Harry Potter: Robin Williams wanted to play Professor Lupin

If you’d like to feel old, try this on for size: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Twenty years… What have I done with my life? Over the course of a decade, J.K. Rowling’s celebrated series of fantasy novels were adapted for the big-screen. In order to maintain authenticity, one of the franchise’s big rules was that the series wouldn’t hire any American actors. Unfortunately, that particular rule kept us from seeing Robin Williams join the Harry Potter franchise.

While speaking with Total Film, Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone director Chris Columbus said that he had to have a tough conversation with Robin Williams, who wanted to join the franchise in order to play Professor Remus Lupin.

I had a conversation with Robin Williams, who wanted to play Lupin. It was very difficult for me to say ‘It’s all British. There’s nothing I can do.’

Professor Lupin wound up being played by David Thewlis, who joined the cast in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Thewlis would go on to reprise the role in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I & II. Although I’m a big fan of what David Thewlis did with the role, it’s hard not to imagine what could have been had Robin Williams been able to take the part.

Although the Harry Potter franchise has concluded, the Wizarding World continues with the Fantastic Beasts franchise. The next film in the series, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, will hit theaters on April 15, 2022. “With Grindelwald’s power rapidly growing, Albus Dumbledore entrusts Newt Scamander and his friends on a mission that will lead to a clash with Grindelwald’s army, and will lead Dumbledore to ponder how long he will stay on the sidelines in the approaching war,” reads the official synopsis.