How Daniel Radcliffe Really Feels About The New Harry Potter Series

Former "Harry Potter" lead Daniel Radcliffe has a complicated relationship with the franchise that turned him into a household name at such an early age. After all, while shooting the films was a unique bonding experience for the main cast, there can be a fair amount of stigma attached to being a child star, making it difficult for them to be seen as serious performers when they grow up. On top of that, the rift between Radcliffe and "Harry Potter" creator JK Rowling over her transphobic views has surely created mixed feelings about the franchise for Radcliffe. So, with "Harry Potter" being rebooted in the form of an HBO series, many fans have been wondering how Radcliffe feels about the whole thing.

Well, any complex hang-ups about his own association with the "Harry Potter" franchise aside, Radcliffe wishes nothing but the best for the cast of the HBO reboot. That being said, he does still plan on keeping his distance. During an appearance on Good Morning America in November 2025, Radcliffe opened up about a letter he wrote to child actor Dominic McLaughlin, who has taken over the role of Harry Potter in the streaming series. "I don't want to be a specter in the life of these children, but I just wanted to write to him to say, 'I hope you have the best time, and an even better time than I did,'" he shared, adding, "I just see these pictures of him and the other kids and I just want to hug them. ... I just look at them and say, 'Oh, it's crazy I was doing that at that age.'"

Indeed, while the legacy of "Harry Potter" has become increasingly complicated in recent years, Daniel Radcliffe clearly looks back fondly at his time working on the franchise. For instance, though he is embarrassed by some of his acting in the films – and hates watching "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," in particular — it seems that he really enjoyed a lot of the work, as well. Radcliffe specifically named "Order of the Phoenix" as his favorite entry to make, as it gave him the opportunity to act opposite Gary Oldman extensively.

Like we said, though, it's easy for former child actors to get pigeonholed by certain roles. So, while Radcliffe knows that he'll always be associated with "Harry Potter," he's also made it a point to grow and evolve as a performer. As he told The Guardian in 2013, "You have to embrace the fact that you were involved in this incredibly cool thing that did wonders for the British film industry and though you might not always be happy with the work you did on it, the opportunity it has given you to forge a career for yourself is amazing."

To that end, Radcliffe's comments about not wanting to be a "specter" hanging over the "Harry Potter" reboot's young cast are nothing new. In fact, not wanting to be a distraction is the exact same reason he declined to see the play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" when it opened in 2016, not wanting any hardcore Potterheads in the audience to spend more time looking at him than the actors on stage. While we look forward to the reboot, he'll always be our Harry.