The Boy Who Lived returns with a fresh haircut to train Dumbledore’s Army in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The first franchise entry from director David Yates, the fifth film marks a distinct tonal shift. Gone are the whimsical days of chocolate frogs and earwax jellybeans; the Dark Lord has returned, the Ministry is corrupt, and the movies from this point forward are darker—literally and figuratively. Yet even a film with such high stakes isn’t immune to goofs.
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When you revisit the film with a keen eye towards strange shapes in the background, you’ll notice Order of the Phoenix is chock-full of production mistakes. Like the other adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s hit novels, this one falls prey to forgetful wardrobe interns, overworked editing teams, and even a sound guy who apparently forgot his invisibility cloak. Once you see these seven blunders, it’s nearly impossible to ignore them again, so read on at your own risk.
7) Dudley Changes His Shorts
The opening sets the tone with Harry brooding on a swing set and Dudley showing up to bully him. Dursley Jr. is dressed in black shorts covered in a busy white pattern containing seemingly random numbers, letters, and logos, exactly the kind of gaudy streetwear you’d expect him to be rocking around Little Whinging. But minutes later, as the cousins head into the tunnel where the Dementors attack, he’s wearing a different pair.
While the two pairs of shorts are similar in style, the arrangement of the pattern is different. Notably, the large circular logo on the inner thigh is gone, and the white symbols are more sparse. Perhaps Dudley put his shorts on backwards after a trip to the bathroom (suggesting he takes his shorts all the way off, which honestly checks out). Or more likely, the costume department lost the trunks between principal photography and pickup shots, meaning they had to put the actor, ironically named Harry, in a close-enough pair.
6) Weird Wands in Umbridge’s Lair
When Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna are dragged into Umbridge’s office, the Ministry stooge is quick to confiscate their wands. She places them haphazardly on her desk, next to her own wand, which is positioned precisely in the center of a lace doily. But if you keep an eye on that desk throughout the scene, the placement of the wands shifts from shot to shot.
In some angles, the pile of wands is tightly grouped; in others, they’re more spread out across the surface of the desk. There’s even a wild wand that can be spotted on the floor. Occam’s Razor tells us the props department probably just reset the desk between takes and forgot to snap a continuity polaroid. But given the mischief of Dumbledore’s Army, I wouldn’t put it past them to have placed some tricky charm on the confiscated goods.
5) Harry’s Camera Duel
The Ministry battle is one of the most visually impressive sequences in the franchise, especially when Dumbledore steps in. However, prior to the final water and fire-bending face-off with Voldemort, a visual hiccup can be seen passing right over Harry’s face. When Voldemort hisses “So weak” after blasting Harry’s wand from his hand, the camera circles Harry in a dramatic close-up. Unfortunately, the camera’s own shadow is obvious as it crosses our protagonist, momentarily shrouding his face in darkness.
Typically, camera and lighting departments are experts at avoiding these kinds of errors, but perhaps in this case, they thought they could write it off as the creeping shadow of He Who Must Not Be Named. It almost works, but ultimately, once you spot it, it’s enough to break the spell, even if just for a split second.
4) The Vanishing Face of Bellatrix
Daniel Radcliffe claimed Order of the Phoenix was his favorite film, given how much he got to shoot with Gary Oldman. Much of that time was spent at 12 Grimmauld Place, where the Black family tapestry offered a visual aid for the bloodline. But when Sirius gives Harry a quick lesson on his twisted family tree, something strange happens to Bellatrix’s portrait. At one moment, as Sirius calls her his “deranged cousin,” her face is clearly visible on the wall. But in the next wide shot, her portrait is gone.
It’s not just a single missing frame either. Throughout the scene, Bellatrix’s image flickers in and out of existence depending on the camera angle. And it’s not as if she becomes a burnt-out spot like the one beside her; her face is simply replaced by more ornate detailing. Most likely, the editing stitched together shots from different stages of set design. While casual viewers may never notice, fans of the iconic evil witch will certainly feel her absence from the wall.
3) Grawp Takes Hermione’s Legs
The introduction of Hagrid’s giant half-brother Grawp is one of the more polarizing moments in Order of the Phoenix. For some, it’s a fun creature detour; for others, it’s an awkward CGI sequence that only skims the surface of Hagrid’s left-out lore. But on closer inspection, there’s an actual technical glitch hiding in the Dark Forrest.
When Grawp picks Hermione up, her legs suddenly vanish below the calves. Instead of a clean digital composite, you can see faint lines where the CGI overlaps with Emma Watson’s real body. It smells like a case of early 2000s visual effects struggling to keep up with realism. If you happen to watch it on fullscreen DVD, keep an eye out for Hermione’s missing legs.
2) Crew Guy Finds the Room of Requirement
The Dumbledore’s Army training montage is one of the best sequences in the film, capturing the optimism and camaraderie of the wizards as they band together against evil. But apparently someone’s Patronus is a Muggle crew member. When Ginny casts “Expecto Patronum!” with two girls standing on either side of her, the reflection behind them briefly shows a crew member, possibly a camera operator or sound mixer, in a black t-shirt and baseball cap.
It’s easy to miss, as for any normal moviegoer, the out-of-place Muggle blends in with the scenery. In fact, crew on major film sets are often instructed to wear black to avoid sticking out if they do sneak into a shot (imagine if he were wearing lime green). However, unfortunately for the filmmakers, there are those of us out there who pay close enough attention that we’ll spot even the most innocuous squib in the shot.
1) Harry Switches Sweaty Pajamas
After his confrontation with Seamus in the Gryffindor common room, Harry is shown tossing and turning in bed while plagued by visions of the Department of Mysteries. In some shots, he’s wearing a short-sleeved blue crewneck shirt, which the eye is drawn to thanks to a massive sweat stain around the collar. Yet when Voldemort startles him awake, he suddenly sits up in bed, only, he’s wearing an entirely different cut of shirt… a button-down Henley.
That same Henley reappears later in the movie during his vision of Arthur Weasley’s attack, meaning the first scene was originally edited differently, then repurposed footage from the subsequent nightmare scene was dropped in. There’s not much of a fun, magical explanation for this one unless Voldemort cursed his good pal’s shirt to drive him to madness. Once you see it, the illusion of chronology is shattered momentarily, but thankfully, the rest of the film is good enough to whisk you right back into the Wizarding World.
Should the filmmakers fix these mistakes in future re-releases, or leave them as-is for nostalgia? Let us know your thoughts in a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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