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Robin Williams initially pitched himself for the role of Hagrid and also wanted to play Remus...
Read More The Harry Potter franchise, featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, has become a global sensation. While the three lead actors became iconic, many other roles were also perfectly cast. One interesting twist in the casting process involves Robin Williams, who, despite his constant pleading, was never cast in any of the films.
Williams initially pitched himself for the role of Hagrid, a part that eventually went to Robbie Coltrane. He later hoped to play Remus Lupin in Prisoner of Azkaban, but the role was given to David Thewlis. It turns out that Williams never had a chance because of a clear casting rule set by JK Rowling that no American actors should be included in the films.
Rowling wanted to keep the cast authentic, as she felt it would protect the story’s original feel. Chris Columbus, who directed the first two movies, was close friends with Williams. Even though Williams wanted to be part of the films, Columbus had to follow the rule.
Still, Columbus believed that the late actor would have played Lupin’s part differently. Speaking with Business Insider in 2021, Columbus said, “Robin would have been brilliant. It would have been a different interpretation — I thought David Thewlis was great — but Robin would have been brilliant.
JK Rowling and myself said to each other when we first met, ‘Look, we want this cast to be 100% British.’ And by the way, I stuck to that." Chris Columbus shared that the casting rule for Harry Potter was so serious that even his own daughter, Eleanor, couldn’t speak in the film.
Eleanor played a small role as Susan Bones, one of the first students to try the Sorting Hat in the first movie. Although she was on set for many days and appeared in scenes, she had no lines. This was because the team followed another strict guideline that only British actors were allowed to speak in the movie, even for small roles.
In a 2001 interview with The New York Times, Robin Williams mentioned that there were a few characters he would have liked to play. While speaking about it, he even joked that maybe if the story had moved to America and Harry ended up going to Yale or becoming president, he might’ve had a chance to join the cast..
