James McAvoy nearly played a key villain in the Harry Potter movies

James McAvoy recently revealed that he almost starred as the big bad in one of the Harry Potter movies.

According to a report from Entertainment Weekly, McAvoy revealed to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was nearly cast as Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets early in his career.

"I remember it was right at the beginning of my career. I auditioned for it and I think they wanted to put me on a retainer. I'd hardly done any work and me and I think ten other actors, they wanted to put us in a retainer so that they could hold us and keep us to choose later."

McAvoy turned down the role -- 40,000 pounds -- because he wanted to, you know, actually work for seven months instead of waiting around to find out if he got the part in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Christian Coulson eventually got the part of Tom Riddle, but it's safe to say it worked for McAvoy, who has starred in a bunch of big movies and some of entertainment's biggest franchises, including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and X-Men.

I've seen so many of McAvoy's movies, and I've also seen Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets a bunch. It's hard to imagine McAvoy as Tom Riddle in that movie. Coulson does a great job as Riddle, in my opinion, and it's hard to say what happens to McAvoy's career if he sticks around and waits for the Harry Potter gig. Not to be blunt, but I know who McAvoy is, but I did not know who Coulson was outside of this role.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Tom Riddle (Coulson), also known as Lord Voldemort, begins communicating with Harry and Ginny Weasley through his diary, which was "gifted" to Ginny via Lucius Malfoy. Ginny discards the diary, and that's when Harry finds it. Tom takes Harry through the first time the Chamber of Secrets was open. Eventually, Harry finds out that Tom Riddle's diary is actually responsible for causing the chaos at Hogwarts by brainwashing Ginny. It also plans to kill her and steal her life force as a way for Lord Voldemort to return.

Little did we know at the time that Tom Riddle's diary was actually one of his seven Horcruxes. That's why it latched on Ginny and Harry and tried to use them to return to life, so to speak.

Thankfully, McAvoy's agent talked him out of sitting on the sidelines for more than half a year. At the time, turning down 40,000 pounds was probably a big deal!

And, hey, maybe McAvoy can star in the Harry Potter TV series? Wouldn't that be something? I would not be unhappy with McAvoy starring as any of Harry's mentors or guardians. He definitely has a Sirius Black or Remus Lupin vibe!