Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe came along, Harry Potter was the highest-grossing movie franchise in history, with the eight literary adaptations raking in over $7.7 billion at the box office. The books had become a cultural phenomenon long before Chris Columbus’ first installment hit theaters in 2001, but the live-action blockbusters elevated the brand to an entirely new level.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was released almost a decade ago, and yet Potter remains as popular as ever. And while the Fantastic Beasts prequel series has failed to recapture the levels of critical or commercial acclaim that greeted Harry, Ron and Hermione’s continued adventures, we’ve still got three more of them to go regardless.
The original story came to a finite conclusion, though, and with there being no more books left to mine for inspiration, you’d imagine that would be the end of it until the inevitable remake happens decades down the line. However, there’ve been unsubstantiated reports making the rounds recently that the original cast are in talks about a potential return, although it should by no means be taken as gospel.
That being said, in a recent interview, Rupert Grint refused to rule out a comeback as Ron Weasley somewhere down the line, admitting that his emotional attachment to Harry Potter and the affect it had on his life would make it difficult for him to say no if the opportunity arose.
“I don’t know. I mean, never say never. I would never say, ‘Absolutely no’. It was a huge part of my life and I’m very fond of that character and their stories. So yeah, I mean, I’d be up for it at the right time. I don’t know what capacity that would be, but yeah, we’ll see.”
Harry Potter was such a defining presence in pop culture that the younger stars will always be associated with the franchise no matter what they do for the rest of their careers, but any sort of continuation runs the risk of being a major disappointment which could ultimately dilute the impact of the original eight-movie arc that defined a generation the first time around.