"Well, it'll be a big finish, won't it?" Rickman said. "That's true, and appropriately. You can feel it now, the size of the undertaking. Watching Daniel [Radcliffe], I saw a trailer for him being on Inside the Actor's Studio, and you think, 'Wait a minute, he's 12! Oh. Perhaps he isn't.'"

The new production schedule also affects Rickman personally. "Well, because they have to get me and Ralph Fiennes together, it means I don't start shooting it until the end of next year, which means I get room now in this coming year," he said. "So it's going to be long. I was talking to Helena yesterday. I think she starts in June, and she goes on for a long time."