Serial killers in film are often synonymous with slashers or crime procedurals, leaving very little to the imagination when it comes to narrative structure. Typically, you get a killer whose crimes slowly escalate, a damsel in distress who either becomes one of many victims or the final girl, and an ending where good prevails over evil and everybody goes home saying, “That’s just about what I was expecting.” I’m not knocking slashers or procedurals because they’re still fun and, when done well, make for a great viewing experience.
2023’s Woman of the Hour, on the other hand, ignores those familiar beats and tells its story through multiple timelines that converge at just the right moment. The audience understands how everything connects while the characters take a little longer to catch up from their respective vantage points, which makes the payoff all the more satisfying.
Even if you’re familiar with the true crime story involving real-life serial killer Rodney Alcala that the film is based on, Woman of the Hour reshapes those events into something so uniquely structured that you’ll wish more stories were told this way. As a viewer, you feel omniscient. The thrills come from waiting for the characters to realize what you already know.
Set On A Game Show Lot, But So Much More Than That
Set between 1971 and 1979, Woman of the Hour introduces Rodney Alcala, depicted strangling a woman in 1977 after luring her to a remote location for a photo shoot. The film then shifts to 1978 Los Angeles, where we meet our primary protagonist, struggling actress Sheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick), whose agent convinces her to appear as a contestant on The Dating Game.
Reluctant because she believes the gig is beneath her, Sheryl shows up to the taping and turns on the charm with Bachelor #1 (Matt Visser), Bachelor #2 (Jedidiah Goodacre), and Bachelor #3 (Daniel Zovatto), who just so happens to be Rodney Alcala. By this point, Woman of the Hour has already shown Rodney murdering a flight attendant named Charlie (Kathryn Gallagher) in 1971 New York City, along with the woman from the opening sequence. Now dialing in the charm for the TV lights, Rodney quickly gains the upper hand on The Dating Game, putting himself in position to win a weekend getaway to Carmel-by-the-Sea with Sheryl.
During the taping, a studio audience member named Laura (Nicolette Robinson) recognizes Rodney as the man who murdered her friend, but was never found by police. Panicked, she flees the production floor and knocks over a camera in the process. Her boyfriend dismisses her claims, and security brushes her off as well.
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Before we learn Sheryl’s immediate fate, the film jumps to 1979, where a woman named Amy (Autumn Best) encounters Rodney under circumstances similar to his earlier victims. He offers to take her photos in a remote area, his violent side begins to surface, and the scene cuts away as Woman of the Hour transitions back to the game show. There, Sheryl takes creative liberties with her flirtatious questions, winning over the audience, and ultimately chooses Bachelor #3 as the winner.
The Suspense Comes From Knowing
Even if you’re unfamiliar with Rodney Alcala’s real-life murder spree in the 70s, which eventually led to his capture and incarceration, Woman of the Hour still generates relentless tension. By the time Sheryl meets Rodney on The Dating Game, we already know exactly what he’s capable of. Nobody else does.
Laura’s suspicions are met with condescension. Her boyfriend reassures her that game show producers aggressively vet contestants and run background checks before allowing them to participate. They don’t. Complicating matters further, Rodney is a serial killer operating across multiple states over several years who has not yet been definitively identified by authorities.
We witness Rodney’s crimes across separate timelines and see how easily he evades consequences. We catch glimpses of his mental state both when he commits violence and when he’s questioned by authorities, narrowly slipping through their fingers before relocating. We see how sly and charming he can be before he escalates, which makes his presence on The Dating Game all the more unnerving. He’s amiable enough to lure victims in, but that facade drops the second he senses control slipping.
The result is a nail-biting thriller where you know the killer from the moment he appears in the opening scene. The tension doesn’t come from guessing who did it. It comes from watching him zero in on Sheryl, who is blissfully unaware and simply trying to carve out a career in Hollywood, while Laura struggles to convince anyone to listen.
“Jenny and I have discussed it. We’ve all discussed what she could possibly do on the show,” Wahlberg, 56, exclusively told Us Weekly. “What most people don’t know is that she was offered a part on Blue Bloods when we first started dating for an episode and we decided it was best not to do it. We didn’t want to distract the audience with that.”
