Harry appearing in other movies?

[GulPlum <plumeski@yahoo.com>]

Pepsiboy wrote:

> 1) In one of the X-Men 2 Trailers, there is a quick scene where a
> soldier is walking up to a boy.....doesn't the boy look like Harry?

Considering all we get in the first trailer is a long shot from above 
of a kid with dark brown hair and glasses, it could be just about 
anyone. We don't get any kind of indication of his size/age, so if 
all brown-haired boys with glasses look like Harry, then sure, he 
looks like Harry. In the second trailer, there's a shot from behind 
his back of (presumably) the same boy watching TV. He turns his head 
towards his left and we get a pretty good profile. Is it Harry? Sure, 
if, again, all brown-haired boys in spectacles look like Harry...

Otherwise, perhaps not.

> 2) I was doing a search on the Internet Movie Database, and came
> across a movie, called "Troll".  This movie came out in 1986, but 
> what surprised me was that two of the main characters were called 
> Harry Potter Jr (played by Noah Hathaway), and Harry Potter Sr.!   
> I apologize if that has already seen this and brought it and 
> presented, but just in case.  http://us.imdb.com/Title?0092115

Yes, that movie has been known to HP fandom for a long time, and 
there's been a bit of speculation about whether or not JKR has ever 
been aware of it and got her hero's name from it. 

As it happens, the name is where the similarities end. I've seen it 
on TV somewhere along the way. It's in the style of the Gremlins 
bandwagon in the 80s (Critters, Ghoulies, etc), and Troll is probably 
among the more amusing. There's no plot to speak of, but that's not 
what it's about. It's just a showcase for silliness and animatronic 
creatures blowing up. The Potter family, incidentally, are the heroes 
of the piece who (think they) do away with the Trolls.

I suspect that it's highly unlikely that JKR ever would have been 
aware of it, as AFAIK it was never released in the UK. It certainly 
never had a cinema release; I know that Troll 2 had a video release a 
while back but it features a completely plot (if that's what you can 
call it) and a different family. 

JKR doesn't strike me as the kind of person who'd make time to watch 
late-night cheap horror movies, which is the only way she would have 
seen it 15 years ago or so. In any event, even if she'd seen Troll, 
and it gave her the idea for the name, it probably would have been a 
subliminal connection and she'd strenuously deny it.

It's an intriguing connection all the same.