Macaulay Culkin taps J.K. Rowling for Fantastic Beasts role

Had Harry Potter arrived in the 80s, there’s every chance the part of the boy wizard could have been snared by Macaulay Culkin.

And with that, the former child star is now lobbying J.K. Rowling for a shot in her Fantastic Beasts movie series.

In a tweet to the writer, he introduced himself – perhaps unnecessary – and then directed her attention to the Pagemaster entry on his CV, the fantasy adventure he starred in back in 1994, and in which he looked notably Potter-esque (though it’s perhaps the only Potter similarity, it bombed horribly at the box office).

Culkin also made reference to the row brewing around the character of Nagini, seen in the latest trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Some fans have accused Rowling of racism, in casting an Asian actress as Nagini, the cursed human form of Voldemort’s snake.

But Rowling has since defended her decision, calmly tweeting that the character is inspired by the Naga, of Indonesian mythology.

“They are sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake. Indonesia comprises a few hundred ethnic groups, including Javanese, Chinese and Betawi,” she wrote.

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