Wahlberg didn’t rule anything out, adding, “But going forward, we had talked about her being [my son] Sean’s nurse and then she catches Danny’s eye. But Sean didn’t stay in the hospital too long … so Jenny’s definitely game to do something.”
The actor pointed out that McCarthy, 53, has already become part of the cast.
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“Her and [my costar] Sonequa Martin-Green have become very close so they’re talking ideas,” he noted. “Every time I FaceTime with Jenny, Sonequa says something like, ‘Come on, we you need to a part on the show. I need you here all the time.’ It makes my heart so happy.”
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Wahlburgers
Wahlberg didn’t stop there with the suggestions. “But I think my nephews are also interested in playing parts. They’re actors and we have Oscar, Jeffrey and Brandon. They are all doing very well in their own right,” he continued. “Is there a world where I finally twist Mark’s arm to come do an episode? Maybe. It depends on the script but anything’s possible.”
Before Boston Blue, Blue Bloods followed the lives of the Reagan family, many of whom work for the NYPD under the leadership of NYC police commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck). Frank’s father, Henry Reagan (Len Cariou), was also central to the show, alongside Frank’s children: daughter Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan) and sons Danny (Wahlberg) and Jamie Reagan (Will Estes).
The show aired from 2010 to 2024 before CBS announced a spinoff. Wahlberg’s character is at the center of the spinoff, which picks up as the former NYPD officer takes on a position with the Boston P.D. He is then paired with detective Lena (Martin-Green), the eldest daughter of a prominent law enforcement family.
“That’s the joy right now of working with this group of writers. And the show runners specifically is … I told them on Monday that I had a phone call with [the Boston Celtics’] Jaylen Brown and he said, ‘Get me on the show,’” Wahlberg explained. “I told our EPs and they wrote a scene as I sat there next to them. That’s how we’re approaching this.”
“We can’t just do anything haphazardly at any old given time,” he told Us. “But they are so game to try things and it’s really just about making sure we’re doing it the right way and making sure we’re giving it the most value for the audience.”
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He concluded: “It is also realizing we can take our time and we don’t have to force all these things upon the audience. We can stretch it out and keep surprising them and keep having twists and turns that they didn’t expect.”
Tom Hardy smiling on the red carpetImage via Ian West/PA Images/INSTARimages.com
When you list out the biggest action stars in the world, the list doesn’t go very far before you get to Tom Hardy. Hardy first exploded as a star thanks to his role as Eames in Christopher Nolan’s Inception, and he reunited with the director two years later for The Dark Knight Rises, where he plays Bane. In 2015, Hardy teamed up with Charlize Theron for Mad Max: Fury Road, the legendary sci-fi epic that’s still inspiring a generation of movies to this day. He most recently starred as Harry da Souza in MobLand, the hit crime thriller show from director Guy Ritchie, and he played Eddie Brock for the final time in Venom: The Last Dance. Sony just announced a new Venom animated movie, but it’s unclear if Hardy’s confirmed involvement will be behind the camera or in front of it.
15 years ago, however, Hardy starred in one of his most underappreciated movies, Warrior. The MMA drama tells the story of two brothers, both sons of an alcoholic former boxer. Despite some love in their hearts for each other, the two end up on a collision course that only ends with one of them standing over the other in the octagon. Hardy stars alongside Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte in the film, which earned scores of 84% from critics and 92% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, it grossed only $23 million at the box office against a $25 million budget. Warrior is currently streaming on Prime Video, but Paramount+ has announced that the film will join its streaming library at the start of next month, on March 1.
According to film critics, Scream 7 is the death of the franchise. With an aggregate of 33% from 120 critic reviews as of this writing, it’s easy to believe they are right. There is just one problem: the movie is so popular that it’s poised to break opening-weekend franchise records.
The previous record was set by Scream VI, which opened with $44 million. The new movie is projected to approach or break $50 million, with some estimates as high as $59 million. Fans gave Scream 7 a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating a big gap between audiences and critics.
