Harry Potter movie star Daniel Radcliffe has said that the franchise’s new TV actors should be allowed to “get on with it” — without people asking about himself, Rupert Grint, or Emma Watson.
Speaking to ScreenRant, Radcliffe said that the TV series’ young stars shouldn’t be asked — or compared to — their predecessors, as he didn’t want to be “weird spectral phantoms” in their lives.
It’s a sentiment that Radcliffe has expressed before, when revealing he had penned a note to the new Harry Potter actor, 11-year-old Dominic McLaughlin. In a separate interview, Rupert Grint said that he had done similar for the new actor playing Ron Weasley. Now, though, Radcliffe has said that the TV series’ actors would be best served by letting them focus on their own adaptation, which will be “new” and “different.”
“When these kids got cast, there was a huge thing on the internet around the world, people being like ‘we’ve got to look after these kids.’ And I was like, if you mean that, one of the things you can do for me is not ask about us — me, Emma, Rupert — the whole time,” Radcliffe said.
“I would like not to be weird spectral phantoms in these children’s lives and just to let them get on with it. Because it is going to be a new thing and it’s going to be a different thing, and they’re going to be — I mean, I’m sure Dominic is going to be better than me and better than I was.”
HBO’s new Harry Potter TV series is expected to debut in early 2027 with an eight-episode first season. Filming began last summer, with various glimpses spotted by fans including work on fresh scenes not from the prior movies or books. Indeed, just this month we learned that we’ll be seeing more of Draco Malfoy’s home life, as the show won’t be told from “over Harry’s shoulder” like the books or movies.
As for other big changes, the show plans feature John Lithgow’s Dumbledore meeting Nicolas Flamel, reintroduce History of Magic lessons with Richard Durden as Professor Binns, while Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father played by Johnny Flynn, is expected to join the story in the first season of the show, before his introduction in the books and movies.
“I learned as I went, y’know, whatever,” Radcliffe said of his performances as the boy wizard, honed over eight movies and over a decade of production. “I look back on what I did now with a lot more kindness and I find it less embarrassing now that I’m older, but I was very much learning how to do it for a long time on Potter. And [to McLaughlin] I’d just say, ‘I hope you have the best time’.”
Last year, Sophie Turner, who began playing Sansa Stark on HBO’s Game of Thrones aged just 13, offered some words of warning for McLaughlin — as well as Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton, who will play Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively — after saying that growing up in the spotlight “almost destroyed” her.
Image credit: Bruce Glikas/WireImage.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
