Hero Complex has updated with a new interview with Barry Wilkinson the prop master for the Harry Potter films.

He’s handled thousands of Potter props — brooms, quills, potions and all manner of magical items — over the course of a decade. Just for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the two-part franchise finale, Wilkinson had more than 500 wands manufactured. “Everyone’s got their own continuity wand, even down to the Death Eaters,” Wilkinson said. “All the principal characters have their own wands, and they’re all listed and accounted for, and it’s an amazing system. And each wand is individual. It’s an incredible job just designing those and to keep trying to think up different designs for wands, but when you look at them, they are just totally different.” “Each one’s got a number, and it’s checked out and it’s checked in at the end of each day,” Wilkinson said. “We have some broken, but they’re all accounted for, and we have to make notes of and keep records of everything.”

The two-part finale will focus on Horcruxes and Deathly Hallows — props that Wilkinson says he can’t yet discuss in detail. Working on those props took a lot of “sitting round the tables and discussing, and there were numerous designs for those going backward and forward,” he said. “They’re such special items, and there’s so much [that] goes into it. They’re all designed and drawn up really before they come down to us to start getting manufactured. … They play such a vital part — and all the props do in this series of films — that they’re really done quite differently from other movies.”Wilkinson said he and his team reflect on the series and all its behind-the-scenes workings with awe. “We don’t think we’ll ever see the likes of this series of movies again, not for a while anyway,” Wilkinson said. “It’s just a fantastic franchise. It’s just gone on and on, and got bigger and better. When you see this stuff and you walk on the set, and you know your men have dressed them, you’re just all so proud of it, because everything does look absolutely wonderful, right down to the boys’ dormitory, the detail, the stuff that the set decorator puts there, the Great Hall, the Common Room, and you know, the stuff when we’ve been out looking for props and finding them. It’s been amazing.”