How Politics Influences The Reviews Of Critics
The one thing that all the bad reviews have in common is discussion of the firing of Melissa Barerra and the subsequent departure of Jenna Ortega, both of whom played characters central to the two previous installations. Barerra was fired for making inflammatory remarks about Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, sentiments which are shared by many in the entertainment industry; Ortega left in protest of Barrera’s dismissal. A lot of critics and major entertainment news venues sympathize with Barrera’s views, and some of these are gleefully reporting the Rotten Tomatoes critics’ ratings as though it means something for the movie.
Melissa Barerra and Jenna Ortega in Scream VI
Critics also infamously panned the biopic of the First Lady, Melania, with an even wider gap of 11% based on 53 reviews, while over 1000 audience reviewers average 98%. They are also offering great praise to the politically motivated series Starfleet Academy, the latest Star Trek show that hasn’t really resonated with fans, but which we keep being told is the best Star Trek yet. Meanwhile, the Daily Wire+ show The Pendragon Cycle has been ignored by mainstream critics, with no score on Rotten Tomatoes at all, not even a 0, despite an average of 85% from viewers.
What this all indicates is that industry reviewers are circling the wagons based on political divides rather than giving honest reviews. They are evaluating movies with greater consideration of whether they check certain boxes off-screen, and are boycotting or panning films that don’t neatly fit their mold. Critics are relying on their authority as insiders to dictate culture through the lens of politics rather than examining movies on their own merits and audience potential.
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Professional Review Bombing
Some commenters have even accused the collective of mainstream critics of “review bombing”Scream 7. Review bombing is a phenomenon in which individuals give a movie a bad rating for some motive outside the show. Recently, a review bombing war between A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms fans and Breaking Bad fans resulted in the IMDB rating of the latter’s crowning episode, “Ozymandias,” being reduced to a 9.5 from a perfect 10. The war started because the Game of Thrones spinoff received some bad reviews from Breaking Bad fans, who may or may not have been acting in bad faith.
However, those are individuals, even if some of them coordinated via an internet campaign. They are not the professionals relied on to be unbiased and to evaluate movies and television based on the productions themselves, not on who made them or their politics. The fact that the critics don’t seem to be connected to what audiences seem to want makes it even worse, because we are all being told that liking the stuff we like makes us bigoted if they don’t like it. And they also seem to think that if they ignore it altogether, like with The Pendragon Cycle, that maybe it will slip by unnoticed.
How much of our culture is being suppressed by critics with political agendas? Scream 7indicates that the question needs to be asked as it is such a runaway hit that the motives of mainstream reviewers may not be critique, but activism.
Shia LaBeouf I Don’t Have a Drinking Problem … But I am Scared of Gay People Touching Me!
Published
Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan
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Shia LaBeouf is reflecting on his Mardi Gras morning arrest … saying he doesn’t have a drinking problem, but rather a Napoleon complex — oh, and he’s scared of gay people touching him.
The troubled actor said all this and more in a lengthy interview for “Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan” published on YouTube Saturday. You can see it all in the clip — he reflects on his Feb. 17 arrest and theorizes his outburst has more to do with his anger and ego than his use of alcohol.
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Shia also looks back on what led up to him getting physical with a group of people before his arrest … explaining “big gay people” are scary to him … and he was frightened when they allegedly began touching his leg.
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We told you all about the chaotic ordeal — the “Holes” star got into a rowdy brawl outside R Bar in New Orleans in the early morning hours of Feb. 17. He even landed on the ground for a beating before getting checked out by paramedics and ultimately being sent behind bars. Police say he hurled homophobic slurs multiple times at a group of people outside the bar during the incident.
However, on Thursday, a judge set a $100,000 bail and ordered him to undergo drug testing and enroll in substance abuse treatment. He also criticized him for using homophobic slurs, saying his actions posed a threat to a marginalized community.
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New Orleans police reportedly issued another warrant on Friday related to an additional victim in the brawl.
