Daniel Radcliffe shared a story about a poor film pitch he received during the Harry Potter era. The idea involved him, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint in a Wizard of Oz remake. Radcliffe described it as one of the worst ideas he had heard.
Daniel Radcliffe appeared on the podcast "Hot Ones" and recounted a film pitch from his time working on the Harry Potter movies. The proposal was for a remake of "The Wizard of Oz," with Emma Watson cast as Dorothy, Radcliffe as the Cowardly Lion, and Rupert Grint in another role. This idea surfaced during the height of the Harry Potter franchise's popularity.
Radcliffe, who was 14 or 15 at the time, remembered the details vividly. "One of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard, during Potter, somebody came to us and I think asked, like they wanted to cast all three of us, me, Emma and Rupert, in a remake of ‘Wizard of Oz,’ where Emma was Dorothy," he said. He added that his character was envisioned as a "karate-kicking cowardly lion." Radcliffe noted uncertainty about Grint's role but emphasized his immediate skepticism. "I was like a karate kicking cowardly lion," he continued. "And I remember I was like 14 or 15 and I was like, ‘I don’t know a lot about the world, but this is a bad idea and it should not be made.'"
The project never progressed beyond the pitch stage. In the years since, Hollywood has revisited the Oz universe with Sam Raimi's 2013 prequel "Oz the Great and Powerful," starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, and Rachel Weisz, which earned nearly $500 million worldwide. More recently, the "Wicked" films released in 2024 and 2025 grossed a combined $1.2 billion globally.
Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint collaborated on eight Harry Potter films from 2001 to 2011. Their most recent joint appearance was in the 2022 HBO Max special "Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts," which aired in January.
