Troll gets an animated revival with The Rise of Harry Potter, Jr.

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Patricia Arquette is following up her Oscar win for BOYHOOD earlier this year by joining the voice cast of TROLL: THE RISE OF HARRY POTTER, JR., a 3D animated "revival" of the infamous 1986 horror film TROLL, which was directed by special effects artist John Carl Beuchler. 

Although putting the name Harry Potter in the title is clearly an attempt to cash in on the popularity of JK Rowling's boy wizard, the filmmakers behind the TROLL redux have made sure to state in their press releases that the two properties are not related, and to point out that the child hero of the original film was indeed named Harry Potter, Jr., long before Rowling's first novel was published.

Arquette will be providing the voice of a witch in the animated feature, which 

will revisit the magical world of the original with Harry Potter, Jr. turning to a magical witch to help him save the planet from the clutches of the troll wizard and his evil force.

Harry Potter, Jr. himself will be voiced by Baxter Barlett.

Beuchler is co-producing the film with Peter Davy, who says they envision this movie will kick off a series of sequels as well as an animated TV show.

TROLL: THE RISE OF HARRY POTTER, JR. will be distributed by SC Films International, with the hope being that the movie will be ready for release in early 2017.

This seems like one nutty project to me, but the idea of returning to the world of TROLL is one that Beuchler has been touting for years, so for his sake I'm glad to see it's finally making some big progress.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the original TROLL