Although Michael Cera took on a major piece of IP in 2023’s Barbie, he previously turned down another massive Warner Bros. franchise.
The actor recently explained that while he turned down a role in the Harry Potter spin-off films Fantastic Beasts, he doesn’t think he has “a franchise resistance” when it comes to his onscreen career.
“I think I turned one down once. Yeah, I did. It was a Harry Potter one, Fantastic Beasts,” he recalled on The Louis Theroux Podcast. “I don’t even know if I was offered, I think I just declined to engage with it because — well, I think it would be like probably six years commitment or something. But also, like we were talking about earlier, 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 added, “And I felt like doing, especially little kids’ movies, I had a big fear of doing things that I would get too famous a little bit.”
The Phoenician Scheme actor did not reveal which role he was up for in the David Yates-helmed franchise, which ultimately starred Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022).
Cera said of his reluctance to take on such a big franchise, “I think that’s changed a little. I think I’ve outgrown that particular feeling.
“But I think that’s what that was at that time,” he continued. “If a franchise came along now and seemed interesting, I don’t think on the grounds of it being a franchise I would leave the office, storm out of the office or anything.”
In October, Redmayne said that audiences “probably have” seen the last of Newt after the Fantastic Beasts franchise was originally planned for five installments. Warner Bros. has instead been focused on a Harry Potter series reboot, set to premiere on HBO in 2026.
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