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As Albus Dumbledore said, it does not do well to dwell on dreams, but that hasn’t stopped Harry Potter fans from praying for a movie reboot.
Since the eight-movie series wrapped up in July 2011, speculation about a future relaunch of the beloved films has never really stopped. It also seemed like fans might get their wish in January 2021 when reports circulated that HBO Max was developing a live-action TV series based on the books by J.K. Rowling, but the network later denied that any such project was in the works.
In November 2021, however, HBO Max announced a reunion special featuring original stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and many others. Titled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, the special became available for streaming in January 2022.
Though the original cast have mixed feelings on the ideas of a reboot, many of the actors remain close to one another, sharing photos of occasional reunions via social media. “I was just actually recently shooting a project with James and Oliver [Phelps], like, a couple of weeks ago in Iceland, and it was just so lovely to be back with them,” Wright exclusively told Us Weekly in September 2021, referring to the real-life brothers who played Fred and George Weasley. “On top of just being an older kind of Hogwarts family, I had this literal family onscreen, which I felt so happy to be a part of.”
In November 2019, Wright reunited with Watson, Felton, Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), sending Harry Potter fans all over the world into a frenzy. “Season’s greetings from my school mates,” Felton wrote via Instagram at the time, sharing two photos of the group posing together in their holiday finest. “@mattdavelewis & I mid debate x #gryfindorVSslytherin.”
While a remake of the original eight films seems like a distant possibility, the larger Wizarding World is just getting started. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third film in the spinoff series that began in 2016, is finally set to premiere in April 2022 after the coronavirus pandemic delayed shooting. Hogwarts Legacy, a highly anticipated video game set at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1800s, is also due out in 2022.
During a 2016 documentary, Radcliffe reflected on the movies’ enduring popularity with young and old fans alike. “The time in most people’s lives when they discovered it meant that it has an incredibly important place in a lot of people’s childhoods, and they still feel very protective over it,” he explained, adding that he enjoys the fact that the films have become a favorite hangover cure for fans of a certain age.
“One of my favorite fates that we could never have ever imagined for the Harry Potter films, but that I have been told by several friends, is that they are fantastic when people are hungover and feeling really crappy about themselves,” the Swiss Army Man actor said. “They will just watch a few movies back to back and it just takes them to a place of warmth and comfort. That is so lovely to me. That is the real-world effect that a film can have on someone’s life. I think that is great.”
Keep scrolling to see what the Harry Potter cast have said about their thoughts on rebooting the franchise:
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Everything the ‘Harry Potter’ Cast Has Said About a Potential Reboot
As Albus Dumbledore said, it does not do well to dwell on dreams, but that hasn’t stopped Harry Potter fans from praying for a movie reboot.
Since the eight-movie series wrapped up in July 2011, speculation about a future relaunch of the beloved films has never really stopped. It also seemed like fans might get their wish in January 2021 when reports circulated that HBO Max was developing a live-action TV series based on the books by J.K. Rowling, but the network later denied that any such project was in the works.
In November 2021, however, HBO Max announced a reunion special featuring original stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and many others. Titled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, the special became available for streaming in January 2022.
Though the original cast have mixed feelings on the ideas of a reboot, many of the actors remain close to one another, sharing photos of occasional reunions via social media. “I was just actually recently shooting a project with James and Oliver [Phelps], like, a couple of weeks ago in Iceland, and it was just so lovely to be back with them,” Wright exclusively told Us Weekly in September 2021, referring to the real-life brothers who played Fred and George Weasley. “On top of just being an older kind of Hogwarts family, I had this literal family onscreen, which I felt so happy to be a part of.”
In November 2019, Wright reunited with Watson, Felton, Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), sending Harry Potter fans all over the world into a frenzy. “Season’s greetings from my school mates,” Felton wrote via Instagram at the time, sharing two photos of the group posing together in their holiday finest. “@mattdavelewis & I mid debate x #gryfindorVSslytherin.”
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While a remake of the original eight films seems like a distant possibility, the larger Wizarding World is just getting started. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third film in the spinoff series that began in 2016, is finally set to premiere in April 2022 after the coronavirus pandemic delayed shooting. Hogwarts Legacy, a highly anticipated video game set at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1800s, is also due out in 2022.
