A NEW ORDER

The fifth year of study at Hogwarts School presents a turning point, not only for Harry Potter but for his friends and classmates as well. No longer children, they are suddenly faced with the choices and challenges of young adulthood…and the consequences that come with them. Harry—dealing with the return of Lord Voldemort and the death of his friend Cedric Diggory—has been forced to grow up perhaps more quickly than the others and is compelled to take on responsibilities he never could have expected.

Making his entrance into the world of Harry Potter, director David Yates remarks, “It was exciting to me that this story takes place at a time in the students’ lives when they are maturing and everything is becoming more complicated. It is about rebellion and about understanding the limits of adulthood; it’s about discovering how difficult the world can become and how sometimes you have to make your own way in that world. So it’s a blend of all the magic and fun that J.K. Rowling puts into her books and all the wonderful and amazing things that have been set in motion in the previous films, together with issues and ideas that are a bit more complex and touching on things that are quite grown up.”

David Heyman, the producer of all of the Harry Potter features, notes that the nature of the story was what led him to choose Yates—an award-winning British television director—to helm the fifth installment of the series. “David is a fantastic actors’ director, and he has also shown that he can handle political subject matter in an entertaining way. This is not a political film, per se, but the politics of the magic world are very much at play here. We thought David would handle that brilliantly, and he has. He came in with a great passion for the material and a great sense of the emotional journey of the characters. He understood that, for all the spectacle, what we and the audience connect with are the characters.

“It was really rewarding how the kids embraced him and he them,” Heyman adds. “Like their characters, they are growing up and David treated them as equals. He realized that they know their characters well and was always soliciting their ideas and getting them to bring more of themselves to their roles in ways they hadn’t before. That was exciting for them and for us.”

Returning in the role of Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe attests, “I loved working with David. He is a delightful man, very soft-spoken, and yet I have never been pushed as hard as I was on this film, partly because of the nature of the story and partly because of his directing. He never settled for less; he always wanted me to go deeper, which was exactly what I felt I needed. He is a brilliant director.”

“David is wicked; we got on really well with him,” agrees Rupert Grint, the actor behind the role of Harry’s best mate, Ron Weasley. “He was quite a bit different from the other directors because he has a more relaxed approach, but he always gave great suggestions.”

Emma Watson, who plays Harry’s loyal friend Hermione Granger, adds, “It was really lovely because David listened to what we had to say about our characters. He was respectful of the fact that we have been playing these people for five films now. He appreciated the history and the special relationship that Dan, Rupert and I share because it adds truth to the friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione. David really looks for truth in all of the characters.”

Yates was working from a script by another newcomer to the fold, screenwriter Michael Goldenberg. “I was thrilled when David Heyman called and asked me to be involved,” Goldenberg recalls. “The great thing about working on a Harry Potter film is that it’s something bigger than yourself, so there is no question of ego getting in the way. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s a magical thing to be a part of what has become this amazing phenomenon and to have a role in helping to bring it to the screen; I felt a great sense of responsibility in the best sense of the word. David Heyman made it fun, which is what a Harry Potter film should be, and Jo (J.K. Rowling) was incredibly sweet and could not have been more generous in giving us room to make the best film possible. David Yates was intent on keeping every moment of the story grounded in reality, and I think that’s what makes the magic even more magical.

“Obviously, it was very important to stay true to the spirit of the book,” Goldenberg observes. “This story, in particular, is so much about Harry’s journey. It’s about Harry coming of age and realizing that things aren’t as black and white as they initially appeared…and the adults he idealized are perhaps more flawed and human than he thought. We wanted to examine those themes, not only with Harry but also with Ron and Hermione. All of the kids are dealing with a more complex world than when they first entered Hogwarts.”

In “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” Harry’s journey begins as he is enduring another interminable summer with the Dursleys. Making the time even more unbearable, he is feeling cut off from his closest friends, Ron and Hermione, who, inexplicably, have not written to him all summer—not only hurtful but odd, especially following the tumultuous and tragic events of the previous year.

Producer David Barron offers, “Poor Harry. After everything he’s been through, he has been shut away in Little Whinging with absolutely no news from anybody. He thinks everybody is ignoring him—Ron, Hermione, even Dumbledore—and I think, coupled with the normal stresses of being a teenager, it’s just a bit much for him to bear. It’s a side of Harry we haven’t seen before. He doesn’t start out quite as level-headed as he has been in the past…not without justification, though.”

With that in mind, the insufferable bully Dudley Dursley has chosen the wrong time to engage in his favorite pastime—trying to goad Harry—but their confrontation is abruptly halted when, without warning, a pair of Dementors attack and Harry is forced to produce a Patronus charm to save both their lives. Only moments later, a letter arrives at Privet Drive informing Harry that he has been expelled from Hogwarts for his illegal use of magic, a decree that delights the Dursleys even as it sends Harry to the edge of despair.

But hope is not lost. That night, a group of Aurors (Dark wizard catchers)— including Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt and don’t-call-me- Nymphadora Tonks—arrive at his door and whisk him away, telling Harry that Dumbledore has arranged for him to appeal his expulsion at a formal hearing at the Ministry of Magic.

First, however, they must take a detour to a secret location, where Harry will discover there has been a lot going on while he has been sequestered in Little Whinging. Arriving at number twelve Grimmauld Place—which, if you don’t know is there, is not there—Harry is reunited with Ron and Hermione. And it is there that he is first introduced to the Order of the Phoenix, “a clandestine organization originally formed by Dumbledore to combat the forces of evil represented by Voldemort,” David Heyman explains. “They meet in secret, in large part because Fudge, who is in charge of the Ministry of Magic, feels threatened by Dumbledore and is trying to repress stories of Voldemort’s return. But those in the Order know that Voldemort is gathering followers and his power is growing.”

Harry learns that his parents had been among the original Order of the Phoenix, and counted among its current members are Molly & Arthur Weasley, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape and, to his surprise and delight, Sirius Black, who has opened the Black family home as the meeting place for the Order of the Phoenix. David Yates says, “Sirius can’t go out because he’s still a wanted man. He can do very little to help, so the house is his gift to the Order.”

Gary Oldman, who was introduced as Sirius Black in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” relates, “Sirius is a man very much haunted by being wrongly accused and imprisoned at Azkaban for so many years. He is emotionally rooted in the old days when they were the young Order. In some ways, his relationship with Harry is like reliving the past. Harry is so much like his father, James, who was Sirius’ best friend, and Sirius is Harry’s godfather, which is something he does not take lightly. They share a special relationship, which has progressively gotten stronger.”

“It’s similar for Harry,” adds Radcliffe. “Sirius sees a younger version of James in Harry, and Harry gets to know more about his father through his relationship with Sirius.”

Harry also sees the Order of the Phoenix as a way to connect to his past…and more. “Officially, he’s not in the Order, but he already thinks of himself as very much a part of it because so many of his friends are in it. It means a lot to him because, of course, his parents were in the original Order. So it has quite an emotional importance to Harry, as well as giving him a chance to fight Voldemort,” Radcliffe states.

NEXT: MINISTERIAL PROCEEDINGS
Nevertheless, before Harry can think about fighting Voldemort, there is the matter of getting reinstated at Hogwarts. Harry must defend his actions at a hearing at the Ministry of Magic.