Yung Miami Says She Wants A Man With A Net Worth Of At Least $100 Million
On Wednesday, February 25, UPROXX and HipHopDX released a sitdown episode of ‘Sound Check’ with guest Yung Miami via YouTube. During the sitdown, Miami was asked to share her “status of love” and revealed that she’s “just living” and “just having fun.” As for her list of things she’s looking for in her next partner, she explained that her next boo has to “have a coin.”
“A provider. I need someone that’s God-fearing; that’s religious. That believes in God — someone that leads,” she said.
At that point, she was asked to share the “minimum net worth” her ideal man has to have.
“I want a man that has at least has like $100 million,” she stated.
Social Media Reacts
Social media users reacted to Yung Miami wanting a man with a net worth of $100 million in TSR’s comment section.
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Instagram user @dreamteamworld wrote, “But you got kids with ppl that don’t have that 😂😂😂”
While Instagram user @thereal_2playa added, “Bra she really talk in Instagram quotes 😂😂😂 wtf”
Instagram user @chasetrending wrote, “Nobody wit a 100 million looking for a bird except Sean ‘diddy’ Combs”
While Instagram user @envyme_kendrap added, “I know that’s right!! ‘If your standards don’t disqualify the majority; they aren’t high enough.’”
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Instagram user @chanelnicolescott wrote, “Does she have 100M ?”
While Instagram user @itsjustmikeuphere added, “She waiting on Diddy 😂😂”
Instagram user @daniellathecreator wrote, “I think she can have whatever preference she wants. She is her and I am me lol Literally will not lose sleep over it and yall shouldn’t either 🤷🏽♀️”
While Instagram user @sharlinefx added, “I need IG to stop showing me this crap on my algorithm”
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Instagram user @therealmellymel wrote, “City girl mentioned God Fearing…Imma head on out ✌️”
While Instagram user @wopokee added, “Do the 100 million dollar man want her is the question”
Instagram user @pretty_beautician wrote, “How about a man with solutions, a friend, a motivator, lover, thoughtful , patient, ambitious, team player, God fearing… smh this mentality has a lot of folk doomed. Yall b safe tho 👌🏽❤️”
While Instagram user @benniebates added, “Why do you keep asking these type of woman these questions…”
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Yung Miami Speaks Out After Sparking Criticism For Saying She Wants A Man With A Net Worth Of At Least $100 Million
Yung Miami was apparently unprepared for the criticism and stepped into TSR’s comment section herself. Furthermore, she wrote, “Why yall always so mad? Yall ok?? 🥴🥴🥴 that’s WHAT I WANT!!!!! ME AS IN CARESHA BROWNLEE!!!!”
But after the clip of her sentiments only received more attention, she took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday, February 27, with more thoughts.
“I’m trying to figure out how did I insult so many ppl by stating what I want in a man… why yall so mad? B***h I believe I can fly wtf. I’m so confused a lot of yall feel hit I wasn’t even talking to yall!” she tweeted.
In 1996, iconic director Wes Craven rejuvenated the slasher genre with Scream, a film that served as the perfect deconstruction of horror movies. Scream was ahead of its time in many ways, predicting modern phenomena like true crime obsession and paradoxical relationships. At the same time, it worked as a perfect scary movie, one that transformed the entire genre for the better.
However, Scream was delivering diminishing returns even before Wes Craven died, and the franchise later re-oriented itself around a new pair of leads with Scream (2022). Unfortunately, the studio lost both Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, which necessitated the return of original franchise icon Neve Campbell for Scream 7. The new movie is directed by original Scream scribe Kevin Williamson, and while it provides competent kills and fun moments for returning cast members, the sloppy plotting results in a film that only diehard fans will really enjoy.
Sydney’s Coming, And Hell Is Coming With Her
The basic premise of Scream 7 is that a new killer (or is it killers?) is gunning for Sydney Prescott, and they are claiming to be the original Scream villain, Stu Macher. Syd is skeptical and thinks Stu’s taunting video calls are just an AI fabrication, but the danger is all too real when her daughter and her daughter’s friends become targets for the attacker. Now, Sydney must team up with Gale Weathers and other returning allies, but even their combined strength may not be enough to defeat the one type of foe they have never fought before: one who refuses to follow any kind of rules.
