Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs has a hilarious answer to one of the franchise’s mysteries. After his plan fails, Isaacs’ character Lucius Malfoy tries to kill Harry Potter toward the end of The Chamber of Secrets movie. Lucius begins to utter the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra, before he is stopped by the courageous house-elf Dobby.

While Lucius is upset about Harry foiling his plan, the Death Eater’s attempted murder does not occur in the books. 23 years after the movie’s release, fans continue to debate the mystery of why this change was made in the film adaptation.

Per Collider, Isaacs has now answered this mystery during a panel at Fan Expo Denver, where ScreenRant was also in attendance. Isaacs explained that he improvised saying the Killing Curse because he was asked to say a spell, didn’t know any, and this was the one that was suggested to him. Check out his comments below:

There was a bit when we were standing up talking — and, you know, I’m meant to pull my wand out and someone said, “You should start a spell,” and I thought “I don’t know any spells!” And so I asked and looked around, and there was a guy doing the lights, […] and there’s caterers and one guy holding a mic, and there’s this one bloke, and he goes “Well there is one, it’s Avada Kedavra”. […] When the film comes out a year later, 100,000 people write letters to me going: “You were going to kill Harry Potter!”

It was day two on the set. I wasn’t that familiar with everything going on. I got overenthusiastic. I knocked myself out.

What This Means For Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets

This Behind-The-Scenes Story Adds New Context

Isaacs’ answer provides clarity and a new, hilarious behind-the-scenes tidbit for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Lucius attempting to kill a 12-year-old child inside their school always seemed extreme, but it makes more sense as a moment of improvisation that occurred during only his second day on set, and before he was familiar with the franchise.

What is more surprising is that the improvised moment made it into The Chamber of Secrets‘ final cut. While it is extreme and a divergence from the source material, Lucius trying to use the Killing Curse on Harry does help cement him as a villain and paves the way for him to return as a ruthless Death Eater in later installments.

Our Take On Jason Isaacs’ Comments

The Scene Was An Important Step In His Harry Potter Journey

With Isaacs going on to become a veteran of the Harry Potter cast who would appear in six of the eight movies, it is difficult to imagine a time when he was unfamiliar with the franchise. That makes this behind-the-scenes story all the more charming and relatable, with even an experienced actor like him not knowing what to say.

As for the “100,000” letters Isaacs received after the movie came out, this gave him a taste of how pᴀssionate Harry Potter fans can be and how protective they were of the тιтular character. This makes him well-suited to now be providing advice to the new Harry Potter stars cast in HBO’s upcoming television adaptation.

Keeping the attempted Killing Curse in the movie must also be rewarding for the crew member who made the offhanded suggestion to Isaacs. Working on a Harry Potter movie is its own impressive accomplishment, but this individual also has the achievement of making a suggestion that is in the final cut and continues to be discussed more than two decades later.

Source: Collider