Daniel Radcliffe says a studio once tried to spin the “Harry Potter” trio into a “Wizard of Oz” remake, a pitch he rejected immediately while still a teenager and deep in the franchise’s global peak. Speaking on the YouTube series “Hot Ones,” Radcliffe recalled being approached when he was “14 or 15” with a concept that would have placed Emma Watson as Dorothy and cast him as a “karate-kicking” Cowardly Lion, with Rupert Grint also part of the package. Radcliffe said he remembers thinking, “I don’t know a lot about the world, but this is a bad idea and it should not be made.”
The story has circulated in fragments for years, including comments Radcliffe made during a 2014 press appearance, yet his new retelling lands at a moment when studios keep returning to Oz-related IP in different forms. Warner Bros. announced in 2022 that Kenya Barris would write and direct a new “Wizard of Oz” feature described as a modern reimagining. New Line, a Warner Bros. unit, has also discussed developing a fresh take on Baum’s material, underscoring how the property continues to attract reinvention attempts even as audiences remain strongly attached to the 1939 film’s imagery and tone.
Radcliffe’s recollection offers a candid look at how aggressively studios once tried to transfer blockbuster goodwill from one phenomenon to another. His description of the proposal frames it as a branding exercise first, storytelling second, with martial-arts flavor grafted onto a character built around fear and vulnerability.
He shared the anecdote while promoting his upcoming comedy series “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Jenkins,” and he also addressed the continuing cultural pull of “Harry Potter” as HBO develops a new television adaptation with a new cast. For Radcliffe, the abandoned Oz pitch stands as a reminder of how quickly Hollywood reaches for familiar icons—and how often the strangest ideas arrive when you are too young to be taken seriously, yet old enough to know when something sounds wrong.
