Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Chris Columbus would love to see three-hour cut released

Last Updated on November 17, 2021

We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. How’s that for making you feel old? The first film of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise was an enormous success, but it just as easily could have gone very wrong. Chris Columbus directed the film, as well as the sequel The Chamber of Secrets, and while he managed to squeeze quite a lot of Rowling’s work into the 152-minute film, there was a lot left on the cutting room floor. While speaking with The Wrap, Chris Columbus spoke about his original three-hour cut of Harry Potter that he’d still love to see released.

We knew that the film worked because we did a couple of previews. Particularly a Chicago preview where our first cut was a three-hour cut. Parents afterwards said it was too long, the kids said it was too short. I thought, well, the kids presumably have a shorter attention span so this is a good thing.

When asked if he’s like to see the three-hour cut of the first Harry Potter movie, Chris Columbus said, “I would too. We have to put Peeves back in the movie, who was cut from the movie!” Peeves the poltergeist appeared in all of the Harry Potter novels but not in any of the movies. The late Rik Mayall actually played the role in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but the footage he shot has never been released.

Chris Columbus recently said that he would love to return to the Harry Potter franchise at some point, perhaps even to direct the feature-film adaptation of The Cursed Child stage-play. “I would love to direct The Cursed Child,” Columbus said. “It’s a great play and the kids are actually the right age to play those roles. It’s a small fantasy of mine.” With the franchise in the midst of the Fantastic Beasts series, it might be a while before we ever see The Cursed Child on screen, if ever. The next Fantastic Beasts film, The Secrets of Dumbledore, is set to hit theaters on April 15, 2022.