Daniel Radcliffe Talks Marauders Series and the Afterlife

Daniel Radcliffe is back in the afterlife, but this time, there is no King’s Cross station or Resurrection Stone involved. Miracle Workers is the new TBS comedy series, and Radcliffe portrays an angel who bears the weight of answering prayers while protecting Earth from God’s anger toward humanity’s faults. On his press tour, he discussed entertainment’s fascination with the afterlife.

I think there is just something about us that is eternally curious about [the afterlife]. There is something inherently comforting about any story involving the afterlife in any way, because most of us would like there to be something else, even if we don’t believe there is. Also, everybody has an image of it, everybody has a set of expectations about what it will be like and what it involves, so there'[re] a lot of things that you can go in and upend and turn on their heads, because everybody’s got a pre-conceived idea of what heaven would be. There’s room to have a lot of fun.

Although he has moved on to new acting horizons, Radcliffe is most recognized by his iconic role as Harry Potter, and Potter fans continue to flatter him with their dedicated support of his past work. He shared the story of answering a Potter fan’s “prayer” like his character, Craig, on Miracle Workers.

One of this girl’s friends had been backstage at Good Morning America, and I was on doing it that morning, and backstage she caught up with me and was like, ‘Hey, my friend’s a huge fan, would you speak to her on the phone?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ And she called her friend whose phone was not working, so she called that friend’s sister instead, and that friend’s sister just went, ‘Oh, this is too early for this, call her, I’m not around,’ not realizing that her sister’s phone was broken, and there was no other way of this girl contacting me. So this girl then came to the stage door the other day [at ‘The Lifespan of a Fact’], gave me an illustrated pop-up book called – hold on, I’ve got it here – ‘The Real Life Story of the Time Daniel Radcliffe Tried to Call Me and I Missed It.’ And it’s just like this genuinely very charming, funny thing, and she did say at the end of it, ‘I can now fully forgive my sister for hanging up on you that day, now that I have spoken to you.’ So that’s the closest thing I’ve done to doing a good thing for a Harry Potter fan recently. I was blissfully unaware that this big whole thing had transpired.

Radcliffe believes a reboot of Harry Potter will be produced sometime in the future, and though some fans may be reluctant to accept this, it is likely. He said in an interview with IGN, “I know I’m not the last Harry Potter I’m gonna see in my lifetime.” Reboots are all the rage, from Disney readapting its classic films to Netflix revisiting Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Amazon bringing back The Lord of the Rings as a TV series.

I don’t know at this point what would be gained by rebooting it for TV, but that’s not necessarily the goal, I suppose. I definitely think there will be another version of it within my lifetime. It will be interesting to see. At the moment those films have sort of a sacred varnish on them, but that will be worn away at some point… I’m just intrigued to see when that happens.

Radcliffe told TV Guide that the piece of the wizarding world he would be most excited to look into is the Marauders era:

I feel like there are other stories from that world that you could absolutely turn into a TV series, 100 percent. A series with the older generation, that could be very cool.

Is the return of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs at hand? Solemnly swear that you are up to no good, and watch Daniel Radcliffe on Miracle Workers, now airing!