Michael Cera could have been part of the Wizarding World.
In a new interview with Louis Theroux on his eponymous podcast, the “Superbad” and “Scott Pilgrim” star said he was once in talks to be part of the “Harry Potter” spinoff franchise “Fantastic Beasts,” but turned it down out of “fear” of getting “too famous.”
“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,” Cera said. “And I felt like doing, especially little kids’ movies, I had a big fear of doing things that I would get too famous.”
A prequel to the “Harry Potter” films, “Fantastic Beasts” and its two sequels center on Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), an expert on magical creatures who is recruited by a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to help defeat the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (portrayed by Johnny Depp in the first two films and Mads Mikkelsen in the third). Though it was a box office success and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling — who also penned the “Fantastic Beasts” screenplays — planned it as a five-film series, concrete plans to continue the franchise have not been announced.
However, Cera — who just starred in his first Wes Anderson film, “The Phoenician Scheme” — said that his thoughts on fame have “changed a little” and he’d be more open to taking part in a franchise today.
“I think I’ve outgrown that particular feeling, but I think that’s what that was at that time,” he continued. “But if a franchise came along now and seemed interesting, I don’t think on the grounds of it being a franchise I would storm out of the office or anything.”
Does that mean Cera would be open to joining the Marvel universe someday? Well, under one condition: “A superhero who is a big fan of dairy, I could play,” he said.
Listen to Cera’s full interview with Theroux here.
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