James McAvoy admits he was nearly cast as a iconic villain in Harry Potter films

Scottish actor James McAvoy has confessed that he auditioned to play the role of Tom Riddle who we know becomes Lord Voldemort.

Speaking on the latest episode of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, James said that at the early stages of his career, he auditioned to play the doomed wizard.

He said: "I auditioned for it and I think they wanted to put me on a retainer. I’d hardly done any work and me and I think ten other actors, they wanted to put us in a retainer so that they could hold us and keep us to choose later."

James said that the process was "strange" but that he was offered what he felt was a lot of money for the role. However, when he asked for his agent's opinion, they said: "Absolutely not. Don’t do that. We’re gonna go do something else."

Fans experienced a young Tom displaying elements of darkness as well as a cruel young adult Tom. We see him in several flashbacks as a child and an older Hogwarts student.

Therefore, Tom Riddle was played by several actors throughout the Harry Potter movies. Christian Coulson played young adult Tom in the Chamber of Secrets, which might have been the part James could have played.

Young Tom was played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and teenage Tom was played by Frank Dillane in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Of course we know that Ralph Fiennes played the iconic Lord Voldemort - AKA the changed Tom Riddle.

It comes just soon after HBO Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys told Deadline that they're looking at potentially a two-year wait for the new Harry Potter TV series.

It was originally rumoured that the release date could be 2025, but Casey said it'll probably be more late 2026/27. "Writers are just getting started so it’s too soon to talk about airdate."

Last week, HBO put out a casting call for its new Harry, Ron and Hermione. n a social media post, HBO Harry Potter said: "Open casting call for children to play the roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in the upcoming HBO Original series adaptation of 'Harry Potter'."

The casting call is open to any child aged between nine and 11 in April 2025 who is a resident of the United Kingdom or Ireland.