20 Things That Almost Completely Changed Harry Potter Movies

6. Steven Spielberg Almost Made The Philosopher's Stone Animated (With Haley Joel Osment)

It's almost unthinkable now that we could have seen a world where Warner Bros' brilliant sets never existed, but that would have been the case if Steven Spielberg had remained attached to the Philosopher's Stone as director. He and Warner Bros. had originally conceived the film franchise as an all-CGI animation, and even entertained the idea of combining several novels into one movie. Warner Bros. were initially concerned about ageing child actors if production over-ran, leading to unhelpful recasting, and Spielberg would have had Haley Joel Osment as the voice of Harry. Thankfully, Spielberg left because it was too easy:

"It's just a slam-dunk. It's just like withdrawing a billion dollars and putting it into your personal bank accounts. There's no challenge."

Rowling also vetoed the animation idea, as well as combining books, and the studio moved to the live action model they followed for the franchise.