Daniel Radcliffe isn’t eager to step back into the Wizarding World. In a recent interview, the actor said he isn’t “seeking” a cameo appearance in the upcoming TV show reboot of the “Harry Potter” franchise.
First announced in April, the upcoming “Harry Potter” series for Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max streamer will adapt all seven books in J.K. Rowling’s popular series of children’s fantasy novels. The series will be the second screen adaptation of the popular books, following the Warner Bros.’ original “Harry Potter” film series, which shot Radcliffe to international fame when he was only 11 years old.
In an interview with Comic Book.com published Monday, Radcliffe said he understands the new adaptation will be their own interpretation, and that he believes his presence will be a distraction from the new actor playing the title character.
“My understanding is that they’re trying to very much start fresh and I’m 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,” Radcliffe told Comic Book.com in an interview published Monday. “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.”
Since ending his time as the boy wizard with the eighth and final “Harry Potter” film in 2011 when he was 22 years old, Radcliffe has largely veered away from franchises or blockbuster film work, in favor of comedy films like “Swiss Army Man,” “The Lost City,” and “Weird: the Al Yankovic Story,” or theater roles. In recent years, he’s also spoken out against Rowling’s controversial transphobic views, which the author has been outspoken about since 2020. Shortly after Rowling made her views public, Radcliffe published an open letter to the Trevor Project’s website expressing his support towards the Trans community.
“The reason I was felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was because, particularly since finishing ‘Potter,’ I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that,” Radcliffe told IndieWire during an interview last year. “And so seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way. And that was really important.”
Currently, Radcliffe is starring in the fourth and final season of “Miracle Workers,” a comedic anthology series created by Simon Rich. The fourth season — which also stars Geraldine Viswanathan, Karan Soni, Jon Bass, and Steve Buscemi — premieres July 10 on TBS. This fall, the actor will also appear on Broadway in a revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” starring opposite Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez.
