Daniel Radcliffe refuses to rule out appearing in Harry Potter TV series
Daniel Radcliffe has said he is excited about the forthcoming Harry Potter television series being developed, and won’t completely rule out appearing in the show himself.
Speaking at the Drama League Awards, Radcliffe said he would be happy to watch the new adaptation and that he sees it as an entirely separate entity from the film series he starred in from 2001 to 2011.
“Like the rest of the world, I’m very excited to watch as an audience member,” Radcliffe told E! News.
Asked about a possible cameo or guest appearance, Radcliffe said: “I don’t think so.”
“I think they very wisely want a clean break. And I don’t know if it would work to have us do anything in it. I’m very happy to just watch along with everyone else.”
Radcliffe was pressed on what he would say if approached by the series’ showrunners, and gave a diplomatic answer. “I’m gonna be a politician about this and not deal in hypotheticals,” Radcliffe said.
The TV adaption, confirmed by HBO Max last year, aims to be a “faithful adaptation of the beloved Harry Potter book series by author and executive producer JK Rowling“.
The series is expected to run for a decade with each season based on one of the seven Rowling books.
It is scheduled to release in 2026 and will feature an entirely new cast to the beloved film franchise, which starred Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as his best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, respectively.
Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint in ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone' (Warner Bros)
Shortly after the TV adaptation was announced last year, Radcliffe was asked about appearing in it and again kept his options open.
“My understanding is that they are trying to very much start fresh and I am sure whoever is making them will want to make their own mark on it and probably not want to have to figure out how to get old Harry to cameo in this somewhere,” the actor told Comic Book last July.
“So I’m definitely not seeking it out in any way. But I do wish them, obviously, all the luck in the world and I’m very excited to have that torch passed. But I don’t think it needs me to physically pass it.”
Rowling will serve as an executive producer on the TV show to “ensure it remains loyal to her original material”.
The author’s relationship with the Harry Potter stars has deteriorated over her views on transgender rights. She took aim at Radcliffe and Watson, asking them to “save their apologies” for “traumatised detransitioners” after the stars made statements in support of transgender rights.
JK Rowling with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson at the UK premiere of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PA)
Radcliffe has spoken recently about his relationship with Rowling and the effect her views have had on their relationship.
“It makes me really sad, ultimately,” he told The Atlantic.
“Because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic,” he added.
“Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person,” the actor continued.
“But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”
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