Trans ally Daniel Radcliffe might not watch new Harry Potter series: ‘Eight hours is a lot’

This story originally appeared on Them.

The world’s most famous portrayer of Harry Potter might not even tune into the forthcoming HBO reboot.

Speaking to the Associated Press on Sunday at the premiere of Netflix’s Steps at New York’s Plaza hotel, Daniel Radcliffe said he might be too busy to consume eight hours of television, even if it’s to watch his successor, Dominic McLaughlin, in the role.

“I don’t know if I will, honestly,” he said when asked whether he would watch it. “I’ve watched [and] been in a lot of Harry Potter already and also not even because I don’t like… I haven’t seen any TV. I haven’t seen Breaking Bad, I haven’t seen Mad Men, I haven’t seen some of the real classics. You know, eight hours is a lot of anything to watch.”

The new HBO series, which will divide J.K. Rowling’s first book across eight episodes in its inaugural season, will premiere on December 25. Given the author’s anti-transgender views and advocacy, and her role as executive producer on the reboot, many stars of the series have spoken directly about their decision to join the production, with some saying that Rowling’s politics did not impact their choice and others voicing disagreement despite signing on.

“I think that the trans community deserve safety and dignity and respect and total acceptance,” Bel Powley, who is slated to play Petunia Dursley, told The Telegraph in August after her casting was announced.

A noted LGBTQ+ ally, Radcliffe publicly distanced himself from Rowling’s views — even ahead of the release of her June 2020 online essay, when she was primarily posting tweets critical of trans people and causes.

In a letter published with The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ youth and suicide prevention nonprofit, Radcliffe wrote, “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”

The missive concluded with a direct address to Harry Potter fans who felt like their experience of the books might be marred by the author’s views. “To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you,” Radcliffe wrote. “I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you.”

Although Radcliffe noted that he didn’t want the letter to be perceived as “infighting” with Rowling, the author later appeared to take it as a slight.

In April 2024, when a fan speculated that Rowling would “forgive” Radcliffe and other stars of the Harry Potter films for speaking out against her beliefs, the author doubled down, writing on X, “Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.”

Later that month, in an Atlantic profile, Radcliffe said Rowling’s transphobia was a source of distress for him. “It makes me really sad, ultimately, because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic,” he told the magazine.

Ahead of the reboot’s HBO premiere, many trans critics have urged viewers not to support the program, noting Rowling’s financial stake in its success. In September, Matrix co-director Lilly Wachowski stated that “if you support Harry Potter, you’re supporting trans genocide” — a characterization Rowling vigorously denied through a representative, calling it “defamatory.”

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