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Daniel Radcliffehas one request when it comes to HBO's forthcomingHarry Potterseries: Leave him out of the conversation.
The 36-year-old, London-born actor famously starred in the original, eight-filmHarry Potterfilm series from Warner Bros. Many years and one huge corporate merger later, HBO, a Warners subsidiary, is bringing the first-everseries adaptationof the books by J.K. Rowling to the small screen.
Radcliffe and his fellow stars, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, have no association with the new series. But Radcliffe wants even less, and not for his own sake.
Pointing toHarry Potterfans "around the world" urging each other to "look after these kids" — that is, the young stars of the newPotterseries — Radcliffe noted in a Tuesday interview withScreenRantthat "if everyone really means that... one of the things you can do for me is not ask about us — me, Emma, Rupert — all the time."
Aidan Monaghan/HBO
Radcliffe said that he would not like the original Harry, Hermione, and Ron to become "weird spectral phantoms in these children's lives."
After anextensive search, HBO'sHarry Pottercast Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout in the roles originated by Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint, respectively. Though the series followed the films' lead in packing the supporting cast with veteran talents like John Lithgow and Janet McTeer, McLaughlin, Stanton, and Stout are all relative newcomers.
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Radcliffe expressed his hope that the series is "going to be a new thing," and that the films he helped make memorable can be left in the rear view.
Radcliffe declared further ambivalence toward his role in film history as the original boy with the lightning-bolt scar in a separate interview withThe New York Timesalso published Tuesday.
Anticipating his two-year-old son with partner Erin Darke approaching the age when many kids first discoverPotter, Radcliffe said that "hopefully I can just put [HBO's series] on, and he doesn't have to watch me in it. That'd be, honestly, the ideal."
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Radcliffe is far from the only originalHarry Potterstar to call for a full embargo on questions related to the new series, or to the franchise at large for that matter.
David Thewlis, who starred as the werewolf wizard Remus Lupin in five of the originalPotterfilms, recently said he's "sick of talking about" a potential return to the magical, multi-media universe.
"I feel like I'd be far too old to play my original character, and, no, I wouldn't want to go back into it," he said. "I've had quite enough of that."
Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
