Movie

Daniel Radcliffe reveals scrapped Wizard of Oz remake that almost reunited the Harry Potter trio

The proposed film would have reimagined him as a karate-trained Cowardly Lion.

Update: Feb 20th, 2026 18:24 CET

Although the iconic trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint immediately comes to mind with the Harry Potter films, at one point, there was a plan to take them to another magical world. More specifically, to the land of 'The Wizard of Oz’.

During a recent appearance on the popular show Hot Ones, Daniel Radcliffe looked back on his career and shared a particularly strange anecdote regarding a pitch that almost saw the three actors leave the Wizarding World for the Land of Oz. According to Radcliffe, the proposal came across his desk when he was roughly 14 or 15 years old. This timeline suggests the actors were likely in the middle of filming ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.’ The pitch involved casting Emma Watson as Dorothy, while Radcliffe and Grint would fill the roles of her companions. While a reunion of the young stars might have seemed like a marketing dream for some, Radcliffe was immediately skeptical of the creative direction.

A “bad idea” with a karate twist

“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,” Radcliffe revealed. “Emma was Dorothy, I can’t remember what Rupert was, and I just remember that I was going to be the lion, but also he knew karate? I was like a karate kicking cowardly lion.”

Even as a teenager with limited industry experience, the actor knew instinctively that the project was a mistake. He noted that while he didn’t know much about the world at that age, he knew enough to realize that this specific adaptation should never see the light of day. The project ultimately never moved forward.