Daniel Radcliffe opens up about prospect of new actor taking on role of Harry Potter

He's compared Potter to Sherlock Holmes

The famous books from J.K. Rowling have gone on to become one of the most successful entertainment franchises ever.

Along with the original films raking in around £6.2bn at the global box office, the books spawned the Fantastic Beasts spin-off movies, a critically-acclaimed stage show, video games, studio tours and theme parks.

And the latest addition the Wizarding World will be coming in the form of a television series.

Earlier this year, HBO announced they were bringing Harry Potter to the small screen in a “faithful adaptation” of the popular books about the boy wizard.

The TV series will feature a different cast to the films, starring Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.

Speaking to Deadline about the series, Radcliffe seemed to rule out the possibility of him being involved in the project.

He said: "From everything I’ve read about the series they’re going to be starting fresh and so it’d probably be weird to have me pop in."

On the subject of how he'll feel seeing another actor take on the role of Harry, Radcliffe continued: “I think Harry Potter was always destined to become like Sherlock Holmes.

“The people that saw Basil Rathbone play Sherlock Holmes then [were] like ‘No one could ever do this!’ They’re gonna, though. It’ll get passed on to somebody.”

He added: “The weird thought I have now is like, ‘Oh that’s probably like an 8-year-old kid out there somewhere whose life is going to change in a couple years.’ My brain does go there.”

HBO has promised that each season will be “authentic to the original books” and bring Harry Potter to new audiences.

It will be available on Max, which is a streaming service from Warner Bros, the production company behind the original films.

Whilst it sounds like Radcliffe is content seeing someone else take on the role he made famous, his Harry Potter co-star Rupert Grint has previously said he'd be up for reprising his role as Ron Weasley.

Appearing on This Morning earlier this year, he said: “I think if the timing was right and everyone was coming back.

“It was a character that was important to me, we kind of became the same person.”

So far, there has been no comment from HBO or producers about any casting choices, with the series still in the very early stages of development.

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