• The Pitch: A scrapped Wizard of Oz remake intended to star the core Harry Potter trio.
  • The Roles: Emma Watson was slated for Dorothy, while Daniel Radcliffe was pitched as a "karate-kicking" Cowardly Lion.
  • The Reaction: Radcliffe labeled the project "one of the worst ideas" he’s ever heard.
  • The Timeline: The offer surfaced during the production of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The Crossover Pitch from Hell

In the world of entertainment, we often see studios trying to "min-max" their IP by forcing successful stars into every available project. According to Daniel Radcliffe’s recent appearance on Hot Ones, he, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint were almost the center of a bizarre Wizard of Oz remake. While Watson was the obvious choice for Dorothy, the creative "vision" for Radcliffe was far more unhinged.

"I was going to be the lion, but also he knew karate?" Radcliffe recalled. "I was like a karate-kicking cowardly lion." Even at 14 years old, Radcliffe had enough industry meta-knowledge to realize this was a disaster waiting to happen. While the "karate-kicking lion" sounds like a weird secret character you'd unlock in a mid-2000s tie-in game, as a cinematic reboot, it misses the mark entirely.

Bad Timing and Broken Logic

The timeline places this pitch right around the filming of Goblet of Fire. At the time, the trio was essentially the biggest "dev team" in Hollywood, and someone clearly wanted to cash in on that momentum. Radcliffe noted that despite his age, he was instantly aware that "this is a bad idea, this should not be made."

We’ve seen plenty of Oz-related content over the years—from Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful to the upcoming Wicked—but this specific pitch feels like a "cursed build" that thankfully never made it out of pre-production. It’s the kind of project that likely would have aged as poorly as a licensed movie game from the same era.

Looking Toward the Future Meta

Radcliffe also took a moment to address the upcoming HBO Harry Potter adaptation. His stance is clear: he wants the new cast to have their own space without the original stars acting as "spectral phantoms." It’s a solid take. Much like a fresh reboot of a classic franchise, the new players need room to establish their own playstyle without being overshadowed by the veterans.

Our take? Radcliffe’s instincts were spot on at 14, and they’re spot on now. We dodged a bullet with the "karate lion," and hopefully, the industry has learned that you can't just slap a famous trio onto a different classic story and expect it to work. Let the new kids find their own path to Oz—or Hogwarts—without the gimmicks.