document_title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

question_text: who played nixon in days of future past

question_tokens: who played nixon in days of future past

text: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Plot[edit]

text: In the near future, robotic Sentinels are programmed to identify and exterminate mutants and their human allies. During a Sentinel raid which kills nearly all the mutants in Russia, Kitty Pryde sends Bishop's consciousness back in time a few months before the attack, however this power can't be used on the recipient indefinitely.

text: Professor Charles Xavier makes contact with Kitty, meeting her at a remote Chinese temple with other mutant survivors. Xavier explains that the Sentinels were designed by Bolivar Trask, who was assassinated by Mystique in 1973. Her DNA being modified by scientists to create and advance the Sentinel program. Kitty, possessing an ability to send a mutant's consciousness back in time, suggests altering history to prevent Trask’s assassination. While Xavier initially plans to be the candidate, Wolverine volunteers instead since his regenerative powers would allow him to survive the process.

text: Wolverine awakens in his younger body in 1973. After traveling to the X-Mansion, he discovers the school has been shut down, and the younger Xavier (known as Professor X) can walk, lacking his powers under a specialized serum suppressing his mutant powers. Hoping to reunite with Mystique, Professor X agrees to help Wolverine to bust Erik Lensherr out of his prison cell under the Pentagon, aided by Hank McCoy/Beast and Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver.

text: Mystique discovers Trask has been experimenting on mutants and plots to assassinate him at the Paris Peace Accords. She is prevented by Professor, Erik, Hank, and Wolverine, but Erik decides to kill her as the surest way to prevent the apocalyptic future. Hank intervenes and exposes himself, Erik, and Mystique as mutants to the world. Trask takes advantage of this event and successfully convinces President Richard Nixon to initialize the Sentinel program.

text: Erik (now Magneto) obtains his signature helmet to block out Xavier’s psychic powers, and secretly takes control of the constructed Sentinels. Professor X abandons the serum, regaining his mutant power, and communicates with his future self, who inspires him to protect the relationship between mutants and mankind. After using Cerebro to track Mystique, he, Hank and Wolverine take flight to Washington, DC and put an end to her assassination plot on Bolivar Trask.

text: At a ceremony where Nixon unveils the Sentinels, Professor X, Hank, and Wolverine search for Mystique, disguised as a Secret Service agent. Magneto appears, controlling the Sentinels, and uses the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to surround the White House. Hank transforms into Beast and fights a sentinel. Wolverine confronts Magneto, but is thrown way into the Potomac River. Nixon, Trask, and Mystique hide in a safe room beneath the White House, but Magneto rips it out of the building with the intention of killing Nixon.

text: Back in the future, the Sentinels launch an attack on the X-Men, slaying most of them, including Storm, while Magneto is wounded. Mystique stops Magneto from killing Nixon, but goes to murder Trask. Xavier persuades her to spare Trask, altering history and erasing the Sentinels from existence. Magneto and Mystique both leave, one a criminal, the other a hero. Trask is put behind bars for attempting to sell U.S military secrets to Vietnamese officials.

text: Wolverine wakes up at the mansion in the present day to find Iceman, Rogue, Colossus, Kitty, Beast, Storm, Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Xavier all alive. Wolverine speaks to Xavier, aware of the changes in history. Back in 1973, the younger Wolverine is rescued by Mystique, disguised as William Stryker.

text: In a post-credits scene, an Egyptian crowd is chanting to En Sabah Nur, who telekinetically elevates building blocks to forge pyramids as four horsemen watch on.[5][6]

text: Cast[edit]

text: Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine

text: James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X

text: Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto

text: Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkhölme / Mystique

text: Nicholas Hoult and Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast

text: Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe / Storm

text: Anna Paquin as Marie / Rogue

text: Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde / Shadowcat

text: Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake / Iceman

text: Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask

text: Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver

text: Josh Helman as Major William Stryker

text: Omar Sy as Bishop

text: Daniel Cudmore as Peter Rasputin / Colossus

text: Fan Bingbing as Blink

text: Adan Canto as Sunspot

text: Booboo Stewart as Warpath

text: Additionally, Famke Janssen and James Marsden reprise their roles as Jean Grey and Scott Summers / Cyclops respectively in cameo appearances. Lucas Till reprises his role as Alex Summers / Havok. Evan Jonigkeit portrays Mortimer Toynbee / Toad. Gregg Lowe portrays Eric Gitter / Ink. X-Men comic-book writers Len Wein and Chris Claremont appear as United States congressmen. Michael Lerner plays Senator Brickman. Mark Camacho portrays U.S. President Richard Nixon. Singer cameos as a man with a small film camera as Magneto walks away after Mystique's escape in Paris. In a post-credits scene, Brendan Pedder portrays the ancient mutant, En Sabah Nur.[41]

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: Producer Lauren Shuler Donner stated in August 2006 that a continuation of the X-Men main film series would require a renegotiation. New cast members of X-Men: The Last Stand were signed, while the older cast members were not.[42] Donner said, "There is forty years worth of stories. I've always wanted to do 'Days of Future Past' and there are just really a lot of stories yet to be told".[43] She later pitched the idea of a fourth installment of the X-Men franchise to director Bryan Singer, following the completion of the 2011 prequel X-Men: First Class.[44] In March 2011, Donner said the film was in "active development at Fox"; she said, "We took the treatment to Fox and they love it... And X4 leads into X5".[45]

text: 20th Century Fox saw X-Men: First Class as the first film of a new X-Men trilogy.[46] Donner compared the franchise plans to the darker, more mature content of the Harry Potter film series.[47] Early reports said Matthew Vaughn and Singer were returning to direct and produce the sequel, respectively.[48] While still attached to the project as a director, Vaughn said, "First Class is similar to Batman Begins, where you have the fun of introducing the characters and getting to know them, but that takes time. But with the second one, you can just get on with it and have a rollicking good time. That's the main difference between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight".[49] Describing the possible beginning of the film, Vaughn said, "I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto".[50] Singer said the film could be set around the civil rights movement or the Vietnam War,[51] and that Wolverine could once again be featured.[52] Singer also talked about "changing history" in an interview with Empire magazine. He said he does not want people to panic about events in the past "erasing" the storylines of the previous X-Men films, as he believes in multiverses, explaining the possibility of certain events can exist equally in the histories of alternate universes.[53]

text: Writing[edit]

text: Kinberg said the main focus of this film was the future of the X-Men film series. With the use of cast members from the original trilogy and from First Class, they needed to decide the sequels' destination.[19] In preparation for the film, Kinberg studied films about time travel, including Back to the Future, The Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Singer originated a philosophy and a set of rules for the time travel in the film so the story would be as plausible as possible.[19]

text: According to Kinberg, as they were writing the script, they thought it is sensible that Wolverine was traveling between time periods, because of his ageless look and ability to heal rapidly.[19] He further stated of making Wolverine the time traveler, "We made the decision for a lot of reasons ... he's the protagonist of the franchise, and probably the most beloved character to a mass audience".[54] Kinberg and Vaughn considered Bishop and Cable candidates for the role of time traveler.[9] Kinberg said Rachel Summers was in the first draft of the script; she sent Wolverine back to 1973. The character was later replaced with Kitty Pryde, to whom Kinberg gave a secondary power of sending people's consciousnesses into the past.[55] Juggernaut, Jubilee, Nightcrawler and Psylocke were also considered for the film.[56][57][58][59]

text: Singer was asked how the film integrates the themes of the earlier X-Men films; he said, "It establishes that some villain characters may have been right with their fears. It confronts the notions of hope and second chances. It's characters that are lost trying to find themselves. In X-Men 1 and 2, the characters had come into their own and knew who they were. In this one, they're all lost and they're trying to keep it together".[60]

text: Pre-production[edit]

text: In November 2011, Simon Kinberg—co-writer of X-Men: The Last Stand and co-producer of X-Men: First Class—was hired to write the film's screenplay.[61] In May 2012, 20th Century Fox announced the film would be released on July 18, 2014.[62] The release was later moved forward to May 23, 2014.[63] In August 2012, the title for the film was confirmed to be X-Men: Days of Future Past. The film is inspired by Chris Claremont and John Byrne's X-Men comic book storyline, "Days of Future Past", which introduced the idea of an alternate future for mutants that grew from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' killing of a senator, leading to a future in which mutants are hunted by Sentinels.[64]