The Stu Macher stuff is mostly an excuse to bring fan-favorite actor Matthew Lillard back into the fold, and his taunting video calls to Syd are easily one of the best parts of the film. Unfortunately, his presence is also evidence of the worst part of the film: namely, that Scream 7 is much more interested in wallowing in nostalgia than really building anything new. This is a franchise that once deconstructed the entire horror genre, and every movie was fair game. Now, the latest Scream is only interested in its own lore, and with nothing left to really deconstruct, all director Kevin Williamson can really do is play the hits of yesteryear.
Like Mother, Like Daughter
On paper, that happens through a loose reconstruction of the first film: Sydney now has a daughter of her own, one who is the exact age that Syd was when the Woodsboro murders went down. She’s got a slightly creepy boyfriend who likes to climb in her window for surprise snuggles and a group of hapless friends that soon become cannon fodder for a marauding masked killer. The police (including her dad, the chief) are helpless to stop the carnage, forcing these plucky teens to take matters into their own hands lest they get picked off one by one.
A remake (or requel, or whatever we’re calling all this crap now) of the first film works well on paper, but the essential problem of Scream 7 is that it can’t decide which characters to focus on. We start out with an uneasy balance of newer and older actors, but the film soon focuses almost exclusively on legacy characters like Sydney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and even Scream 5 and 6 veterans Chad and Mindy. While that leads to some great fan service for returning audiences, it creates one of the film’s biggest problems: we don’t really get to know almost any of these younger characters before Ghostface is picking them off.
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Ghostface Is Back For More Blood Than Ever Before
Fortunately, the kills in this movie are some of the nastiest and most memorable in the entire franchise, and Ghostface is as viscerally scary as ever as he dispatches victims in increasingly grotesque ways. Accordingly, your enjoyment of Scream 7 will largely hinge on your primary motivation for watching slasher movies. If you’re here for killers looking cool (the kids call it aura farming) and pretty faces dying ugly deaths, this latest franchise entry delivers all that and a bloody bag of chips. If you prefer to get to know the virtual victims before they are transformed into raw meat, you’ll likely find Scream 7 to be the weakest movie in the entire series.
Speaking of weak, the reveal of the killer (or is it killers? Don’t worry, I’m keeping this spoiler-free) is particularly disappointing because the motivation for stalking Sydney comes out of nowhere. In the first movie, Stu Macher and particularly Billy Loomis had tangible reasons for stalking Syd, and discovering who the killers were felt a bit like solving the puzzle of a whodunnit. Like Scream 6 before it, Scream 7 tries too hard to surprise fans with the reveal, and this came at a cost: namely, the killer’s motivation makes no real sense, and it comes in the form of an exposition chunk so thick it threatens to choke the climax of the movie.
Killer Performances From Actors Old And New
Aside from the cool kills, Scream 7 does a few other things very well. The new additions to the cast are awesome: Community’s Joel McHale is weirdly perfect as Sydney’s top cop husband, and the character steals his handful of scenes with McHale’s trademark rogueish charisma. But I was even more pleasantly surprised by Isabel May, who convincingly gives Sydney Prescott’s daughter an aching vulnerability whose pain masks ice-cold reserves of hidden strength.
As you might imagine, the returning actors all do a great job, starting with Courtney Cox: her Gale Weathers is as fierce and funny as ever, and she has taken the characters played by returning actors Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown under her wing as journalistic interns. Those younger characters continue to provide humorous, Randy-like commentary on the violent proceedings around them. But the actor truly giving it her all is Neve Campbell, whose Sydney reluctantly saddles up for one last fight with the ghostly demons of her past.
When You Stare At The Past, It Stares Right Back
Ultimately, how much you like Scream 7 will depend on how much you enjoy the franchise as a whole. As for myself, I’m a superfan: I saw the original in theaters, I’ve listened to the cast speak at multiple conventions, and I’ve got a house filled with way too much Ghostface merchandise. From the perspective of a superfan, the film is decent (good, not great) in bringing back our favorite characters and wrapping up its derivative story in the bloody packaging of some truly innovative kills.
