Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were pitched a The Wizard of Oz remake
Daniel Radcliffe revealed that he, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were once pitched a The Wizard of Oz remake featuring him as a karate-kicking Cowardly Lion, calling it "one of the worst ideas" he has ever heard
Daniel Radcliffe says he, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were once pitched a remake of The Wizard of Oz.
The actor - who was "14 or 15" and shooting the Harry Potter movies with Emma and Rupert at the time - added that it was "one of the worst ideas I've ever heard".
Appearing on the latest episode of the Hot Ones podcast, Radcliffe, 36, told 39-year-old host Sean Evans: "One of the worst ideas I've ever heard, during Potter, somebody came to us and I think asked - they wanted to cast all three of us, me, Emma and Rupert, in a remake of Wizard of Oz, where Emma was Dorothy.
"I can’t remember what Rupert was, and I just remember that I was gonna be the lion, but also he knew karate.
"I was, like, a karate-kicking Cowardly Lion. I remember I was like 14 or 15, and I was like, 'I don’t know a lot about the world, but this is a bad idea, and it should not be made.'"
Elsewhere, Radcliffe shared that he, Watson, 35, and Grint, 37, have discussed the upcoming HBO Max TV adaptation of Harry Potter - based on J.K. Rowling's novels - which entered production in July 2025, and is set to air next year.
And the trio - who played the titular character, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, respectively - feel "protective" over the programme's young cast members.
Radcliffe - who was just 11 years of age when he was cast as Harry Potter - told ScreenRant: "It's one of those where I think we all just know how the others feel, because we're also feeling it.
"You just see the pictures of these kids, and you just want to grab them and hug them. That's the impulse that I think that we, mainly, all have."
The star thinks Dominic McLaughlin, 11, will do a better job than he did in the role of the titular wizard.
Radcliffe said: "I'm sure Dominic is going to be better than me. I learned as I went. I look back on what I did now with a lot more kindness, and I find it less interesting now that I'm older. But I was very much learning how to do it for a long time on Potter."
Other stars joining the HBO Max Harry Potter series include John Lithgow (Albus Dumbledore), Paapa Essiedu (Severus Snape), Nick Frost (Rubeus Hagrid), Lox Pratt (Draco Malfoy), Johnny Flynn (Lucius Malfoy), Janet McTeer (Minerva McGonagall), and Rory Wilmot (Neville Longbottom).
Also, Amos Kitson (Dudley Dursley), Louise Brealey (Madam Hooch), and Anton Lesser (Ollivander) form the stellar line-up.
Warwick Davis will reprise his role of Professor Filius Flitwick - which he portrayed in all eight Harry Potter movies - for the series.
