Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | August 27, 2025
I’m not a Harry Potter fan in the slightest. That’s not me bragging or trying to seem smug. The books and movies were never my bag, baby. However, I’ve never judged anyone for liking them or getting excited about exploring that world beyond the books and movies that existed. The new game seemed like a fun idea. Prequel movies? Sure. Knock yourselves out. A raging bigot will continue to profit from them, but, eventually, the books and characters will be remembered, and she won’t.
Given the property’s immense popularity, it’s no surprise that the original books would be given the remake treatment. I’m genuinely surprised it took so long. The prequels needed to fall flat on their face first, of course. If people gave a s*** about the trials of Grindelwald, we may still be waiting a few years before the originals were remade. Or, hell, the Potter fever would have been so immense that they happened sooner. All I know is that they were going to happen regardless, and, according to the original director, the whole ordeal is pointless.
Chris Columbus, who directed the first two original Harry Potter films and produced the third, was recently asked about a picture of Nick Frost from the set of the new show. Frost will be playing the large and lovable Hagrid. Columbus is not impressed with the actor’s “take.”
“So, I’m seeing these photographs … and he’s wearing the exact same costume that we designed for Hagrid. Part of me was like: What’s the point?” Columbus explained on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast. “I thought everything was going to be different, but it’s more of the same. It’s all going to be the same.”
Again, I am not a Potter Head, but I do wonder just how radically different Hagrid can be onscreen. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of room for interpretation, regarding that character at least. Columbus, hoping that the new show will be artistically different, feels almost naive in an adorable way. Or, given that he didn’t even remember one of his most successful films was rebooted, he lives in a world where Hollywood isn’t void of original ideas, and I envy him for that.
He didn’t stop there, though. He even alleged that the costume Frost is wearing is the same. “It’s very flattering for me, because I’m like, that’s exactly the Hagrid costume that we designed,” he noted. “So, part of it is really exciting, so I’m excited to see what they’re going to do with it. Part of it is sort of deja vu all over again.” Again, I don’t know what you could do differently with Hagrid, but I appreciate that Columbus sort of gives the new show the benefit of the doubt, albeit in a backhanded way.
I think Chris Columbus knows what the “point” of all this is, and his answers get to the heart of it. This is all for more money. That’s it. There may be some new, fun interpretations of the material. They will certainly be able to get more in-depth with the characters and world, just from a length standpoint. But this is a David Zaslav-fueled cash grab. We don’t need these, just like we don’t need remakes of the Lord of the Rings films. However, yachts on which you can force your friends to fast-forward through sex scenes while you wear five pairs of sunglasses aren’t going to buy themselves.
