Daniel Radcliffe confirmed to People magazine that he spoke to his Harry Potter co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint about the HBO TV reboot, specifically about “how surreal it is to watch people start that journey so many years later.”
Although Radcliffe said they “don’t really communicate much specifically about the show,” he acknowledged that the original “Harry Potter” trio are unanimous when it comes to the feeling they get when they see new child actors step into these iconic roles.
“This is one of those things where I think we all know how the other person feels, because we feel it too,” Radcliffe said. “Just looking at pictures of these kids makes me want to grab them and hug them. I think that’s largely an urge that we all have.”
Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint played Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley in the eight-film Harry Potter series, which ran from 2001 to 2011. HBO’s reboot of the series has cast Dominic McLaughlin as Harry, Arabella Staunton as Hermione, and Alastair Stout as Ron. Radcliffe told People that the new trio gave him perspective on his tenure playing Harry.
“When you’re 11 years old and doing something, you’re like, ‘Of course I’m old enough to do this. I’m the oldest ever,'” Radcliffe said. “But now when I meet 11-year-olds, I’m like, ‘Hey, that’s crazy.’ It expands perspective. To be honest, I tell my parents this, but I admire them more than I could at the time. I’m like, ‘Wow, you got me through some crazy stuff, and you did it with so much humor, yeah, that’s a big job.’ ”
Radcliffe revealed on Good Morning America last year that he wrote a letter to McLaughlin after the new cast of HBO’s Harry Potter was announced. The young actor later said that having Radcliffe’s support was “insane” and “almost drove me crazy.”
“I wrote to Dominic, sent him a letter, and he wrote back a very sweet letter,” Radcliffe said. “I don’t want to be a ghost in these kids’ lives, but I just wanted to write him a letter and say, ‘I hope you’re having the best time, and I hope you’re having an even better time than I am. I had a lot of fun, but you’re even better. I hope you have a great time.’ And I do, and I just look at these pictures of him and the other kids and I just want to hug them. They just look so young. I look at them and just say, ‘Oh, it’s crazy that I was doing that at that age.’ But it’s also incredibly sweet and I hope they’re having a great time. ”
Grint similarly wrote to Stout to “pass the baton” to the young actor taking over the role of Ron Weasley, adding, “It was really just wishing him the best. I had so much fun stepping into this world and I hope he has the same experience.”
Radcliffe recently made headlines for urging reporters not to constantly ask the new cast of HBO’s “Harry Potter” about the original films.
“When these kids were cast, the internet was like, ‘We need to take care of these kids!'” Radcliffe told ScreenRant. “If you really feel like it, one thing you can do is stop hearing about us, me, Emma[Watson]and Rupert[Grint]all the time. I don’t want to be some weird ghost in these kids’ lives. I just need them to get used to it. It’s going to be new and different.”
HBO’s Harry Potter is scheduled to premiere in 2027.
