Harry Potter is a franchise that’s built on death. That might sound morbid, and it is, but it’s also the truth.
Whether it’s Harry Potter‘s own origins with the death of his parents by the hand of the no-nosed Voldemort, Dumbledore’s demise, or the all-out onslaught at the final battle at Hogwarts, you can’t escape murder in the Wizarding World. To be honest, it feels like a random member of the Harry Potter cast has more chance of dying than surviving. But amid all the tragedy, fans have agreed that deaths don’t get any sadder than this one.
“Re-reading Goblet of Fire now and I am feeling incredibly sorry for Frank the Gardener,” said a post to the Harry Potter Reddit page, which provoked a long discussion about the death of the old, unaware Muggle. “The intro really makes it such a heartbreaking story. Really feel for him,” said one user, while others said, “It is such a pity that his community would never know of his innocence or his bravery.”
The real tragedy of Frank the Gardener, who has a short role in the story of The Goblet of Fire as he stumbles across Voldemort, Nagini, and Peter Pettigrew, is that he should have been completely uninvolved. He was an innocent passerby, who happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
The fact that he confronted the evil gang after hearing them talking about murder showed his bravery, highlighting why his treatment was so unfair. Unlike Dumbledore, the Potters, Sirius, Tonks, and the other casualties, he wasn’t involved in this world of magic and danger at all.
While his role in the story was largely cut from the movies (we only get a truncated glimpse of Frank in Harry’s dream), we hope to see the Harry Potter return when the Harry Potter TV series release date finally arrives. This will still be some years away, but by extending the runtime by turning the story into a TV series, audiences should have the chance to see all the plotlines and characters who were cut from the movies for the sake of time.
Obviously, the prospect of a Harry Potter remake has given plenty of fans reason to be concerned. But, this ability to give a more book-accurate version of the story is all the justification to exist that the Harry Potter TV series needs.
For more Harry Potter fun, check out our guide on the best way to watch the Harry Potter movies in order, and our guide to the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child movie release date.
The creator of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, has made a number of transphobic remarks on social media in recent years. If you’d like to learn more about transgender equality or lend your support, here are two charities we encourage you to visit: the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, and Mermaids in the UK.