‘Half-Giant Hagrid’ Feature at Warner Bros. Studio Tour!

Mar 31, 2016

Posted by: Emma Pocock

Coltrane, Events, News

This April, you’ll be able to learn more about how our beloved Hagrid was brought to life on screen at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.

From March 27th –  April 17th 2016, the feature will reveal the great efforts gone to by producers, costume designers and the special effects teams to turn Robbie Coltrane into the loveable Half-Giant magical creature (or fantastic beasts!) enthusiast.

Screen Shot 2016-03-31 at 16.27.18

The tour’s official website goes into more details about Hagrid’s costumes:

“During production two costumes were created for Hagrid, one which was worn by Coltrane and the other which was made 25 per cent larger and used by 6‘10’’ England rugby star Martin Bayfield who appeared as Hagrid in scenes where he needed to be bigger than the setting around him. As fans of the first film will remember, Hagrid wears an oversized coat made from moleskin. As the costume department wanted to stay true to the description, they cut imitation fur into mole shapes and sewed them together, each complete with tiny ears and tails.”

As you might remember, if you’ve visited the Studio Tour before, Hagrid’s head is a huge, fully operable animatronic head, moulded to match Robbie Coltrane’s features, the costume took huge amounts of work and prop-making to give the full visual impression of Hagrid’s Half-Giant size – water pipes to cool him down, small-sized props to make him look bigger, shoe inserts to give Robbie Coltrane a boost – definitely worthy of an exhibition at the Studio Tour!

The website reports on more of the small details you can discover in the Creature Effects Department:

“One of the early encounters that Harry has with Hagrid is a trip to the vaults of Gringott’s and the team will be demonstrating techniques used to create the prosthetic masks worn by Goblins at Gringott’s bank. Made from silicon, each one was given a particular personality to ensure they all looked different.”

Be sure to visit the exhibit this Easter break, find details on how to get tickets here.

Thanks to Mugglenet for the heads up! Check out their photos here.





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.