Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has said he’s happy his son will get to watch an adaptation of the best-selling book series without him in it, once HBO’s upcoming TV reboot arrives.
Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Radcliffe said he was looking forward to the new TV adaptation as it’ll eventually give his young son an alternative version of Harry Potter to watch.
“I’m actually delighted that if, when my kid grows up and is into Harry Potter he can watch a version that is not me. I feel like watching it with your dad [playing Harry Potter] would be less cool, right? It would kind of take you out of it. So he’ll be able to do that, it’s lovely.”
Another upside to the series existing, according to Radcliffe, is the fact that a fresh generation of actors will take on the task of answering all the Harry Potter questions during interviews — something he is clearly still doing, several decades later.
“He’ll be able to do that, and yeah, it’s lovely,” he added, “and it means at some point there will be somebody else to answer all the Harry Potter questions, and I can pass that on to them, too.”
Radcliffe previously said he wanted to keep his former Harry Potter role secret from his son as long as possible, in order for him to “just be his dad,” and also that he had personally sent congratulations to the new Harry Potter actor Dominic McLaughlin via a letter expressing his best wishes.
“It’s great,” Radcliffe continued, discussing his passing of the baton to a new generation. “I mean, you know, we’ve had three Spider-Mans in my lifetime, so far. If you look at a character like Sherlock Holmes, there were always going to be many, many iterations. So I’m very happy to see it be passed on to somebody else and best of luck to all of them.”
Radcliffe recently said that the franchise’s new TV actors should now be allowed to “get on with it” — without people asking about himself, Rupert Grint, or Emma Watson.
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, last month we learned the surprising news 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.
Image credit: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
