Nigel, Dennis, and Colin?

[justcarol67]

"Steve" bboyminn wrote:
>
> In the lasts movie, their is a boy who wants Harry's autograph and
Ron has promised to get it for him. I believe the boy's name was
'Nigel'. But I have to 
> wonder WHY was that boy named Nigel? And what happened
> to the boy who played Colin Creevey in CoS? I thought
> he was really good. Certainly they could have brought
> him back for very little money.
> 
> Now I see that 'Nigel' is back and is part of the
> D.A. Club. In this photo he is second from the right -
> 
> http://the-leaky-cauldron.org/fanart/picture/view/2712
> 
> If they were going to get rid of the previous Colin,
> then why didn't they make this boy Dennis. They 
> wouldn't have even had to specify Dennis /Creevey/,
> just Dennis. 
> 
> It would have made everything more consistent with the
> books. 
> 
> Personally, I think they should have kept the old Colin,
> and made this new boy Dennis. That would have made the
> movie REALLY consistent with the books.
> 
> I know people here can actually tell me why, but does
> anyone have any speculation as to why they would do 
> what they have done? 
> 
> Just curious.
> 
> Steve/bboyminn
>

Carol responds:
I agree that they should have kept Colin or at least made "Nigel"
Dennis Creevey, but I have some theories as to what happened.

It may be coincidence, but Nigel is played by William Melling and
Dudley by Harry Melling. Maybe Harry Melling's little brother or
cousin needed a role? (No that there's much resemblance between
film!Dudley and Nigel, but how many kids named Melling are trying out
for parts in the Potter films?

As for Hugh Mitchell, the boy who played Colin Creevey in CoS, he has
quite a little career going according to the IMDb:

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm1087234/

According to the IMDb, he received 45,000 pounds for playing Colin
Creevey. Maybe he was too expensive for a minor character?

I'm guessing that he was actually too busy to play a bit part in PoA,
where Colin isn't important, so he was written out and the Creevey
brothers as HP's Hogwarts fan club were collectively replaced by Nigel
(clearly a first-year) in GoF. And despite being only a second year
(like Dennis Creevey in OoP), he's somehow allowed to join the DA.
(They needed someone to practice the hover charm on? <eg>)

Carol, who still thinks they should have used the name Dennis instead
of changing it to Nigel (he's too young to be Colin, who's only a year
younger than Harry in the books)