[HPforGrownups] Hagrid Death Question

[Troels Forchhammer]

No: HPFGUIDX 57001

At 03:20 05-05-03 -0400, you wrote:
>Other than that quote and the fact that he is presumably headed off to 
>speak with some rather nasty giant types, is there other evidence of 
>Hagrid's impending demise?

As I understand it much weight is put on the fact that Mr Coltrane
apparently only has a contract covering the first five movies.

Jo Rowling has, on the other hand, in a radio talk show with
WBUR 'the Connection' clearly confirmed that Hagrid is going
to be in all seven books:

Pete: Hi! I have a question about Hagrid:
JKR: oh, cool - I like Hagrid - ask away
Pete: yeah - is he going to be in the rest of the books?
JKR: Yes -
Pete: ... 'cause he is my favourite character.
JKR: Oh, is he your favourite character?
Pete: yeah
JKR: OK, I like you, because he is one of my favourite characters
      of - yeah- of - if you - if you take away Harry and Hermione
      and Ron, then I love Hagrid the best, definitely!
      Erm - I'd - he is - he is going to be around, you're going
      to keep seeing him. I - I suspect that the reason you're
      asking this is because there's a rumour going around that
      people are going to die [Pete: Right] in the upcoming books,
      and people /are/ going to die, and I am not going to tell
      you who is and who isn't because that, for a very obvious
      reason ...

<http://www.hogwarts-library.net/reference/interviews/19991012_TheConnection.html#question32>

It is perhaps not so obvious in the transcript, but if you
listen to the interview it is clear that the first "Yes -"
by Rowling is a direct and definite answer to the question
whether Hagrid is "going to be in the rest of the books."
It is of course confirmed by the "he is going to be around,
you're going to keep seeing him" part.

This interview is from October 1999 - shortly before they
started signing the movie contracts.

The possibility of Hagrid dying, but returning as a ghost,
can't be entirely precluded by this, but it is my impression
that at the time Rowling wasn't planning to kill Hagrid.

However - listen for yourself and get your own impression of
what she is saying.

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