Daniel Radcliffe has a simple and happy reason for supporting the new Harry Potter TV series. He wants his young son to enjoy the magic of Hogwarts without having to see his dad on screen.
The 36-year-old actor appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on March 2, 2026 and shared his honest feelings about the reboot. He is excited to watch Dominic McLaughlin take over the role of the famous wizard .
“I’m actually delighted that when my kid grows and is into Harry Potter, he can watch a version that is not me,” Radcliffe said . He explained that watching the movies with his father in them would make the experience “less cool” for his child. “It would take you out of it,” he added with a laugh .
Why Watching With Dad Is Less Cool
Radcliffe shares his 2-year-old son with girlfriend Erin Darke. The couple has kept the child’s name private . The actor recently told The New York Times that he plans to keep his famous role a secret from his son for as long as possible. He even tested this by leaving a Harry Potter DVD on the kitchen table to see if his son would recognize him. The toddler did not, which Radcliffe called “great” .
He wants to be “just his dad” for as long as he can . The new HBO series gives him the perfect chance to share the Wizarding World with his son without making it about himself. He joked that he will “probably show my kid that so he doesn’t have to watch me” .
Passing the Wand to a New Generation
Radcliffe knows that big characters get played by different actors over time. He made a simple and smart comparison during his talk with Colbert.
“We’ve had three Spider-Mans in my lifetime so far,” Radcliffe pointed out . He mentioned Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland as examples. “If you look at a character like Sherlock Holmes, there were always going to be many, many iterations. So I’m very happy to see it be passed on to somebody else and best of luck to all of them” .
The new HBO series has cast Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley . The show plans to adapt each of J.K. Rowling’s seven books into separate seasons . Filming is already happening, though no release date has been set yet .
Reaching Out to the New Cast
Radcliffe has not just talked about supporting the new actors. He has taken real steps to welcome them.
He asked his team to get the contact information for the young cast members so he could send them personal messages . “I said to them, ‘Please tell me who gets cast so I can congratulate them,’” Radcliffe shared in an interview . He wrote to Dominic McLaughlin directly. “I just wanted to write to him to say, ‘I hope you have the best time, and an even better time than I did’” .
McLaughlin sent a “very sweet note back” to Radcliffe . The original Harry Potter star said he looks at photos of the new cast and feels emotional. “I just want to hug them. They just seem so young. I just look at them and say, ‘Oh, it’s crazy I was doing that at that age’” .
A Plea to the Press and Fans
Radcliffe has also spoken up to protect the new young actors from too much pressure. He urged the media to stop asking them constant questions about the original cast.
“When these kids got cast, there is a whole thing around the internet being like, ‘We have to look after these kids!’” Radcliffe said in an interview with ScreenRant . “If you really mean that, then one of the things you can do is don’t ask about us – me, Emma [Watson] and Rupert [Grint] – all the time” .
He said he does not want to become a “weird spectral phantom” hanging over the children’s lives . Radcliffe wants everyone to let the new actors do their work without constant comparisons. “Just let them get on with it, it’s going to be a new, different thing,” he said. He even predicted that McLaughlin is going to be “better than me” .
The actor also cleared up a common misunderstanding about his time on the original films. People often think he was close friends with the famous older British actors who appeared in the movies. He explained that this was not always true. When actor John Hurt, who played Ollivander, passed away in 2017, people asked Radcliffe for a comment. “I’m like, ‘I filmed with John Hurt for two days across 10 years. You should ask his friends. Ask people who knew him really well,’” Radcliffe said . He noted that he was actually much closer with the crew members who worked on all eight films.
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A New View on His Own Childhood Stardom
Seeing the young cast has also given Radcliffe a fresh look at his own experience as a child star. He started playing Harry Potter when he was just 11 years old.
“When I was 11, I thought, ‘Of course I’m old enough to do this,’ but now when I meet 11-year-olds, I think, ‘Wow, doing that at that age seems really crazy,’” he said . He added that he now respects his parents much more than he did at the time. “They protected me with tremendous humor throughout that chaotic process. It was truly remarkable” .
Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint have all talked privately about the reboot. Radcliffe shared that they have discussed how “surreal” it feels to watch other kids start the same journey more than twenty years later . “If one of us feels it, the rest of us know exactly how that feels,” he said .
The HBO Harry Potter series is currently in production. It will bring the magic of Hogwarts to a whole new generation of fans, including one very special toddler who just sees his dad as Dad.
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