'Harry Potter' director Chris Columbus wants to make a 'Cursed Child' movie with OG cast

Chris Columbus, the director behind the first two Harry Potter films, isn't opposed to a magical return to the Wizarding World created by J.K. Rowling. Chatting with The Hollywood Reporter in honor of Sorcerer's Stone's 20th anniversary this month, the filmmaker discussed the rich potential for a big screen adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage production. The best part? He'd be able to cast the franchise's three original cast members: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron), and Emma Watson (Hermione).

“[They're] at the right age, it’s cinematic bliss," he said. "If you’re a film nerd or cinephile, it’s kind of like what J.J. [Abrams] did with Star Wars. Star Wars really started to be great again when J.J. made the film and we had all the original cast back. There’s no question if you’re a Star Wars fan, you were moved just seeing them on screen, seeing Harrison Ford as Han Solo again — and Chewy. It was very moving. I think that would be the same situation for Harry Potter fans. To able to actually see these adult actors now back in these roles? Oh, yeah. It would be amazingly fun to make that film — or two films."

Written by the trio of Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne, Cursed Child serves as a direct follow-up to the seventh novel in the original series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The plot centers around Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy (the young children of Harry and Draco) as they use a Time Turner in an effort to prevent Voldemort's murder of Cedric Diggory in Goblet of Fire. Their intentions are noble, but the two friends/Hogwarts students end up making things a lot worse.

While some fans were underwhelmed with the direction, there's no doubt the live performance — now held all over the world — is both thrilling and innovative. More than a year after theaters went dark at the start of the COVID-19 health crisis, Cursed Child returns to Broadway's Lyric Theatre next week as a single-part experience. It'll return to San Francisco's Curran theater and Toronto's Mirvish Theatre in the new year.

“Collaborating on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been one of the great joys of my professional life,” Rowling said over the summer. “While no one would wish for what has happened over the last year, it has given Jack, John, and the first-class creatives who first breathed life into the production the opportunity to revisit the play, and to find a new way to frame our story — with amazing illusions and some exquisite new staging — all the while keeping our original story intact. I’m so proud to be associated with this new, reimagined version, and to be able to welcome back audiences to the Lyric, Curran, and Ed Mirvish theatres.”

SYFY will celebrate 20 years of the Potter movie that started it all with a marathon of all eight films starting next Tuesday, Nov. 16. A third Fantastic Beasts movie — subtitled The Secrets of Dumbledore — arrives on the big screen next spring.