Like almost everyone my age, Harry Potter was a massive part of my childhood. I had a stick that I used as a wand and the scarf in my house colours (Gryffindor, thank you very much), and I was that pest who’d tell anyone who’d listen that the books were better than the movies. I’ll admit though, I may never have made it past the first movie if the original Voldemort design had gone through.

Cast your mind back to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, when Professor Quirrell unwraps his turban and reveals Voldemot’s face on the back of his head. You know, the first major plot twist that blew all our tiny minds.

Now imagine for a second, if your six year old self was faced with THIS.

the first design of what voldemort was supposed to look like. thank god they didn’t chose this one… imagine the trauma. i had enough with the screaming book. pic.twitter.com/diNCTUwYTO

— 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 (@gayrauder) February 23, 2020

First of all, absolutely not.

Second of all, they’re not wrong about the screaming book from the restricted section of the library either, that was a childhood trauma that I’d almost finished repressing.

Want some cool facts about real life monsters? Listen to the GOAT Team ask a palaeontologist everything they can think of about prehistoric predators…

I’m not 100% sure if this design was inspired by a shark, a snake, or just the most terrifying thing you could show a child. I’m guessing the voice they would have used would have been way worse than the raspy whisper voice that they gave the final version, too.

I live with only one comfort when looking at this picture. The CGI in 2001 was amazing for the time, but a mess by today’s standards. The people who gave us the quidditch scene with a highlighter green pitch couldn’t have given us the sort of monster that they could have given us with today’s technology.

Not that my six year old self would have freaked out any less.

At the end of the day we can all go forward knowing that we dodged a bullet made entirely of childhood nightmares, and that bullet was the original Voldemort design.

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