Eddie Redmayne Almost Played A Very Villainous Harry Potter Character

Welcome to the wonderful world of franchises, Eddie Redmayne! The British actor nabbed a starring role in one of the world's biggest film titles even when he was cast in the Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The actor plays protagonist Newt Scamander, an introverted Hufflepuff who's traveling the world to write a text about magical creatures - but did you know the actor almost joined the wizarding world once before?

According to Redmayne, he very nearly played a rather famous Harry Potter character in the original films. And, no, they definitely were not housed into Hufflepuff.

In an interview with Empire, Redmayne recounted the story of when he auditioned for a very villainous role in the Harry Potter universe. "I actually auditioned to play Tom Riddle when I was back at university," Redmayne said. "I properly failed and didn't get a call back. Over the years I always hoped I might be cast as a member of the Weasley family, but unfortunately not."

If we're talking university, then there's little doubt about which Harry Potter film Redmayne tried out for; It was none other than Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The second film followed Harry Potter and his friends as their school was plagued by an ancient beast, and the wizard cornered the fear created in a location known as the Chamber of Secrets. It was there that Harry encountered an older version of Tom Riddle, a man who most known as Lord Voldemort. The boy's spirit was contained in a diary handed down to Ginny Weasley, and the malevolent item nearly killed the young girl.

In Chamber of Secrets, Christian Coulson was the lucky man who played Tom Riddle. In later films like The Half-Blood Prince, Hero Fiennes-Tiffan and Frank Dillane would play the sinister villain.

This isn't the only audition which Redmayne has said he's flopped. In the past, the actor has said he auditioned to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit and Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Those roles went to Martin Freeman and Adam Driver respectively, but Redmayne says he can laugh about the missed roles.

Earlier this year, Redmayne talked about his panned audition for the Force-sensitive Sith. "I was going for, I think, for Adam Driver['s role]," Redmayne told Uproxx. "They gave me like a Star Trek scene – or like something from Pride and Prejudice. It was one of those films. With films that top secret, they don't give you the actual lines. So they give you a scene from Pride and Prejudice, but then they tell you you're auditioning for the baddie. If you're me, you then put some ridiculous voice on."

"That was really a hilarious moment. Because it was Nina Gold, who I have to thank a lot because she's cast me in several films. And she was just sitting there and I was trying again and again with different versions of my kind of 'koohh paaaah' [Darth Vader breathing sound] voice. And after like ten shots she's like, 'You got anything else?' I was like, 'No.'"

Either way, it's probably for the best that Redmayne skipped out on the other franchises. His schedule has left him open to play Newt Scamander for the following Fantastic Beasts films - and he even got to rep the Hufflepuff colors will doing so.