Three of Harry Potter's most iconic castings come from a surprising source

Steven Spielberg is responsible for casting some of the main characters in the Harry Potter film series In a recent interview, Steven Spielberg confirmed that he played a part in casting three iconic characters in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Without the actors he hand-picked, those original movies will be very different. Spielberg was briefly attached to direct the first Harry Potter movie early in its development. He was asked about his work on the project during an interview about Disclosure Day on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. In response, Spielberg revealed he actually played a role in proposing the casting of three iconic characters from that first film: Richard Harris' Dumbledore, Maggie Smith's Professor McGonagall, and Robbie Coltrane's Hagrid. "I developed the second draft with Steve [Kloves, writer,] trying to turn it into something that I was interested in directing...I had just worked with Maggie Smith on Hook, so I proposed Maggie Smith. I knew Richard Harris — he was a friend from a long time ago — I put him in the movie. And Robbie Coltrane. That was it. But then I got out of the movie for personal reasons. No anger, no big controversy, I stepped out. An