Daniel Radcliffe is the first of a host of stars to stage online video readings as part of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter at Home initiative.
The British actor, who starred as the boy wizard in the eight Harry Potter films, revisited his most famous role by reading the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in a video posted on Rowling’s Wizarding World website.
Radcliffe will be the first of 17 star-studded contributors helping kids read through the first Harry Potter book. These include Eddie Redmayne, who plays Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them spin-off movies, his co-star Claudia Kim, audiobook narrator Stephen Fry, David Beckham, Twilight actress Dakota Fanning, and Noma Dumezweni, who starred as an older version of Harry’s close pal Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play.
A tweet announcing the new video series reads: “Surprise! We’ve got a treat for you…From today, amazing friends of the Wizarding World are going to take turns reading Harry Potter book one. And to start us off with Chapter 1, we think you’ll agree we have the perfect narrator…”
Rowling has lifted copyright restrictions on her Harry Potter novels so teachers and parents can use them as a reading tool to help them while schools are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When announcing the move, the author teased that the special concession is just the “first of several initiatives being planned to help bring Harry Potter to children at home”.
You can watch Radcliffe reading the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book here.
