The Boy Who Is Staying Out of It

It’s been 25 years since the first Harry Potter movie made 11-year-old Daniel Radcliffe famous across the muggle and wizarding worlds and about 15 years since he began distancing himself from the franchise by seeking out obscure, polar-opposite-to-Potter roles in original scripts. Yet, every time Radcliffe has a new project on the way, things inevitably lead back to Harry Potter. At last night’s premiere of Netflix’s animated movie Steps, Radcliffe, who voices the Prince, was asked whether he’ll be watching the upcoming Harry Potter series. “I don’t know if I will, honestly,” Radcliffe said to the AP. “I’ve watched, I’ve been in a lot of Harry Potter already, and also, I don’t watch any TV. I haven’t seen Breaking Bad. I haven’t seen Mad Men. I haven’t seen some of the real classics. So, you know, eight hours is a lot of anything to watch.” Sounds like the reboot is relatively low on his list.

Unsurprisingly, the HBO series has been tainted by controversy since its initial announcement thanks to She Who Must Not Be Named, and the cast and crew (old and new), filmmakers, and fans alike have started looking sideways at the franchise. Radcliffe and his Harry Potter co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grant have publicly defended trans rights for years after Rowling made her beliefs and funds known, and as recently as September 2025, J.K. Rowling fired at Watson on X. It’s obvious that Radcliffe is not keen to show support for Rowling, but as he said in an interview in 2024, “If those are Jo’s views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the Potter franchise.”

“I’m delighted that when my kid grows up and is into Harry Potter, he can watch a version that is not me,” Radcliffe said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in March. “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 … Very happy to see it be passed on to someone else, and best of luck to all of them.” When asked last night if he had any wisdom to impart to his successor, Dominic McLaughlin, Radcliffe said, “I don’t want to haunt this poor child through interviews, so I have no advice for him. He’s going to be amazing.”

Radcliffe has done his due diligence as an alum of the franchise, but it’s clear he’s tired of the Harry Potter questions. He’ll always be the Boy Who Lived, but for now, he’s just the Guy Who Grew Up and Is Doing Other Things.