HBO’s Harry Potter reboot series is just over one month away from debuting, but original Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe may not be checking it out—and no one could have guessed the reason. Although millennials in particular have made it quite known that they will forever see Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson as the ‘true’ Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, the franchise is indeed moving on, into a brand-new era. The upcoming season of HBO’s show will reflect the first book in the seven book series, and many are assuming that the series will roll out in a similar fashion for the next seven years, covering one book at a time.
While that timeline remains entirely speculative and there are innumerable things that could cause the show to take much longer, it definitely seems to be the plan for HBO to capture the franchise in its entirety, which means, no doubt, about a decade of brand-new Harry Potter to come. While there are many questions tied to that, some fans have certainly been wondering whether the original stars are going to watch the show and, if so, what they’ll think about it. Even if the golden trio does watch the series, it’s very unlikely that the latter will ever become public information. However, Radcliffe has just suggested he may not watch it, and his reasoning is genuinely a surprise.
Speaking with the Associated Press, Radcliffe addressed whether he will watch the show, saying, “I don’t know if I will, honestly. I’ve been in a lot of Harry Potter already, and also not even because I don’t, like, 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, it’s just, eight hours is a lot of anything to watch.” In addition to his surprising comments about simply just not watching all that much TV, Radcliffe refused to offer advice to the new Harry Potter star, Dominic McLaughlin, for fear of influencing how he portrays the role, which is something that he has said before. He does, however, hope to meet the young actor someday.
Undoubtedly, this explanation that Radcliffe finds eight hours of television to be a lot to watch (which, honestly, is fair, especially given what is no doubt an incredibly busy schedule) will catch fans by surprise. With so much back and forth over the years in terms of JK Rowling’s very controversial comments regarding transgender rights, many are likely suspecting that Radcliffe not watching the show would have more to do with that, but based on his comments, that’s not the case. In either case, though, it certainly makes sense that sitting down to watch (eventually) seven seasons of a Harry Potter show after growing up with so much of his life consumed by that character wouldn’t sound all that appealing. It doesn’t seem as though Radcliffe’s uncertainty about whether he will watch the show comes from anything other than these two aforementioned points.
Are you planning to watch the HBO series, and how do you think it will compare to the Harry Potter movies? Let us know in the comments down below.
