“We want this cast to be 100% British”: J.K. Rowling Rejected Robin Williams Casting in Harry Potter as He’s American

The Harry Potter film series will probably go down as one of the most popular fantasy movie series of all time in the history of cinema. The movie series had an incredible plotline which was based on the novel series of the same name which is why a lot of actors wanted to be a part of the franchise. However, the writer of the series, J.K. Rowling had made a rule at the very beginning of the first movie that they would not be casting any non-British actors which was part of the reason why many great actors missed out on the franchise.

The lead cast of the Harry Potter film series

Chris Columbus once opened up in an interview and revealed Robin Williams was also willing to be a part of the Harry Potter franchise but Columbus had to turn him down because of the ‘only British actors rule‘.

Robin Williams was considered to play Hagrid in the Harry Potter series

Once in an interview with Huffington Post back in 2016, the casting director of the Harry Potter movies, Janet Hirshenson talked about how Robin Williams had approached the director and revealed his wish to be cast in the movies but he was turned down because of the ‘only British actors‘ rule. Hirshenson said,

“The ‘only British’ rule was so important that Robin Williams was even turned down to play Hagrid…Robin had called [Columbus] because he really wanted to be in the movie, but it was a British-only edict, and once he said no to Robin, he wasn’t going to say yes to anybody else, that’s for sure. It couldn’t be.”

Robin Williams

The iconic role of Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies eventually went to the late Robbie Coltrane who went on to gain worldwide recognition for portraying the role.

Robin Williams was also considered for the role of Remus Lupin

After he was turned down for the role of Hagrid, Robin Williams allegedly reached out to Chris Columbus to play the spectacular role of Remus Lupin who appeared for the first time in the 3rd movie of the franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. However, it did not work out as the ‘only British rule‘ was very strictly followed in the casting of actors of the series. Chris Columbus once opened up about the situation in an interview with Insider and said,

“I had a conversation with Robin Williams, who wanted to play Lupin. It was very difficult for me to say ‘It’s all British. There’s nothing I can do.’…Robin would have been brilliant. It would have been a different interpretation — I thought David Thewlis was great — but Robin would have been brilliant. Jo Rowling and myself said to each other when we first met, ‘Look, we want this cast to be 100 percent British.’ And by the way, I stuck to that.”

David Thewlis as Remus Lupin

The ‘only British actors‘ rule of the Harry Potter franchise was so strict that although Chris Columbus’ daughter, Eleanor Columbus was cast in a minor role in the first 2 movies, her character, Susan Bones was not given any dialogue in the movies as she was not British.