Don’t expecto Daniel Radcliffe to show up in “The Lego Movie 2.”
The follow-up to the wildly successful “Lego Movie” is packed full of typically riddikulus cameos. Among director Mike Mitchell’s favorite sequences are when Chris Pratt’s perpetually upbeat Emmet Brickowski walks through a “Mad Max”-like hellscape and when Tiffany Haddish’s Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi convincingly sings about how “not evil” she is.
The filmmakers were able to “cram in” pretty much every wild idea for a cameo they had, Mitchell said, but there was one scene that they unfortunately had to obliviate:
“Gary Potter was the only one.”
According to Mitchell, “Lego Movie 2” originally involved a joke “about an unlicensed character, Gary Potter, that I don’t think made it into the film, that made everyone laugh.”
“It was Harry Potter’s cousin,” he explained. “It was an unlicensed character. He didn’t make it in.”
Wait, Gary Potter? “Lego Movie 2” doesn’t mess around with its cameos; actual “Justice League” actors Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa voice their respective characters in the movie. Would Gary Potter have been played by the Boy Who Lived himself, (gasp!), Daniel Radcliffe?
“Oh yeah, we were definitely going to go out to Daniel. And he was game, but unfortunately his character got cut,” Mitchell said, “I don’t remember why it happened. I think it was because we didn’t want to upset any ‘Harry Potter’ fans. They have such a following, so we decided to upset the ‘Mary Poppins’ fans. We just made Larry Poppins.”
It’s easy to see why the filmmakers hesitated on Gary, assuming the cut was made so as to not upset the Potter fanbase. Just look at the bloodthirsty reactions to the latest “Fantastic Beasts” film. Before the movie premiered, people were upset about perceived plot holes (and then angrier after a truly porous “Beasts” was released). Perhaps filmmakers surmised that messing with fervent fans of the treasured Harry wasn’t worth it.
Even without Gary, “Lego Movie 2” still has cameo upon cameo. There’s an appearance by Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
“We just decided, who would be not only the strangest person to invite to the wedding, but a really fun person to add to the wedding?” Mitchell said, “We’re like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Why not?”
There’s the recently revealed cameo by Bruce Willis:
“Bruce Willis, I thought that was pretty great, that he was willing to poke fun at himself.”
And, of course, Jason Momoa:
“Jason Momoa was ready to go before we were even ready to go. Just to dip our toe in the water, we did a little Comic-Con piece... and Jason made an appearance just because it was going to be showed at Comic-Con. So Jason came in and right away just started embracing that character as crazy as he is. He kind of created that character, and we’re like, ‘That was so great, let’s pull that into the movie.’”
“By the way, everyone wants to be a Lego figure,” he concluded.
Yer not a Lego, Gary Potter. But pretty much everyone else is.