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02nd Jan 2022

Harry Potter director backs 3-hour cut of film with Rik Mayall

Danny Jones

Rik Mayall cut from first Harry Potter film

That’s right, Lord Flasheart himself was in Potter and the people want to see it

Comedy legend Rik Mayall was apparently in the first Harry Potter film and we, along with everyone collectively losing their minds, are now calling for it to be released. The best part is, so is the director.

While it may not be news to everyone, for many it will come as a surprise to hear that Mayall, who sadly died in June 2014, was once in the original three-hour-long edit of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

In this BTS clip from now reshared by ‘Talking Bottom’, a fan podcast all about the hit comedy series and live show, Mayall discusses his experience on set at length before joking, “it was crap because I wasn’t in it”:

Furthermore, while the decision to cut him has been discussed before, Christopher Columbus – who directed the first two Potter films before bowing out as a producer on the third – said in, a recent interview with The Wrap that he is all for re-releasing the longer director’s cut to finally reveal Mayall’s role to the world and give the character of Peeves his long-overdue debut.

Columbus explained how “We knew that the film worked because we did a couple of previews” and said in no uncertain terms that he would love to see Mayall back in the edit, declaring that if it were to be done, “We have to put Peeves back in the movie, who was cut from the movie!”

Naturally, people online are very much of the same opinion.

Sod the Snyder Cut, we want the Columbus Cut… the Mayall Cut? You get it: we want to see peak immaturity of Richie, the wackiness of Drop Dead Fred and the energy of Lord Flasheart in a Potter move – is that too much to ask?

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