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It’s fine that HBO’s new Harry Potter series won’t please everyone, new Hagrid actor Nick Frost has said.
Speaking to The Times (paywalled) Frost explained that it was natural that there would be differences between his version of the bearded Hogwarts groundskeeper and the version played by the late Robbie Coltrane throughout the eight Harry Potter movies.
The extra time available in each Harry Potter TV season means that fans will ultimately spend a lot more time with Frost’s Hagrid than the original — and that additional material with his character could be filmed that some fans may have not seen before.
“I’ve tried to take what Robbie did and honor that,” Frost said, “but also I’ve got eight hours here each [season], while Robbie had two and a half [per movie] — there has to be a bit more to him.”
Frost described his incarnation of Hagrid as from the British city of Bristol (in terms of accents, think Stephen Merchant’s character Wheatley in Portal 2). “He’s nice, a bit quiet,” Frost noted.
In the Harry Potter books, Hagrid is often portrayed as slightly childlike in temperament — in contrast to his towering stature, a product of his half-giant heritage. It’s this childlike nature that Frost said he was also leaning into, inspired by his own uncle who suffered an illness as a child and “never grew up from that point”, as well as Michael Clarke Duncan’s iconic portrayal of John Coffey in the film The Green Mile.
“Some people won’t like it,” Frost concluded. “They’ll go, ‘Not my Hagrid.’ And that is all right.”
Writing is now underway on HBO’s second Harry Potter TV season, with filming set to begin later this year as producers seek to keep the mammoth production going as fast possible — even as fans fear the show won’t finish airing until the early 2040s.
A recent major set leak gave fans a detailed look at the new Diagon Alley, while HBO has admitted the company is spending big on the show, and making a level of financial investment it normally wouldn’t make. The lavish sets and props have proven attractive to thieves, however — something that has now led to items like broomsticks being microchipped to deter thefts.
Image credit: HarryPotter.com/Warner Bros.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
