Having batted aside familial death, a resurrected foe (repeatedly and with screaming Gusto) and the sticky beginnings of puberty, Harry Potter now faces probably his greatest obstacle so far. No, this has little to do with the film being darker - thought precedent insists that each adventure must be one step down the paint chart - nor that man whose name must not be spoken. The great obstacle for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, which might initially appear insurmountable, is that many people, even a number of diehard fans, wouldn't wholly object to skipping this episode and going right on to the finale...as long as we could have that bit where the big character dies (has the spoiler moratorium passed on that yet?) as a prologue, Harry Potter 6 is a unique proposition in the series' filmic canon, in that it's the first to come along after we found out the big ending with the publication of series finale Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. Knowing the ultimate fates of Harry and friends (and foes) inherently removes a bit of tension from Half-Blood Prince, which could potentially feel a bit like a "Previously on Harry Potter" recap. However, knowing how the whole wizard shebang ends could well prove to be the film's greatest ally.

"It's great to know the end," says series producer David Heyman. "The through-line is now there for us to see and we do [know what we're building towards]. Of course, we've always had Jo [Rowling] to tell us if we were leaving anything important out of the films and I think the process of writing the movies has always been fairly organic, but now we do know what is absolutely necessary...There are a couple of things we might have left out, but then had to keep in and possibly vice versa."

All previous Potter movies, even the best ones, have been to some extent hindered by having to retain as much of the book as possible, just in case it turns out important later. Removing that particular shackle (most of Steve Klove's script was written before the release of Deathly Hallows, but there were some tweaks made after) means that this film should be a bit more...