Viktor Krum might have had a much steamier relationship with Hermione Granger, one which would have left Ron Weasley in the dust. An alternate version of The Goblet of Fire and The Deathly Hallows could have left us with a painfully stereotypical love triangle.
Krum was the first guy to give Hermione Granger the attention she deserved. And, as the only other person in the Harry Potter series with romantic ties to Hermione besides Ron “I Broke My Wand Again” Weasley, there’s a legitimate argument to be made for an alternate Hermione/Krum coupling in the established Potterverse.
The real life Krum — Stanislav Ianevski — met up with the hosts of EW’s Binge podcast to discuss Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where the Bulgarian native dropped some surprising news on us. Apparently, Goblet of Fire director, David Yates, was so in love with the idea of a Krum-Hermione-Ron love triangle that he had plans to change J.K. Rowling’s original content in order to make it work for his own romantic vision.
“Yates invented a new story that wasn’t in the books, a love triangle between Viktor Krum, Hermione, and Ron,” Ianevski said, “but that was cut out of the film because it obviously didn’t fit with all the horrible things that happen in the last book.”
Ianevski went on to say that he wasn’t sure how far things could have gone between Hermione and Krum in the seventh movie at Bill and Fleur’s wedding. If you recall, Krum spent some harmless time making doe-eyes at Hermione in the film and asked her to dance, and was openly enthusiastic about seeing her again in the Deathly Hallows book.
Keep in mind that the Goblet of Fire movie came out in 2005, which was the beginning of the long-winded and painful Hollywood and YA novel trope entitled “love triangles are healthy and romantic, right?” (Thank you, Stephenie Meyer). So, this news, while unexpected, isn’t exactly surprising.
We kind of like the idea of a Krum and Hermione romance. After all, Krum was always good to Hermione. He respected her despite their differences and, maybe, even loved her. He definitely handled rejection far better and more maturely than Ron ever did.
“It was obviously difficult for them to understand each other,” Ianevski said. “He wouldn’t really understand much. He would just sit and watch her, sort of observe and protect. Maybe he was, being the world’s best Quidditch Seeker obviously he has a big ego, so he would defend loved ones.”
But, despite these positives, Krum tends to get a bad rap from Potter fans. Sure, he wasn’t the brightest, but he certainly always did right by Hermione. Just because Ron was bitter doesn’t mean we have to be.
Ianevski took a stab at how the love triangle would have played out in Goblet of Fire and the first part of The Deathly Hallows: “We did a new dance scene, I sort of stole [Hermione] from Ron [in The Deathly Hallows, Part 1]. She remembered our old times, Viktor was acting like a gentleman again, happy to see her, she was happy to see him. Ron was sitting on the side, was jealous, and then Viktor took her to the dance floor.” It sounds like Hermione could have very easily taken a stab at a romantic relationship with Krum.
If things had panned out just a bit differently, Viktor and Hermione could have ended up together in the end and had a gaggle of intellectual, quidditch-playing children. We’re not sure where that would have left poor Ron, but Hermione certainly would have been happy.
