Emma Watson shares the heartbreaking moment she almost quit Harry Potter

She admitted fame got 'scary'

emmawatson

Emma Watson has shared the heartbreaking moment she almost quit the Harry Potter franchise at the age of 15.

MORE: The Harry Potter reunion trailer is here - and it looks so emotional

The superstar spoke candidly in the upcoming HBO Max special Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, and a report by The Wrap alleges that by the time the fifth film Order of the Phoenix began to ramp up production in nearly 2005 "the fame thing had finally hit home in a big way" for her.

WATCH: Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts official trailer

Director David Yates shared that the British actress had contemplated exiting the franchise around the same time that he signed on to direct the film.

"When I started, one thing that [producer] David [Heyman] and the studio spoke to me about was Emma is not sure she wants to come back to do another P:otter," he shared.

MORE: Harry Potter fans have same reaction to Emma Watson and Tom Felton's reunion in official trailer

"That was when things started getting spicy for all of us," she later told co-stars Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe.

"I think I was scared. I don't know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point where you were like, 'This is kind of forever now.'"

Emma was ten when she was cast as Hermoine

"I had moments like that kind of all the way through," Rupert responded, adding: "I also had similar feelings to Emma, kind of contemplating what life would be like if I called it a day, but we never really spoke about it.

"I guess we were just kind of going through it at our own pace. We were kind of in the moment at the time. It just didn't really occur to us that we were all having similar feelings".

Daniel shared that being 14 also meant that they "never talked about it on the film because we were all just kids" and "as a 14-year-old boy, I was never going to turn around to another 14-year-old and be like, 'Hey, how are you doing? Is everything okay?'"

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts airs on 1 January 2022 on HBO Max

The one-off anniversary special will see the cast revisit some of the most iconic locations in the film series, including Diagon Alley and the famous platform 9 and three quarters, as well as sharing fond memories from the films.

The programme will reunite the iconic trio Emma, Daniel and Rupert, who were 11, ten, and 12 respectively when cast in 2000, as well as welcome other famous names who starred in the movies including Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Tom Felton, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Alfred Enoch, Matthew Lewis and Evanna Lynch.

Read more HELLO! US stories here 

Like this story? Sign up to our newsletter to get other stories like this delivered straight to your inbox.