Emma Watson almost quit the Harry Potter franchise during the fifth film

Emma Watson is joined by her fellow Harry Potter castmates for the reunion special, Return To Hogwarts, scheduled to hit HBO Max on New Year’s Day. The special is a celebration of the franchise, most notably the 20th anniversary of the first film which fell in November, but Watson is revealing that she almost wanted to end her run as Hermione before the end of the saga.

During Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, Watson acknowledges that she planned on leaving the franchise and this was a decision that was coming to fruition during the making of the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The director of the film, David Yates, also mentions how Watson almost made the decision to quit the role and the actress explains that it came at a time in her life when she was feeling lonely and the fame associated with the franchise was escalating. She shares her thoughts during a discussion with Grint on the special:

“I think I was scared. I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point where you were like, ‘This is kind of forever now.’ It was around the time of Order of the Phoenix when things started getting spicy for all of us. The fame thing had finally hit home – in a big way. No-one had to convince me to see it through. The fans genuinely wanted me to succeed, and they all genuinely have each other’s backs. How great is that?”

When speaking on Watson’s feelings of loneliness, Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy, says that “People definitely forget what she took on and how gracefully she did it” and he also noted that while he had his “cronies” and Radcliffe and Grint had each other to lean on during their rise to fame, Watson was “not only younger but she was by herself.”

It appears that Watson wasn’t the only Harry Potter actor that thought about calling it quits. In the discussion that follows, Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the films, revealed he has similar feels but admits that the pair never discussed their thoughts with each other at the time. Grint said, “I also had sort of similar feelings to Emma, contemplating what life would be like if I called it a day. We never really spoke about it. I guess we were just going through it at our pace, we were kind of in the moment at the time. It just didn’t really occur to us that we were all probably kind of having similar feelings.”

Radcliffe also admits that they never talked about their feelings regarding wanting to leave or the level of fame they were getting because they were just kids at the time. Radcliffe said, “We never talked about it on the film because we were all just kids. As a 14-year-old boy, I was never going to turn around to another 14-year-old and be like, ‘Hey, how are you doing? Is everything okay?'”

This is very true and it should be remembered that they were young adults during the making of Order of the Phoenix and it would be normal, despite the fame and notoriety they were receiving, for them to question what their next moves should be. I think the Harry Potter leads had a rep for being pretty well-adjusted despite their success so if this was their only moment of doubt, I’d call that a win. They ultimately finished out the franchise and have gone on to have stellar careers since the saga wrapped.

Return to Hogwarts features a reunion between the three leads, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, and also features appearances by Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Tom Felton, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Alfred Enoch, Matthew Lewis, and Evanna Lynch, director Chris Columbus and more! It’s bound to be a true treat for Harry Potter fans.

Are YOU surprised Emma Watson and Rupert Grint thought about quitting the franchise?