The Harry Potter TV series should cast older actors as Harry, Ron, and Hermione

When I heard about the Harry Potter TV series, one of the first things I hoped the creators would do was cast older actors to carry the franchise through all seven of the Harry Potter books. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

The Harry Potter TV series is officially trying to find the next Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. An open casting call went live on Sept. 8 in the United Kingdom and Ireland looking for actors aged 9-11 years old to play Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the upcoming TV series.

The new casting call also reveals a huge question mark about the Harry Potter TV series: how old the actors playing Harry, Ron, and Hermione will be.

The casting call says the actors must be between 9 and 11 years old in April 2025, so they're going for an age-consistent casting choice. Remember, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone basically begins right before Harry's 11th birthday. The rest of the Hogwarts first years during that part of the story are also 11 years old.

Obviously, it's still early in the process. It's possible that the powers that be could change their mind, but it sure seems like the creative team has decided to try to cast actors as close to Harry's age in the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling as possible.

How old was Daniel Radcliffe when the Harry Potter movies started?

And, there is some precedent for that. When Daniel Radcliffe started filming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, he was 11 years old, the same age as his character, Harry, in the story. Rupert Grint, who played Ron, was 12 years old, though Emma Watson, who starred as Hermione, was only 10 years old when production started.

In the long run, I don't think anyone will argue that it didn't work out for Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson and their performances. In the first few movies, though, I don't think their performances were that good, which I totally understand is a mean thing to say about kids. If you go back and watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, you can tell how much Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson are acting.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the trio are a little bit better. Then, by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, they're incredible! That's one of the best movies of the series, but it took two movies to get to that point.

Wouldn't it make more sense to cast a few actors who have been on movie and TV sets at least a few times before asking them to carry the biggest TV show coming in 2026?

Just because it worked out the first time, it doesn't mean that the creators should do it again and run the series back with actors who are so young. There are millions, perhaps billions, riding on the Harry Potter TV series. It makes so much sense to cast an older actor. This happens all of the time in movies and TV shows.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians features older actors playing younger characters

Look at Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which just premiered on Disney+ last year. In Rick Riordan's book series, Percy Jackson is 12 years old. Thankfully, the creative team went out and cast Walker Scobell as Percy. When Scobell started filming Percy Jackson and the Olympians, he was already 13 years old. He had already appeared in a number of other projects, including Netflix's The Adam Project. Leah Jeffries, who stars as Annabeth Chase in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, turned 13 years old shortly after filming started.

Scobell and Jeffries were incredible in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They carried the series. Now, as they get to work on future seasons, they're a little bit older and have more experience. They might not quite look as young as their characters are supposed to in the books, but their performances are going to be that much better as they continue to learn and grow. That's what the Harry Potter TV series should be doing.

The obvious counterpoint is Stranger Things. Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp were 12 and 11, respectively, while filming the first season. That show is the biggest show featuring child actors of the last decade and maybe even longer. But even with Stranger Things, there's been so long between each season that the actors have grown up so much.

Unless the Harry Potter TV series is going to crank out a season per year, which is so challenging right now, there's no reason not to cast older actors. I don't think anyone will actually care if a 14-year-old is playing an 11-year-old version of Harry Potter.