Chris Columbus is not interested in being involved in HBO’s Harry Potter series.
The director, who launched the film franchise by directing the first two Harry Potter movies, recently told Variety he is done with the wizarding world.
“No, I’ve done it, you saw my version,” Columbus said. “There’s nothing left for me to do in the world of Potter.”
Even though he’s finished his involvement in the franchise, he is not against HBO returning to the source material to make a new series.
“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,” Columbus said.
Some of the book details he would have loved to add to his films are the character Peeves, as well as a storyline where Harry and Hermione must drink potions and worry about being poisoned, according to Variety.
“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,” Columbus said.
As for his opinion on author J.K. Rowling, who has long been criticized by LGBTQIA+ organizations and members for her repeated rhetoric tied to the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) movement — a group of people who believe transgender women are not women — Columbus said, “[I]t’s very sad.”
“I like to sometimes separate the artist from the art, I think that’s important to do,” Columbus 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.”
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