J.K. Rowling knew so much more about Dean Thomas than just his friendship with Seamus Finnigan and a love of West Ham United. However, his backstory was cut to make way for Neville Longbottom’s (necessary) storyline.

When it came to working on the films, J.K. Rowling revealed that she gave the director, Chris Columbus, a description of Dean, and that he was also born and bred in London.

She said: ‘I think Chris was slightly taken aback by the amount of information I had on this peripheral character. I had a lot of background on Dean, though I had never found the right place to use it.’

It's fascinating to find out exactly what the author had planned for the Gryffindor lad, who was always there in the background but rarely pulled focus. Here is the hidden history of Dean Thomas...

Dean’s dad and his ‘blood status’

J.K. Rowling revealed that Dean had been raised by his Muggle mother and stepfather after his dad walked out on the family, and was totally unaware that he was a wizard until receiving the letter from Hogwarts aged 11.

This was very briefly touched upon in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Dean went on the run because he didn’t know whether his father was a wizard or not, putting him at risk under the Muggle-Born Registration Commission. Apart from that, we received very little information about Dean’s home life in the series (we just know that he was a big fan of footy!)

J.K. Rowling also gave us the tragic story about Dean’s dad, who was indeed a wizard. After being asked to join the Death Eaters (and refusing), Dean’s dad left his family to protect them and was subsequently killed when Dean was still a baby.