Harry Potter is one of the biggest franchises of all time. Possessing a nostalgic feeling that is very rare, the film series managed to become a huge part of the childhood of many, providing a lot of positive memories for them. Many who kept up with the franchise when it was initially coming out, got to experience the feeling of growing up with the cast, with a majority of actors in the franchise having started extremely young, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint.

Daniel Radcliffe along with David Holmes

With this, it is extremely sad to find out that Radcliffe’s stunt double, David Holmes, met with a horrible accident during the filming of the 7th film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. This was so serious that it left him paralyzed and permanently changed the way stunts are done in Hollywood, banning what led to this accident.

Harry Potter Stunt Double David Holmes Got Badly Injured

During the filming of the seventh Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, David Holmes was rehearsing for a stunt that required Potter’s character to be sent flying during his fight against Voldemort’s snake, Nagini. According to The Guardian, during one of these takes, he went flying so hard that he got hurt, however, with this being part of his profession, he decided to walk it off and showed up to work the next day.

David Holmes as a stunt double in Harry Potter

“The rehearsal the day before was violent and fast, but we went for something a bit faster and a bit more violent the second day. In stunt rehearsals we were constantly trying to push the boundaries of what stunt action could be, whether that is flying through the air or a 15-minute fight routine.” said Holmes

The next day, the stunt coordinator, Greg Powell decided to add more weight to the machine that would launch Harry, Holmes, and send him flying much faster than he did before While this may be concerning for some this has always been a part of the industry, with stunt coordinators constantly wanting to one-up their previous takes. Unfortunately, this time, Holmes had a terrible accident that broke his neck, leaving him paralyzed.

This Incident Changed the Film Industry

Now, it has been years since this happened, and as a way to honor this beloved member of the Harry Potter crew, a documentary titled The Boy Who Lived, has been made about David Holmes. His best friend, Marc Mailley talked about the impact this accident had, not only on those people close to him and part of the crew, but also the film industry itself.

Former Harry Potter Stuntman David Holmes

“It was an old way of doing flight on a wire with weights that is not done any more. It’s banned in the film industry as a result of his accident across all major studios,”

It was revealed by him that this method of doing flight scenes in films has now become the old way. This being, on a wire with a pulley system, it reduces weights to fly someone into the air. The more weight was added to this, the faster the person would go flying. After the accident, this method was banned from all major studios in the film industry in light of how dangerous it was.