text: In October 2012, Vaughn left the role of director to focus on Mark Millar's Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014).[65] Singer was later announced as the film's director; it was his third directorial role in the X-Men film series.[66] In preparation for the film, Singer approached James Cameron to discuss time travel, string theory and multiverses.[67] In the same month, Richard Stammers was approached to be the visual effects supervisor, as Singer liked his work in the 2012 film Prometheus.[68]

text: Singer brought back most of the crew he had in X-Men, X2. In December 2012, two long-absent designers were hired: production designer John Myhre, who had only done X-Men, and costume designer Louise Mingenbach —who also did X2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.[69][70] In February 2013, John Ottman—who aside from X-Men, collaborated on all of Singer's works since the 1995 film The Usual Suspects—was confirmed to work on the music and the editing of the film.[71]

text: Casting[edit]

text:
"I decided that the next time I got myself involved in a movie that had a huge amount of attention already that I would use Twitter. As a way of connecting with fans, principally. And also as a way of clearing up misunderstandings so that people know. You know, they may hear that an actor is cast or hear somebody is going to be in it, but until I say it's so, that's the confirmation".[72]

—Bryan Singer explaining the Twitter presence of the film.

tag: div

text: Singer used the online social networking service Twitter to announce casting of the film.[72] In November 2012, he announced that James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult would reprise their roles from X-Men: First Class. Later the same month, he announced that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen would reprise their respective roles as the older versions of the characters played by McAvoy and Fassbender.[73][74][75] In December, Singer announced that Hugh Jackman would reprise his role as Wolverine.[76]

text: In January 2013, Singer announced that Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, and Ellen Page would reprise their roles of Rogue, Iceman, and Kitty Pryde.[77][78] In February, Singer announced that Peter Dinklage would star in the film as the main antagonist.[79] In March, Singer announced that French actor Omar Sy had joined the cast.[80] Halle Berry said in an interview that she would reprise her role as Storm, which was followed by an announcement from Singer that Berry would be in the film.[81][82] Singer tweeted a picture of the cast, which confirmed that Daniel Cudmore would return as Colossus and that Fan Bingbing and Booboo Stewart had joined the cast.[83]

text: In April, Singer announced that American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga had joined the cast as Dazzler,[84] but it was later revealed as an April Fools' Day prank.[72] Singer retweeted a photograph of himself, Adan Canto, and confirmed cast members Patrick Stewart, McKellen, and Ashmore, which was followed by a confirmation from Canto that he had joined the cast.[85] In May, Singer announced that Evan Peters had been cast as Quicksilver.[86] In June, Australian actor Josh Helman was cast in a role.[87] In July, Singer tweeted a picture of actor Lucas Till on the set of the film, which confirmed that he was returning as Havok.[88] In January 2014, Evan Jonigkeit had been cast as the younger version of Toad.[89]

text: Filming[edit]

text: X-Men: Days of Future Past had a production budget of $200 million.[3] Principal photography began on April 15, 2013, at Mel's Cité du Cinema in Montreal, Canada, and ended on August 17, 2013.[90][91][92] Filming had to begin in April 2013 to accommodate the cast's individual schedules.[19] Olympic Stadium, Montreal City Hall, and McGill University were also used as filming locations.[93][94] An aerial plate unit was sent to film in Washington, D.C.[68] Additional filming took place in Montreal in November 2013 and February 2014.[95][96] According to the Calgary Herald, the film is the second most expensive produced by 20th Century Fox after Avatar (2009).[97] Comic book writer Chris Claremont said in an interview that he was consulted for the film.[98]

text: X-Men: Days of Future Past is the first X-Men film to be filmed in native 3D; it was shot using Arri Alexa-M cameras with Leica Prime lenses and Fujinon Zoom lenses, along with 3ality Technica TS-35 camera rigs and Stereo Image Processor (SIP) technology systems.[99][100] Director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel was asked about using Arri Alexa-M cameras; he said, "For Bryan and myself, the Alexa has been almost the gateway to getting the look we like in film". Sigel added that the Arri Alexa-M camera's small size was a big advantage to the film's main unit, which carried three 3D rigs. The film also used the Alexa XTs for the production's 2D work.[101]

text: Production designer John Myhre said his work load was "six months squeeze[d] down in to 3-4 months", given the sets were massive but he did not have the usual time to design and build before principal photography began. The lue underground hallways and Cerebro sets were faithful recreations of the sets seen in the first X-Men, albeit ransacked and damaged to imply the government had raided the mansion.[69] The sets had many hidden "Xs", including the staircase of the X-Mansion. Myrhe said he wanted to embrace the 1970s setting in the same way First Class embraced its 1960s setting,[19] and costume designer Louise Mingenbach also drew heavily from 1970s styles for the clothing seen in the 1973 scenes. Hoult wore corduroys, Jackman a wooden-paneled buckle and a peacock-print shirt, and McAvoy wore a brown leather jacket. Peters wore 1981-inspired clothing; this was Mingenbach's way of showing Quicksilver's irreverence for the exact time and place. In one scene, Mingenbach gave Fassbender as the younger Erik Lehnsherr a fedora as a nod to the one the character wore in the first X-Men film.[12] For the future period of the film, Mingenbach wanted a darker, slightly futuristic and tactical look for the characters. This included changing the suit Patrick Stewart had previously worn as Xavier to battle fatigues.[12]

text: The Sentinels had two separate versions, to depict how the earlier prototypes built by Trask in the 1970s evolved into the adaptable killing machines of the dystopian future.[102] Singer described the 1973 version as "a little fun and stylish but also a little retro", with a key element being that they are made of plastic to be unaffected by Magneto's powers. Myhre used styles from molded plastics from the 1970s to design Sentinels from that period,[19] and cited inspiration from both the cars of the decade and "those wonderful TV sets that were round with smoked glass panels". The overall style was bulky to fit "the traditional idea of a robot looks like",[102] and drew the most from the comics version, such as the purple color and a humanoid shape, while trying to stand out on its own with its retro design.[103] The robots' ability to fly was compared to a Harrier Jump Jet, as the Sentinels had vertical takeoff and could glide. Life-sized Sentinels were built by Legacy Effects to be featured on the set, and had articulated joints to be fully poseable. The sound effects averted metallic noises, while adding woof effects on the Sentinels' footsteps to display its weight on the ground.[102]

text: On the other hand, the future Sentinels would resemble "giant versions of Mystique" to show how their technological development was based on studying the shapeshifting mutant's DNA. Thus their design is sleek and feminine, with a body covered in mechanical scales that move during the process of adapting to a mutant's attack, while also featuring angular and dark faces to enhance the intimidation. The future robots would feature what Singer described as "biomechanical technology to transform to adapt to other mutants, to take on their physicality and some of their powers to use against mutantkind", which the director imagined to be fueled by nanotechnology and "the ability to really change things almost at a molecular level". The Sentinels' heads would also open up as an extra weapon, and for straighter combat the robots could create blades and spikes out of their limbs. The crackling sound of the robots' scales was made by rubbing riveted belts on shale rocks.[14][102]

text: For the future setting of the film, a set featuring a hillside monastery was built. Myhre was inspired by Chinese temples built on the sides of cliffs. The future set also featured a mixture of architectural styles from China, India, and Indonesia. Part of the set was a big wall, which was inspired by the Great Wall of China.[103]

text: Visual effects[edit]

