The Missing Character We Could Finally See In Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone Director's Cut
The "Harry Potter" franchise has enjoyed a lot of success with audiences. In fact, when factoring in the two "Fantastic Beasts" movies released thus far, the series has grossed over $9.2 billion at the worldwide box office (per The Numbers). Those are pretty impressive numbers for movies based on a book series, though less surprising considering the books of the same name by controversial author J.K. Rowling, which have sold over 500 million copies worldwide, according to Wizarding World.
Still, like any adaptation, the "Harry Potter" movies have had to take certain creative liberties and change or condense events that happened in the books. This even meant cutting certain side characters that just wouldn't fit in the narrative of a two-hour-plus film. However. for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," director Chris Columbus originally had every intention of including one character that would eventually be cut. In fact, he filmed scenes with the character in his original director's cut, though it was eventually changed before release.
Now, however, Columbus would like to see these scenes restored in a director's cut for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
Chris Columbus wants Peeves restored in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
While speaking with The Wrap, Chris Columbus revealed that he's still holding out hope that Warner Bros. might release his original three-hour cut of the film that he first showed studio execs. These cut scenes would have featured Peeves, a mischievous poltergeist in books that pulls all kinds of pranks on the students, including the title character Harry Potter and his friends. "We have to put Peeves back in the movie, who was cut from the movie," Columbus said.
Interestingly enough, Columbus also revealed that the original cut of the movie was popular amongst children in test audiences. "Parents afterwards said it was too long, the kids said it was too short," the director remarked. "I thought, well, the kids presumably have a shorter attention span so this is a good thing."
Interestingly enough, Warner still decided to remove 30 minutes of footage for the final cut. However, given that the company's parent, WarnerMedia, has given fans extended cuts like the Snyder Cut of "Justice League" through their streaming service, HBO Max, perhaps it's not outside the realm of possibility that fans will eventually see the three-hour version of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on the platform.