Harry Potter's David Thewlis Originally Auditioned For A Worse Hogwarts Teacher

In a 2004 interview with Moviehole, David Thewlis revealed that he had actually auditioned for the part of Professor Quirrell in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" but lost out on the role to Ian Hart — who, ironically, later convinced him to take the role of Remus Lupin.

"I was up for the role of Quirrell in the first film, but Ian Hart got it," said Thewlis. "I was directing my own movie ['Cheeky'] when [the offer for Lupin] came through, and I'd actually cast Ian Hart in my movie so obviously I wasn't bitter. He said, 'Who're you playing'? And I said, 'Lupin,' and he said, 'Well, you gotta do it, that's the best part in the book.'"

Coincidentally, Professor Quirrell was also a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, just like Remus Lupin — though "Harry Potter" fans will know that the similarities between the two characters stop there. Quirrell is a primary antagonist of the first movie, serving Lord Voldemort (Richard Bremmer) in his quest to steal the titular Sorcerer's Stone and trying to murder the 11-year-old Harry Potter along the way.

Fans who know Lupin from Thewlis' performance would be hard-pressed to imagine the actor taking on such a horrific and evil character within the "Harry Potter" franchise, though Thewlis has since played plenty of villains elsewhere, from 2017's "Wonder Woman" to "Enola Holmes 2" to Netflix's "The Sandman" adaptation. In any case, it's worth wondering what might have been if he'd taken on the shorter-lived role of Professor Quirrell — and whether another actor as Lupin would have captured the character's warmth the way that Thewlis did.