Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t plan on reprising his role as Harry Potter anytime soon. The 30 year old actor is set to star in the upcoming film Escape from Pretoria, which will hit theaters on Friday, March 6th. Radcliffe got his start as the Boy Who Lived in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. He later went on to play everyone's favorite boy wizard for the subsequent seven films of the franchise, which ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011. All eight movies were distributed by Warner Bros. and continuously attracted a larger and larger fan base. The final addition to the series went on to gross over $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
Since then, Radcliffe has kept busy acting, starring in a variety of different movies. In 2013, he gave the romantic comedy genre a try with What If and in 2016, his work in Swiss Army Man got him started in the independent film world. Besides starring in a number of other projects, the actor is also involved in television and theater work as well. He is currently performing in a production of Endgame on the West End.
In a recent interview with Variety for Escape from Pretoria, Daniel Radcliffe addressed his involvement with the Harry Potter films, revealing that he is in no rush to once again dive into that world. After being asked if he could come back as Harry in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the actor responded by saying that he is in no hurry to revisit his role, noting that “they’re doing just fine without us.” He went on to add that there is still a chance that he could come back in the future but that he also enjoys “the flexibility” of his current career.
Fantastic Beasts serves as a prequel series to the original eight stories. The second film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, even featured Jude Law as a young Albus Dumbledore. Although little is known about the third film, we can expect to get more Fantastic Beasts on November 12, 2021. The events of the story will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Harry Potter story has also continued on with a two-part stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which picks up 19 years after the events of Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The script can be purchased as a book, and the play opened in London in 2016.
Although Daniel Radcliffe built his name off of Harry Potter, it seems as though he wants to separate himself from the role. When an actor becomes the face of such a beloved franchise like he did, they have to overcome the difficult hurdle in which audiences automatically associate them with that part. Perhaps that’s why fans have seen him in more independent cinema recently. He is trying to establish himself as someone other than just Harry Potter. Those smaller projects give him the ability to show off his range as an actor and from what it sounds like, Radcliffe plans on sticking to that strategy for at least the foreseeable future.
Source: Variety