Rupert Grint Has Mixed Feelings About HBO Max's Rumored Harry Potter Series

Many Harry Potter fans reacted with cautious excitement to reports that HBO Max was developing a TV show based on the iconic book series, but one of the films' stars had a slightly different reaction. In an interview with Variety, Rupert Grint responded to HBO Max's rumored Harry Potter series with mixed feelings, explaining that he's not sure he's ready to see someone else play Ron Weasley, though details about the potential TV show are scarce.

"I weirdly feel quite protective of that character. Even when I saw the stage shows, it was a very strange experience," Grint said. However, he did admit that if the show centered on "a different group of friends, I guess it would be interesting."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, who first broke the news of the Harry Potter TV series, the project is still in its very early stages, with executives at WarnerMedia still looking for writers or directors to pitch ideas for an adaptation. (HBO Max and Warner denied reports that a series was in development at the time.)

And though he likely won't appear in the show, Grint isn't opposed to returning to Hogwarts one day in the future. In December 2020, he told Comicbook.com that he would "never say never" when it came to the possibility of reprising his iconic role. "I would never say, 'Absolutely no,'" Grint told the outlet. "It was a huge part of my life and I'm very fond of that character and their stories. So yeah, I mean, I'd be up for it at the right time. I don't know what capacity that would be, but yeah, we'll see."

Despite his connection to Ron, Grint has also admitted that he struggled with separating himself from the character over the years. "There's a lot of me in Ron and moving on was a massive adjustment because it was such a constant part of my life," he told The Guardian in December 2018. "I don’t want to liken it to coming out of prison because it wasn’t a prison, but it did feel like stepping out of an institution. It was nice to breathe the fresh air and now I'm really enjoying stepping further away from that blue-screen world."

And while he's enjoying exploring new roles — both onscreen in the AppleTV+ show Servant and off, as a new father to daughter Wednesday — Grint has made peace with the fact that he will always be Ron Weasley to many people. “I’m not desperate to shock and make people completely forget," he told The Independent. "I don’t think you can. Those films were such a unique beast. It’s going to be hard to make people completely forget. You just have to embrace them."