Harry Potter's original director Chris Columbus did pretty well with the first two installments of the series — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potterand the Chamber of Secrets before passing the torch to Alfonso Cuaron, but according to Columbus, he expected himself to be fired from the very first film and the idea haunted him every single day on set.
In a recent interview with Collider, Columbus recalled dealing with anxiety during filming and his fear of messing up the original flick. He said, "The first film was fraught with anxiety for me. The first two weeks I thought I was gonna get fired every day. Everything looked good, I just thought if I do one thing wrong, if I fuck up, I'm fired. And that was intense."
He admits, however, that if had things his way, he would've loved to helm the final chapter in the fantasy film franchise Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 & 2. Columbus continued, "I always wanted to go back and shoot the final two movies, but [Deathly Hallows director David] Yates decided he was gonna stay with the series, and it was a great thing to do because I particularly love the very last movie. I think that is just a brilliant film, the second part of Deathly Hallows."
Columbus may have not gotten his way in the end, but he'll always have the bragging rights for kickstarting the film series and turning it into the global phenomenon that it is today. At least his first two entries can be considered stone-cold classics.
Meanwhile, the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts 3 will hit cinemas in 2022.
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