Daniel Radcliffe Once Wanted Harry Potter Killed Off
Daniel Radcliffe grew connected to Harry Potter and his mythology after spending his formative years portraying the wizard. However, Radcliffe imagined his character’s journey coming to a much bleaker conclusion than it did. The actor not only saw his character dying sometime in the series, but at one point slightly welcomed Harry’s death.
J.K. Rowling seriously considered killing off one of the big three ‘out of spite’
Rowling once shared that she briefly considered doing away with one of the three main characters. From the beginning, she made a pact with herself that the big three would make it to the very end. But because of her emotional state at the time, Rowling almost took her frustrations out on one of her own characters.
“Funnily enough, I planned from the start none of them would die,” Rowling said on the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows blu-ray (via Entertainment Weekly. “Then, midway through [writing the series] — which I think was a reflection of the fact that I was not in a very happy place — I started thinking about polishing one of them off. Out of sheer spite!”
As most may know, Rowling didn’t go through with the execution. However, she wasn’t the only one who toyed with the idea of a major death.
Daniel Radcliffe wanted Harry Potter killed off
Radcliffe already had in mind filming something dramatic for Harry Potter’s last stand. In an interview with The Guardian, the star was asked if he thought his main character would end up dead.
“I think I will,” he said. “I sort of hope I will, really. I think that’s really the only way Jo can end it, if Harry and Voldemort…Maybe one can only die if the other one dies. I don’t know that for sure. But I’m quite looking forward to doing a death scene, if I get that opportunity,” Radcliffe said.
However, he would later backtrack a bit in an interview with Daily Record.
“I wish I’d never said that,” he regretted.
Radcliffe shared that he was eager to continue growing as an actor after his Harry Potter run ended. But that didn’t mean he wanted to leave the character behind entirely.
“I don’t want to disown Harry Potter. I’d never want to step away from Harry Potter completely. I’m immensely proud of it. But I think eventually people will see me as an actor in my own right, rather than just the boy who plays Harry Potter. It’ll be a very long process and I don’t think it’ll be achieved by one, two or even three jobs,” he added.
Daniel Radcliffe nearly quit ‘Harry Potter’ after the third film
It seems that everyone in the big three considered leaving Harry Potter at some point, including Radcliffe. However, Radcliffe considered putting the series behind him early on, as he was just coming out of Prisoner of Azkaban.
“By the third film, I thought, if there’s a time to get out, it’s now; there’s still enough time for another actor to come in and establish himself,” Radcliffe told The Guardian. “For a while, I thought, if I do all of them, will I be able to move on to other stuff or should I start doing other stuff now?”
Radcliffe quickly tossed the idea, as he was enjoying his role in the franchise.
“But in the end, I decided I was having way too much fun. And actually, there aren’t many great parts out there for teenage boys, certainly not as good as Harry Potter,” he explained.
