The franchise is being rebooted by HBO for television, but the iconic property previously lived on thanks to the Fantastic Beasts film series. Despite featuring Eddie Redmayne, fresh off his Best Actor Oscar win, Fantastic Beasts failed to get off the ground after the three movies got increasingly poor reviews. However, an alternate reality would have seen The Phoenician Scheme star featured in the Harry Potter offshoot as a lead.

During an interview with Louis Theroux, Michael Cera revealed that he declined to engage in talks to star in the Harry Potter spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts. He does not reveal what role he was up for, but it is possible that it was one of the main characters. Cera claims it was around a six-year commitment, so it could have been for Newt Scamander (Redmayne) himself. Other possibilities include Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) and Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), both of whom were featured in all three films.Check out Cera's quote:

“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.”

In hindsight, Cera certainly dodged a bullet, as the Fantastic Beasts franchise sunk by the time The Secrets of Dumbledore hit theaters in 2022. It is defunct, and Warner Bros. is now committed to reinterpreting the original Harry Potter books for television on HBO. Meanwhile, when it comes to Cera, it seems he is more lenient on possibly joining major franchises nowadays. He doesn't name any specific one, but when asked about joining a superhero franchise, Cera hilariously said, "A superhero who is a big fan of dairy, I could play."

“I think I’ve outgrown that particular feeling, but I think that’s what that was at that time. 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.”

As of this writing, the Fantastic Beasts franchise is essentially dead. After The Secrets of Dumbledore grossed $400 million worldwide on a $200 million budget, Warner Bros. decided to shift gears and focus on a Harry Potter adaptation. Of course, it also didn't help that the prequel films underwent several major hiccups, including Johnny Depp getting recast as Grindelwald and Ezra Miller's legal troubles. Meanwhile, Controversies continue to plague the overarching property as many longtime fans continue to critique the HBO reboot for its close ties to original author J.K. Rowling.

Jude Law, who portrayed a young version of Albus Dumbledore in The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore, confirmed that the film series is "certainly on hold." While he didn't say it was outright canceled, he had not heard anything about future sequels as recently as late 2024.

“I know it’s certainly on hold. My guess would be that, now that they’re doing Harry Potter as a TV show, they’ll probably put their energy into that. I certainly haven’t heard that there’s anything on the horizon.”

Source: The Louis Theroux Podcast via Variety