Whatever else Daniel Radcliffe does in his life, he will always be Harry Potter. After growing up on movie screens and spending a decade in the iconic role, the actor and the part are forever linked. As part of that, there will always be those who would like to see Radcliffe return to the Wizard World, and now he has, as the first narrator in a new online series that will see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone read aloud by celebrities.
The first video went live today over on the Wizarding World website, and so you can go there now to listen to Daniel Radcliffe read Chapter 1 of the first Harry Potter book "The Boy Who Lived." The video is primarily just a simple shot of Radcliffe reading, though there are occasional cuts away to Harry Potter fan art, and the site includes details on how you can submit your own to be included in future chapters.
In addition to being able to watch Radcliffe read the book on the website, you can also simply listen to the reading, Harry Potter At Home is available as a podcast on Spotify and Chapter 1 can be found there as well.
The first Harry Potter book has 17 chapters, and so we can look forward to 16 more readings. While we don't know exactly who will be reading all of them, a short promotional clip was released for the readings which includes the likes of Eddie Redmayne, whose own return to the Wizarding World is being otherwise delayed, Stephen Fry and David Beckham among others.
Quite possibly the most interesting question about this reading is how they will be handling the whole Sorcerer vs. Philosopher Stone issue. The book has different titles in the U.K and the U.S. The promo clip has people referring to it in both ways, so perhaps it will be called both things over the course of the complete reading depending on who reads the chapter where the object is referenced by name.
It's unclear exactly how frequently we'll be getting new chapters posted. The Wizarding World website refers to new readings in the "coming weeks" so this won't likely be something where we'll see a new chapter every day for the next 16 days. Still, these will almost certainly be welcome additions when they arrive. The first chapter takes nearly 30 minutes to read, and so if you're really at loose ends as to what to do with your day, there's worse ways to spend a half hour. Even if you've read the book a dozen times before, this will give you a new way to hear it and that's always fun.
I have to say, I'm not even the biggest Harry Potter fan but hearing Daniel Radcliffe read the first chapter is quite nice. It sounds like grown up Harry Potter reflecting on his life as a child. Fans are going to absolutely love hearing the actor's voice back in the Wizarding World.
