The reason the late actor chose to continue portraying Severus Snape is revealed in an excerpt from his journal, which will be published as a book next month: It is your narrative,
A close-up look at the late actor's life and work, including his decades-long part in the Harry Potter series, is provided by excerpts from his notebook.
The 25-year span of diary entries will be collected in the book Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman, which will be released on October 4.
A month after the release of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002, actor Alan Rickman discussed his intention to leave
the Harry Potter series in extracts that were published in The Guardian. Rickman played the troubled wizard and professor Severus Snape.
On December 4, 2002, Rickman posted, "Talking to [agent] Paul Lyon-Maris about HP exit, which he expects will happen."
"However, we're back in the project-collision zone. Saying it again, stop HP. They are unwilling to hear it."
In 2006, not long after Rickman was discharged from the hospital where he got treatment for prostate cancer, he made the decision to continue acting in the franchise.