Daniel Radcliffe Opens Up About His ‘Surreal’ Experience Seeing Pictures of New “Harry Potter” HBO Cast (Exclusive)

Julia MooreSun, February 22, 2026 at 6:00 PM UTC

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Daniel Radcliffe (left); Dominic McLaughlin on the set of HBO's "Harry Potter" series (right)

Bruce Glikas/WireImage; Aidan Monaghan / HBO

Production is under way on the new HBO Harry Potter TV series — and Daniel Radcliffe is reflecting on how he feels about a new chapter beginning for the beloved franchise

Radcliffe, who stars alongside Tracy Morgan in the new NBC comedy The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, tells PEOPLE how he feels particularly when he sees photos of the new cast members and how it puts his own experience "into perspective"

Newcomers Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton have been cast in the HBO series as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively

A lot is going through Daniel Radcliffe's mind when he sees the photos of the new Harry Potter cast.

Radcliffe, 36, who played the titular wizard in seven movies from 2001 to 2011, tells PEOPLE that he and his former costars are all on the same page about how it feels to see new young actors — namely Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton, who will play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in the HBO series — begin their own Hogwarts journey.

"We have all said, you know, you just see pictures of these kids and you just want to grab them and hug them. That's the impulse that I think that we, mainly, all have," Radcliffe says of how he, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are feeling.

The trio have all been in touch about the new adaptation, which will adapt each of J.K. Rowling's seven books into their own respective seasons, he says, and have been reflecting on "how surreal [it is] to watch people starting off on that journey, all those years later."

Photos from the casting announcements and from the set, as production began on the series in July, seem to have had a particular effect on them all. "It's one of those where I think we all just know how the others feel, because we're also feeling it," he says.

HBO casts Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley in the new "Harry Potter" series

Aidan Monaghan/HBO

It reminds him, too, of how young he was when he started the same journey. "When you're 11, and you're doing something, you're like, 'Of course, I'm old enough to do this — I'm the oldest I've ever been.' But now when I meet 11 year olds, I am like, 'Whoa, that seems nuts.' It puts into perspective."

He continues, "Honestly, it makes me admire — and I do tell them this — but my parents, more than I was capable of doing at the time. Just going like, 'Wow, you got me through something crazy, and you did it with a huge amount of humor.' "

The star of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is also now a father himself — Radcliffe welcomed a son with his longtime girlfriend, Erin Darke, in April 2023 — which makes his early career stand out even further.

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"It's a big task. I feel like I would be so scared of doing that, if somebody was like, 'And now your son's going to be doing stuff.' I'd be like, 'Oh man, that's a lot to take in.' "

As 11-year-old McLaughlin steps into the Wizarding World, Radcliffe — who is fresh off his first Tony award win and will soon return to Broadway in a solo play — is stepping into a new arena of his own.

In The Fall & Rise of Reggie Dinkins, Radcliffe stars as a down-on-his-luck director who decides to film a documentary about disgraced football player, Reggie Dinkins (Tracy Morgan), in an attempt to rehabilitate Reggie's public image.

It's a surprisingly perfect fit, given Radcliffe is a self-described "huge NFL fan."

Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur Tobin in "The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins"

Scott Gries/NBC

"I did a musical here in 2011, and they started a fantasy football league," he told PEOPLE. "They needed someone to make up the numbers, and so I got involved. Didn't do anything with my account for four weeks, and then somebody was like, 'You're bottom of the league.' I was like, 'Okay, well, I've got to do something.' Got into it, and then have never looked back.

In fact, he shared he's "in two fantasy leagues, one of which I run with my girlfriend. We're all in now."

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins premieres Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”