Harry Potter 20 years on: where the child stars are now
This year marks 20 years since we first travelled to Hogwarts on the big screen. And while the main child stars have had mostly magical success since graduating, others are just starting to shine.
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Harry Potter fans were spellbound this week when news came that a live-action TV series of the beloved book series is reportedly in very early development with HBO Max.
While Warner Bros and HBO quickly shut down the story, which first appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, fans have long been campaigning for a TV
series that would allow the books to be fleshed out in more details than the movie series.
This year marks 20 years since Daniel Radcliffe first pulled on his cloak and boarded the Hogwarts Express, in Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone. We followed the adventures of Harry, Hermione, Ron and co. for a decade through eight movies, which earned almost $10bn worldwide.
But what happened when the stars finally graduated?
Like real-life classmates, despite their best intentions to keep in touch, they inevitably didn’t. “But you know, there is always this thing and this experience that will forever bond us,” Radcliffe told Heart Radio.
But he might get a reunion soon if rumours of a sequel film with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are true.
We take a look at where the child stars are now:
DANIEL RADCLIFFE
IT was always going to be tricky transitioning from the world’s most famous boy wizard to adult actor and Radcliffe’s journey post-Harry has had its ups and downs. Radcliffe, 31, admitted to having a problem with alcohol and gave up drinking in 2010. His career, however, has been solid – he’s been praised for theatre work including performing nude in Equus and on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Films have included Aussie movie December Boys, ghost story The Woman In Black and thriller Escape From Pretoria, as well as TV’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
EMMA WATSON
SHE played the brainbox of Hogwarts, so it’s only fitting that Watson turned out to have some of Hermione’s drive in real life. After Harry Potter, she took herself to college and graduated in English literature from Brown University while building her film career in The Bling Ring, Beauty And The Beast and Little Women. Off-screen she’s a committed feminist, UN ambassador, equal-rights activist and recently joining the board of directors for luxury retailers Kering, as a sustainability advocate. And she’s only just turned 30. Her co-stars must dread asking what she’s been up to at the annual Potter reunion.
RUPERT GRINT
DESPITE playing one of the best-loved characters on screen, Grint, 32, found it as difficult as Ron to get on track after filming finished. Perhaps he shouldn’t have accepted his first movie role in a film called Thunderpants – despite its title, it didn’t make any noise in cinemas – followed by a gig in Postman Pat. However, things picked up with his theatre performances in Mojo and It’s Only A Play and Macbeth movie remake Instruments Of Darkness with Sean Bean. He’s currently in the Apple TV series Servant.
HARRY MELLING
HE’S completely unrecognisable from his Dudley Dursley days, which is probably just as well, but Harry, 31, has been utterly transformed. He has quietly taken quality roles since moving out of Privet Drive, including TV series Just William, The War Of The Worlds and His Dark Materials, and in the Oscar-nominated The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and upcoming Macbeth alongside Denzel Washington. But taking the role of kind Harry Beltik in The Queen’s Gambit will prove his best move yet.
TOM FELTON
Poor old Malfoy — Felton 33, has never quite shaken off his Slytherin past. Unlike his classmates, he has been casting around for the right spell ever since Harry Potter. He started well, in movie Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and TV series Labyrinth, but despite working solidly, hasn’t reached the heights of his childhood career.
He’s getting good reviews as Grand Guignol in the Netflix film, A Babysitter’s Guide To Monster Hunting, appeared in Braking For Whales with Tammin Sursok and is filming Canyon Del Muerto with Val Kilmer, which is good because he blew his $5m fortune when young.
“I had been working for eight years and all I had to show for it was this horrible debt. At one point we had the bailiffs at the door,” he said.
MATTHEW LEWIS
PROOF that nice guys do win – Neville Longbottom has triumphed, as Lewis, 31, demonstrates the ultimate “glow-up”. Appearing in TV series Bluestone 42, Happy Valley and Girlfriends, as well as movies Me Before You, Terminal — with Margot Robbie — and last year’s sweet Kiwi flick Baby Done, he’s now become an international treasure all over again in the popular remake of All Creatures Great And Small. In real life, he married Angela Jones, after meeting her at an annual celebration of Harry Potter event.
EVANNA LYNCH
SHE had some wizard luck when she beat 15,000 girls in an open audition for the part of Luna Lovegood, but it was her destiny, as a teenage Lynch was obsessed with the books. Suffering from anorexia she wrote to J.K. Rowling who helped her battle the disease. Since then, Lynch, 29, has appeared on stage in Houdini, Disco Pigs and The Omission Of The Family Coleman and many indie movies including My Name is Emily and Madness In The Method.
She is a body-image and vegan activist, running vegan podcast The ChickPeeps and co-founding vegan beauty company The Kinder Beauty Box, as well as an ambassador for J.K. Rowling’s charity Lumos. Luna approves.
ROBERT PATTINSON
Cedric Diggory came to a sorry end, but the hunky Hufflepuff came back from the grave and had a glorious career as a member of the undead. Pattinson, 34, needn’t have worried his Harry Potter role was short-lived, as he landed the part of Edward Cullen in Twilight and became the biggest thing in bloodsucking vampires through the noughties. Other roles include Water For Elephants with Reese Witherspoon, The Lost City Of Z with Charlie Hunnam, Oscar-nominated The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe, Tenet and he’s slipping into the black suit for upcoming The Batman.
JAMES AND OLIVER PHELPS
Imagine going to auditions as a twin – then losing the role to your brother. James and Oliver Phelps were twinning and winning when they were cast as Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter movies after skipping school to attend an open audition. The brothers, 34, have picked up a few roles over the years, including TV series Kingdom, Netflix’s The Worst Witch and the anticipated Last Night In Soho with Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith.
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