Regulus in HBP????

[Carol]

Karen wrote:
>
> I'm hazy on which information was in which book, but maybe the story
of getting the locket is a flashback?

Carol responds: 

As you've probably already heard, they're going to show Regulus in a
photo on Slughorn's desk, probably along with his famous contacts and
proteges. It's a lame device, really, since Regulus died at seventeen
and was never influential or famous (Slughorn wouldn't have known what
happened to him, or that he was a Death Eater). Probably they'll have
some made up dialogue supplementing Slughorn's remarks about "I'd have
liked to have the pair," the only reference to Regulus *as Regulus* in
HBP that I can recall, but, of course, he appears again in HBP.

He's first mentioned in OoP in the tapestry scene, where his brother
refers to him as a "stupid idiot" and comments that his parents
probably regarded Regulus as "a right little hero when he first joined
up." His death date is given as "some fifteen years before" the
tapestry scene, so Regulus must have died within a few months of
Harry's first birthday, perhaps shortly before Godric's Hollow. The
filmmakers missed the boat by not mentioning Regulus in their version
of that scene, which is why they need to bring him somehow into HBP.

He shows up again in "Kreacher's Tale" in DH, which will undoubtedly
be shown in the DH film as a flashback narrated by Kreacher. I'm sure
that the filmmakers are just introducing the photograph in HBP so that
people who haven't read the book will be able to figure out who RAB is
and so that Regulus's name won't just appear without any foreshadowing
on his door in 12 GP when the Trio hide out there. (Maybe Harry will
say, "Oh, yeah. Slughorn showed me his picture." (They should have
taken the Slytherin Quidditch team photo at the same time as the one
they'll be using in the HBP film.)

Oh, well. When some future producer, director, and writer team up to
do a remake of the HP series, they'll have the benefit of hindsight,
including the mistakes made in the WB productions, not to mention that
they can be thoroughly familiar with the entire series before they
make even the first film.

Someone else asked about Regulus's appearance in the books. He's
described as having the same dark hair and slightly expression as the
teenage Sirius but smaller and slighter and not quite as handsome. (He
played Seeker, a fact that Harry notices but no one else pays any
attention to.)

Carol, who prefers Regulus to Sirius, handsome or not, and thinks that
his death is one of the saddest and most horrifying parts of DH