Eddie Redmayne – Newt Scamander in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film (OUT IN 19 DAYS, PEOPLE) – could have been the Young Voldemort/Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.

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Yes, Oscar-winning Redmayne recently told Empire that he auditioned for the not-oldy Voldy role, but it didn’t reducto (blow away, muggles) the casting directors:

"I actually auditioned to play Tom Riddle while I was at university," he said. "I properly failed and didn't get a callback.

"Over the years, I always hoped I might be cast as a member of the Weasley family – I'm colour blind, but I've always been told there's a tinge of red to my hair – but unfortunately not.

"A lot of my friends, like Domhnall Gleeson and Rob Pattinson, got their Harry Potter moment, but I never got mine."

The role of Tom Marvolo Riddle went to Christian Coulson (he’s since appeared in Little Britain and 2012’s Gayby), and the 16-year-old Riddle in Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince was played by Frank Dillane (Nick from Fear of the Walking Dead).

But now Redmayne is starring as Scamander, a famed magizoologist who was thrown out of Hogwarts and went on to write (in the Potterverse) the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

And the film, which is based on the book, is set in 1926. The same year that Voldemort was born. Just sayin'

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hits UK cinemas November 18.

Authors

Thomas LingDigital editor, BBC Science Focus

Thomas is Digital editor at BBC Science Focus. Writing about everything from cosmology to anthropology, he specialises in the latest psychology, health and neuroscience discoveries. Thomas has a Masters degree (distinction) in Magazine Journalism from the University of Sheffield and has written for Men’s Health, Vice and Radio Times. He has been shortlisted as the New Digital Talent of the Year at the national magazine Professional Publishers Association (PPA) awards. Also working in academia, Thomas has lectured on the topic of journalism to undergraduate and postgraduate students at The University of Sheffield.

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