Daniel Radcliffe will not be unhappy once audiences end up seeing another actor as Harry Potter. In fact, he hopes that happens for his young son.
The Tony-winning “Merrily We Roll Along” star stopped by “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Monday night to promote his latest Broadway show, “Every Brilliant Thing.” While chatting with Colbert, the “Harry Potter” franchise inevitably came up and Radcliffe was asked whether or not it feels good to pass the baton of playing the Boy Who Lived over to Dominic McLaughlin, the young actor set to play Harry in HBO’s forthcoming TV adaptation of author J.K. Rowling’s original books.
“[It feels] very good. Yeah, it really does,” Radcliffe replied. “I’m actually delighted that if, when my kid grows up and is into ‘Harry Potter,’ he can watch a version that is not me, which I feel like watching it with your dad would be less cool, right? It would kind of take you out of it.”
“He’ll be able to do that, and yeah, it’s lovely, and it means at some point there will be somebody else to answer all the ‘Harry Potter’ questions, and I can pass that on to them, too,” he added.
Following up, Colbert checked again to make sure Radcliffe does not mind someone else taking on the role that made him famous. “No, it’s great. I mean, you know, we’ve had three Spider-Mans in my lifetime so far,” Radcliffe responded. “If you look at a character like Sherlock Holmes, there were always going to be many, many iterations. So very happy to see it be passed on to somebody else and best of luck to all of them.”
The actor’s latest comments were in keeping with previous statements he has made about HBO’s “Harry Potter” series. Back in November, Radcliffe revealed that he even wrote a letter of encouragement to McLaughlin after the young star was cast as the adaptation’s eponymous protagonist.
“I just wanted to write to him to say, ‘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,’” Radcliffe said during a “Good Morning America” appearance last year. “I just see these pictures of him and the other kids and I just want to hug them.”
HBO’s “Harry Potter” series is expected to premiere sometime in early 2027. Filming on its first season began last summer. In addition to McLaughlin, the cast includes John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu, Nick Frost, Bertie Carvel, Luke Thallon, Anton Lesser and Warwick Davis.
Newcomers Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout are also set to play Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, two characters originally portrayed on screen by Radcliffe’s co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.
