It’s been just over two weeks since the tragic death of Robbie Coltrane. Though most famous for playing the intimidating-yet-kindly Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies, Coltrane had a long and glittering career on stage and screen stretching back to the 1970s. For a generation, though, the actor will always be Hagrid.
The star had a huge impact on everyone around him, especially the younger cast members, with Daniel Radcliffe underlining just how much Coltrane meant to them during an interview with Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet for upcoming biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
“Honestly, just Robbie was incredibly funny, and when you’re a young kid on a set you can get bored, and I think Robbie just recognized that we needed to kind of be entertained a little bit, at first. He was incredibly funny, with accents, impressions, and just, he was lovely with us.”
Coltrane’s final interaction with the Wizarding World came in the HBO special Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts earlier this year, where he reflecting on his time as Hagrid.
“The legacy of the movies is that my children’s generation will show them to their children. You can be watching it in 50 years time, easy. I’ll not be here, sadly. But Hagrid will. Yes.”
While the eight Harry Potter films will endure as fantasy favorites the future of the franchise is somewhat murkier. The ongoing controversies about J.K. Rowling’s transphobia have seen many longtime fans abandoning the Wizarding World. The ongoing Fantastic Beasts series is seeing decreasing returns at the box office, too, with Warner Bros still to decide whether to make a fourth installment after the third’s poor performance.
The next big release will be the video game Hogwarts Legacy early next year, with the developers at pains to underline that Rowling wasn’t involved in the story. Whatever else happens, at least we’ll always have the Harry Potter books and movies, and we’ll forever treasure Robbie Coltrane’s iconic performance as Hagrid.