The original Harry Potter film series concluded a little over a decade ago with The Deathly Hallows — Part 2, and while the Wizarding World franchise went on to be expanded through the Fantastic Beasts movies, Warner Bros. Discovery has decided to re-adapt the original J.K Rowling-penned saga. It was announced in April that a Harry Potter TV series is in development for Max subscribers, but needless to say it’ll be weird for many to see someone besides Daniel Radcliffe playing The Boy Who Lived. Radcliffe himself, on the other hand, isn’t particularly fazed by this changing of the guard for the upcoming Harry Potter TV show.
Although the last several years have seen him star in movies like Guns Akimbo, The Lost City and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, as well as the TV show Miracles Workers, it goes without saying that Radcliffe is still best known for his eight-movie run as Harry Potter, which launched him to worldwide fame starting ing in 2001. But as the actor explained while speaking to Deadline, he sees that as a role that’s meant to be passed on to multiple actors, saying:
I think it’s like Harry Potter was always destined to become like Sherlock Holmes. The people that saw Basil Rathbone play Sherlock Holmes then like ‘No one could ever do this!’ They’re gonna, though. It’ll get passed on to somebody. The weird thought I have now is like ‘Oh that’s probably like an 8 year-old kid out there somewhere whose life is going to change in a couple years.’ My brain does go there.
Daniel Radcliffe was a little older than that when he was selected to play Harry Potter, but he went through that exact life-changing moment, and now it’s time for another kid to do the same. While the actor also mentioned in that interview that he doubts he’ll cameo in the Harry Potter TV series since it’d be “a bit weird” for him to “pop in,” hopefully he’ll at least be on hand to give his successor some pointers on how to handle this incoming fame. Radcliffe had to handle that on his own since the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone book only came out four years before the film adaptation, but there’s no reason the next Harry Potter actor can’t get a leg up on what’s to come.
When will we learn who the new Harry Potter will be? That’s hard to say right now since the show is still in early development. The only major details that have been unveiled so far for the Harry Potter TV series it will be a “faithful adaptation” that will unfold over the course of a decade. So whomever makes up the main cast will have quite the professional commitment ahead of them, one that perhaps lasts longer than the actors on the film series had. And while Daniel Radcliffe isn’t game to appear on the show in a different role (at least for now), Natalia Tena, who played Nymphadora Tonks in four of the movies, has expressed interest in playing a Hogwarts professor.
It may be a while until casting news for Max’s Harry Potter series are officially announced, but until then, the eight Harry Potter movies can be streamed on that platform. Daniel Radcliffe next be seen in Miracles Workers Season 4, which is slotted on the 2023 TV schedule for a July 10 premiere on TBS.
