Chris Columbus has absolutely zero desire to be involved in HBO’s all-star small-screen “Harry Potter” reboot.
The filmmaker — arguably best known for launching the mega hit franchise more than 20 years ago having directed the first two “Harry Potter” features and produced the third — claims he’s long since graduated from Hogwarts.
“No, I’ve done it, you saw my version,” he tells Variety while in London to promote Netflix’s “Thursday Murder Club.” “There’s nothing left for me to do in the world of Potter.”
But that’s not to say he’s against the TV reboot. He may have recently spoken out against the idea of remaking his 1990 classic “Home Alone,” but he definitely approves of the return to the Wizarding world. If anything, he’s jealous.
“The great thing about it is that with the first and second and third book, we wanted to do it all. We wanted to bring all of that onto the screen, and we didn’t have the opportunity,” he says.
Columbus references the character Peeves from the first Harry Potter novel that “never made it into the film — we just didn’t have time to develop the character,” plus a storyline where Harry and Hermione have to drink potions and worry they may be 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,” he says.
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For all the new detail the TV adaptation should be able to include, Columbus says he did have a “deja vu” moment on seeing recent photo of Nick Frost as Hagrid and young newcomer Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter shooting on the streets of London.
“Because it was exactly where we were 20 years ago!” he says. “We had to shoot it on a Sunday with Dan (Radcliffe) and Martin Bayfield, who stood in for Robbie Coltrane.”
Speaking of Radcliffe, Columbus confesses to feeling enormous pride at the adult he’s grown up to become as well as the actor’s post-Potter career. And the filmmaker claims the tactics deployed on Harry Potter to protect Radcliffe and his young co-stars came from what he saw happen with Macaulay Culkin on “Home Alone.”
“We learned 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 explains. “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. So we were hoping that the kids would turn out as well as they did.”
Adds Columbus: “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 when it comes to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, whose numerous comments against trans identity over recent years have made her a major figure of controversy, Columbus appears to have differing opinions.
“I like to sometimes separate the artist from the art, I think that’s important to do,” he says. “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.”
From Variety US