Daniel Radcliffe Wrote a Letter to New ‘Harry Potter’ Actor and Got ‘Sent a Very Sweet Note Back’: ‘I Just Want to Hug’ HBO’s New Cast

Daniel Radcliffe revealed on “Good Morning America” that he wrote a letter directly to Dominic McLaughlin after the child star was cast as the new Harry Potter in HBO’s television series reboot. Radcliffe will forever be associated with the franchise after playing Harry in Warner Bros.’ eight-film franchise from 2001 to 2011. McLaughlin is taking over the lead role in HBO’s series opposite Arabella Stanton as Hermione and Alastair Stout as Ron.

“I wouldn’t say that anyone who is going to play Harry has to , but I know a few people working on the production,” Radcliffe said of the HBO series. “I wrote to Dominic and sent him a letter and he sent me a very sweet note back”

“I don’t want to be a specter in the life of these children but I just wanted to write to him to say, ‘I hope you have the best time, and an even better time than I did — I had a great time, but I hope you have an even better time,’” Radcliffe continued. “And I do, I just see these pictures of him and the other kids and I just want to hug them. They just seem so young. I just look at them and say, ‘Oh it’s crazy I was doing that at that age.’ But it’s also incredibly sweet and I hope they’re having a great time.”

The young cast of HBO’s “Harry Potter” series also includes Lox Pratt (Draco Malfoy), Alessia Leoni (Parvati Patil), Leo Earley (Seamus Finnigan), Rory Wilmot (Neville Longbottom) and Amos Kitson (Dudley Dursley), among others. The BBC reported in July that Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the series’ production home, built a temporary school so the young actors can keep up with their studies amid filming over the next near-decade, as each season of the show is set to cover one of J.K. Rowling’s books.

The “Harry Potter” series is set to debut on HBO and HBO Max in 2027. Watch Radcliffe’s full interview on “Good Morning America” in the video below.