There are all kinds of magical creatures and undead filling the world of Harry Potter and now we know why J.K. Rowling ended up not using zombies but the Inferi. Yes, there may be similarities abound but there are specific reasons to not use the idea of voodoo zombies.
“While zombies of the Vodou tradition can be nothing more than reanimated corpses, a separate but related tradition has it that the sorcerer uses their souls, or part of their souls, to sustain himself. This conflicted with my Horcrux story, and I did not wish to suggest that Voldemort had any more use for his Inferi than as guards of his Horcrux.”
Honestly though it really broke down to one key moment in her life that she couldn’t ignore.
“I’m part of the “Thriller’ generation; to me, a zombie will always mean Michael Jackson in a bright red bomber jacket.”
