Harry Potter star Emma Watson almost quit her role as Hermione Granger: ‘I was scared’

A snippet from the upcoming Harry Potter reunion, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, revealed Emma Watson almost quit the hit franchise at a point. The actor played the role of Hermione Granger in the series. 

Emma was just 11 years old when the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was released. Over the course of the decade, she played Hermoine in the eight-part series, becoming synonymous to the fictional character. 

As reported by Comicbook.com, the reunion episode features Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix director David Yates revealing that during the filming, he was warned by the studio that Emma ‘wasn’t sure if she wants to come back.’

Emma revealed that she was ‘scared’ and lonely at that point of her life. “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’,” she said. “It was around the time of Order of the Phoenix when things started getting spicy for all of us,” she added. 

The actor explained that fans wanted the cast to succeed but she noticed that the fame had ‘hit home.’ “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?” she said. 

As reported by The Independent, Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy, noted that Emma was ‘by herself.’ “People definitely forget what she took on and how gracefully she did it. Dan (Daniel Radcliffe) and Rupert (Grint) had each other, I had my cronies, whereas Emma was not only younger, she was by herself,” he said. 

Also read: Emma Watson recalls why she fell in love with Harry Potter co-star Tom Felton, he says ‘always had a soft spot for her’

Turns out, not only was Emma contemplating her future in the franchise, her co-star Rupert Grint was also experiencing similar emotions. “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 own 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,” he said. 

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts will premiere on January 1. The special will stream on HBO Max in the US and Amazon Prime Video in India.