<\/span>AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The series explores the life and legacy of Dean Potter, an extreme climber and BASE jumper who made a name for himself through his risky climbs, highline walks and BASE jumps, especially in Yosemite National Park. Potter died in a BASE jumping accident<\/a> in 2015. In the series\u2019 third episode, directors Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen explore Potter\u2019s rivalry with Honnold, which developed in the early 2000s as the two men began competing with each other over various climbing projects in Yosemite Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Their rivalry started to escalate in 2008, when Honnold became the first person to climb Half Dome with no safety gear or ropes, which is known as free soloing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n FILE: Dean Potter walks on a 41-meter-long and two-centimeter-wide\u00a0slackline over Enshi Grand Canyon at an altitude of 1,800m on April 22, 2012 in Enshi, Hubei Province of China.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span>Visual China Group via Getty <\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n FILE: Dean Potter stands in front of El\u00a0Capitan after a speed climbing attempt up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, Calif.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span>Tomas Ovalle \/ Associated Press<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cI had mixed feelings when Alex came around,\u201d Potter said in footage included in \u201cThe Dark Wizard.\u201d \u201cYou know, partially I was like,\u00a0f\u2013k. I wanted that. Another part was just like, that’s the way it goes. You know, Alex has been real competitive with me, trying to do things that he knows I want to do and you know he’s younger, he’s real competitive … He knew that was my life’s goal, and he did it before me because he was a competitive, kind of like, twerp.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n By 2012, Honnold had tackled multiple projects that Potter had his eyes on, including one of the greatest achievements in climbing history: a free solo ascent of the West Face of El Capitan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Make SFGATE a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201c2012 is a big f\u2013king year, because I basically did everything that Dean had ever done or wanted to do, and generally in better style and, you know, faster and whatever,\u201d Honnold said in the episode. \u201cYeah, poor Dean.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “The Dark Wizard” explores the life and legacy of Dean Potter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span>Eric Perlman\/HBO<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In a recent episode<\/a> of Honnold\u2019s podcast, Climbing Gold, Honnold expressed that he found it \u201cinteresting\u201d to be cast in \u201cThe Dark Wizard\u201d \u2013 for the first time ever \u2013 as a villain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe did, like, 12 hours of interview, and they basically took all the most extreme stuff and turned it into, like, \u2018Extremely competitive! Hates Dean!\u2019\u201d Honnold said. \u201cYou\u2019re kind of like, oh. It\u2019s slightly annoying.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Honnold went on to call Potter his \u201cchildhood hero,\u201d and said that in the fourth and final episode, which airs May 5 at 6 p.m., the two men had a \u201ckumbaya moment\u201d at the Telluride Film Festival prior to Potter\u2019s death. He added that the feats of his 2012 climbing season came more as a result of trying to complete as many projects as he could while in Yosemite Valley, and less out of any desire to \u201cone-up\u201d Potter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even in the podcast, though, Honnold continues taking not-so-subtle jabs at his hero-turned-rival.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI always sort of thought that, in some ways, he was probably happy to not have to do some of those things,\u201d Honnold says of the climbing challenges he completed before Potter. \u201cYou have to believe in his heart of hearts, he’s kind of like, \u2018Thank God I don’t have to do that.\u2019 Because if you really wanted to do it, he could have done it six months ago or, like, a year ago, but he just hadn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Despite his portrayal in the series, Honnold described \u201cThe Dark Wizard\u201d as \u201camazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad they made it, regardless of any opinions about me being cast as a villain,\u201d Honnold said. \u201cDean was such a hero of mine, and really the whole generation of climbers. And it makes me slightly sad that people that get into climbing now will have never heard of him, because, you know, he died… And so it’s nice to sort of remember his legacy in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We love national parks just as much as you do, so we have a newsletter that covers them from top to bottom.\u00a0Sign up here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n FILE: Rock climber Alex Honnold, famed for his free solo ascents of El Capitan, speaks at Yosemite National Park, Calif., on October 26, 2025. AFP via Getty Images In a recent episode of his podcast, world famous rock climber Alex\u00a0Honnold got candid about what he describes as being \u201ccast as the villain\u201d in HBO\u2019s new … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Alex-Honnold-speaks-out-about-being-a-villain-in-HBOs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29819,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29817\/revisions\/29819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\n
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