The first part of the Harry Potter franchise was released in November of 2001 and turned the popular book series written by J.K Rowling into a worldwide phenomenon. Since then, the series has gone on to become one of the most successful franchises ever.
Back in the late 90s when Columbus signed on to direct the first film of the franchise, he only had the books to work from, and the job of visually creating the Harry Potter world fell on his shoulders. According to Screenrant, Columbus said that Harry Potter was quite daunting at the time, as he knew that millions of fans of the book series would be watching every decision he made.
After directing the first two installments in the franchise Colombus stated that he ultimately remains pleased with the choices that were made when first designing the world of Harry Potter. Although, Harry Potter director Chris Columbus has recently revealed that despite the movie’s huge success, there is still one thing that he wishes he could change.
On the film’s 20th anniversary, Columbus revealed in an interview with Polygon that he would love to change one detail in the film if he could. He said that the design of Harry’s famous scar was very difficult to get right and the director still isn’t sure if they ever did.
Additionally, Columbus said that at the time of shooting the first Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), productions were not allowed to apply prosthetics to actors under the age of 16, and they use simpler makeup techniques. And that’s why the scar never looked as real as it did in his imagination. Colombus said, “That’s the one detail, an important detail, that I wish I could go back and tweak.”
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Despite this, Columbus remains happy with how the film turned out. He has remarked that designing the first film was particularly difficult, as only the first four books had been released at the time, so he had to rely on hints from Rowling as to where the story would go in the future. Moreover, Harry’s scar design notwithstanding, Columbus has expressed that he is pleased with the look of his first two films installments so seamlessly into future directors’ Harry Potter installments in the franchise.