Even after he gave up the director’s chair, Chris didn’t leave the Harry Potter franchise — not immediately, at least. He served as an executive producer of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film in the series.

“As a producer, I don’t have to be there all the time,” he explained to THR. “I can be on the set a few hours a day. I can sit in on certain visual effects meetings, but it means I can get home in time for dinner, to see my kids in the morning to go to school. And by the time Azkaban ended, my family was ready to come back to the States. They missed their friends, and so it felt like the logical time to say goodbye.”