'Harry Potter': An MTV Movie Awards History

UNIVERSAL CITY, California — With its Best Cast and Best Hero wins at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards, the "Harry Potter" era in MTV history has come to a close.

MTV has been a fan of "Harry Potter" since the beginning. Literally. It's bittersweet to have to celebrate the series for the last time with the big wins for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," so we decided to take a look back at our favorite Movie Awards memories with The Boy Who Lived.

The series didn't earn its first Movie Award nominations until 2006, for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." It got nods for Best Hero (Daniel Radcliffe), Best On-Screen Team (Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) and Best Villain (Ralph Fiennes), but didn't take home any awards. "Potter" struck out yet again with "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" when it lost both Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet in 2007 and Best Kiss (between Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Leung) in 2008.

There was a year of downtime between "Potter" nominations because the series didn't have a film come out in 2009, but that doesn't mean it wasn't represented at the Movie Awards. Radcliffe, Grint and Watson presented a "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" clip showing Dumbledore using the Pensieve to show Harry the first time he met Tom Riddle, who later would become Lord Voldemort.

It wasn't until 2010, when "Half-Blood Prince" was up for four awards, that the series took home its first Golden Popcorn. The film lost for Best Female (Watson), Best Male (Radcliffe) and Best Movie, but Tom Felton took home the award for Best Villain. That ended up being one of the most memorable acceptance speeches in recent Movie Awards history as Mark Wahlberg kept interrupting the young Brit while he was trying to talk.

Fans were duly outraged, but Wahlberg was quick to apologize to Felton backstage — and we caught it on tape! "We were only kidding," Wahlberg said, patting Felton on the back. "Sorry about that, great job. ... Thanks for being a good sport."

That year also marked the second time the Movie Awards showed a sneak peek of an upcoming "Potter" movie. We premiered a teaser trailer for both parts of "Deathly Hallows," which ended up being pretty freaking awesome.

Felton took home the series' second Golden Popcorn the next year (again for Best Villain), though "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" lost for Best Female, Best Kiss (Watson and Radcliffe), Best Male, Best Movie and Best Fight. That night was another memorable one for Felton, as Foo Fighters leading man Dave Grohl congratulated him on camera following his win.

One of the most talked about moments of the 2011 MTV Movie Awards was the premiere of the forest scene from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2." It was one of the more chilling moments from the movie, and one that boded well for the final installment of the "Harry Potter" saga.

Fans were ultimately disappointed with the fact that "Potter" only took home one award in 2011, especially since it lost most of the Golden Popcorns to "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." With the voting rules changed this year, that means that the competition in 2012 was less about a battle of the fandoms and more about the best movie winning.

In the end, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2" didn't win every award it was up for this year. It lost for Best Fight, Best Female, Best Male, Best Kiss (Watson and Grint) and Best Movie, but at least won for Best Cast and Best Hero. At the end of the day, "Harry Potter" really does deserve both of those awards.

Fans could argue for hours over whether "Harry Potter" or "The Hunger Games" deserve the awards they won, but it seems fair to say that "Harry Potter" has consistently had one of the best ensemble casts in recent memory. It's not just Radcliffe, Watson, Felton and Grint who won the award, but everyone who participated in the series' eight films. As for the Best Hero win, considering that Harry defeated one of most evil beings of all time (you know, He Who Must Not Be Named), that's quite a heroic feat. Those seem like suitable thank-yous to the "Potter" crew for making one of the most beloved film franchises in movie history.

Jaw-dropping, heart-pounding, gut-busting moments galore. See what just happened at the 21st annual MTV Movie Awards!