Harry Potter is back on everyone’s lips. The Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone movie that two decades ago turned the saga into a worldwide phenomenon beyond books is celebrating its 20th anniversary. To celebrate, it’s going back to theaters, Warner has released a new collector’s edition of the films, and a rumor that should-not-be-named has returned. A Harry Potter remake? No, thanks.
It is a rumor that for some time has come and gone without ever coming to fruition. Collider recently asked who directed the first two films in the series, Chris Columbus, if the rumors are true. He has responded that he doesn’t know anything about it but that “in this version of Hollywood in which we live, everyone is redoing and restarting everything”.
With just a few days to go before the Home Alone reboot premieres , Columbus knows how it feels to have his movies remade. He doesn’t get it, “the film already exists, let’s live with it”. Not that Columbus is purer than anyone. He recently confessed to Variety that he would love to adapt Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with the original actors, since they have reached the age to play their characters in the sequel, but he does not want to hear about remakes , reboots or reindeer.
Unfortunately, the decision does not depend on him, hopefully, but on Warner’s designs. It has been said, for example, that the remake could be an HBO Max series with which to more faithfully adapt JK Rowling’s novels. Luckily, with Warner still immersed in the Fantastic Beasts spin-off saga, it doesn’t seem like something immediate, but Fantastic Beasts is not Harry Potter, of course, nor does it get the same box office results.
If the movie or the series is made, I will be the first to go to the theater or to sit in front of HBO with the masochistic will to see what they have done, but if you think about it, there is nowhere to take it. It’s not a good idea. For many reasons.
In the first place because the films already exist. It’s what Columbus says, what’s the point? Can’t you just watch them for the hundredth time? The Harry Potter movies are irregular and very different from each other, with delicious children’s fables like The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets of Columbus, movies like The Prisoner of Azkaban and, well, also with The Order of the Phoenix that although it is the favorite movie of Daniel Radcliffe of course. The point is that the magic of Harry Potter is in this variety, in how the Hogwarts universe grows and transforms from film to film, and that would be impossible to maintain in any remake.
When The Philosopher’s Stone was released twenty years ago, no one could have imagined the tremendous success that the saga would have, not even taking into account that the books were already a worldwide phenomenon. You only have to compare the budget of the first and the last installment of Harry Potter. In fact, in 2001 the books had not even been finished, nor had Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix been published . In other words, Columbus and his screenwriter Steve Kloves made the first adventure of Harry, Hermione and Ron knowing barely that Lord Voldemort was going to be resurrected, but not what this would mean. If you look at the first movie, the veiny bald pate and snakelike face of He-Must-Not-Be-Named was barely designed in the version shown by Professor Quirinus Quirrell.
Because of this, the films were forced to transform on the fly. If the first two were undoubtedly children’s adventures, with The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire their respective directors, Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell, took the saga to the territories of juvenile literature and adolescent entanglements before David Yates, already with the success of the saga confirmed, it was done forever with the franchise.
At first sight this is a disadvantage and a current remake could start from the very beginning with a high budget, with a uniform tone for all the films and knowing the finished plots of all the characters. I’m sure the makers of the early Harry Potter movies and actor Alan Rickman would have appreciated knowing the full arc of Severus Snape. But that’s where the crux of the matter lies.
It was the time between movies that allowed us to see the actors grow along with their characters, and it was the gap between the books and the movies and not knowing how it was going to progress that gave it its magic. Thanks to this, many viewers were able to repeat with the films the same sensation that another generation had with the books: that they matured with them. And that is something that cannot be recreated.
You can do a Harry Potter remake, but you can’t bring back the magic of his movies. Luckily they are there and you can stream them as many times as you want. Who needs a reboot?
