Daniel Radcliffe Sends Heartfelt Message to New Harry Potter Actor Dominic McLaughlin

Daniel Radcliffe has revealed that he reached out personally to Dominic McLaughlin, the young actor stepping into the iconic role of Harry Potter for HBO's forthcoming series, offering him warm encouragement as he begins his journey through the wizarding world.

Radcliffe, who embodied the world's most recognisable fictional schoolboy across eight blockbuster films, told Good Morning America that he felt compelled to reach out as soon as McLaughlin's casting was confirmed. McLaughlin sent him "a very sweet note back" in return.

Radcliffe said: "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'."

"And I do, I just see these pictures of him and the other kids and I just want to hug them."

He added, "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."

McLaughlin, selected after an enormous open call that drew more than 30,000 aspiring performers, will star alongside Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley.

Though all three are relative newcomers, they bring distinct backgrounds: McLaughlin appeared in Sky's Grow, Staton shone as Matilda in the West End, while Stout joins with a pristine résumé.

McLaughlin previously appeared in Grow, a Sky comedy with Nick Frost and Golda Rosheuvel, while Stanton starred as Matilda in the musical of the same name in the West End. Stout had no prior acting credits.

The young cast of the new series also includes Lox Pratt as Draco Malfoy, Alessia Leoni as Parvati Patil and Leo Earley as Seamus Finnigan, as well as Rory Wilmot who will play Neville Longbottom and Amos Kitson, portraying Dudley Dursley.

They will be joined by adult stars including John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, reports BBC.

Principal photography for the inaugural season is already underway, with the reimagined saga expected to launch in 2027.

The project is designed as a decade-long undertaking, with each of J.K. Rowling's seven novels adapted into its own season.

With that in mind, Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden near Watford, where it is being made, was this summer granted permission to build a temporary school for the child actors to study in for real, when they're not at Hogwarts.