text: X-Men: Days of Future Past had 1,311 visual effects shots produced by twelve studios. Richard Stammer served as the overall effects supervisor based on his work for Prometheus.[68] The leading company was Moving Picture Company, who created the future Sentinels and worked on the sequences involving the X-Jet and Cerebro's red virtual world.[68] The Sentinels' scaled bodies were created by adapting a tool originally developed to create hair and fur, which would later evolve into creating a proxy representation of each individual scale as a "follicle".[14] Another major contributor was Digital Domain, with effects from the 1973 portion that encompassed nearly a third of the work. These included the Sentinels, Mystique's transformations and eyes, and various digital environments. Digital augmentation turned a remote airstrip into a Vietnam prisoner camp and added Paris' famed mansard rooftops to the Montreal locations. The environment work based on Washington, D.C. required the team to study period references of the National Mall and White House, and photograph almost all of RFK Stadium to create a detailed digital replica.[104] Rising Sun Pictures created a sequence considered by many reviewers the centerpiece of the film's effects, where Quicksilver uses his super speed in the Pentagon kitchen. Depicting how, to a speedster, actions in real time come down to a virtual standstill, objects float around in slow motion. After doing LIDAR scan of the kitchen set, the digital recreation added many computer generated props - cooking gear, cutlery, vegetables and water released by a fire sprinkler system - rendered in near microscopic detail regarding placement and lighting, particularly because the footage had to work in 3D. To simulate Quicksilver running on the walls, Evan Peters and a stunt double were filmed in both the set being suspended by a harness and on a treadmill that stood in front of a chroma key green screen. Only Peters' legs were digitally replaced.[14][105] Despite the sequence only having 29 effects shots,[68] it required nearly seven months of work from RSP's team of 70 artists.[106]

text: Rhythm and Hues Studios worked on Beast's transformations, the creation of Xavier's plane, and speed effects for Quicksilver. They also worked with Digital Domain on the sequence featuring the inside of the 1973 Sentinel. Mokko Studio worked on Mystique's eyes and costume fixes. Cinesite worked on the future New York City in the opening prologue along with clean-ups, wire removals, and production fixes. Fuel VFX worked on holographic effects and Havok's mutant powers. Vision Globale worked on visual effects relating to a dream and flashback sequence. Hydraulx, Lola and Method Studios handled a number of compositions and production fixes. The Third Floor worked on extensive story-boarding and visualisation.[68]

text: Music[edit]

text: Director Bryan Singer’s regular collaborator John Ottman worked on the score of the film, in addition to being its editor.[107] Ottman is the first composer to score more than one film in the X-Men film series, having previously scored X2 (2003). This also marked the first time a theme from a previous X-Men film has been retained; Ottman re-used some of his themes from X2, most notably the main title theme. While Ottman retained the same style of "lyrical and build upon character themes that would weave in and out of the film and done in a straight orchestral sense" that he had used in X2, following Singer's request he tried to compose "something more 'modern'" that could be compared to other contemporary superhero scores, and not follow Henry Jackman' score for First Class. The 1970s setting inspired the inclusion of "synthesized elements with some analog synths and electric piano and bass and some guitar".[108] The film score was released on digital download on May 16, 2014, on CD on May 26, 2014, and on vinyl on August 4, 2014.[109][110][111] The Rogue Cut also got a soundtrack album, released on July 10, 2015, by Sony Classical Records.[112]

text:
X-Men: Days of Future Past (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Film score by John Ottman

Released
May 26, 2014 (2014-05-26)

Genre
Film score

Length
76:28

Label
Sony Classical

John Ottman chronology

Non-Stop
(2014)Non-Stop2014
X-Men: Days of Future Past
(2014)
Krampus
(2015)Krampus2015

X-Men soundtrack chronology

The Wolverine
(2013) The Wolverine2013
X-Men: Days of Future Past
(2014) X-Men: Days of Future Past2014
Deadpool
(2016) Deadpool2016

text: Track listing[edit]

text:
No.
Title
Length

1.
"The Future – Main Titles"
2:44

2.
"Time's Up"
4:18

3.
"Hope (Xavier's Theme)"
4:48

4.
"I Found Them"
2:52

5.
"Saigon/Logan Arrives"
4:36

6.
"Pentagon Plan/Sneaky Mystique"
3:25

7.
"He Lost Everything"
1:51

8.
"Springing Erik"
3:33

9.
"How Was She"
1:47

10.
"All Those Voices"
3:19

11.
"Paris Pandemonium"
7:45

12.
"Contacting Raven"
1:48

13.
"Rules of Time"
3:07

14.
"Hat Rescue"
1:30

15.
"Time's Up" (Film Version)
3:34

16.
"The Attack Begins"
5:04

17.
"Join Me"
3:20

18.
"Do What You Were Made For"
2:56

19.
"I Have Faith in You/Goodbyes"
2:27

20.
"Welcome Back/End Titles"
3:58

21.
"Time in a Bottle" (Performed by Jim Croce)
2:27

22.
"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (Performed by Roberta Flack)
5:20

Total length:
76:28

text: Release[edit]

text: The world premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past occurred at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City on May 10, 2014.[113][114] It was released in international markets in 2D and 3D theaters on May 21, 2014, and in the United States on May 23, 2014.[3] Premiere events were also held in London, Beijing, Moscow, Singapore, São Paulo, Melbourne, and Tokyo.[115]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: In June 2013, 20th Century Fox presented a set tour video of X-Men: Days of Future Past at the CineEurope conference in Barcelona; director Bryan Singer acted as the tour guide.[116] The set tour video was included with the home video release of the 2013 film The Wolverine.[117] In July 2013, Singer, writer Simon Kinberg, producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Hutch Parker, together with cast members Evan Peters, Omar Sy, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Anna Paquin, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Peter Dinklage presented at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International. Footage from the film was screened.[118] In August 2013, Singer presented footage from the film at the Fantasia International Film Festival.[119] In March 2014, 20th Century Fox presented footage from the film at CinemaCon.[120] In April 2014, Page presented footage from the film at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards. Kinberg and Dinklage attended WonderCon to discuss the film.[121][122] Singer withdrew from the publicity rounds for the film because of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse filed against him.[123] In July 2014, 20th Century Fox and Oculus Rift presented a "virtual reality experience" in 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International. Attendees were given a chance to sit in a replica of Professor X's wheelchair and virtually hunt Mystique in the San Diego Convention Center.[124]

text: In July 2013, a mid-credits scene teasing X-Men: Days of Future Past was attached to the theatrical release of The Wolverine.[125] The scene, set two years after the events of The Wolverine, depicts Wolverine going through an airport security checkpoint while a commercial for Trask Industries plays in the background. Suddenly, Wolverine notices that all the metal objects around him start to shake and levitate. He turns around to see Magneto, who says he needs Wolverine's help to combat a threat to all mutants. When Wolverine asks Magneto why he should trust him, the people around them freeze as Xavier approaches Wolverine and assures him that Magneto is telling the truth. Adam Pockross of Yahoo! Movies described the mid-credits scene as the coolest part of The Wolverine and wrote, "Boom! And that's how you tease the next film: by giving us so much to chew on, yet so few answers".[126]

text: The first official trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past was released in October 2013.[127] Jason Callina of Herald News gave the trailer a positive response, saying, "it is fantastic to see characters that I grew up with in the flesh ... we still have to wait till the end of May to see if Fox succeeded, but for now they have my interest".[128] Ben Child of The Guardian criticized the trailer for the amount of characters that will appear in the film. Child wrote, "overloading the movie with superheroes might please fans of the comic books, but the rest of us will be chewing on our own spleens when the umpteenth brightly coloured dude turns up to spout one line of dialogue, then drop off the map".[129]

text: A mid-credits scene teasing X-Men: Days of Future Past was attached to the theatrical release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in April 2014. In the scene, which is set during the Vietnam War, Mystique tries to infiltrate a military camp led by William Stryker to recruit fellow mutants Havok, Ink, and Toad. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb had an existing contract with Fox Searchlight Pictures to direct another film following 500 Days of Summer (2009). After The Amazing Spider-Man, Webb's negotiations with Sony Pictures Entertainment stalled because of his commitment to Fox. Fox eventually agreed to allow Webb to direct the sequel of The Amazing Spider-Man, and in exchange, Sony promoted the X-Men film without charge.[130] In addition, three viral websites were launched before the release of the film—Trask-Industries.com in July 2013, TheBentBullet.com in November 2013 and 25Moments.com in April 2014.[131][132][133] To further promote the film, Jackman made a guest appearance on the April 28, 2014, episode of WWE Raw.[134][135][136] The segment received mixed reactions.[137]

