She’s looking for Tom Riddle. She thinks she can save him.
That’s the premise behind Voldemort: Origins of the Heir, a stunning hour-long fan film devoted to filling in some of the gaps in Voldemort’s origin story. Like, what was he really like as a peer, and why didn’t anybody notice his growing, y’know, maniacal villainy?
The film, directed by Gianmaria Pezzato, stars Maddalena Orcali as Gricha McLaggen, an original character and former classmate of Riddle’s, now hunting him down after she suspects he’s involved in a murder. It’s an impressive work, with sharp special effects and a compelling storyline. It has some of the problems typical of fan films – the acting isn’t, like, stellar – but it takes unexplored ideas from the Harry Potter mythos and dives into them with aplomb, thoughtfulness, and some surprises.
Fan works don’t get much better than this. And it especially beats having to watch Johnny Depp as Grindelwald.
Check it out below.