We got eight fantasy movies in the mainline Harry Potter franchise, but we could’ve gotten one more. Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies, wanted to split another of the books for adaptation, but at the time it seemed unfeasible.
Columbus believed the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, should be a two-parter due to its length. At 734 pages, it wasn’t going to be the easiest thing to skim down for a feature-length plot, and Columbus in particular was enthused by cutting out as little as possible from the novel. He proposed spreading the plot across two films to producer David Heyman, but Warner Bros had other ideas.
“At the time, the studio wasn’t interested in doing it. It didn’t seem like that was a possibility,” Columbus recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. “Well, obviously they ended up doing it for [films] seven and eight. But I was naive. I thought, ‘Oh, I have energy to do all seven of these movies’. But that wasn’t the case.”
As he says, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows became two parts, but that was more of an opportunistic endeavour. It allowed Warner Bros to make the climax just that little more epic feeling.
Before that, two-parters were rare. Harry Potter actually popularised the practice, followed by the Twilight movies, and since then the MCU did for the end of Phase 3. So, if you’re tired of needing two films just to get through the finale, be relieved that Columbus’s advice fell on deaf ears, because the middle could’ve been stretched out as well – well, moreso than usual.
For more wizards and witches, check out list of the best family movies.