text: Promotional partners[edit]

text: In July 2013, CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc. and 20th Century Fox announced a promotional partnership for the theatrical release of X-Men: Days of Future Past. The promotion included advertising, in-restaurant merchandising, collectors' cups, and a film-themed burger—The Western "X-Tra" Bacon Thickburger[138] sold it CKE Restaurants outlets Hardee's and Carl's Jr.. Zachary Eller, senior vice president of marketing partnerships & promotions at 20th Century Fox, said, "their fun and irreverent advertising campaigns are a great fit with our film and we couldn't be more thrilled to join together to feed mutants everywhere!".[139]

text: Mountain Dew partnered with the film to promote it globally; the promotion included prizes, a television commercial, online exclusives, in-store and in-theater advertisements, and commemorative packaging featuring X-Men characters from future and past. Anna Roca, senior vice president of international promotions at 20th Century Fox, stated, "The adventurous, energetic attitude of [Mountain Dew's] fan base mirrors the franchise's own—and their international reach helps bring our beloved mutants to more corners of the world than ever before".[140]

text: In March 2014, Virgin Trains launched an 11-car Pendolino train, which featured the film characters on the carriages, at London's Euston station to promote the film. Hugh Jackman and James McAvoy attended the launch.[141]

text: Kia Motors collaborated with 20th Century Fox to promote the home media release of the film with a Wolverine-themed Sorento. The SUV made its debut at the 2015 Australian Open, with a series of videos featuring Rafael Nadal teaming up with the X-Men to save the tennis event from the Sentinels.[142]

text: Home media[edit]

text: In June 2014, cable network FX acquired the television rights to X-Men: Days of Future Past.[143] The film was released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on digital download on September 23, 2014, and on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on October 14, 2014.[144] In the United Kingdom, it was released on November 10, 2014.[145] Three versions were released; a Deluxe Edition containing the Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and digital download; a Blu-ray and digital download combo pack; and a single-disc DVD.[144]

text: The Rogue Cut[edit]

text: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released an alternate version of the film, titled The Rogue Cut, on July 14, 2015. It added 17 minutes of previously unused footage, including a subplot involving Anna Paquin's character Rogue, whose role was reduced to a brief cameo in the theatrical release.[146] The Rogue Cut was also screened at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International.[147]

text: In the Rogue Cut version, Rogue's role is more consequential, and the narrative is more complex: When seeing Stryker causes Wolverine's consciousness to phase between past and future—resulting in his claws being extended, injuring Kitty Pryde—the Professor talks about the need for Wolverine to have more time back in 1973. Bobby Drake (Iceman) proposes breaking into the heavily guarded remains of Cerebro at the Professor's school, the one place where the Professor's mind can't reach others from the outside, in order to rescue Rogue, who is being held captive there. With the Professor and Magneto, he does so—at the cost of his own life—and Rogue is taken to where the mutants are making their last stand, where she takes over for Kitty in regards to keeping Wolverine's mind in 1973, for the remaining time until the moment history is changed, with a suggestion that Wolverine is aware of the switch as he appears to feel Rogue's presence. The Sentinels were able to find the X-Men through a tracking device inside a Sentinel's hand, which got stuck in the X-Jet after the Sentinel tried to prevent the Professor, Magneto and Rogue from escaping the incinerated remains of the X-Mansion. It also includes a scene where Mystique visits the X-Mansion at night while Charles and Logan are sleeping. She revisits her previous romance with Beast but leaves very early the next morning and breaks Cerebro in order to prevent Charles from finding her.

text: The Rogue Cut also includes a mid-credits scene, where the Pentagon prison is shown to be repaired with a new inmate Bolivar Trask, who was arrested for selling military secrets to foreign countries.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Worldwide, X-Men: Days of Future Past earned $262.8 million during its opening weekend, the highest worldwide opening weekend for an X-Men film.[148] The film grossed $233.9 million in the USA & Canada and $513.9 million in other markets for a worldwide gross of $747.9 million, making it the highest-grossing entry in the X-Men film series before being surpassed by Deadpool two years later.[3]

text: In the United States and Canada, the film earned $8.1 million from Thursday night showings, which is the highest late night opening for an X-Men film.[149] It was also the highest-grossing film during its opening weekend, earning $90.8 million, which made it the second-highest opening weekend of the series, at the time, behind X-Men: The Last Stand ($102.8 million).[150] During the four-day Memorial Day weekend, it earned $110.6 million.[150] The audience was 56% male and 59% were older than 25.[150]

text: Elsewhere, the film was the highest-grossing film during its opening weekend, taking $172 million, making it Fox International's highest opening weekend.[151] The film's highest-grossing debuts were in China, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Malta.[152] It was also the highest-grossing debut for a 20th Century Fox film in 11 markets, including South Korea, Brazil, the Philippines, and India.[150] It became the highest-grossing X-Men film in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom & Ireland, and Venezuela.[152] [153][154][155][156][157][158]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes X-Men: Days of Future Past has an approval rating of 91% based on 284 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "X-Men: Days of Future Past combines the best elements of the series to produce a satisfyingly fast-paced outing that ranks among the franchise's finest installments".[159] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[160] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[150] t

text: Sean O'Connell of Cinema Blend gave the film four and a half stars out of five, and said it was "the greatest, most complete and staggeringly entertaining [X-Men film] to date".[161] Empire gave it four out of five stars and called it, "The best X-Men film since the second one".[162] Steve Rose of The Guardian rated the film three stars out of five; he said, "Non-devotees might struggle, but director Bryan Singer whips up the action towards a symphonic climax".[163] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said, "While it's more dramatically diffuse than the reboot and lacks a definitive villain, the new film is shot through with a stirring reverence for the Marvel Comics characters and their universe".[164] Justin Chang of Variety said, "If the characters' quandaries at times feel overly circumscribed, they're also advanced with a bracing emotional directness, devoid of either cynicism or sentimentalism, that touches genuine chords of feeling over the course of the film’s fleet 130-minute [sic] running time".[165] In 2016, James Charisma of Playboy ranked the film #8 on a list of 15 Sequels That Are Way Better Than The Originals.[166]

text: In contrast, Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph rated the film two stars out of five and called the plot "a curate's egg, thoroughly scrambled". He concluded, "The film squanders both of its casts, reeling from one fumbled set-piece to the next. It seems to have been constructed in a stupor, and you watch in a daze of future past".[167] Simon Abrams, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it a "visually driven and paint-by-numbers-plot". Abrams was critical of the undeveloped subplots that built up because the film's pacing left little time to develop each element of the story set in the 1970s.[168]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Year
Award
Category
Recipient
Result
Ref.

2014
Golden Trailer Awards
Best Summer 2014 Blockbuster Trailer
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Nominated
[169]

Teen Choice Awards
Choice Movie: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Nominated
[170][171]

Choice Movie Actress: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Halle Berry
Nominated

Choice Movie: Villain
Michael Fassbender
Nominated

Choice Movie: Scene Stealer
Nicholas Hoult
Nominated

Ellen Page
Nominated

Young Hollywood Awards
Best Cast Chemistry – Film
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Nominated
[173]

Favorite Flick
Nominated

Fan Favorite Actor – Female
Jennifer Lawrence
Nominated

Super Superhero
Nicholas Hoult
Nominated

2015
People's Choice Awards
Favorite Movie
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Nominated
[174]

Favorite Action Movie
Nominated

Screen Actors Guild Awards
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
Nominated
[175]

AACTA Awards
Best Visual Effects
Nominated
[176]

Visual Effects Society Awards
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Nominated
[177]

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Won

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Won

British Academy Film Awards
Best Special Visual Effects
Nominated
[178]

Academy Awards
Best Visual Effects
Nominated
[179]

Saturn Awards
Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture
Nominated
[180]

Best Director
Bryan Singer
Nominated

Best Editing
John Ottman
Nominated

Best Costume
Louise Mingenbach
Nominated

Best Make-up
Adrien Morot, Norma Hill-Patton
Nominated

Kids' Choice Awards
Favorite Female Action Star
Halle Berry
Nominated
[181]

