Daniel Radcliffe Returning To Harry Potter Franchise?
Wil the Boy who Lived return?
“I’m not going home, not really.” These words are enough to make any millennial well-up with nostalgia. Harry Potter became a decade-defining cinema saga for many. With spin-offs in the works, many ponder the question of whether we will ever see the original cast on screen again. Well, as reported by Deadline, Daniel Radcliffe aka “The Boy Who Lived” isn’t ruling it out.
Deadline’s report cites a conversation with Daniel Radcliffe and The New York Times, in which the former Harry Potter star was promoting his upcoming movie The Lost City, alongside co-stars Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock. Radcliffe is asked if he would return for a feature adaptation of the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and while his answer wasn’t a resounding yes, neither was it a no: “I’m getting to a point where I feel like I made it out of Potter OK and I’m really happy with where I am now, and to go back would be such a massive change to my life. I’m never going to say never, but the Star Wars guys had like 30, 40 years before they went back. For me, it’s only been 10. It’s not something I’m really interested in doing right now.”
This may seem agonizing news for many Potterheads. It looks like there will be a long wait to see Daniel Radcliffe and co return in anything beyond the HBO Max cast reunion last year. Harry Potter spanned eight movies, with the last, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 released just over a decade ago. Fans waved goodbye to Harry, Ron and Hermione as we got to see time fast-forward nineteen years post the battle of Hogwarts. The closing scene showed the lead trio all grown up, waving their children off at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters as they started their school year at Hogwarts. It’s a majestic send-off and those final events inspired one of two notable spin-offs of the Harry Potter Franchise.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a stage play on both the West End and Broadway that picks up where The Deathly Hallows ends. It follows Harry’s son Albus, who as many may recall, had some reservations at the end of The Deathly Hallows about being placed in Slytherin. In the events of The Cursed Child, Albus’ worst fears are realised and theatre-goers get to watch the stunning events this leads him and his father-a now middle-aged Harry Potter-down. Due to the time that has now passed since Harry Potter came to an end, its only natural that the likes of Daniel Radcliffe are asked questions relating to an adaptation of the play.
In The Cursed Child, Harry, Ron and Hermione are all parents, full-fledged adults. Of course, the latter can also be said of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. A significant amount of time has passed since The Deathly Hallows Part 2, but in the eyes of Radcliffe, this is still not enough. Whether that spells the end of a feature adaptation of The Cursed Child remains to be seen, after all, Radcliffe did say, ‘never Say never.’ One supporter of the hypothetical project is the director of the first two Harry Potter films, Chris Columbus. Columbus sat down with Variety whilst promoting the HBO Max Reunion special about the prospects of a Cursed Child Adaptation; “I would love to direct The Cursed Child. It’s a great play and the kids are actually the right age to play those roles. It’s a small fantasy of mine.” Many also share Columbus’ fantasy and pray that it may one day become a reality. All is not lost however, the world of Harry Potter is returning to cinemas soon with the release of The Secrets of Dumbledore on April 15th.
