How JK Rowling got her ‘ultimate revenge’ on Harry Potter stars after bitter war-of-words, insiders tell GRANT TUCKER

It was at an awards ceremony in 2014 that I first met the Harry Potter star, Rupert Grint. Famed for his role as Ron Weasley in the film adaptations, Grint – a famously shy and reluctant celebrity – was hiding in a corner at a showbiz ‘do’ with his dad. I took the opportunity to talk about my favourite childhood movies with the man, now 36, who had starred in them.

It was clear that he had great affection for the seven-story franchise and told me how he had purchased an ice cream van with his Harry Potter earnings.

And he revealed his great delight in serving the likes of Dame Maggie Smith, who played Professor McGonagall, a Mr Whippy with a 99 on the last ever day on set before an emotional drive home with Dumbledore’s Deluminator (a torch-like magical device) on his dashboard.

A few years later in 2022, Grint, by then a father of daughter Wednesday, spoke to me about his excitement at revisiting the films with his toddler.

‘I’ve shown her clips just to see if she’d pick me out,’ he told me. ‘And she does, she completely knows it’s me instantly and weirdly she looks like I did in the first film. She has that same kind of smile and round head.

‘She’s got a wand and a robe. And she has a Pez sweet dispenser with my head on it. So I’m slowly dipping her toes into that world.’

But when I raised the prospect of a remake of the films as rumours were swirling, he was honest about his concerns, saying: ‘I think, over the years, Ron and I became one thing – this kind of hybrid person. So there’s a lot of me in there.

‘I often have this thought that they’re gonna remake them: start again and do a complete remake, and that does scare me. I don’t think I’d handle that well.’

JK Rowling with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson at the premiere of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ in November 2001

Radcliffe, Watson and Grint will only find out who will be playing Harry, Hermione and Ron in the new series when HBO officially announces them

Rupert Grint, 36, has been introducing his daughter Wednesday to the wizarding world

How must Grint feel now, then, given that American TV giant HBO has confirmed the first big-name cast members of the novels’ upcoming TV adaptation, set to debut next year?

And what of the other two faces that have become synonymous with the Harry Potter film franchise? Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson have remained strangely silent at the news.

Despite their almost lifelong connection with the much-loved story – Radcliffe, now 35, was cast as Harry Potter at just 11 years-old – I can reveal that all three have been ‘kept in the dark’ about the new project.

I’m told the trio weren’t even informed that a remake was in the works.

And to add insult to injury, they will only learn which three young actors will be playing the parts they took as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley when HBO officially announces them in the coming months, after spending months going through 32,000 audition tapes.

‘It’s heartbreaking for the three of them,’ one insider explains. ‘Their childhoods were devoted to creating Harry Potter and it held such a special place in all their lives.’

‘But now as the world looks forward to seeing the stories on screen again, they are a mere afterthought, with no involvement in the new series. Instead they face the prospect of being completely replaced in the minds of future generations of Harry Potter fans.’

Those fears are well-founded according to another industry source, who has been working on the new series ahead of filming, which will begin this summer at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire.

JK Rowling has been publicly denounced by the multi-millionaire former child stars for her views on women’s rights and trans issues

Grint, Radcliffe and Watson spent most of their childhoods filming the eight Harry Potter movies

Radcliffe has publicly supported trans rights

Potter author JK Rowling, who has been publicly denounced by the multi-millionaire former child stars for her views on women’s rights and trans issues, will serve as an executive producer on the series, with HBO saying she has been ‘very involved’ in the project to ensure it is a ‘faithful adaptation’ of her seven books.

She had the ultimate sign off on the new adaptation’s writer and showrunner (responsible for overall creative and managerial control). According to my source, Rowling is ‘relishing the opportunity’ to breathe new life into the books, but perhaps more importantly, banishing the memory of the child stars who allegedly threw her under the bus.

The source added: ‘Jo adores the magical world she created and can’t wait to bring it to life again with young, fresh talent.

‘This is her chance to move on from all the vitriol she has endured at the hands of those she made famous and start again with a new set of faces.

‘In many ways, it is her ultimate revenge for their betrayal.’

Only last month, Rowling appeared to take a scathing swipe at the three stars who owe their careers to her when she replied to a tweet asking: ‘What actor/actress instantly ruins a movie for you?’

Without missing a beat, Rowling wrote: ‘Three guesses. Sorry, but that was irresistible.’ She ended her post with three laughing emojis.

But if Radcliffe and Watson are feeling slighted by being left in an information vacuum, pity might be in short supply from Potter’s creator.

Rowling’s relationship with the original cast deteriorated after she published a nearly 4,000-word essay about the trans community in 2020 on her website, in which she wrote that women were defined by their biological sex and not their gender identity.

Radcliffe responded by penning his own article declaring ‘transgender women are women’.

He reignited the row last May, in an interview in The Atlantic, when he admitted that just because Rowling made him a star it did not mean his views on gender ideology had to align with hers.

Radcliffe confirmed that he and Rowling no longer speak after she insisted she would never forgive the younger stars for speaking out against her views on trans rights.

Meanwhile, Watson, 35, tweeted following Rowling’s initial comments: ‘Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.’

She followed it up with an image of herself in a T-shirt reading: ‘Trans rights are human rights.’

Ralph Fiennes, who played Voldemort, subsequently offered support to Rowling, saying that ‘the verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting’, while Helena Bonham Carter, who played Bellatrix Lestrange, said: ‘It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmentalism (sic) of people. She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse.’

As for Rupert Grint, he initially responded to Rowling by saying that trans people ‘should be entitled to live with love and without judgment’.

However, he has since said he is ‘hugely grateful’ to her, describing her as ‘extremely talented’ and likening her to his ‘auntie’.

He added: ‘I don’t necessarily agree with everything my auntie says, but she’s still my auntie.’

So what do we know about HBO’s upcoming series set to be aired in 2026, 25 years after the world watched Grint, Watson and Radcliffe at Hogwarts for the first time?

Despite the watchful eye of Rowling, there have been some questionable casting decisions taken, at least in the eyes of devoted fans.

Purists have decried American actor John Lithgow being cast as Hogwarts’ headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and unhappy that black actor Paapa Essiedu has taken on the role of the teacher Severus Snape, who is described as ‘marble white’ in the books.

They will be joined by comedian Paul Whitehouse as caretaker Argus Filch, Hot Fuzz’s Nick Frost playing the bearded Rubeus Hagrid and Oscar nominee Janet McTeer stepping into the late Dame Maggie’s shoes as Minerva McGonagall.

For others like me who have grown up adoring the Harry Potter books and films it’s undoubtedly exciting but how galling for Grint and his former co-stars that it looks unlikely they will even get an invite to the premiere.

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