Chris Columbus, the filmmaker who launched the Harry Potter franchise on the big screen more than two decades ago, says he has no plans to return for HBO’s upcoming television reboot.
“No, I’ve done it; you saw my version,” Columbus told Variety while promoting Netflix’s Thursday Murder Club in London. “There’s nothing left for me to do in the world of Potter.”
Still, Columbus isn’t opposed to the idea of retelling JK Rowling’s magical world for a new generation. Unlike his disapproval of remaking his 1990 classic Home Alone, he admits to feeling envious about the opportunity to expand the early stories. “The great thing about it is that with the first and second and third books, we wanted to do it all. We wanted to bring all of that onto the screen, and we didn’t have the opportunity,” he said, pointing to missing details such as Peeves, the mischievous ghost, and the scene where Harry and Hermione drink potions at the risk of being poisoned. “We could never get that incredible scene into the film, and I’m sure it’ll be in the HBO series. So for me, it’s an opportunity to bring all those scenes to life.”
The director recalled a wave of nostalgia after seeing recent photos of Dominic McLaughlin as Harry and Nick Frost as Hagrid filming in London. “Because it was exactly where we were 20 years ago! We had to shoot it on a Sunday with Dan (Radcliffe) and Martin Bayfield, who stood in for Robbie Coltrane,” he said.
Columbus, who also directed Home Alone, shared that his approach to safeguarding child actors in Harry Potter stemmed from watching Macaulay Culkin’s experience with fame. “We learnt a valuable lesson on Home Alone, so when David Heyman and I got into Potter, I said to him, ‘We need to cast the parents as well as the children. We have to make sure that the parents can be prepared for what’s about to happen, particularly with Potter,” he explained. “We knew that the eyes of the world would be on these three kids, and they thankfully had just wonderful parents who helped them deal with what I can’t even imagine the pressures are of suddenly your face being everywhere.”
That caution paid off, he said, when he later watched Daniel Radcliffe flourish both personally and professionally. “There’s a sense of pride to see Daniel Radcliffe win a Tony Award. It was just remarkable. Seeing him on stage and seeing how incredibly talented he is as a musical comedic actor was just very moving for me.”
But on the subject of JK Rowling, Columbus took a different tone, addressing the controversy surrounding her public comments about trans identity. “I like to sometimes separate the artist from the art; I think that’s important to do,” he said. “It’s unfortunate what’s happened. I certainly don’t agree with what she’s talking about. But it’s just sad; it’s very sad.”