Ellen Page
Nominated

Favorite Male Action Star
Hugh Jackman
Nominated

Favorite Movie Actor
Nominated

MTV Movie Awards
Best Villain
Peter Dinklage
Nominated
[182]

Empire Awards
Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Won
[183]

2016
Saturn Awards
Best DVD/BD Special Edition
X-Men: Days of Future Past (The Rogue Cut)
Won
[184]

text: Sequel[edit]

text: In December 2013, Singer announced X-Men: Apocalypse, an X-Men film acting as a sequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past.[185] Singer directed from a script by Simon Kinberg, Dan Harris, and Michael Dougherty.[186] Kinberg said it would take place in 1983 and would also complete a trilogy that began with X-Men: First Class. Released in 2016, Apocalypse features the ancient mutant En Sabah Nur, who was introduced in the Days of Future Past post-credits scene,[5] awakening in the 1980s and deciding to destroy modern civilization and take over the world.[59][187] Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Rose Byrne, Lucas Till and Hugh Jackman reprise their roles.[188] Filming began in April 2015 in Montreal, Quebec for a May 27, 2016, release.[185][189]


document_title: Ryan Michelle Bathe

question_text: who does ryan michelle bathe play on this is us

root

text: Ryan Michelle Bathe

text: Personal life[edit]

text: Bathe grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. She graduated from Stanford University, where she pledged Omicron Chi chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and received a Master of Fine Arts from New York University.[1] In June 2007, Ryan Michelle Bathe married fellow actor (and Stanford alum) Sterling K. Brown, her college sweetheart. They have two sons.[2][3]

tag: p

text: Career[edit]

text: Bathe has had guest starring roles in a number of television shows, include ER, Half & Half, Girlfriends, Brothers & Sisters, and How I Met Your Mother. She was regular cast member during the second season of the ABC legal drama series Boston Legal playing attorney Sara Holt.[4] From 2009 to 2010, she had a recurring role on the short-lived NBC medical drama Trauma, and in 2011 had starring role in the TV Land sitcom Retired at 35.[5] She had main roles in the independent films All About Us and April Moon.

text: In 2012, Bathe co-starred opposite Katherine Heigl in the crime comedy film One for the Money. Later that year, she had a recurring role opposite her real life husband Sterling K. Brown in the Lifetime drama series Army Wives.[6] In 2014, she was a female lead opposite Kevin Hart in the ABC comedy pilot Keep It Together.[7] In 2016, Bathe was cast in a recurring role in the NBC drama series, This Is Us, also starring Brown.[8]

text: Selected filmography[edit]

text:
This Is Us as Yvette (Season 1) (2016)
Army Wives as Charlie (Season 6 recurring character) (2012)
One for the Money as Jackie (hooker) (2011)
Retired at 35 as Jessica (Season 1 main cast member) (2011)
Private Practice (2010)
Trauma (2009)
Leaving Barstow (2008)
How I Met Your Mother (April 2008) as Lily's friend Michelle
Boston Legal as Sara Holt (2005–2006)
Good Fences (2003)
Bones (2009)

tag: ul


document_title: The Odd Couple (play)

question_text: who played in the odd couple on broadway

text: The Odd Couple (play)

text: History[edit]

text: Sources vary as to the origins of the play. In The Washington Post's obituary of Simon's brother Danny, a television writer, Adam Bernstein wrote that the idea for the play came from his divorce. "Mr. Simon had moved in with a newly single theatrical agent named Roy Gerber in Hollywood, and they invited friends over one night. Mr. Simon botched the pot roast. The next day, Gerber told him: "Sweetheart, that was a lovely dinner last night. What are we going to have tonight?" Mr. Simon replied: "What do you mean, cook you dinner? You never take me out to dinner. You never bring me flowers."[1] Danny Simon wrote a partial first draft of the play, but then handed over the idea to Neil.[1]

text: However, in the Mel Brooks biography It's Good to Be the King, author James Robert Parish claims that the play came about after Simon observed Brooks, in a separation from his first wife, living with writer Speed Vogel for three months. Vogel later wrote that Brooks had insomnia, "a brushstroke of paranoia," and "a blood-sugar problem that kept us a scintilla away from insanity."

text: Boston tryout[edit]

text: Simon credited Boston critic Elliot Norton with helping him develop the final act of the play.[2] Norton practiced drama criticism when the relationship between the regional critic and playwrights whose shows were undergoing tryouts in their towns were not as adversarial as they were to become.

text: Appearing on the public television show Eliott Norton Reviews, during Simon's conversation with the critic, Norton said that the play went "flat" in its final act.[3] As it appeared originally in Boston, the characters the Pigeon Sisters did not appear in the final act.[4]

text: Simon told The Boston Globe:

text: He invited one of the stars and the writer. He loved the play and gave it a wonderful review but he said the third act was lacking something. On the show he said, 'You know who I missed in the third act was the Pigeon Sisters,' and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. It made an enormous difference in the play. I rewrote it and it worked very well. I was so grateful to Elliot ... Elliot had such a keen eye. I don't know if he saved the play or not, but he made it a bigger success.[5]

text: Plot overview[edit]

text: Felix Ungar, a neurotic, neat freak newswriter (a photographer in the television series), is thrown out by his wife, and moves in with his friend Oscar Madison, a slovenly sportswriter. Despite Oscar's problems – careless spending, excessive gambling, a poorly kept house filled with spoiled food – he seems to enjoy life. Felix, however, seems utterly incapable of enjoying anything and only finds purpose in pointing out his own and other people's mistakes and foibles. Even when he tries to do so in a gentle and constructive way, his corrections and suggestions prove extremely annoying to those around him. Oscar, his closest friend, feels compelled to throw him out after only a brief time together, though he quickly realizes that Felix has had a positive effect on him.

text: The play and the film both spell Felix's name Ungar, while the television series spells it Unger.

text: Characters[edit]

text:
Oscar Madison: A slovenly, recently divorced sportswriter.
Felix Ungar: A fastidious, hypochondriac news-writer whose marriage is ending.
Murray: A NYPD policeman, one of Oscar and Felix's poker buddies.
Speed: One of the poker buddies. Gruff and sarcastic, often picking on Vinnie and Murray.
Vinnie: One of the poker buddies. Vinnie is mild-mannered and henpecked, making him an easy target for Speed's verbal barbs.
Roy: One of the poker buddies. Oscar's accountant. Roy has a dry wit but is less acerbic than Speed.
Cecily and Gwendolyn Pigeon: Oscar and Felix's giggly upstairs neighbors, a pair of English sisters. The former is a divorcée, the latter a widow.

text: Productions[edit]

text: The Odd Couple premiered on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on March 10, 1965 and transferred to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre where it closed on July 2, 1967 after 964 performances and two previews. Directed by Mike Nichols, the cast starred Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison and Art Carney as Felix Ungar.[6] The production gained Tony Awards for Walter Matthau, Best Actor (Play), Best Author (Play), Best Direction of a Play, and Best Scenic Design (Oliver Smith), and was nominated for Best Play.[6]

text: Matthau was replaced with Jack Klugman, starting in November 1965 and later Pat Hingle, starting in February 1966.[6] Carney was replaced with Eddie Bracken starting in October 1965[6] and later Paul Dooley.[7]

text: Stage revivals[edit]

text: In 1968, James Wheaton directed an all black version of the show at the Ebony Showcase Theatre in Los Angeles. The production starred Nick Stewart and Morris Erby. The cast also included Larry McCormick in his acting debut.[8]

text: In 1970, the McMaster Shakespearean Players performed The Odd Couple with Martin Short as Felix, Eugene Levy as Oscar, and Dave Thomas as Murray – before any of these performers were famous.

text: In 1989, Ronald Harwood directed a production at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Derek Griffiths as Oscar and Sam Kelly as Felix.

text: In 1994, a version of the play moved to Glasgow and toured Scotland, starring Gerard Kelly as Felix, Craig Ferguson as Oscar and Kate Anthony as Gwendolyn Pigeon. Kelly reprised the role of Felix at the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe, opposite Andy Gray.

