The two Harry Potter roles that Robin Williams was rejected for: “Robin would have been brilliant”
It’s hard to find anyone these days who isn’t obsessed, let alone aware of the elephantine Harry Potter universe. Whether you love or loathe the bespectacled wizard and his magical entourage, you can’t see for Hogwarts badges, spin-off games and fake plastic Elder wands in shop windows. Frankly, you would have to be a hermit of sorts not to have fallen under the Harry Potter spell over the past 25 years.
In the immensely popular movie adaptations of the original novels, a young cast is joined by an elite army of adult acting talent. Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson, John Hurt, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Emma Thompson are among the names drawn into the project over its eight-movie run.
Following the success of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001, a host of actors, aspiring and established, clambered for a role over the ensuing decade. Among those interested was the legendary comedy actor Robin Williams. As it happened, the Good Will Hunting star had been in contact with director Chris Columbus prior to the first movie in the franchise.
According to the casting director Janet Hirshenson, Columbus was approached by Williams “because he really wanted to be in the movie.” The late actor wanted to play the role of Rubius Hagrid, argubaly one of the story’s most pivotal figures. The character who becomes Harry’s ultimate guardian and sidekick combined would have been a joyous vehicle for Williams to relish in. Hagrid has some killer lines in the movies, and it would have certainly benefited from Williams’ unique delivery.
However, though Williams certainly had the pedigree and the chops to pull it off, he was foiled by a very simply request from the director. They had set strict guidelines for an all-British and Irish cast for authenticity. “But it was a British-only edict,” Hirshenson commented. “And once he said no to Robin, he wasn’t going to say yes to anybody else, that’s for sure. It couldn’t be.”
Of course, the late, great Robbie Coltrane ultimately took the role, adopting a seamless West Country accent to present the friendly character with a comfortable charm that matched the energy of the books. Williams, meanwhile, was seemingly undeterred by this rejection and once again registered interest in taking on a Harry Potter Role.
The second time he approached Columbus, Williams asked to be considered for the role of Professor Remus Lupin. The teacher-cum-werewolf is introduced in the third movie, The Prisoner of Azkaban. Three years on, Williams hoped the rule might have changed, but Columbus, who produced the third movie under Alfonso Cuarón’s direction, reiterated the ‘British Only’ rule.
“I had a conversation with Robin Williams, who wanted to play Lupin,” Columbus told Total Film in October 2021. “It was very difficult for me to say, ‘It’s all British. There’s nothing I can do.'” It’s hard to imagine how difficult that conversation must have been. While it is commendable to stick to the authenticity of the books, a performer like Williams could have certainly brought a different energy to the movie.
A month later, Columbus revisited the topic in a conversation with Insider. “Robin would have been brilliant. It would have been a different interpretation — I thought David Thewlis was great — but Robin would have been brilliant.”
Watch one of David Thewils’ famous scenes as Professor Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban below.
