Michael Cera says he turned down Fantastic Beasts role over fears he’d get ‘too famous’

The Harry Potter spin-off films famously starred Eddie Redmayne as magizoologist Newt Scamander

Michael Cera has revealed that he was almost part of the Harry Potter universe.

Speaking on Tuesday with Louis Theroux on his eponymous podcast, the Superbad actor shared that he was in talks to appear in Fantastic Beasts, the spinoff film franchise based on J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World.

The series, set before Harry Potter’s time, follows magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who teams up with Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to thwart the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp and later Mads Mikkelsen).

The actor did not reveal which role in the movies he was approached to play. “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,” Cera said. “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.”

‘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 (Getty Images/Warner Bros)

Since his initial refusal to partake in the saga, which took place over three movies, the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World actor said he’d be more likely to commit to a franchise now.

“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.”

Following the release of the last Fantastic Beasts film, The Secrets of Dumbledore, in 2022, the franchise seems to have been put on pause for the foreseeable future despite being slated for five films.

Speaking to ComicBook.com in October 2024, Redmayne said fans have “probably” seen the last of his character.

“That was a very frank answer, but yeah. And that’s as far as I know. I mean, you’d have to speak to the people at Warner Bros and JK Rowling, but as far as I know, that’s it,” he said.

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Meanwhile, Dumbledore actor Law, who has been getting candid about his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), had a similar answer to Redmayne.

He told Variety: “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.”