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Steven Spielberg Has a New Explanation for Harry Potter Movie Exit After 3 Years
Steven Spielberg is no stranger to box office franchises. Movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park went on to be massive franchises that helped not only shape popular culture but brought in big money at the box office as well. But when it comes to one major franchise, Spielberg has long been vocal about having walked away. That franchise would be Harry Potter. The filmmaker explained back in 2023 that he had been approached for the first film in what would go on to be a huge juggernaut of a series but opted to walk away but now, three years after that revelation, the Disclosure Day is offering up a new reason why the Wizarding World just wasn’t for him.
Speaking with TCM, Spielberg explained that he walked away from Harry Potter to make a very different movie: A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Spielberg said that it was the death of Stanley Kubrick in 1999 that prompted the decision.
“After Stanley’s death, I was at the funeral at his home. Christiane Kubrick and Jan Harlan, her brother, approached me about taking over from Stanley, as Stanley had intended, and directing the movie,” Spielberg said.
He continued, “I actually walked away from Harry Potter, which I was scheduled to direct as my next movie. I gave it up. It was going to be a huge movie because the book already was a runaway cultural phenomenon. I gave that up to essentially do A.I.”
Spielberg Has Previous Said He Chose Family Over Harry Potter
The revelation that he walked away from what is now one of the most beloved film franchises in movie history—and is only getting larger with the upcoming HBO television adaptation—isn’t new, but the reasoning is. Back in 2023, Spielberg said that the reason he didn’t take on the first Harry Potter film was family commitments, specifically that making the film would have forced him to be away from his family for the year and a half the film was being made in London.
The revelation about choosing his family over Harry Potter back in 2023 also isn’t the only time he had mentioned opting not to do Harry Potter. In 2021 he told BBC Breakfast that he walked away from the project because he had reservations about making a movie geared towards kids. He explained at that time that he had developed the project for around six months before dropping out, noting that he didn’t feel ready to make an all-kids film. He further elaborated about his own family commitments at that time, too.
These new comments from Spielberg about choosing A.I. over Harry Potter add a bit of dimension to the filmmaker’s decision to not take on Harry Potter and while it might seem like he’s changing the story, what’s more likely is he’s just offering additional context. It ultimately seems like it all came down to timing for Spielberg. The commitment to being away from his family for an extended period of time and apprehension about making a kids’ movie both are valid and it also just sounds like Kubrick’s death and that family’s request that Spielberg take over A.I. for the late filmmaker simply happened at the same time, making it an easy decision.
Did Spielberg Make the Right Call With Harry Potter?
While it might seem like a huge missed opportunity for Spielberg to have taken on A.I. rather than Harry Potter, it ultimately feels like it might have been the right call. While A.I. didn’t necessarily get the appreciation it deserved when it was released, in retrospect the movie is far better than you’d expect and, more than that, offers some complicated and thoughtful questions about technology and humanity that are more timely now than ever. The film also was the first of some of Spielberg’s more interesting movies, including Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can. Those films, while not his best-known films, are interesting additions to his filmography and just further show what he’s capable of as a filmmaker. Harry Potter went on to be a major force without him, and movie fans ended up getting a much more thematically diverse offering from Spielberg in the process. Feels like a win for everyone to us.
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