The Boy Who Lived is passing the torch for good.
Daniel Radcliffe would love for us to stop asking the new cast of Harry Potter about him, please.
The actor played Harry Potter across eight blockbuster adaptations of J. K. Rowling’s book series, but now appears more than ready to let someone else carry the torch.
Following casting announcements for HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series, social media came to the overwhelming conclusion that we must “look after these kids.”
Radcliffe affirmed this and doubled down, telling ScreenRant that “If everyone really means that…one of the things you can do for me is not ask about us – me, Emma [Watson], Rupert [Grint] – all the time.”
He also added that he’d very much like “…not to be a weird spectral phantom in these children’s lives and just to let them get on.”
In May last year, Deadline announced that newcomers Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stour will play Harry, Hermione and Ron in the reboot series, respectively.
Very reasonably, Radcliffe seems protective over his successor McLaughlin, telling Good Morning America that “I just see these pictures of him and the other kids and I just want to hug them…I just look at them and say ‘Oh it’s crazy I was doing that at that age”.
The Swiss Army Man actor has shared that he’s sure that McLaughlin is “…going to be better than me and better than I was…”, revealing that he sent the young actor a letter of encouragement at the beginning of production.
He wrote, “I hope you have the best time, and an even better time than I did – I had a great time, but I hope you have an even better time.”
The series, helmed by showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod is set to span at least a decade of production and release, much like the original films.
The first season will air on HBO sometime in 2026.
