Harry Potter director Christopher Columbus doesn’t seem very impressed by actor Nick Frost‘s transformation into Hagrid… but he is flattered.
Now that production has officially commenced on HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series, fans are finally getting a glimpse at the latest iterations of the books’ beloved characters. But if you ask Columbus, these new takes have a little too much in common with the designs he helped conceive for the original movies, with him saying he got “deja vu” looking at photos of Frost as the Hogwarts gamekeeper.
“So I’m seeing these photographs… and he’s wearing the exact same costume that we designed for Hagrid,” he said during a recent appearance on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast. “Part of me was like, ‘What’s the point?'”
He added, “I thought everything was going to be different, but it’s more of the same. It’s all going to be the same.”
Columbus did, however, note that the similarities prove how well they nailed the costume the first time around, when Robbie Coltrane portrayed the gentle half-giant in the Harry Potter films. “It’s very flattering for me because I’m like, ‘That’s exactly the Hagrid costume that we designed,'” he said.
Warner Brothers/Courtesy Everett
Robbie Coltrane and Daniel Radcliffe in ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’
Columbus added that the similarities contributed to his mixed feelings about the upcoming series. “Part of it is really exciting, so I’m excited to see what they’re going to do with it,” he said in the interview. “Part of it is sort of déjà vu, all over again.”
The veteran filmmaker was the first to bring the wands-and-wizards saga to screens as the director of 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the first two entries in the franchise. He also produced its third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which was helmed by Alfonso Cuarón.
The eight-film adaptation went on to gross more than $7 billion globally, eventually yielding a Broadway sequel and the prequel franchise Fantastic Beasts. Now comes the new series, hailing from Succession alums Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod.
When asked if he envies their advantage of having more time to adapt the books, Columbus gave a firm response. “Jealous? No. It’s time to move on,” he said. “I’ve always had issues with [the] idea of franchise. I feel like I’ve done it … I’m really proud of those films, the first three that I was involved with, and I’m moving on.”
There’s another reason Columbus is okay with sitting out for the series: The books’ author, J.K. Rowling, has spent the past few years embroiled in controversy after identifying herself as a TERF (or, trans-exclusionary radical feminist). She has since doubled down on her stance, repeatedly espousing anti-trans rhetoric and drawing ire from her fanbase and the cast of the original Harry Potter films, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint.
Columbus recently stated that he doesn’t agree with Rowling’s views and finds the entire situation “very sad.”
“I like to sometimes separate the artist from the art — I think that’s important to do,” Columbus told Variety. “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.”
Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.
Chris Columbus, Daniel Radcliffe, and Maggie Smith on the set of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’
His new remarks about moving on echo comments he made in the Variety story, with Columbus saying he personally has “nothing left to do in the world of Potter.” But contrary to what he said on the podcast, the director did express some envy about all the possibilities that come with adapting Harry Potter into a series rather than a movie.
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“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 said, noting that the character Peeves was cut from the movies because the writers “just didn’t have time to develop the character.”
If Peeves has a place at Hogwarts in the series, it has yet to be confirmed. So far, HBO has revealed that the series stars Scottish newcomer Dominic McLaughlin as the titular Boy Who Lived, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, and Alastair Stout as Ronald Weasley. It also features veteran performers like Frost as well as John Lithgow, who plays Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and Paapa Essiedu as enigmatic potions professor Severus Snape.
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