Ralph Fiennes Talks a “Harry Potter” Follow-Up and New Film “The King’s Man”

Ralph Fiennes is best known by Potterheads for portraying the role of Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, but he’s made many other appearances on the big screen since. His brand-new movie The King’s Man will be released in February of next year, and we can’t wait to have him back on our screens. In the meantime, he made some time to talk about his thoughts on a Harry Potter follow-up as well as the Kingsman film series.

Something that might surprise you is that Fiennes isn’t a big fan of superhero movies. While he might have played the biggest villain in history, he’s never expressed any interest in Marvel or DC films. The reason? He wants the films he stars in to be rooted in humanity. Without that, the film seems void of any meaning.

Superhero movies are not the first film of choice I go to, I suppose. Having been in the Harry Potter franchise – that was very rooted in a very human, young person’s world. From that came these fantastical creatures and things. So I think that having a really human root, that’s really important.

Even though he hasn’t acted in any superhero films, Fiennes had a taste of that world when he voiced Alfred Pennyworth in The Lego Batman Movie. It still didn’t get him hooked, though. For him, the message of these films sometimes gets lost, especially because the last 30 minutes are usually filled with CGI battles.

Despite his outlook on these types of films, Fiennes does admit that the Kingsman film series does border on superhero movies. It’s based on characters from a graphic novel, after all. Even though these characters have some superhero traits, Fiennes says that having the prequel take place on the cusp of World War I gives it that piece of humanity he always looks for in a film. It provides the story with more weight and a human connection amid all the battles and sword fights.

My take on this Kingsman is that it is entering [into] very different territory [from that of] the other two movies – in that the human dilemma at the center of it gives it a gravitas, which I think is really compelling.

Taking a look back at his work as Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter, Fiennes says that he doesn’t think J.K. Rowling will write any follow-up stories about the Boy Who Lived, even though a lot of fans are hoping for it to happen.

I don’t see it happening. I think J.K. Rowling… My sense is, I don’t know this, is that she feels that’s done and she’s developing [the wizarding world] with those other films.

He did add that he can’t say that for sure. You never really know what Rowling is thinking, and she might surprise us all at some point. Many fans have hoped that Rowling would develop a series about Harry Potter, much like the Game of Thrones series. According to Matthew Lewis, who spoke with ComicBook.com at FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention last month, the book series could’ve worked really well on television.

I think that it would have actually served really well as a TV series. In the current era of right now, maybe not when it came out, but in the world of Game of Thrones and what HBO was doing, BBC America, all these kind of things – I think it actually would have translated really well. As we’ll probably see with the Lord of the Rings stuff on Amazon. There’s so much wealth in the story, in the universe, it would have been nice to see a lot more of the wizarding world itself.

We couldn’t agree more. The films were great, but a series would’ve allowed for so much more detail that didn’t make it into the films. What Rowling will do next, we can only guess. Do you think she will write a follow-up series featuring Harry and his friends? Let us know in the comments.

Marica Laing

Growing up, I was a massive fan of Harry Potter and my love for the stories grew as I got older. It’s no surprise then that I love writing about all things Potter related. When I’m not writing about all the magic, you’ll find me reading (probably something Harry Potter related), listening to music, or writing some songs.