Daniel Radcliffe Likely Won’t Return to ‘Harry Potter’ Franchise: Those Films Are Doing Just Fine Without Me
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Former “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe is doing just fine starring in indies and offbeat comedies, thank you very much. The actor, who recently spoke with Variety to promote his true-life prison drama “Escape From Pretoria,” talked about his choices post-Hogwarts and why he’s content not to revisit the J.K Rowling franchise ever again. Specifically, would he ever want to reprise his role as The Boy Who Lived in the ongoing “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” film series? It has a third entry coming in 2021 from director David Yates, and with nearly $1.5 billion in grosses for the break-off franchise so far, expect no end in sight.
“I don’t think so,” Radcliffe told Variety about playing Harry Potter again. “I don’t like say no to things, but it’s not something that I’m rushing to do. I feel like those films have moved on and they’re doing just fine without us” — us being Radcliffe along with his pals Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron) and more — “I’m happy to keep it that way. I like what my life is now. I’m not saying that I’ll never go back into any franchise, but I like the flexibility that I have with my career now. And I don’t want to get into a situation where I’m signed up for one series for years in advance.”
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See, he’s doing just fine! Recently, Radcliffe appeared in “Guns Akimbo,” opening this weekend despite online controversy dragging its coattails. He also lent his voice to “Playmobil: The Movie,” and starred in the lovely oddities “Swiss Army Man” and “Horns,” and even popped up in “BoJack Horseman” and “The Simpsons.”
“There’s nothing I’ve shied away from,” Radcliffe told Variety. “But I wasn’t like, ‘find me the weirdest thing out there.’ I wasn’t picking projects that were weird for weird’s sake. ‘Swiss Army Man’ was weird in that it’s about a farting corpse coming back to life and that’s not for everybody. At the same time, it’s an incredibly smart film that has something beautiful to say about being human. I’ve done ‘Guns Akimbo,’ where I’ve had guns bolted to my hands, but I’ve also done ‘Escape From Pretoria,’ which is really grounded in reality.”
Radcliffe, now 30, added that these post-Potter roles have been about distinguishing himself from that universe. “I think people saw me play one thing for so long that it seems more notable that I do loads of different stuff now,” he said.
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