text: In 1996, Klugman and Tony Randall reprised their roles from the TV series for a three-month run at the Theatre Royal in Haymarket, London.[9] The production was an effort to raise money to support Randall's National Actors Theatre. (Klugman had previously played Oscar in London opposite Victor Spinetti as Felix.)

text: In a 1997 issue of Premiere magazine, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams announced a possible stage revival, in anticipation of success of their film Fathers' Day (1997). When that film failed at the box office, the Crystal-Williams revival was quickly forgotten.

text: Also in 1997, a tour of the US and Canada was mounted by Troupe America and Lake Pepin Players starring Jamie Farr as Oscar, William Christopher as Felix, and William Richard Rogers as Murray. The production was directed by Curt Wollan.

text: In 2001, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak and Hawaii TV news anchor Joe Moore (Sajak's Vietnam roommate and close friend) played Felix and Oscar at the Hawaii Theatre Center as a benefit for Hawaii's Manoa Valley Theater.

text: In 2002, Simon wrote an updated version of The Odd Couple, titled Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple. This version incorporated updated references and elements into the original storyline. This production ran at the Geffen Playhouse (Los Angeles) from June 2002 to July 21, 2002 with a cast that starred Gregory Jbara (Vinnie), John Larroquette (Oscar), Joe Regalbuto (Felix) and María Conchita Alonso (Ynes) and was directed by Peter Bonerz.[10] A revival of the original version opened on Broadway at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre on October 27, 2005, and closed on June 4, 2006 after 249 performances. Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane played Felix and Oscar, respectively.[11][12] Lane was replaced for three performances in January 2006 due to illness by Brad Garrett who had previously played Murray.[13]

text: In August 2005, British comedians Bill Bailey and Alan Davies played Oscar and Felix at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival directed by Guy Masterson which was the hit of the festival.[14]

text: A reading featuring Ethan Hawke and Billy Crudup was staged at the Cherry Lane Theatre on January 9, 2011.[15]

text: A Venezuelan production appeared at the Trasnocho Cultural Theater in 2009. It was Directed by Armando Alvarez and featured Armando Cabrera (Oscar), Luigi Sciamanna (Felix), Juan Carlos Ogando (Richard), Alezander Slorzano (Murray), Alexandra Malave (Clementina), and Stephanie Cardone (Cecilia).

text: The all-female Takarazuka Revue Company performed the show under the title Okashi-na Futari (おかしな二人) in September 2011 in Takarazuka, Japan. It starred Yu Todoroki as Oscar and Misa Noeru as Felix.[16]

text: In 2011, Cezary Żak and Artur Barciś (popular actors from the Polish hit TV series Ranczo) performed as Oscar and Felix in Dziwna Para, a Polish rendition of The Odd Couple. The play was performed in the U.S and in Toronto, Canada and received good reviews.

text: In 2016, Australian comedians Shaun Micallef and Francis Greenslade starred as Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison in a version of the play directed by Peter Houghton. The play was performed at Southbank Theatre, Melbourne from November 5 to December 22, 2016, and received positive reviews.

text: Female version[edit]

text: In 1985, Neil Simon revised The Odd Couple for a female cast. The Female Odd Couple was based on the same story line and same lead characters, now called Florence Ungar and Olive Madison. The poker game became Trivial Pursuit with their friends becoming the girlfriends: Mickey, Sylvie, Vera, and Renee. The Pigeon sisters became the Costazuela brothers, Manolo and Jesus.

text: The Female Odd Couple opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on June 11, 1985, and closed on February 23, 1986, after 295 performances and nine previews. Directed by Gene Saks, responsible for the 1968 film version, the leads were Sally Struthers and Rita Moreno as Florence (Felix) and Olive (Oscar), respectively, with Lewis J. Stadlen and Tony Shalhoub (in his Broadway debut) as the Costazuela brothers.[17][18]

text: A London production of this version ran at the Apollo Theatre in 2001 and starred Paula Wilcox (Florence) and Jenny Seagrove (Olive).[19][20][21]

text: Translated into Spanish as La extraña pareja the female version opened in Madrid in 2017. Directed by Andrés Rus, the leads were Susana Hernáiz (Olga/Olive) and Elda García (Flora/Florence) in the main roles.[22]

text: Film and TV adaptations[edit]

text: Neil Simon sold film and TV rights to Paramount Pictures in 1967. Paramount produced two theatrical films, three live-action TV series and an animated series based upon the play.

text: 1968 film[edit]

text: In 1968, The Odd Couple was made into a highly successful film starring Jack Lemmon as Felix and Walter Matthau (once more) as Oscar. Most of the script from the play is the same, although the setting is expanded: instead of taking place entirely in Oscar's apartment, some scenes take place at various outside locations. The film was also written by Simon (who was nominated for an Academy Award) and was directed by Gene Saks.

text: In 1998, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau reprised their roles for the film The Odd Couple II, produced by Neil Simon.

text: 1970–1975 ABC sitcom[edit]

text: The success of the film was the basis for the 1970–75 ABC television sitcom, starring Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar. Klugman was familiar with the role as he had replaced Walter Matthau in the original Broadway run. Neil Simon originally disapproved of this adaptation, but by the series' final season, he reassessed the show positively to the point of appearing in a cameo role.

text: Randall and Klugman also reunited in 1993 for a made-for-TV reunion film based upon the series. The movie was initially broadcast on CBS on September 24, 1993. Robert Klane was the writer and director, with a cast that included Barbara Barrie as Felix's wife, Penny Marshall as Myrna and Dick Van Patten. Jack Klugman's real-life throat-cancer surgery was written into the script, when Felix (Tony Randall) stays with Oscar and helps with his rehabilitation.[23]

text: 1975 ABC cartoon[edit]

text: In the fall of 1975, ABC aired a cartoon version of the play entitled The Oddball Couple, produced by Paramount and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. The roles were played by a neat cat named Spiffy and a sloppy dog named Fleabag.

text: 1982–1983 ABC sitcom[edit]

text: In 1982, ABC aired a new version of the series, entitled The New Odd Couple. Produced by Garry Marshall, the premise of the new version has two black actors, Ron Glass as Felix and Demond Wilson as Oscar. The New York Times reviewer noted: "What may be surprising is how little the spine of the show has changed. The dialogue has been updated a little, but the plots are essentially the same. The New Odd Couple bounces along nicely. It adds nothing new to the craft of situation comedy, but it does provide employment and a good showcase for talented black actors, who generally don't have an easy time of it on television these days".[24] This new version was not successful and was canceled after just 13 episodes.

text: 2015 CBS sitcom[edit]

text: Another adaptation, again called The Odd Couple, was a multi-camera comedy that ran for three seasons on CBS from 2015 to 2017. The series starred Matthew Perry as Oscar and Thomas Lennon as Felix; it was a pet project for Perry, who also served as the show's co-developer, co-executive producer and co-writer.[25] The show also featured Wendell Pierce as Teddy, Oscar's agent, Yvette Nicole Brown as Dani, Oscar's assistant, Dave Foley as Roy (a holdover from the original play), and Leslie Bibb and Lindsay Sloane as Casey and Emily (taking over for the Pigeon sisters).[26][27][28][29][30]


document_title: Lord Voldemort

question_text: who plays lord voldemort in chamber of secrets

text: Lord Voldemort

text: Character development

text: In a 2001 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter (the protagonist of the novels), and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."[4]

text: In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does."[5] In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering".[6] In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person.[7] In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."[8]

text: Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word.[9] Some literary analysts have considered possible meanings in the name: Philip Nel believes that Voldemort is derived from the French for "flight of death",[10] and in a 2002 paper, Nilsen and Nilsen suggest that readers get a "creepy feeling" from the name Voldemort, because of the French word "mort" ("death") within it and that word's association with cognate English words derived from the Latin mors.[11]

text: Appearances

text: Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survives when Voldemort tries to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort is disembodied, and Harry carries a mysterious scar on his forehead as a result. In the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of Quirrell's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.

