10 Scandals That Cursed The Cast Of Harry Potter
3. Harry Potter And The Return To The Muggle World
Warner Bros. originally considered making the series as a set of animated films or combining several books into one film with their reasoning being the studio's concern with the rapid ageing of the child actors but they eventually circumvented this issue by deciding to film the whole series back to back. What they hadn't encountered was stars considering leaving the franchise because the schedule of filming eight films back to back was gruesome.
Emma Watson revealed that she almost quit the franchise aged sixteen after the end of the fifth movie to focus on studying for her A-Levels and going to university. Although she was fearful about dropping out and being public enemy number 1, the film schedule she had been given for the sixth movie didn't allow her to continue her studies so she begun to rethink her options.
In a 2010 interview with Entertainment Tonight, "I have such a structure when I’m working on Potter. I get told what time I get picked up", she explained of her potential decision. "I get told what time I can eat, when I have time to go to the bathroom. Every single second of my day is not in my power.
"I hate to sound whiny but it’s horrible. This has definitely been the most intense, grueling period of film-making I’ve ever done."
As we know, Emma did return to the franchise to finish the movies after the studio fitted a new filming schedule around her exam dates.
As it turns out, Emma was not the only principal cast member considering leaving the franchise. Daniel Radcliffe also revealed to the Guardian that after the Prisoner of Azkaban had wrapped, he seriously considered leaving the franchise to pursue other roles and to avoid being typecast.
"By the third film, I thought, if there's a time to get out, it's now; there's still enough time for another actor to come in and establish himself… For a while I thought, if I do all of them, will I be able to move on to other stuff or should I start doing other stuff now?
Again, Radcliffe stayed on once he realised that "actually there aren't many great parts out there for teenage boys, certainly not as good as Harry Potter".