During a 2016 documentary, Radcliffe reflected on the movies’ enduring popularity with young and old fans alike. “The time in most people’s lives when they discovered it meant that it has an incredibly important place in a lot of people’s childhoods, and they still feel very protective over it,” he explained, adding that he enjoys the fact that the films have become a favorite hangover cure for fans of a certain age.
“One of my favorite fates that we could never have ever imagined for the Harry Potter films, but that I have been told by several friends, is that they are fantastic when people are hungover and feeling really crappy about themselves,” the Swiss Army Man actor said. “They will just watch a few movies back to back and it just takes them to a place of warmth and comfort. That is so lovely to me. That is the real-world effect that a film can have on someone’s life. I think that is great.”
Keep scrolling to see what the Harry Potter cast have said about their thoughts on rebooting the franchise:
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Credit: Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock
Daniel Radcliffe
The Horns star has put the Boy Who Lived behind him with a ton of film and stage credits, but if there ever is a reboot, he doesn’t want to reprise his original role — he wants to play someone else. “I would probably want to go with Sirius or Lupin,” he said during an August 2021 episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “Those were always the two characters that I was like, ‘They’re great.’”
In March of the following year, Radcliffe told The New York Times that he was “not really interested” in reprising his role in a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child film in the future. “This isn’t the answer that anybody’s going to want, but I think I was so able to go back and enjoy it because it’s not a part of my day-to-day life anymore,” he explained in the 2022 interview. “I’m getting to a point where I feel like I made it out of ‘Potter’ OK, and I’m really happy with where I am now, and to go back would be such a massive change to my life.”
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Rupert Grint
Like his onscreen BFF, Grint has little interest in returning to the role that made him a star. “I think going back now would be … I can’t really imagine it,” he told Esquire in March 2021. “But, I mean, never say never. It would only be if everyone else wants to do the same. But yeah, no … I think just leave it.”
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Tom Felton
Felton, who played Harry’s No. 1 school enemy Draco, has said multiple times that he would reprise his role if asked — or play Draco’s father, Lucius Malfoy (originally played by Jason Isaacs). “I don’t think Jo [Rowling] would want her films, her books rather and her films, to be remade anytime soon, but I’m sure in 20 years when they’ve got 4D, scratch-and-sniff cinemas, or whatever, then they’ll want to do it all over again,” he told Movieweb in November 2019. “My hope is that when they do it I’ll be old enough to play Lucius! Give it another 15 years and I’ll come back and play Lucius. I would do it in a heartbeat.”
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Bonnie Wright
Wright, who played the youngest Weasley sibling and Harry’s eventual love interest, doesn’t think the franchise should ever be rebooted. “I think it’s like a time capsule, and you open it and it changes and everything feels kind of different,” she said in July 2021. “For sure, I miss playing Ginny, but I always quite like the idea that it’s properly compacted into those seven years at Hogwarts.”
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Warwick Davis
The veteran actor, who played both Professor Flitwick and Griphook the goblin, is on Wright’s team when it comes to a revival. “I think we look back now, and we’ve got these wonderful films,” the Willow star told Digital Spy in March 2019. “I think it would be, in a way, a shame to mess with something that is so beloved.”
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Oliver Phelps
The U.K. native, who played George Weasley, has said that he doesn’t think the original films should be revisited. “It’s so iconic that it’s one of those things you don’t try and replicate something that means so much to so many people,” he told Digital Spy in March 2019. “I think that [would] probably be a bad idea. And there’s so much other stuff sort of going on in the Wizarding World, with Fantastic Beasts, with The Cursed Child. The films are very much in their own place.”
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Chris Columbus
The filmmaker, who directed the first two films in the franchise, offered some pointed comments about reboots in general November 2021, shortly before the premiere of the Disney+ movie Home Sweet Home Alone. (Columbus directed the first two films in that franchise as well.)
“In this version of Hollywood that we live in, everybody is remaking everything, and rebooting everything,” he told journalist Jake Hamilton. “I mean, there’s a Home Alone reboot coming out. What’s the point? The movie exists, let’s just live with the movie that existed. There’s no point in us remaking The Wizard of Oz, there’s no point in any of us remaking the classic films. Make something original, because we need more original material. So, no point.”
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Ralph Fiennes
The actor who played the notorious villain of the franchise shared in November 2022 that he would “of course” portray Lord Voldemort again for any future Harry Potter projects. “No question about it,” he told Variety.