text: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

text: In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write "I am Lord Voldemort", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of Riddle from the diary and the basilisk.[12] In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

text: Voldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master...[13] Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the 12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.

text: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

text: In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort appears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried.[14] Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power.[15] For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils".[14] Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness".[14] It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry.[16] After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed.[16] Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.[17]

text: Voldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having again plotted against Harry.[18] In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there’s a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down."[19] In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned.[17] Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he detests as weakness: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge in the next book.

text: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

text: Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.

text: Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope died, just hours after giving birth.[20] After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore, who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts.[21] Riddle was outwardly a model student, but was in reality a psychopath who takes sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him.[22] The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of "Muggles", his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality.[23] Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the prejudicial circumstances under which he was brought into the world.[24]

text: In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to attack Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school.[25] The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not force himself to do so.[25]

text: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

text: In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse.[26] Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards.[26] After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem),[27] he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker.[28] His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.

text: Later, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup.[29] After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem.[30] Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore.[31] He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry.[32] When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand.[32] However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry’s body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.[33]

text: Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he cannot become a ghost.[34]

text: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

text: In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is revealed that Bellatrix gave birth to Voldemort's daughter Delphi in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-two years later, Delphi poses as Cedric's cousin and manipulates Harry and Ginny's second son Albus Severus Potter, his friend, Draco and Astoria Greengrass's son Scorpius Malfoy into stealing a prototype Time Turner with which she hopes to resurrect her father. Using the Time Turner, Scorpius accidentally creates an alternative timeline where Voldemort killed Harry at the battle and now rules the wizarding world. In an attempt to achieve this future, Delphi travels to Godric's Hollow on the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, hoping to avert the prophecy that led to her father's downfall. After receiving a message from his son, Harry, together with Ron, Hermione and Draco (who by now has become friends with Harry after they join forces to save their respective sons) transfigures himself into Voldemort so that he can distract Delphi, allowing them to overpower her. The real Voldemort kills Harry's parents as prophesied, and Delphi is sent to Azkaban.

text: Portrayals within films

text: Voldemort appears in seven Harry Potter films, namely Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Several actors have portrayed him in his varying incarnations and ages.

text: In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's manifestation is as a face on the back of Quirrell's head, an effect achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film, provided the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen drinking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer,[35] though his face is never seen. His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the 16-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson).

text: In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. As in the book, Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and emaciated, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not cat-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear (his eyes do briefly take on a snake-like appearance when he opens them after turning human, but quickly turn normal). As in the book, the film version of Voldemort has snake-like slit nostrils with the flesh of his nose significantly pressed back. Ralph Fiennes' nose was not covered in makeup on the set, but was digitally removed in post-production. In this first appearance, Voldemort also has a forked tongue, but this element was removed for the subsequent films.

text: Fiennes stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climactic showdown scene where he is gloating over a terrified Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: "I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before." In preparation, he read the novel Goblet of Fire, but jokingly conceded: "I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research."[36] Fiennes reprised his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[37] and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.

text: Fiennes's nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, portrayed Tom Riddle as a child in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time filming arrived Christian Coulson was 29, and not considered suitable to return as the adolescent Riddle. Thomas James Longley was originally scheduled to take over the role, but last minute renegotiations saw Frank Dillane cast instead.[38][39]

text: Characterisation

text: Outward appearance

text: After he regains his body in the fourth book, Rowling describes Voldemort as having pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers.[14] As mentioned in the first chapter of the seventh book, he also has no hair or lips. Earlier in life, as seen through flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was handsome[21] and tall with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. He could charm many people with his looks. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes and becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul.[23] In the films, Voldemort's eyes are blue with round pupils.

text: Personality

text: Rowling described Voldemort as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years".[4] She elaborated that he is a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a sadist who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—just for pleasure. He has no conscience, feels no remorse, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.[40] He feels no need for human companionship or friendship, and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third-person as "Lord Voldemort". Rowling also stated that Voldemort is "incredibly power hungry. Racist, really",[41] and that if Voldemort were to look into the Mirror of Erised, he would see "Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants."[42]

text: Rowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a love potion administered by his mother, a witch named Merope Gaunt, to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is "a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union".[24]

text: Like most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. However, while he had many traits of a megalomaniac, he did not have all, as one common trait associated with megalomania and narcissists was shifting blame. Voldemort admitted he paid an expensive price in attacking the parents of Harry Potter, and carefully studied what went wrong when reorganizing his Death Eaters, ultimately placing the blame upon himself. According to Rowling, his Boggart would be his own corpse.[43] Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is in the end stronger than his nemesis.[24]

text: Magical abilities and skills

text: Throughout the series, Rowling establishes Voldemort as an extremely powerful, intelligent, and ruthless Dark Wizard. He is known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens; he can read minds and shield his own from penetration. Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently.[citation needed] Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.

text: In the final book, Voldemort flies unsupported, something that amazes those who see it.[27] Voldemort, like his ancestral family, the Gaunts, is a Parselmouth, meaning he can converse with serpents. This skill was inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The Gaunt family speak Parseltongue among themselves. This highly unusual trait may be preserved through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family to maintain their blood's purity. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry his ability to speak Parseltongue is passed to Harry through the small bit of the former's soul. After that bit of soul is destroyed, Harry loses this ability.[44] In a flashback in the sixth novel, Voldemort boasts to Dumbledore during a job interview that he has "pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever before".[45] Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive[46] and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would likely be insufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. Dumbledore also said that Voldemort was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen.[12] Although Voldemort remains highly accomplished and prodigious in skill, he is enormously lacking and highly inept in the most powerful magic, love. This inability to love and trust others proves to be Voldemort's greatest weakness in the series. Voldemort initially voices scepticism that his own magic might not be the most powerful,[45] but upon returning to power, he admits to his Death Eaters that he had overlooked the ancient and powerful magic which Lily Potter invoked and that would protect Harry from harm.[47]

text: On her website, Rowling wrote that Voldemort's wand is made of yew, whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. It forms a deliberate contrast to Harry's wand, which is made of holly, which she chose because holly is alleged to repel evil.[48]

text: Rowling establishes in the books that Voldemort is magically connected to Harry via Harry's forehead scar. He disembodies himself when his Killing Curse targeting Harry rebounds on him, leaving the scar on Harry's forehead. In the books, and to a lesser extent in the films, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or when Voldemort is feeling murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby Voldemort gave him "tools [that] no other wizard possessed—the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind".[49]

text: Pronunciation

text: According to Rowling, the 't' in "Voldemort" is silent,[1] as it is in the French word for death, "mort".[2] Jim Dale pronounced it so in the US audiobooks that came before the release of the film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, where the characters pronounced the "t". After this, Dale changed his audiobook pronunciation accordingly.[50] For all the UK audiobooks Stephen Fry pronounced the name including the "t".[51][52]

text: Family

text: Family tree

text: Note: The names 'Thomas' and 'Mary' Riddle are taken from the films, and Delphini appears only in the Cursed Child play. The Potter Family is not shown.

text:
[show]Voldemort family tree

Salazar Slytherin

The Peverell Family

Thomas Riddle

Mary Riddle

Marvolo Gaunt

Tom Riddle Sr.

