones was all about a “nude scene” in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, with parents complaining about it even before they knew what it was all about. J.K. Rowling brought the Wizarding World to the lives of many readers around the world in 1997 with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first entry in what would become a series of seven novels.

The complete book series was adapted to the big screen not long after, with the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, being split into two films. Although the Harry Potter universe already had a pretty solid fan base, the films brought the Wizarding World to a wider audience, and many viewers grew up along with the protagonists of the films. Of course, a world as rich as Harry Potter’s went through some changes when making the jump to the big screen, but many scenes stayed true to the source material.

Among those is the kissing scene between Harry and Hermione as part of an apparition to torture Ron, courtesy of the piece of Voldemort’s soul kept in Salazar Slytherin’s locket, which turned out to be controversial to some.

Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows “Nude” Scene Controversy Explained


In the Deathly Hallows book, when Harry opens the locket, Voldemort’s soul kept in it begins to mentally torture Ron and mock his biggest fears. Apparitions begin to come out of the locket, among those one of Harry and Hermione telling him they would be better off without him. The pair is seemingly naked and begin to kiss. Ron eventually breaks through all these haunting visions and smashes the locket with Gryffindor’s sword. When director David Yates announced that part 1 of Deathly Hallows was going to include Harry and Hermione’s “nude” scene, those who have read the books weren’t surprised, but those not familiar with it – specifically parents – weren’t really on board with the idea.

Many parents complained about a Harry Potter film featuring a nude scene, even though they obviously didn’t know the context. Worst of all, the complaints (and even some boycott threats) began before the film was even out, and just based on what Yates had said. The scene in question was very brief, and Harry and Hermione were surrounded by dark mist and a lot of special effects (and neither of the actors were actually naked). The offended parents either hadn’t been paying attention to the Harry Potter series or they simply decided to ignore the fact that Harry and company had grown up, and their story had turned much darker than it was in the first book. They also seemed to ignore that the films had more intense scenes than Ron’s horcrux-induced vision, and featured multiple deaths, torture, and more.

In the end, there were no boycotts and the controversy was nothing more than angry parents that wouldn’t wait for the film to come out to decide if they would take their children or not. The Harry Potter film series (and the books as well) had its fair dose of controversies, and the one around the “nude” scene will go down as one of the weirdest.