In this version, the audience has the opportunity to meet an important character in the books, but who was completely forgotten in the movies.
The Third
Every time Warner Bros. or Max mentions the television remake of Harry Potter, we hear the same promise: the series will bring to the screen all those details of the wizarding world that didn’t make it into the original films due to time constraints. But while we wait for this new adaptation, there is a mystery that remains unsolved: the existence of an extended version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
The first film in the saga starring Daniel Radcliffe had the mission of adapting just over 220 pages from the British edition of the book. However, it failed to include all the moments fans were hoping to see on screen. Chris Columbus, director of the film, was faced with the task of cutting scenes to reduce the length. Thus, the film arrived in theaters at 152 minutes, while its special edition on disc added only seven extra minutes, enough to provide some more context, but without revealing much new material.
However, there is a version of The Philosopher’s Stone which exceeds three hours in duration. This cut, jealously guarded in the Warner Bros. archives, includes deleted scenes that fans have never been able to enjoy, such as the appearance of Peeves, the Hogwarts poltergeist. Rik Mayall, the actor who gave life to this character, filmed his scenes but later learned that they had been eliminated from the final cut. “I was on set for three weeks. Then they fired me, but they still paid me. It is the most exciting film I participated in… and I did not participate,” Mayall recalled in an interview.
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Columbus shared that during early test screenings in Chicago, where this extended three-hour version was shown, reactions were mixed: “The parents said it was too long, while the children thought the opposite. “I saw it as a good sign, because children tend to have a shorter attention span.”. Despite the children’s enthusiasm, Warner Bros. executives decided to shorten the film before its official release.
Although the three-hour version never saw the light of day, fans speculate that other films in the saga could have longer cuts hidden in the studio’s archives. A re-release of these extended versions would be a perfect gift for the most nostalgic fans of the franchise, and would also raise a key question: Do we really need a remake when the original material is pretty good?
CNET
With three hours of footage, unpublished scenes and the presence of characters like Peeves, this film could be rediscovered as a true treasure of fantasy cinema. So while we wait for Warner Bros. to be encouraged to share these lost gems, if anything it is clear that the charm of the original version of The Philosopher’s Stone remains intact. What do you think? Would you see a new version of this film?