Merope Gaunt

Morfin Gaunt

Tom Marvolo Riddle

Bellatrix Lestrange

Delphini

Harry Potter

Notes:

tag: table

text: Riddle family

text: The Riddle family, an old gentry family, consisted of old Thomas and Mary Riddle and their son, Tom Riddle, Esq. They owned over half of the valley that the town of Little Hangleton lay in, and Thomas was the most prominent inhabitant of that town. They lived in a large house with fine gardens, but were unpopular amongst the local residents due to their snobbish attitudes. Tom, apparently the only child of Thomas and Mary, indulged in the typical pursuits of the upper class in the first half of the twentieth century, socialising with attractive women of his class, riding horses, and enjoying his status in the town.

text: Rowling revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that young Merope Gaunt made efforts to get as close to Tom as she could, peering at him through the windows and bushes at every opportunity. Morfin noticed his sister's affection for Tom and hexed him as he rode by, covering him in hives. This breach of wizarding law, and the ensuing violent struggle with Ministry of Magic officials, led to Marvolo and Morfin being imprisoned in Azkaban. As surmised by Dumbledore, once Merope was alone and no longer dominated by her father, she could make her move for Tom. Merope offered Tom a drink laced with a love potion as he rode by one day without his attractive companion, Cecilia. He became infatuated with Merope and they eloped. Within three months of the marriage, Merope became pregnant. Merope decided to stop giving Tom the love potion, having come to the belief such enchantment of a man was tantamount to slavery. She also revealed her witch status to Tom, believing either that he had fallen in love with her on his own or he would at least stay for their unborn child. She was wrong, and Tom quickly left his pregnant wife and went home to his parents, claiming to have been "hoodwinked" and tricked into marrying Merope.[20] Tom Marvolo Riddle, their son, was born on 31 December 1926[53] and was left to grow up in an orphanage, as Merope had died soon after giving birth.

text: Readers first learn about the doom of the Riddles in the beginning of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Tom Riddle, Esq. and his parents were murdered by Tom Marvolo Riddle. The Riddles' gardener Frank Bryce was blamed for the murders in the Muggle world,[16] though he was never charged or tried, while in the wizarding world Morfin Gaunt was framed for them[22] and died in Azkaban prison.

text: In the film adaptation of The Goblet of Fire, Voldemort's grandparents were given the names Thomas and Mary Riddle.

text: Gaunt family

text: Most of the exposition of the House of Gaunt's background occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through the medium of Dumbledore's Pensieve. The Gaunts were once a powerful and influential family, and are the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, an infamous streak of instability and violence that was reinforced by cousin marriages intended to preserve the pureblood line had reduced them to poverty and squalour, as shown in the Pensieve's "memory" that Harry and Dumbledore witnessed. Like Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunts spoke Parseltongue. At the time of the story, the Gaunts owned hardly any assets save for a ramshackle shanty in Little Hangleton, which stood in a thicket in a valley opposite the Riddle House. Like the Riddles, the Gaunts were also unpopular with the local residents, but for the opposite reason; their squalour was looked down upon and the vicious behavior of the Gaunt men earned them a reputation for being vulgar and intimidating.[20]

text: Marvolo Gaunt was the last Gaunt family patriarch. He was sentenced to a short term in Azkaban for his and his son's assault upon a Ministry of Magic official; this affected his health and he died soon after returning home. His signet ring passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt, who was convicted of assaulting a Muggle, and later died in Azkaban, convicted this time as a party to the murder of Tom Riddle Sr and Riddle's parents by his nephew.[22] The real culprit was discovered much later by Dumbledore, who visited Morfin in Azkaban to gather information about Voldemort. After Dumbledore successfully extracted Morfin's memory of his encounter with his nephew, he tried to use the evidence to have Morfin released, but Morfin died before the decision could be made. Morfin being the last male Gaunt, the House of Gaunt ended with his death.

text: Merope Gaunt /mɛˈroʊpiː/ was the daughter of Marvolo, sister of Morfin. Harry's first impression of her was that she looked "like the most defeated person he had ever seen", probably because she lived in raggedness, squalour, and abuse. She married Tom Riddle Sr and became pregnant within three months of the wedding.[20] It is suggested that she tricked her husband into loving her by using a love potion, but when she became pregnant, she chose to stop administering the potion. It is implied that Merope had grown tired of living the lie and thought that her husband might have grown to love her, or that he might have stayed for the sake of their unborn child; however, he left her. Desperate, Merope wandered through the streets of London. The only thing she had left was the heavy gold locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of her family's most treasured items, which she sold for a small amount. When she was due to give birth, she stumbled into a Muggle orphanage, where she gave birth to her only son, Tom Marvolo Riddle. She died within the next hour.

text: Gormlaith Gaunt was a 17th-century descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and like Salazar, a Parselmouth. Her wand was that which once belonged to Salazar himself. Educated at Hogwarts, Gormlaith lived in Ireland in the early 1600s. In about 1608, Gormlaith killed her estranged unnamed sister, and her sister's husband, William Sayre (a descendant of the Irish witch Morrigan), and kidnapped their five-year-old daughter, Isolt Sayre, raising her in the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee, or "Hag's Glen", because she felt that her parents' association with Muggles would badly influence Islot. Fanatical and cruel, Gormlaith used Dark magic to isolate Islot from others, forbade her a wand, and did not allow her to attend Hogwarts as she herself had, disgusted that it was now filled with Muggle-borns. After twelve years with Gormlaith, Islot stole Gormlaith's wand and fled to the Colonies and settled in Massachusetts, where she founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Gormlaith learned of the school, she pursued her niece in Massachusetts, where she was killed by Isolt's friend, William the Pukwudgie, with a venom-tipped arrow.[54]

text: The Gaunts, including Voldemort, are distantly related to Harry because they are descendants of the Peverell brothers.[55]

text: Reception

text: Several people have drawn a parallel between Voldemort and some politicians. Rowling has admitted that Voldemort was "a sort of" Adolf Hitler, and that there is some parallel with Nazism in her books.[56][57] Rowling also compared Voldemort with Joseph Stalin, with whom he shares several traits, including that of renouncing his family name in favour of one which would invoke fear and strength.[58] Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban compared Voldemort with George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, as the two of them "...have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people."[59] Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the US to Voldemort's regime in Deathly Hallows and its control over the Daily Prophet and other media saying that "Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called 'Potterwatch'. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press."[60] Julia Turner from Slate Magazine also noted similarities between the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the current War on Terror. She said that Voldemort takes up terrorism by destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders.[61]

text: Voldemort has also been compared with other characters within fiction, for example Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; they are, during the time when the main plot takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered dead or at least no longer a threat, and are also so feared that they are sometimes unnamed.[62]

text: IGN listed Voldemort as their seventh favourite Harry Potter character, calling him "truly frightening".[63]

text: In 2014, Watchmojo.com ranked him #7 on their "Top 10 Harry Potter Characters" list, while they ranked him #1 on their "Top 10 Most Evil Harry Potter Villains" and "Top 10 Most Gut-Wrenching Harry Potter Deaths" lists two years later.

text: In popular culture

text: Several campaigns have used Voldemort to compare his evilness to the influence of politicians, large media and corporations. "Lord Voldemort" is a nickname sometimes used for Peter Mandelson.[64] Voldemort is also a recurring theme among wizard rock bands. Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second album from Harry and the Potters, and the character is mentioned in songs such as "The Dark Lord Lament" and "Flesh, Blood, and Bone".

text: Voldemort has been parodied in various venues. In The Simpsons 13th season's premiere, "Treehouse of Horror XII", Montgomery Burns appears as Lord Montymort.[65] A parody of Voldemort appears in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as Lord Moldybutt, an enemy of Nigel Planter (a parody of Harry).[66] Voldemort also appears in the Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes including him was the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube.[67]

text: In Time, Lon Tweeten shows with Continuing the Magic possible future book covers laced with pop culture references. One of them, the "Dark Lord of the Dance", shows Voldemort teaming up with Harry on Broadway.[68] In the MAD Magazine parodies of the films, the character is called Lord Druckermort, a backwards reference to the magazine's longtime caricaturist Mort Drucker. In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, a young Tom Marvolo Riddle (introduced as "Tom", whose middle name is a "marvel" and last name is a "conundrum") appears, and becomes the new avatar of Oliver Haddo at the story's conclusion.[69] In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort is played by actor Joe Walker.

text: Voldemort also appeared in the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London as an inflatable representation of children's literature villains, alongside The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, and Cruella de Vil.[70]

text: Outside of the Harry Potter video games, Voldemort is also playable in Lego Dimensions, with archive audio of Ralph Fiennes's portrayal in the films used for his voiceovers. Voldemort also appears in The Lego Batman Movie voiced by Eddie Izzard as one of the prisoners in the Phantom Zone that the Joker recruits to take over Gotham City.

text: A 2018 Italian fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir depicts the story of Tom Riddle's rise to power.[71][72]