Hollywood absolutely loves remakes and reboots. Top Gun is getting a sequel over 30 years after it hit theaters in 1986. Disney is pushing forward with more new Star Wars movies just months after wrapping the latest trilogy, we’re getting a fourth Matrix movie, and on and on and on. So far, the Harry Potter movies have avoided getting remade, although the franchise is currently in the middle of a prequel series that’s starting to look like a seriously bad idea. How long before some executive decides to reboot the series instead?
If you ask original series actor Jason Isaacs, who played the deliciously evil Lucius Malfoy, that would be a terrible idea. “First of all, franchise is a word we apply to people who sell hamburgers in different places, and make sure they taste the same and that the fries are cooked for the same length of time or, you know, Starbucks, or, I don’t know Staples or something,” Isaacs told ComicBook.com. “So seven brilliant books that turned into, that were made into eight brilliant movies. Do I think anyone should remake them? As much as I think anyone should remake The Godfather, or Some Like it Hot, or anything that was brilliant. I thought they were perfectly made at the perfect time by the perfect people, and that it would be insanity to remake them.”
I disagree with Isaacs that Harry Potter isn’t part of a franchise. Maybe that word doesn’t mean what it means in the fast food industry when applied to movies, but it still applies: Harry Potter is a business with action figures, video games, prequel series, tie-in books, theme parks and more to its name. However it began life, it’s a franchise now, and it exists to find new ways to sell itself. If the powers that be in Hollywood want to reboot it badly enough, they’ll find a way.
That said, Isaacs does have a sense of humor about the whole thing. “Of course if they do , I hope they give me a call,” he laughed.
For the record, I don’t think we’ll see a Harry Potter movie reboot anytime soon; there are still lots of ways for the series to expand without needing to resort to that. On the other hand, we shouldn’t underestimate what movie studios will do to put butts in seats. Frankly, I wonder if a television adaptation might not be where they’ll go first.
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