If you’re not a Scream fanboy, though, it’s worth waiting to catch this on streaming, assuming that you catch it at all. Kevin Williamson wrote the legendary first film in this franchise, but now that he’s in the director’s chair, he created a movie that only complete franchise diehards will really enjoy. As for everyone else, let’s just say that if Ghostface calls, Scream 7 will never be the answer to this franchise’s age-old question: “what’s your favorite scary movie?”
Elijah Blue Allman, the son of Cher and the late Greg Allman, was arrested Friday night on trespassing charges at an elite prep school in Concord, New Hampshire.
The Concord Police Department tells TMZ … officers responded to St. Paul’s School for the report of an unwanted guest on Friday evening, just before 7 PM local time. It was reported a male — identified as Elijah — was in the dining hall “causing a disturbance and acting belligerently.”
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Elijah was booked into the Merrimack County Jail and was charged with 2 counts of simple assault and one count each of criminal trespass, criminal threatening and disorderly conduct.
He was processed and released on personal recognizance — meaning he didn’t need to pay bail — and will have an arraignment date in the future.
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He has no clear association with the school … and our sources say they don’t know why he was there. Elijah is primarily based in Southern California.
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TMZ has reached out to Cher’s rep for comment … so far, no word back.
Elijah made headlines in June 2025 when he was rushed to the hospital from his home during an overdose. We were told at the time, authorities were called due to him behaving erratically. We also learned drugs were discovered inside the home.
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His OD came about 2 months after his wife Marieangela Kingfiled for divorce after 13 years together — 1 year after she accused his famous mother of orchestrating his kidnapping. The “Strong Enough” hitmaker has denied such allegations.
1/29/24
TMZ.com
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Remember … Cher filed for a conservatorship over her son in December 2023, reasoning he was “substantially unable to manage his own financial resources due to severe mental health and substance abuse issues.” Cher also accused Marieangela of blocking Elijah from getting mental health and substance abuse treatment he needed.
“I don’t think I knew that at first, when I was young and Jake was a movie star right away,” said the actress, who directed her sibling for the first time in her new film, “The Bride.”
Whew! Things got heated during a recent MrBeast event when N3on confronted RayAsianBoy about a potential boxing match. A clip from the moment is now circulating online, and social media users are sounding off about Ray’s response.
RayAsianBoy Has A Shocking Reaction To N3on Challenging Him To A Boxing Match
On Friday, Feb. 27, YouTube creator MrBeast hosted a large-scale video shoot featuring several popular streamers competing for a chance to win $1 million.
Multiple creators went live behind the scenes, giving fans a glimpse into the event. In one clip that quickly went viral, streamer N3on approaches RayAsianBoy while cameras are rolling.
N3on greets Ray and tells him there is no bad blood between them, suggesting they move past previous issues. He then proposes that the two set up a boxing match, claiming they could each earn $1 million.
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Ray, however, shuts down the idea.
Instead of entertaining a future bout, Ray challenges N3on to fight on the spot. He makes it clear he does not want to stage a boxing match and does not need money as an incentive.
Social Media Reacts
Instagram user @mishabrinkss wrote, “Can’t lie my money on Rayquan 🤣”
Another Instagram user @615kee wrote, “One thing we not gone do is play about Rayquan and he definitely winning 😂😂😂”
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While Instagram user @itsthiana wrote, “Ray was clearly raised by New Yorkers 😭😭😭 he is on datttttttttt”
Instagram user @cinnamon_jefe wrote, “Didn’t ray train for the military 🤔”
Another Instagram user @ariellalucie wrote, “I got my money on Big Ray 😂”
While Instagram user @bigboyvon29 wrote, “He tryna be funny and ray serious af 😂😂😂”
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Instagram user @wyo.jbeezy wrote, “Like Neon said y’all both not like dat relax 😂😂😂😂😂😂 for the first time neon actually right 😂😂”
Another Instagram user @granddaughtaaa_ wrote, “& this is the MOST normal I’ve ever seen Rakai 😂😂😂”
While Instagram user @dearsiobahn wrote, “Ray said nah, now or nothing 😂 I stand with Ray!”
