Steven Spielberg, in an interview with TCM, elaborated on why he once declined to work on the "Harry Potter" adaptation. According to the director, he had to choose between J.K. Rowling's books, which already looked like the basis for a guaranteed hit, and the long-gestating sci-fi project "A.I. Artificial Intelligence."
Stanley Kubrick had given Spielberg the rights to "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" in the mid-1990s, shortly before his death. However, work on the film did not progress until Kubrick's passing in 1999. At the director's funeral, his widow Christiane and her brother Jan Harlan asked Spielberg to complete the project. He ultimately chose "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," and the director's chair for the first wizarding film was taken by his protégé Chris Columbus:
"I really did walk away from 'Harry Potter,' which was supposed to be my next film as a director. I turned it down. It was obvious that the film would be a huge hit, as the book had already become a crazy cultural phenomenon by then. But I dropped it to essentially do 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence.'"
However, Spielberg's vision was fundamentally different from the "Harry Potter" that audiences know. Inspired by Pixar's success, the director, along with DreamWorks Animation, planned to combine the plots of several early books and release a large-scale animated film.
Ultimately, Spielberg directed the sci-fi drama "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," while the classic film franchise starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson grossed over $7.7 billion worldwide and became one of the most successful media franchises in pop culture history. HBO is currently preparing a modern reboot of "Harry Potter" as a series, with each book dedicated to a separate season. The first season, adapting "Philosopher's Stone," will be released on December 25, 2026.