No, you’re not seeing things, that headline really says Daniel Radcliffe has surpassed the milestone of living for more than 30 years on this Earth. The actor the millennial generation knew as Harry Potter growing up -- one of the most iconic characters of modern day -- recently turned 32 and it’s really messing with the minds of some Harry Potter fans. Radcliffe talks about how people react to learning that he’s over 30 now, and it probably lines right up with how you reacted seeing this headline.
If you’re anything like me, there’s still a part of you that will always think of Daniel Radcliffe as that 11-year-old kid with the shaggy black hair and lightning bolt scar - which is exactly how most people first laid eyes on the Harry Potter star. The reality is, though, that Radcliffe and all the other Wizarding World stars are all grown up - no matter how unhappy that makes the equally grown-up fanbase.
In an interview with Wired where he answers some of the internet’s most popular questions, Daniel Radcliffe revealed just how fans respond to the fact that he is firmly out of his twenties. Apparently, fans don’t handle that little fact very well and seem to use it as a reference for how old they themselves are getting. Here is what Radcliffe says, exactly:
I recently turned 32. When I tell people that I am 30, people, they go sort of pale. They look like Inception at the beach at the end when they’ve aged a thousand years. Just like that.
Although it probably isn’t very pleasant for people to look like a dementor is sucking the life out of them when your age is revealed, it actually makes a ton of sense why fans would react to Daniel Radcliffe being over 30. For a lot of Harry Potter fans, Radcliffe represents their childhood. Think about it this way: It's a fact that he is now closer to 50 than he is to being a first-year student at Hogwarts (in real-life, not even just in J.K. Rowling's timeline of events). That's a fact that makes my stomach drop at the mere thought. Still, asmuch as it hurts to know that both Daniel Radcliffe and OG Harry Potter fans are both either already over or approaching 30, it should be consolation that 30 isn’t even close to being old.
While he may not be living it up in the Wizarding World anymore, Daniel Radcliffe is still a recurring face on both the big and small screens. You can catch the actor in the comedy series Miracle Workers, which is currently on its third season, on HBO Max and also in the upcoming film The Lost City of D, which is set to release to theaters April 15th of next year (and also stars Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock). All is not lost for those whose childhood was full of magic from Harry Potter’s Wizarding World, because the spinoff franchise Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will release its third film next summer - and all those Harry Potter fans in or around the big 3-0 won’t feel so distanced from their inner children.
