Anyone who has watched even one episode of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” or watched any other quiz show in his life knows this feeling all too well: You think question by question, consider how far you would have come on your own – and then the candidate on TV fails with the only question you could easily answer yourself because you are a proven expert in the field in question!
“If only I were in the goddamn council chair myself!” thought countless Harry Potter fans (and also one or two movie fans) when Benjamin from Hessen was looking for 120,000 euros. Because the question that drove the candidate to despair, they could of course answer in their sleep. 120,000 euros for the simplest basic knowledge about the “Harry Potter” movies? A pretty good deal!
This is the question that became the biggest challenge for Benjamin from Hesse: “What movie character did it for after the death of Richard Harris find a new artist?”
The possible answers were as follows:
- A: Mr. Spock
- B: Albus Dumbledore
- C: Indiana Jones
- D: Gandalf
Indiana Jones should really be ruled out as an obvious joke – because if you don’t know that the adventure hero was played by Harrison Ford (and only Harrison Ford!), you probably haven’t seen a movie in the last 40 years. Or were the question’s creators actually speculating on a confusion of names?
Benjamin also knew right away that Harrison Ford is the first and only Indy actor. With the other figures, however, it was a bit different…
Mr Spock? Or maybe Gandalf?
Although the candidate came out as “star trekfan, but he still couldn’t say exactly if an actor has ever changed over the years. True Trekkies, of course, know that the role of Mr. Spock was formed by Leonard Nimoy – and later embodied by Zachary Quinto and Ethan Peck, among others. However, that was because it was a new film version or TV series – and at one point Nimoy was actually too old for the role.
Even with Gandalf, the million-dollar contender wasn’t quite sure – which in turn should have caused the Tolkien fan faction to tear their hair out. Because in both the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the “Hobbit” films, there was only one Gandalf actor: Ian McKellen.
So only Richard Harris remains! In fact, the Irish actor only appeared as Albus Dumbledore twice before passing away in 2002 at the age of 72. From the third part “Harry Potter” Michael Gambon took over the role of the magician.
Even the 50/50 prankster couldn’t help the unwitting candidate: Dumbledore and Mr. Spock were left behind – and Benjamin had no choice but to go home with $64,000. He would have decided – both Potter and Star Trek fans must be very strong right now – if in doubt, by the way, for Mr. Spock…