Director Chris Columbus has revealed he wants to make another Harry Potter movie about wizards Harry, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

Work is already underway on a film adaptation of JK Rowling’s spin-off book Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, which will star Eddie Redmayne as magizoologist Newt Scamander.

But Chris, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies The Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber Of Secrets, confessed to Entertainment Weekly he’d like to make another film about the characters played by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.

Harry Potter director Chris Columbus with a young Daniel Radcliffe in 2000
Harry Potter director Chris Columbus with a young Daniel Radcliffe in 2000 (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The Home Alone director: “I would love to go back and do another one. Not Fantastic Beasts as much, which I think is going to be amazing, but I would love to do another movie with those three characters — Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

“I’m just fascinated about what happened to them after the end of the last movie, because then they cut to 18 years ahead. There’s 18 years there of great Harry Potter stories.”

Daniel Radcliffe, JK Rowling, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint at the world premiere of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011
Would JK Rowling consider writing a sequel about Harry, Ron and Hermione? (Ian West/PA)

Asked if he would ask JK about writing another instalment in their story, he said: “I don’t have the courage to actually mention that to her because I have such respect for her.

“She should do what she wants to do, but I really would love to know what’s in her head about those missing years.”

At the end of the eighth film – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – school friends Harry, Hermione and Ron are seen as adults, waving off their own children as they board the Hogwarts Express train to the boarding school for witches and wizards.