This week marks exactly 20 years since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone arrived in theaters, where it instantly turned a literary sensation into a global phenomenon. The opening installment became one of the highest-grossing movies ever made when it exploded onto the scene, even though it didn’t reach the billion-dollar mark until the 2020 re-release.
Chris Columbus arguably faced the toughest task of any director to helm a Wizarding World blockbuster given that he was responsible for setting most of the building blocks in place that would establish the mythology fans would come to know and love across the following seven sequels.
Sorcerer’s Stone wasn’t a light and breezy romp by any means at a hefty 152 minutes, but in a new interview with The Wrap, the filmmaker agreed that he’d love to see his three-hour cut of the film arrive in its entirety one day.
“I would too. We have to put Peeves back in the movie, who was cut from the movie!”
Zack Snyder really has a lot to answer for, with he existence of his four-hour Justice League planting seeds in the heads of many contemporaries, including Suicide Squad‘s David Ayer and Thor: The Dark World‘s Alan Taylor. Don’t be surprised if an extended version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone comes to fruition one day, though, especially when HBO Max have previous for exactly this sort of thing.
