Harry Potter films director reveals the missing scenes that still keep him awake at night
Chris Columbus reflects on his time behind the camera of the wizarding series.
As a previous director of two Harry Potter films, Chris Columbus has shared that, nearly two decades later, he still wakes up thinking about the scenes from the books that he wishes he’d been able to include.
Columbus also directed Home Alone and is at the helm of another beloved British franchise as the director of the film adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestselling crime novel The Thursday Murder Club.
But he says he remains envious of extended screen time on offer with the forthcoming HBO series of seven seasons, each one dedicating up to 10 hours of screen time retelling the events of JK Rowling’s books.
“I’m not involved at all and I wish them great success,” Columbus tells RT. “I think the best part of the series is the fact it's 10 hours for the first book, which we didn't have the opportunity to do. I’m a little envious.
“There was so much we couldn't put in the films – they weren’t short, they were over two and a half hours long, but I still struggled. It still keeps me up at night sometimes.”
Specifically, he shares: “I missed the fact that I was never able to put Peeves in the first film.”
Peeves was a poltergeist in Rowling’s first book, and originally penned to appear on screen in the 2001 film, played by Rik Mayall. But his scenes were ultimately scrapped.
“Plus, there is a scene in the first book, Philosopher’s Stone, where Hermione and Harry are tasting potions in one of the challenges, and one of them could die at any moment,” remembers Columbus.
“It's like this incredible chess match that we just did not have time to shoot. So hopefully those scenes will be reinstated. They have 10 hours. I hope they use them well.”
Columbus is also hopeful that the Thursday Murder Club adaptation will be sufficiently popular to ensure he gets the call-back for the second film.
And he feels confident that, despite being a native of Pennsylvania, he has enough Anglophilia in his bones to get the tone just right.
“I was 15 years old when I first fell in love with Monty Python,” he remembers. “Prior to that, I’d fallen in love with (the Beatles’) A Hard Day’s Night, plus I had an obsession with Hammer Horror films.”
Columbus’s love of all things British continued when he attended college: “I went to NYU and all of my favourite authors were British. It all came together, for me as a writer, when I wrote Young Sherlock Holmes.
“Interestingly, it's sort of a prequel to Harry Potter, because it's two young protagonists, two male young protagonists and a female, and that was my first foray into British filmmaking.”
He laughs. “I'm quintessentially American, you meet me, you hear my voice, you know that this is someone who's spent time in the US mid-west and in New York City, but at the same time, spending four years living in London during the making of the Potter films… I’ve done the homework.”
The Thursday Murder Club is now showing in select UK cinemas and will be available to stream on Netflix from Thursday 28th August 2025. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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