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Credit: Warner Bros.One Harry Potter star has become the first to openly bash the franchise’s upcoming HBO reboot.
As Potterheads both past and present already know, the Wizarding World is once again expanding in the next few years. In early 2027, HBO is expected to air the first season of its Harry Potter reboot. This time round, Warner Bros. (which will potentially be owned by Netflix when the show actually debuts) will adapt one book per season, and has vowed that this new format will allow for greater depth and flexibility than the original films.
HBO boss Casey Bloys has also confirmed that the show will film seasons in close succession in order to avoid massive gaps that would see the actors age drastically between seasons, à la Stranger Things.
Over a decade since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) hit theaters, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) are handing over the baton (or wand) to a new trio of young actors. Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout will take over the roles, with both Radcliffe and Grint confirming that they’ve already sent letters with well wishes to their new counterparts.
Radcliffe told “Good Morning America” (via Variety) that he told McLaughlin: “I hope you have the best time, and an even better time than I did.” He added that he had received a “very sweet note” in response from the young actor taking over as the Boy Who Lived.
Of course, the rest of the cast faces replacement, too – with the exception of Warwick Davis, who will reprise his role of Hogwarts Charms professor, Filius Flitwick. John Lithgow replaces Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore, while Janet McTeer replaces Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu replaces Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, and Nick Frost takes over from Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid.
Other actors joining Hogwarts as series regulars include Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell, Richard Durden as Cuthbert Binns (who was never actually shown in the films), and Sirine Saba as Pomona Sprout.
The latter replaces the iconic Miriam Margolyes in the role – but it remains to be seen whether she’ll deliver quite as much entertainment on the post-Potter media trail as Margolyes.
Miriam Margolyes Continues Trend of Honesty Towards ‘Harry Potter’
Margolyes has made no secret of her sentiments towards Harry Potter over the years. While she’s noted that she enjoyed her time on the set and was grateful for the role, she has also admitted that it “wasn’t important” to her. “It’s not Charles Dickens,” she famously said of the book series to Vogue in 2023.
In 2024, the actress also controversially confessed that she thinks adult Harry Potter fans need to grow up.
“I worry about ‘Harry Potter’ fans because they should be over that by now,” she told New Zealand’s 1News. “It was 25 years ago, and it’s for children. I think it’s for children.”
The actress has now shared her honest-as-ever thoughts on the reboot.
During a recent appearance on the British radio show Capital Breakfast, Margolyes was asked about HBO’s remake, to which she claimed she would have rejected any offer to participate.
“I don’t see why they need to make another one,” she said before going on to denounce the concept of rebooting the franchise at all. “I thought it was perfectly good as it was. But I suppose it’s the endless search for money.”
Margolyes – who appeared in both Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – also suggested that the reboot is more about money than anything else.
“They don’t need it!” she exclaimed. “The people who were the producers, they made a fortune.”
Others React to ‘Harry Potter’ Reboot
Margolyes may be the first actor in the franchise to openly express such sentiments, but others involved in the original eight films have implied similar views. Most notably, director Chris Columbus – who oversaw the first two films and produced the third – has questioned the point of adapting the books again if Warner Bros. reuses the exact same creative decisions.
“I looked online, and there are photographs of Nick Frost as Hagrid with the new Harry Potter,” Columbus said during an appearance on The Rest is Entertainment podcast. “And he’s wearing the exact same costume that we designed for Hagrid. Part of me was like: ‘What’s the point?’ I thought everything, the costumes and everything, was going to be different. It’s more of the same.”
More pictures of Nick Frost as Hagrid on the set of the HARRY POTTER TV series
More pictures of Nick Frost as Hagrid on the set of the HARRY POTTER TV series pic.twitter.com/MikJ1T0ryA
— Wizarding World Direct (@WW_Direct) August 18, 2025
However, Columbus has also previously admitted that the series is “an opportunity to bring all those scenes to life” that never made it into the films, citing a sequence in which Harry and Hermione navigate poisoned potions in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and the character of Peeves as examples.
Others have shared slightly more optimism for the reboot – including Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the films and is currently playing an older version of Harry’s Slytherin nemesis in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Felton revealed that he was hoping to make an appearance in the new series. “I’m not opposed to that at all. Any chance to be part of the Wizarding World is a good one… I’ll definitely be sneaking into a background shot as an extra.”
Felton has also historically stood out as one of the few members of the original Harry Potter kids to not denounce JK Rowling’s views on gender identity and the transgender community. While Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint have all openly disagreed with Rowling’s increasingly extreme views, Felton claimed earlier this year that he is “not really attuned” to the controversy.”
How do you feel about the Harry Potter reboot?