‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Says Warner Bros. Denied Request For Harry Potter Parody

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has a history of asking before doing a parody, and he has revealed that his request to do a Harry Potter parody was shut down. Yankovic, whose parodical biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story released on Roku this month, recently spoke with THR for a new interview and revealed he tried to get permission from Warner Bros. to spoof the theme song for the franchise, only to be denied.

“Whenever it was, about a decade or two ago, I approached the movie company just to get a general blessing like, ‘Hey, I’d like to do a Harry Potter parody.’” he told the site. “And I think they said no, or they never responded or whatever. But sometimes when you’re dealing with franchises, and you ask permission, you know, there’s so many people that can say no, and they usually do.”

Yankovic, who has been famous for always asking permission of artists despite not legally having to do so, said that he learned, “If I’m doing a franchise, it’s usually better just to do it and ask for forgiveness rather than permission.”

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliff plays Yankovic in the biopic spoof and joked of the movie, “Maybe that’s what this film is. This has been his way of doing a Harry Potter parody.”