Kit Harington Once Wanted To Be In A Harry Potter Movie

By the time Warner’s seven-part Harry Potter film saga reached its crescendo, it seemed nearly every prominent British actor was involved in the fantasy adaptation – from Gary Oldman to Warwick Davis, Maggie Smith to David Bradley, the Powers That Be really stuffed their Potter movies with top-tier British talent.

Indeed, once Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was summoned into theaters, it was more a case of who wasn’t in Harry Potter, as the franchise had become so big that almost every working British actor had been drawn to its magical pull – all expect Game of Thrones stalwart Kit Harington.

Okay, that’s a little dramatic – Harington was by no means the only English talent to be left on the sidelines, but it turns out the Jon Snow Aegon Targaryen actor originally wanted to appear alongside the Boy Who Lived. Or better still, to be cast as Harry Potter himself.

Via Entertainment Weekly:

I always wanted to be in a Potter movie. I always wanted to be Harry Potter.

Truth be told, it’s difficult to imagine someone other than Daniel Radcliffe in the role of Harry Potter, as the actor was perhaps the perfect fit for J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard. Moreover, Game of Thrones was just getting off the ground in 2011, so there’s a good chance Kit Harington would have had to pass up the chance to play Jon Snow, bastard child of Ned Stark, in order to fulfill his childhood dream of starring in a Harry Potter movie.

All told, things worked out for the best, as the eighth and final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones is set for a premiere in 2019, and it’s one which will see a great deal of screentime for Harington’s brooding hero.