Michael Cera reveals why he turned down a role in the Harry Potter franchise
Michael Cera just dropped some seriously juicy gossip during a conversation with podcaster and documentarian Louis Theroux. The actor, best known for his roles in feature films Superbad and Juno, recently opened up about why he decided to pass on becoming involved with one of the biggest cinematic franchises in the world.
Cera recently appeared on a bonus episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast to discuss everything from his starring role in Wes Anderson’s 2025 film The Phoenician Scheme to his run-ins with Mission Impossible’s leading man Tom Cruise.
And during the actor’s conversation with Theroux, he opened up about how he decided to swerve the opportunity to become involved with the Harry Potter prequel series Fantastic Beasts.
Speaking about being considered for one of the leading roles, Cera explained: “I don’t even know if I was offered, I think I just declined to engage with it because I think it would be like probably six years commitment or something. But also, I did sort of make a conscientious choice to limit my exposure a little bit, or just try and be a little more in control of it.”
“And I felt like doing, especially little kids’ movies, I had a big fear of doing things that I would get too famous,” Cera continued.
Fantastic Beasts included three movies directed by David Yates that were a spin-off prequel to the Harry Potter novel and film series. Eddie Redmayne led the cast as the protagonist Newt Scamander, with Johnny Depp portraying the primary antagonist Gellert Grindelwald until he was later replaced with Mads Mikkelsen.
The entire Harry Potter franchise has been at the centre of real controversy for some time now, particularly due to the transphobic actions and rhetoric spouted by author JK Rowling. In fact, as soon as news broke that HBO Max had decided to pursue a television adaptation of the series, headlines have been dominated by scandal surrounding casting decisions and Rowling’s involvement.
so we’re all agreeing that jk rowling didn’t write harry potter and harry potter has nothing to do with her and her shitty beliefs, yes? it was written by harry himself and that’s that
— gabriella ⭐️ (@velvetgh0st) July 6, 2020
Recently, Pedro Pascal has been incredibly vocal regarding how he feels about Rowling’s transphobia. The actor, whose sister Lux is transgender, has referred to the Harry Potter’s actions as “heinous loser behaviour,” going on to say in his Vanity Fair cover that “bullies make [me] f*cking sick.”
So, it’s safe to say that Cera might have dodged a serious bullet by deciding to keep far away from all things Harry Potter.
