Apr 17 2009 12:29 AM ET

'Harry Potter': Ready to see Daniel Radcliffe as a 36 year old?

Categories: Harry Potter

Grintradcliffewatson_l[Warning: For anybody who hasn't read all the Harry Potter books, there's a spoiler ahead.]

The Harry Potter acting trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson will play older versions of their characters in the famous "19 years later" epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The movie’s producer, David Heyman, told MTV News that instead of casting older lookalikes, the filmmakers will "age" the young actors. Harry and his friends are 17 years old in Deathly Hallows, which means they’ll be 36 years old for this "flash-forward" sequence. I, personally, would have opted for hiring older actors for the scene. Nineteen years is just too significant of a time jump, especially when you’re taking a character from his teenage years to his mid-30s (this is why you don’t see Zac Efron playing a 37-year-old version of himself in 17 Again). But, on the other hand, maybe director David Yates and his crew can pull it off. We’ll see in July 2011, when Part II of Deathly Hallows is finally released in theaters.

What’s your take, Potter fans? Are you looking forward to seeing the original actors play their characters to the very end? Or do you think asking Radcliffe to be a 36-year-old Harry is a bit of a stretch?

Comments (1-30) of 125 Add your comment

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  • Adam

    Seems like their stretching here. This isn’t LOST or Heroes.
    http://tvdonewright.com/

  • Beverley

    It’s definitely not a stretch. I would much rather see the actors in makeup or computer altered than see anyone else play the parts. Look at 17 again, Matthew Perry looks nothing like Zac Efron. I am almost 36, and I don’t look too much different than I did at 17. At least I only look like an older version of my 17 year old self. I am all for this option.

  • Laura K.

    I think it’s more of a stretch that they’re playing teenagers. In Order of the Phoenix, Dan looked far older than the 15 he was supposed to be. I would imagine they can pull it off.

  • Conor

    get the same make-up artist that aged Kate Winslet in ‘The Reader’

  • Dwight K. Schrute

    Harry Potter is gay.

  • Richard

    I think it can work. The entire cast of Six Feet Under were aged to look a lot older than they were and it was wonderful in the finale of SFU.

  • MsWrite

    They should DEFINITELY keep the actors and age them. There would be a complete disconnect if they plugged in other actors and good God, the actors are in their early 20s, so that’s only 16 years or so. And 16 of the year where we change the least in our lifetimes; that is the EASIEST aging – add a few wrinkles and barely that. Look what they did with Benjamin Button. It would have been a cop out to cast older actors

  • Brooke

    It can’t be more than ten minutes of the movie – probably more like five. These three will have played the roles for 8 movies at this point. We can all suspend a little belief, can’t we?

  • coolhandkate

    they should have opted to not to film the epilogue at all.

  • Moi

    I think your headline should not include spoilers. It’s one thing to include them in your article with a spoiler alert, but right in the title is a bit stupid. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out when it’s the first line of a story before a spoiler alert.

  • jb

    I think the spoiler is in your headline. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out HP must not die in the end from that.

  • Mr Chi

    Great!
    Welcome to beautiful girls’ site: http://www.123girl.net
    (Beautiful girls pictures collection)
    Your site looks good. Can I exchange links with U?

  • robin

    Aren’t the actors already older than their characters? I’m sure they can pull it off with make up and some Benjamin Button style fx.

  • jenny

    I don’t know why this is such a big deal. The actors are all in or nearing their twenties and it’s not like 30-something is a huge difference from 20-something. They’re not going to look like shriveled old 80 year-olds for crying out loud.

  • Eat all the Diks

    spoiler in the headline you dumb ass mofo’s. Go to hell!!!! (and cancel my subscription)

  • Jimmy

    By the time the second part of Deathly Hallows is released I don’t think it’ll be much of a stretch. Besides when CGI effects I think they can make it look rather realistic. Much like they did with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in X3 to make them look younger.

  • crispy

    Uh, don’t we have another movie before we even get to Deathly Hollows? This discussion seems a tad premature.

  • Kevin

    Really, you have to issue a spoiler warning for that? Really?

  • Lynn

    Crispy, it’s not any more premature than 80% of the Twilight news that gets dumped on here.
    I think they can pull it off with the same aging and makeup effects they’ve used in Benjamin Button, The Reader, etc. It might seem like a stretch now, but you know they’ve probably done prototypes of it to make sure they look realistic before committing to it.

  • Kate

    You gave away the freakin’ spoiler in the headline AND the deck. Real smart bunch of entertainment writers working at EW these days. o_O

  • DE

    I think it’s a bit of a stretch for these actors to age that much! Let’s start with Kate Winslet as older Hermione and go from there.

  • Meghan

    The trio will be in their early 20’s by the time DH finishes filming, it’s not like they’re 15 being aged 19 years. Not a big deal. Oh and Bonnie Wright and Tom Felton will also be aged as well, can’t forget those two!

  • Adam

    We’ve seen people age in film, that’s not the debate. But should they age H.P and the gang, just for th sake of keeping those actors? THAT’S the stretch.
    http://tvdonewright.com/2009/04/17/tv-tonight-friday-april-17th-2009/

  • Michelle

    Of course, they should have Dan, Rupert, Emma, Bonnie and Tom! To do otherwise would be a disservice to both the actors and the characters they play and have played for 10 plus years. Did ya See Benjamin Button? It’ll be fine. And to those of you complaining about spoilers…deal with it. The book’s been out for almost two years now. Those who don’t know the end simply haven’t been paying attention. It’s not some vast conspiracy.

  • Lagzo

    who cares?

  • Mr. FAMU

    Has no one seen The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button? They successfully and rather convincingly made Cate Blanchett look exactly like the ages 18-70. The CGI has advanced so much that it can be done rather effectively and convincingly. There were times when Kate was playing her younger self in the movie and I completely forgot that she is actually an older woman.
    Keep them!

  • jen

    aww.i was hoping to see Kate Winslet as older Emma, maybe Hugh Grant as older Dan?
    oh well…

  • kristin

    If they weren’t planning on using the trio to film the epilogue, it would be horrible. Who wants to see 3 random actors play them? They’re going to be in their 20s when they film it, they’re done growing. Get those Benjamin Button guys to do this.

  • Adrienne

    i think its good because if benjamin button can do it whos to say harry potter cant i think its better!!!

  • Milo

    As long as the makeup artist do a good job I’m all for it because even if the epilogue is only 3 minutes of screen time, I don’t want to see anyone else but the original cast play this characters period.

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