Here’s Past Tension Between Ray And Neon
This is not the first time Ray and N3on have found themselves in the same conversation online.
While details surrounding Ray’s direct involvement remain unclear, he has previously shown support for Kai, and the resurfaced tension appears to stem from that controversy.
The Harry Potterfilms did not just bring one of the most famous book series ever created to life with groundbreaking special and practical effects. It introduced the world to three actors who would all quickly become beloved household names: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. The embodiment of their corresponding characters, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, along with their real-world personalities, would set them in good standing for what came after the Harry Potter series ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. All three went on to find success, with Radcliffe being the most experimental and arguably the most successful of the trio, which led to his recent interview on the YouTube show Hot Ones.
During this interview, however, Radcliffe revealed that their lives could have been very different, with an offer given to the trio that would have seen them reunite on screen. While the intentions of this idea are clear and would have capitalized on the peak of their stardom, it is absolutely for the best that they declined to take part, as it would have involved an unnecessary and bizarre remake of a classic that surely would have floundered. Beyond the decision itself not to take part, it also reflects the maturity all three actors have shown in their careers from a young age.
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The Harry Potter Trio Received an Offer to Remake ‘The Wizard of Oz’
As always, Hot Ones had a plethora of insightful questions beyond the obvious ones most fans would ask. One of them in particular was “What stands out as the most bizarre or unique pitches you’ve said yes to?” Rather than focus on one that he accepted, Radcliffe arguably gave a far better example of a truly “bizarre” offer that he described as “one of the worst ideas” he’s ever heard. Radcliffe explained that “During Potter someone… wanted to cast all three of us, me, Emma, and Rupert, in a remake of The Wizard of Oz,” with Emma Watson as Dorothy and Radcliffe as the Cowardly Lion, though Radcliffe couldn’t remember what Grint was offered, though it seems likely it would have been one of the Scarecrow or the Tin Man.
From the outset, this idea will raise red flags for fans. While Watson would have been rather age-appropriate for the young Dorothy, who learns the true value of home, Grint and Radcliffe feel like they would have been far too young for Dorothy’s friends, who are supposed to support her journey and help her grow. An even more bizarre addition, Radcliffe revealed, was that his Lion “knew karate,” so he would have been a “karate-kicking Cowardly Lion.” Considering the main point of the Cowardly Lion is that he is afraid of conflict, having him also be handy in a fight would have seriously contradicted the character’s nature, and it is clear why Radcliffe and his castmates declined.
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The ‘Harry Potter’ Trio’s Decision Shows Their Maturity
Hollywood is full of wild ideas that feel like a cash grab, and this certainly feels like one of them. Even Radcliffe seemed to understand this, saying in the interview that even though he was 14 or 15 at the time, “I don’t know a lot about the world, but this is a bad idea.” When considering what this says about the actors themselves, it shows how Watson, Radcliffe, and Grint were surrounded by great mentors, and how it has paid off in their careers. Of course, the trio’s parents and their own natures will have played important roles, but there can be no doubt that figures such as Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, and Michael Gambon were also key in developing this more auteur, Thespian approach that can see through bad, unoriginal pitches such as this. Additionally, it helps reflect why the trio has had such well-adjusted lives, with few controversies compared to those of other child stars throughout the years, who had high peaks and fell off afterward.
Overall, we should all be thankful that Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint declined this awful Wizard of Oz remake offer. Clearly, its logic for working was going to be the star power it would bring, rather than the logistics of the story itself. Beyond the idea itself, what matters far more is how it set up Radcliffe’s approach to his future career, taking roles based on how he can showcase his skills rather than raise his stardom. WithThe Rise and Fall of Reggie Dinkins already being released earlier this week, it’s clear that this approach has garnered Radcliffe great success, and long may it continue.
The Harry Potter series is available to watch on HBO Max and Peacock in the U.S.
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