Actor Tom Felton, known for portraying Draco Malfoy in the film series, has revealed that other cast members were unsure if the series would succeed. Consequently, each of the films were made as one-offs, with no guarantee that the cast would return together the following year to make another movie.
In an interview with Collider, Felton also discussed how some people involved in the process apparently believed that the child actors such as Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson may age too quickly.
“It was a strange thing because I think people always assumed that we were gonna make the eight films from day one, and that was never the case…It was always, ‘We’re gonna make one. That did okay, so we’re gonna make another one. That did better, so we’re gonna make another one.’ We were never promised the fact that we were gonna all be coming back next year.”
He continued by saying, “I think we all assumed that they would replace us with half-decent actors at some point, but luckily they kept us on and we got better.”
Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) made over $1 billion at the box office, so sequels may have appeared as inevitable from the outside. Of course, plans were put into place to adapt all seven books into films.
Felton mentioned that one of the main issues brought up was, “‘Are they gonna grow too quickly before we can actually make the films?'”
The Harry Potter films took “a long time to make” and edit, said Felton. There was concern that the youngsters would not be able to keep up with the rate of how quickly the movies were being made.
What’s more, in the interview, Felton looked up to Radcliffe for acting inspiration as well as his ability to improve with each new entry in the series.
“He lifted the bar, really, as far as what the rest of us had to do. It was quite inspiring to see,” Felton said. “The first two, especially, we were just kids having fun, and it felt like that. Then we started to develop more skill, or more passion, I think mostly, purely, actually, from being surrounded by some of the greatest actors in Britain, including my father, who I still call my father, Jason Isaacs.”
Combined, the Harry Potter movies have earned billions of dollars at the box office and were followed up by a trilogy of Fantastic Beasts films prior to the franchise stalling. Warner Bros. Discovery is coming back to the Wizarding World with a new Harry Potter TV series for Max, with J.K. Rowling serving as executive producer.